Wednesday In Vienna

Wednesday In Vienna
By now, you have probably figured out I am writing each day the morning after it took place. Thus my trouble with keeping the tenses correct.
We have been having lovely summer type weather. In fact yesterday was a bit too hot for me. I am afraid I have a narrow range of temperature comfort although I prefer to sight see in cooler weather.
We started our day by heading into the Opera square area where we would meet our tour group. We were still in search of an old coffee house. We found one. Café Tirolerhof. This was just what I have been reading about. In my quest to eat all foods classic, I had shredded pancakes with raisins and light sugar with a bowl of plum sauce. Now, I am not a big sweets eater, especially in the morning but this was a touch of paradise on a plate. I don’t know how they did this and had every bite come to me with just the right crispiness. Our service was perfect and once again everyone spoke English.
I have decided that Vienna would be a good beginner trip for someone who had not traveled out of an English speaking country. Even learning just a little of the language is not that hard and I think reading it on signs and such is also very easy.
Next it was off to meet our bus. We don’t usually do tours and for the most part this did not make us change our mind. The group spoke English, French, and Spanish so every instruction and description needed to be given in three languages. I did have a little fun trying to understand the Spanish. That is when the bus ride was not putting me to sleep.
We were driven to a place where we got on a boat for a short ride on the not blue Danube. Honestly, I did not even know when the boat started moving. There was no commentary and although we passed through lovely scenery I think we were both lulled into oblivion.
When we arrived in Melk, we were dumped off at a restaurant. This was actually lovely. Three French women grabbed us and asked us to sit with them. Two of them spoke about as much English as I speak Spanish. They were a hoot. I think they were about my age and one of them was seriously flirting with Neal. I think he loved it. Again the food was great. I had a sort of crape with red cabbage and elder berries on top of mixed vegetables cooked with lots of butter and herbs.
Then it was off to the abbey. Were broken into groups by language and the woman showing us around was very hard to hear. She really did know what she was talking about but I wish she had spoken a bit clearer. I was not alone. Most people were having trouble understanding her. We had read the Rick Steves walking tour so we were in good shape. Once again, a big cheer for RS.
Melk Abbey should be a must for anyone visiting this area. The town also seems really cute. I would still like to do this area on a car trip. Anyone up for taking a blind woman around Europe by car. I promise to do all the pre reading for the trip.
We have a school outside our apartment and the bell just rang. How fun to be in a neighborhood although today we leave for the center of town. But I am jumping ahead here so let me get back to yesterday.
Of course I slept the entire bus ride home. We sat upstairs on the bus in the sun and that did me in, and of course it was nap time.
We had made dinner reservations in the restaurant right next to us. It looksed pretty fancy but you could eat outside and everyone seemed to know the place. Plachueta was indeed expensive but it was good. I don’t think it was quite good enough for what we paid. The other thing is, never eat in an expensive restaurant when you are tired. It was lovely to eat out and the weather was still perfect. You could tell this was one of the first nice warm evenings because the streets were full of strolling locals.
After dinner we took a walk and found an entire new neighborhood full of places to eat and shop and also full of people having a great time. We were sorry we found this area on our last night in the apartment.
This was a long but very fun day.
We are running out of time in Vienna and looking forward to the next part of our trip.