Outside My Southern Comfort Zone

In search of vienna sausages out of a can

4/16/2018

Originally published 16 June 2013

St. Stephens church

Okay...the title is a joke. I told Laurie early on in the trip that I couldn't wait to get to Vienna so I could have real Vienna sausages.....you know....those nasty little buggers in a can? She usually replied by punching me in the arm. Vienna today consisted of considerably better cuisine.

The crew, less me, headed out to museums downtown. I saw a technical (science and engineering) museum listed and went the other direction on the tram. I arrived at the museum and checked it out....i knew nothing about it. Turns out it was 24 euros (about 32 bucks) to get in.....so I figured maybe I should check to see if the museum is actually something I wanted to see. I don't mind paying the money for something I really want to see....but don't wanna guess if this is something I'd like to see. So I scratched on that and headed to the old town to track down the rest of the crew.

Streets of Vienna

I took the tram back to the first subway station then picked up the underground the rest of the way. I will say, Vienna has a top notch public transit system. Trams, buses, and subways run often, and open early and close late. It's a very workable transit system. After my journey, I got off the train and Laurie picked me out of the crowd at a subway station. Out of a hundred thousand people running around the Ring road in Vienna, we cross paths. Meant to be............like some other things.

I tracked them down and we were wandering......and they made the decision that we were adults and we could eat whatever we wanted.....so we had ice cream for lunch! We went to a huge ice cream place called Zanoni and Zanoni. It had indoor dining areas that covered 3 floors and an outdoor area that covered the better part of a plaza. The place was the largest ice cream store I've ever seen! And the ice cream was quite tasty!

The biggest ice cream parlor I've ever seen!

I dropped the gang at a museum and did one of my favorite things....I wandered. I saw narrow streets, old stores and buildings, cool businesses, and lots of other interesting things. I stopped for a light lunch at a place called "Trzesniewski's". They have egg salad sandwiches.....dozens of varieties. And tiny beers. The beers are one euro and the sandwiches are 1.10 euro each. You go to the case and point to the ones you want and they put them on a plate for you. When you pay, they give you a token that you take to the end of the counter and they give you a little beer for your token. You then eat them on one of the sidewalk tables and people watch. Cool place.

My lunch

I went to St. Stephens Church. Lemme tell ya....they do churches over here. It's amazingly ornate.....and big as an airplane hanger. And not a cessna hanger....a 747 hanger. I paid 5 euros to go up in one of the towers and check the city out. I had a great view and got a close look at the ornately patterned roof shingles.

Patterned church roof

I picked up the crew coming out of one of the museums and took them by the egg salad place, where Laurie had a sandwich and a little beer. It's a novelty thing. We then went to St. Peter's church....which is another incredibly ornate, massive structure, about a block from St. Stephens. I think they were trying for density here....

Egg salad and beer!

We have walked by many "Weinerwald" restaurants here.....they are apparently like an Austrian McDonald's. They're everywhere. We run into chains that we've seen nowhere else.....like Billa. We went to the "Billa" Store this morning for groceries, an Austrian chain store....and we discovered that all they had were fresh foods, like meat, fruits, vegetables, breads, etc. No canned foods, no condiments, no drinks, no paper towels, none of the other things we as Americans expect to find at the grocery store. All of these items were found across the street at a store that sold ONLY canned goods, condiments, paper towels, etc. The name of this chain store was........"Billa". Go figure.