An adventure in Viennese gastronomy

I had a work meeting in Vienna last week whereas I had to travel out on Wednesday and work until Friday lunch. Because we had never been to Austria, Scott flew out on Thursday and we stayed through the weekend. It was our first "grown-up" holiday since September and we were excited about going. We felt great going since Mary Poppins was staying with the kids for the weekend.

I'll be honest when I admit that I figured it would be little to no good eating, but lots of hanging out and people watching. Surprisingly, we ended up having some of our best food on this particular trip and in fact ate classic Austrian cuisine the entire time we were there. I can say that safely, now that I know what it means!

Our first night, we ate boiled beef. Now upon presentation of the menu, I looked at Scott as if to say, "Really?!?" He assured me it would be like the roast beef that we cook at home in a crock pot. Reluctantly, I agreed. I'm so happy I agreed!  It was so good and so much better than roast beef! It was served with the broth it was cooked in as a soup, and it got better from there!

On Saturday, we managed to sneak off to the Spanish Riding School. I had heard it was the must see since it is one of only a couple of remaining ancient riding techniques schools. If you look at their website, it looks great and you too would want to attend! The horses were beautiful and the facility was amazing, more like a ballroom of a fancy hotel. That's about where the interest ended. We made it about 45 minutes of the 1.5 hour show and snuck off to eat lunch.

Lunch of course ended up being fantastic as well. We wanted to go to michellin rated Austrian Restaurant Sterireck but it wasn't open. Instead, we went to their sister restaurant that shares the same kitchen but is sat behind the main restaurant. Unbelievably good. It was so good that I even ate asparagus. Anyone who can dress up asparagus enough to eat is on to something! Again, Austrian cuisine over-delivered.

The trip as a whole was a ton of fun. We stayed in a very trendy hotel DO & CO that looked right at the main cathedral in old town center. Interesting room designs is probably a sufficient description of the hotel design. We drank beer at a couple of different places and people watched. With Vienna (or properly Wien) being a major tourist destination, there were lots of people to see! It reminded us both of Amsterdam in terms of architecture (minus the canals) and peacefulness, but it was much more open. I think that it ties with Padova, Italy for favorite cities in my book. Breaking one of our rules of returning to the same place, we may go back. That's how good it was. Next time, maybe, just maybe we'll take the kids.

Honorable mentions:

There was an animal rights group protesting.  There seemed to be more police than protesters.  We spoke with a protester, but we didn't have the heart to tell her that I worked for a company with a product made from pig where the animal had to be euthanized to collect the tissue.  I especially didn't tell her about the many animals that the product had been tested on!

While having a cocktail at a bar in the "Bermuda Triangle" (bar district), we met this nice Austrian man Martin.  As it turns out, he knows more about American geography than we do!  It's interesting and surprising how much people in Europe know about the USA.   From George Bush to the nastiness of the primaries to the debacle of the birth certificate, the details make it into the lives of Europeans.  I wonder how much an American knows about the politics of any given country in Europe...

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