Vienna; with a knife and fork

Our second full day in Vienna was a rather lazy one. After a late start we made our way to the local food market, Naschmarkt. It runs for several city blocks along a narrow strip of land onto which two narrow laneways of simple cafes and restaurants have been crammed. We ate at a popular Vietnamese restaurant.


We then wandered past the city’s famous Secession building which is crowned by an elaborate gilded dome of laurel leaves. The building houses a collection of art from the Vienna Secession movement. This was a rebellious art form that appeared in 1897 as a protest against Europe’s increasingly conservative art community. I then had to return to our hotel to conduct the first of several conference calls I’d agreed to complete before signing off for the rest of the month.


Dinner that evening was another memorable experience. We dined at Zwolf-Apostelkeller which is located in a series of cellars several floor below street level. Despite its location, the venue is far from claustrophobic. The cellars are very spacious with bricked vaulted ceilings at least ten metres high. It seemed a fitting place to soak up more medieval atmosphere, enjoy a few beers and dine on some generous portions of smoked pork and dumplings.

We’ve done Vienna. Tomorrow we catch a train through snow-covered countryside to Salzburg where the weather forecast is promising light snow. A picture-perfect Christmas setting awaits us.