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Published: September 17th 2007
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French Embassy
Because of the way it was designed, many people thought this was an Oriental structure for some time. Feeding on popular worldwide confusion between Austria and Australia, tourist vendors here sell t-shirts that say "There are no Kangaroos in Austria". That is of course wrong in a literal sense since there are kangaroos in zoos here, but also in a figurative since we had lunch and "winner" (a wine dinner) with Oliver (who is Austrian) and his wife Sarah (who is Australian). So we have at least corrected that new myth that these tourist shops are trying to propogate.
The Belvedere
The day started out a little chilled and rainy as had become the custom but I ventured out in my shorts hoping the mid-80s high they had promised us for later in the day would become a reality. So we took a back way towards the Belvedere, gently avoiding the familiar Karlsplatz and going towards Schwarzenburgplatz named after a General who did something great but is most marked by a massive Soviet monument "from the Austrian people" commemorating and honoring the liberation of Vienna by the Red Army. Off the square is the prettier sight of the French Embassy from the late 19th century or early 20th in an oriental-influenced style. One random and interesting thing
Stadtgartendirektion
In the park across from our hotel, notice to the left of the building the "plant pictures" on easels! we did see on our way there, but which I stupidly did not photograph is a small fountain made of wood and tile at the head of Morocco Street that had been given by the regent of the country of same name on his visit to Austria. It was just unusual to see in a non-tourist, typical residential area a colorful oriental design.
We visited the palace known as the Belvedere this morning which one could equate to the St. Germain Palace in Paris whereas the Hofburg in town is closer to the Louvre. The only palace we missed is the Schonbrunn which is on the outskirts of town which can be likened to Versailles. The Belevedere itself is nothing fantastic but the paintings housed there, especially Gustav Klimt's are the real attraction. Other than Budapest's National Gallery, I'd say we enjoyed these thoroughly and it was well worth the visit. The rooms in the palace have been museum-ified so most of their character is gone while the exterior of the palace is mildly impressive with little ornateness but looks impressive from the lower Belvedere as it sits on a nice promontory. The gardens were nothing special either but
Upper Belvedere
Viewed from the gardens and the lower Belvedere, lots of construction which we were able to hide in this photo. we did enjoy resting on a bench in them, so I suppose they served their purpose.
The Food Critique
Jennifer will give a more thorough update for posterity later on, but our lunch with Oliver and Sarah was at a brewery located near the Belvedere at Scwarzenberg Platz where we had Toasts (open-faced sandwiches), which were pretty good, and a brown-beer onion soup and goulash soup which were excellent.
For "winner," which is of course the contraction of "wine" and "dinner," we had a cheese plate and the equivalent of five bottles of wine, which they drank little of, and I (Manny), drank most of, leading to plenty of suffering on the way back. The place was really well done with thousands of bottles racked on the walls as in a cellar which one could purchase and consume on the spot for a very reasonable retail price. So we had an Austrian red and riesling to start which were good, then a house-label Pomerol which was okay as expected, and finally finished it all off with a magnum of Vin de Pays d'Oc. What was I thinking? One cool thing - which I still have not seen
At the Belvedere
Took about 6 attempts to get this one right! in the west - the Austrian red was capped with not a syntetic or natural cork, nor a capsule, but a glass stopper which was covered by the foil. It would seal shut by means of an indentation around it and a very small transparent o-ring. Very impressive!
My favorite wine place remains the
Wine Room on Park which is located in Winter Park, Florida on Park Avenue. Their use of the breakthrough Italian (dammit) Enomatic wine system is unparalleled. You may be familiar with this system from Whole Foods who uses them in some of their wine bars in-store as well as at some wine purveyors in NYC. I was hoping we could put one of our own in Easton but the present owners are planning on franchising this concept which, to me, is completely antithetical to the concept of wine enjoyment.
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