When old and new collides - Café Meier vs Steirereck - Austria - July 2016

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Well after getting stuck on the autobahn for hours, we figured it could not get any worse. It did not but it came close. Winding through tiny villages in Germany we were really looking forward to Austria. As we were winding through little German villages we finally got to the border for the dreaded "vignette". Think of it as an EZ pass with the difference that you have to stand in line (it was about an hour) and pay for it before you could continue on. Driving without it is not an option as they fine you up the ying yang (or so I read). With the vignette finally in hand we were just ready to get there.

We finally made it to the Marriott Hotel in Linz. Marriott is generally our benchmark - if we are able to stay at a Marriott, we are ok. One thing that just always gets me (and I equate this now to the airlines just charging for bags because it is an extra revenue stream) is that almost no matter where you go you pay for parking at the hotel. I absolutely get it at a hotel in the middle of a busy city, but in a small spread-out city with parking a plenty it is sort of annoying. We were so tired from all the travelling that we decided to just do room service (we very very seldomly do room service, if ever). A club sandwich with fries, a chicken sandwich with chicken wings, and apple strudel was delivered. The sandwiches were hotel food, so it was passable, but... the strudel was arguably the best strudel we had all trip. So there is that. Take it for what it is worth.

The next morning was breakfast at Cafe Meier with beautiful views into a square. The food was good and very, very plentiful. A cold meat and cheese plate w/ bread, honey, boiled eggs, and jams and a fruit and yogurt bowl with champagne, orange juice, and coffee. The currants in the fruit and yogurt bowl were definitely unusual but really good. Prosecco and coffee woke us up. A highlight breakfast for very little money and definitely comes very highly recommended. We also discovered a very "interesting" smoking rule. It is considered a "patio" as long as there is an open window and hence smoking was allowed. So, we were sitting in this fully enclosed atrium type room with the windows open and people just smoking away. Interesting interpretation of a "patio".

On to VIENNA we marched. The HOTEL ALTSTADT was on the list and booked. One of the rare occasions where we stayed in the same hotel for two nights. They were able to get us in a little earlier than check in is usually allowed (always a good thing). A nice big room (older) and as an added bonus the little guy got a little welcome gift. Parking was somewhat close to the hotel where our car would stay for the next 40 odd hours. One cool future of the hotel was all the ART installed at various places throughout the building.

MUSEUMSQUARTIER was our first stop. This square/ quarter type area surrounded by museums. We chose MUSEUM MODERNER KUNST. Us and the modern art museums. Not the first time I will write this and most definitely not the last time. Most of the "modern" art I do not get and most likely never will. I definitely try and appreciate it and I know it is all very subjective. Thankfully there was a couple good PICASSOS and WARHOLS. This also may have been the first time we actually had a run in with one of the art installations. We may or may not have tapped one of the footings of one of the pieces as a piece then subsequently slid across the floor. Three floors were enough for us.

We walked and walked and walked. Up little side streets and down little side streets while also passing through the surrounding grounds of the Hofburg Palace. JOSEPHPLATZ was visited and admired. The buildings, architecture, and statues all around were pretty incredible. We finally ended up at ST. STEPHEN'S CATHEDRAL and its GOTHIC SPIRES which was really our end destination. We do love ourselves a good gothic church and this one did not disappoint. The PAINTINGS and SCULPTURES are always interesting to see. The church roof was pretty incredibly decorated (unlike most gothic churches we have seen). Probably the highlight of this one is the PULPIT. Carved out of stone against one of the pillars in the nave, it is a pretty incredible piece - built more in the middle of the cathedral in order for the congregants to be able to hear the sermons better. Another piece of history that is always fascinating to me with these European cathedrals is that each of them has a story on how they survived the respective World Wars. Some were bombed and rebuilt, some were spared through random acts of defiance, and some were just lucky. This one in particular was saved because instructions to blow it up was not followed - thank you good kind sir for ignoring that order.

When it comes to food on these trips, we either do a great job of planning ahead and have the most incredible meals or we leave it all to the very last second (because we are trying to cram in so many of the sights) and we end up at some tourist trap because we are starving. Well, the next 24 hours would be a little bit of both. After exploring and seeing as much as we can we definitely realized that it was time to eat and nowhere we wanted to eat really had reservations. So, we just settled at a restaurant close to the cathedral that was clearly a tourist place. We had some local beer (tasted like honey juice) and rosé accompanied by a cheese board w/ olive and fig spread and paella. The food served its purpose.

Since we were somewhat disappointed by the food, we made it a goal to try and end the night on a high by walking to the CAFE CENTRAL. The typical old school European café that has been open for as long as time where the traditions and customs still run strong. Servers wearing the traditional black and white uniforms, serving is done in the old way, music is played live from the piano, and an ambiance that is second to none - a scene that transfers you to a time long, long ago. We waited a couple minutes and then were tasked with maneuvering the Cadillac through the tables, booths, and hustle and bustle before we were seated in a booth with a parking spot. Service was quick and before we could take it all in, we were served some WIENER MELANGE AND CAKE with APPLE STRUDEL. If the food matched the ambiance, we would have been in heaven. The mélange was not as strong as expected, the apple strudel with vanilla sauce was fine, and the chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and cream were just not that good. Oh well. It would have been nice to have been "blown away" by the food but the scenery, experience, and ambiance made up for it. It was a long day, and we made our way back to the hotel. A good night's rest followed with the sounds of cafes outside our window with people drinking and laughing - welcome to Europe.

Well, we started out the next morning with the realization that we now have a kid to pack for and we definitely did not do the greatest job of packing so off I went to find diapers and food packs. I quickly realized all these needs were to be met by a pharmacy and not a supermarket. The breakfast spread at the Hotel Altstadt was pretty incredible. Served within many rooms in the house it included pretty much anything you could want including champagne. Who will say no to that. After breakfast we started getting ready for the highlight of our day - lunch at STEIRERECK (planning done correctly this time). Yes, we were doing a top 100 with an 8 month old. How bad can it be? We were in Vienna and the top 100 has become something of a goal for us. Lunch at Steirereck was available so we booked it. We took our time getting ready and made sure we were as prepared as we could be before we got a taxi. We were the first ones to arrive for lunch service. I honestly cannot tell you whether I told them about Everest or not (I more than likely did because I learned this lesson early on). Regardless, you never get the warmest of welcomes when you show up at these places with a car seat and a baby. We were seated and ready to eat. The really awesome part here is that there were two choices for most of the courses and no matter how much we may dislike one of the choices we will always make sure we try everything. So that is exactly what we did. Here we go.

1) first up was an amuse bouche – corn fritters, crackers, mashed potato type concoction, etc. (we always love a good amuse bouche)
2) we were served lots of bread (really good)
3) next up young beetroots and wild lettuce w/ chia and eucalyptus (incredibly beautiful dish) or reinanke w/ pickled German gold tomatoes, celeriac and pepper (a very disorganized dish).
4) Next Romaine lettuce w/ Meyer lemon, potatoes and Viennese caviar (incredible dish almost like a deconstructed Caesar salad) or summer squash w/ sweet potato, green tomatoes, almonds and lavender (good). Not going to lie, we still talk about the deconstructed Caesar salad to this day.
5) Next Alpine salmon w/ chanterelles, courgette, peach and coriander (really good) or Attersee pike w/ Swiss chard, cucumber and lemon Verbena (good)
6) Next up Aubergine w/ cabbage, peanut and bergamot or calf’s brain w/ medlar, mustard pickle and chupetinho (probably our 2 least favorite dishes). Now I do not shy away from anything weird, but definitely not high up on my list.
7) Next venison w/ spinach, coconut and tigernut (incredible dish) or alpine beef forerib w/ kohlrabi, potatoes, and lemon savory (good)
8) Next a selection of cheeses or Viennese herb liqueur w/ pineapple, cucumber and osmanthus (very different and can taste the liqueur). Oh, the cheese plate and what a cheese plate it was. Or should I say cheese cart. Yes, they bring around a cheese cart to select your three cheeses. Another thing we still talk about to this day.
9) Milk and hay w/ rhubarb (incredible dish, but rhubarb was a little odd) or strawberries w/ fennelpollen, pericon, and vanilla (good). Milk and hay are still a discussion point to this day for the uniqueness of the dish.
10) After this the little snacks kept coming
11) And last but not least we finished off with a cappuccino and espresso

Wow, wow, wow, wow. What a meal. What an incredible meal. One of our top 3 meals. The variety was incredible. The food was incredible. The service was impeccable. And the 8-month-old held up. He was in his car seat for the first hour or so talking away and minding his business. After that we put him on the ground, so no one could see the baby, but they heard the baby as he blabbered away. We used rattlers, phone cords, little stuffed animals, phones, and wallets to keep him distracted - each lasting about 5 minutes. Halfway through the meal we finally had to pick him up, so he sat on laps or in his own chair trying some of the food (he definitely approved of the dessert). We were there for a solid 4 and 1/2 hours so it was challenging keeping him busy, but he lasted the entire time without so much as a thought of crying to we consider this a major success. Literally the only downside on the whole experience is that we waited almost 45 minutes for our bill. We were the first ones in and the last ones out.

Unfortunately, on these long meals (especially lunches) it takes up pretty much the entire day getting ready and eating the meal. We did not walk out of there until about 4. We strolled to the JOHANN STRAUSS STATUE IN STADTPARK and admired the flowers and people being outside. We kept strolling and tried to take in as much of Vienna as we could until it was finally time to call it a night (those cross Atlantic flights get to you the first couple days).

It was time to continue our journey the next day. A drive through Austrian wine country was in order on our way to Salzburg. Not far outside Vienna is the WACHAU VALLEY. We slowly made our way there and drove around exploring. In one of our books, it mentioned CORNELIAN CHERRIES in and around ST. POLTEN. Not going to lie - we found very little trace of these cherries. We finally made it to KREMS and found some in a local supermarket. We wandered the streets of Krems after a brief little rainstorm and found a little restaurant with seating outside - Schwarze Kuchl. The eastern Europeans has a cuisine that I consider pretty heavy in general, and this lunch was no exception - a hot dog wrapped in bacon and wiener schnitzel with a couple glasses of RIESLING that literally cost like $3 - $4. The Riesling was excellent by the way. I do love a good glass of white on a warm day. We made the obligatory ice cream stop (yes even with an 8-month-old we have created a little monster where he pretty much gets ice cream every day when we are on these trips). We went with the cherry ice cream since we were in cherry country apparently - it was excellent.

The drive along the river continued as we explored CASTLES, VINEYARDS, and small towns. DURNSTEIN in APRIL THROUGH OCTOBER was on the list so we visited for an hour or so walking among old buildings tasting delicacies from the small stores. The valley is gorgeous with old churches and vineyards running up and down the hills. We were looking for the Durnstein Castle but could not find it for the life of us. Up and down we drove trying to follow phone directions and then local directions, down small alleys and into dead-ends, small walks to try and find directions. I think we finally saw it but figured it would be too much of a pain trying to find parking and climbing stairs. So, we hit the road again to Salzburg. We passed MELK and made a turn-off to the abbey but unfortunately it was closed already so we just kept going.

Good - we loved the statues and old buildings in Vienna

- lunch at Steirereck was one of our top 3 meals ever
- sitting down and having a good glass of Riesling in the Wachau Valley for next to nothing in a little town was pretty awesome

Bad - oh we wanted to love Vienna and we fully realize that 48 hours is not enough, but we did not feel like Vienna delivered like we expected it to
- oh yes the vignette was a pain to stand in line for and get before we could continue on our journey
- we are suckers for old castles/ ruins so not being able to find Durnstein castle was a little bit of a let down
- can't really knock it too much because it is like this in every major tourist destination, but still - the main shopping area around the cathedral was super overpriced

Advice - like any major city Vienna definitely takes planning if you are only visiting a short time - we did an exceptionally bad job of planning
- if you travel with a "newborn/ 8-month-old" it is advisable to pack diapers and food (insert smiley face here). I was running around Vienna the first morning trying to find food and diapers since we only packed the bare minimum. Now 5 years down the road we actually still follow this method since it definitely saves on weight and suitcase space - we just plan better on buying it once we land.

This is the end of the 1st leg of the Austrian part of our journey - part 2 to follow. Three things to check off in our books including Vienna, Wachau Valley, and Cornelian cherries. So, 344 down and 5,437 to go.

Til' next time from the land of statues, old buildings, gothic spires, and Steirereck

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Photos

Vienna
He is not sure about this

Vienna
He does love hotel beds

Linz
Not gonna lie - room service strudel at a Marriott hotel turned out to be the best strudel of the trip. You go figure.

Vienna
Hotel Alstadt - it definitely was quite the spread for breakfast.

Vienna
And off we go in the Cadillac of strollers

Vienna
He does love walking around

Vienna
Museum Moderner Kunst

Vienna
Statues all over the place

Vienna
Some pretty good pictures

Vienna
Some dark clouds threatening our exploration

Vienna
Happy to be travelling with the little guy

Vienna
Yes we are ready for the challenges of constantly travelling with a baby

Vienna
This is generally his face when we gave him something he did not like at all

St. Stephens Cathedral
Of the cathedrals

Café Meier
Mélange and chocolate cake

Café Meier
A closer look at the chocolate cake

Vienna
Looking for diapers

Steirereck
Here we go

Steirereck
A bread cart just instantly upgrades a meal

Steirereck
One of the many gorgeous dishes

Comments

[Home and Away]

Autobahn traffic jams...
I was stuck in one for hours but in one case followed some other drivers who left the autobahn across a farmers field to a local road. In another case, I got off at the next exit and took the back roads before eventually returning to the autobahn...right behind the bus that had been in front of us when we left the autobahn! I liked Vienna but only spent a lot of time there in 1964 and 1968...just passing through since then.