Voluptuous Vienna

An efficient and economical Metro service takes us out of the city to Schönbrunn Palace, the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers. Amazing what lifestyle marvels can be provided by an elevated Austrian social position (and lots of money).

Back in Vienna city, the Saturday afternoon is bristling with shoppers. Overwhelmed by the crowded main streets we burrow down a narrow lane to find a coffee house. Without realizing it we enter the historical Café Leopold Hawelka which opened in 1936. At that time the coffee house’s warm and peaceful atmosphere proved particularly attractive to writers and intellectuals, for many of whom it soon became a second home.

Today we enjoyed hot chocolate and apple strudel sitting in the dark and cosy premises, shoulder to shoulder with locals. The only thing missing at our tiny table was the intelligentsia and new ideologies.Read more