Vienna 3: Prater to Sacher

    After joking and poking around the Prater amusement park, we hoofed it south to where a little blip on the map said that we could find a Hundertwasser house- and find it we did! We stumbled into the KunstHaus through the back Hof, which was a neat little garden! The architecture reminded me of Mom's mosaic. Colourful, playful, organic.
    From the KunstHaus we went in search of Sachertorte! The evening was warm and there were musicians every few blocks. Hearing Strauss and Mozart echoing through the streets from violinists was a little surreal, although I think that my favorite was an acoustic bass/hammered dulcimer/accordion trio.
   We did find the Sacher hotel and sat down to some absolutely incredible chocolate cake. Its story, according to the Sacher Hotel, goes like this:

 "The story of the world-famous Original Sacher-Torte began in 1832, when the all-mighty "coachman of Europe", Wenzel Clemens Prince Metternich, ordered the creation of a particularly palatable dessert for spoiled high-ranking guests, "take care that you do NOT make me look a fool tonight", he warned. That very day, however, the chef was unavailable! The order was reassigned to a 16-year-old apprentice in his second year, the quick-witted chap Franz Sacher...

Lisa visits Styria!

   At 1:00 on Friday I got on a bus to the airport, where I was waiting for Lisa Chen when she stepped off the plane from Glasgow. We stopped at Cafe Binder (where Ruth and I had our first espresso) to treat Lisa to Austrian coffee and Cremeschnitte! We dropped our gear back at the apartment and headed into the city to meet up with friends for coffee at the Star cafe. We went wandered home and talked in the kitchen with Ruth and Mikel for a while before setting the alarm before going to bed.

   Saturday morning: got up and walked down to the market. After some Apfelschnitte and cider we got on the bus. First stop: Hundertwasser Church. So many tiles and colours, absolutely beautiful and kinda funky. We spent about an hour there, went on a tour, etc. before loading back on the bus for a trip to the royal stud farm at Piber. All of the horses at the Spanish Riding school in Vienna come from this farm. The foals are super super cute, and there was one black one who will remain black for his entire life. The Spanish riding school always has one dark Lipizzaner in Vienna. So much 

better than most places, we could pet any horse within reach. The foals are trained for three months in harness and three in saddle. The best in attitude, conformation, and athletic ability are taken to a raising farm and then to the school. Piber lipizzaners that don't make the cut are sold- between €10,000-30,000. All of the horses that we met were so friendly and well-mannered, I just wanted to sit and hug horses!

   The last stop was a thermal spa in Köflach. Lisa and I were both battling sicknesses, and our five minutes in the "Dampfsauna" were the perfect thing to get rid of Lisa's headache!

   This morning Lisa and I did a quick walking tour of Graz before she had to get on a bus. We stopped for tea next to the Stadtpark and then found the double-winding gothic stairs in the Burg/medieval royal family's living quarters. We hiked up the Schloßburg, across the Murinsel, and back through the streets to catch the bus at Jakominiplatz. 

The photos from this weekend are in the photo gallery. There is also a video from Piber posted in the Video gallery. I will add Lisa's pictures when she sends them to me!

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