Vienna is a beautiful city with miles of wide streets lined with palaces from mid-19th Century. First night we took the underground to St. Stephen’s Square after dinner. It was Maunday Thursday and there were evening services in the Cathedral and a special concert of Mozart in St. Paul’s Catholic Church. We were allowed to stand at the back and listen to the music as it drifted upwards in these amazing baroque cathedrals.
The next day we had a guided tour to the heritage centre of Vienna. We wandered the Hapsburg’s Winter Palace then again walked over to St Stephen’s Square, where, as you know, the huge crowds include pickpockets.
This is some of the most expensive real estate in the world and rents for stores are skyhigh. The Louis Vitton shop pays 400,000 Eu a month. One of the oldest coffee houses, Cafe Griensteidl has recently closed its doors after a century of business. They estimated they’d have to sell about 25,000 cups of coffee a day to stay in business. Unfortunately the Viennese habit has been to sit over a cup of coffee for hours. They are closed and a Starbucks has popped up around the corner.
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