We were up early today as our bodies were still confused about the time zone change.  We chose not to get the breakfast option in the hotel as it was ridiculously expensive (breakfast brunch on Sunday was 65 euros for one person! EEK!).  So, about 7:30 a.m. we headed out to see if we could find a place for breakfast.  We were using Google maps but the navigator (that would be me) had chosen the driving option not the walking one, so we went the wrong way (one-way streets, canals, and train tracks would have made the driving difficult as it did for us walking).  We finally figured that out, but not before we had walked several blocks in a cold drizzly rain.  Yuck! 

Finally we arrived at our destination, the Groïssbock Café & Konditorei.  Then we had to select a table (in Europe you are usually not seated by anyone, you just walk in and find an open table) in the nonsmoking section of the restaurant.  That is a definite problem here in Austria.  They are still under the old regime of having a smoking section (with the invisible line the smoke can’t cross—ha ha! Or a smoking room where the door is always open).   In fact, Austria is called the ashtray of Europe!  We did not know that, did you?

Anyway, we selected the breakfast special today—coffee (tea for Jody) with cream, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, slices of cheese and ham (I gave my ham to Mike), a soft boiled egg (Mike gave his to me), and butter and jam.  We also had two huge bread rolls each—they do like their baked goods here.  The food was very good, but WAY more than we really needed.

Before going back to the hotel, we went to the Hofer to get some food that we could have for an easy breakfast in our room.  We had decided that would be a better solution than eating out every morning, especially since we have coffee pots and a refrigerator in our rooms.  We often do this if breakfast is not included in the price of the room.

Then it was time to talk with Nicholas, the very helpful front desk person, on how to use the Underground, where to buy tickets, and where was a good place to get off.  The ticket machines it turned out were just past the restaurant where we had lunch yesterday.   They were easy to use and I was excited that they accepted my Apple card with the wireless pay.  We bought senior round-trip tickets and decided to ride to the Karlsplatz (Charles Square) station which is on the Ringstrasse (Ring street).  Karlsplatz is an area of the city that was developed in the late 1680s in front of a huge church (Karlskirche or St. Charles' Church).  The Ring to which I referred is a 3.3 mile loop that includes roads for cars and tracks for trollies and trains that was ordered built by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1856.  It took over 50 years to build and is lined with beautiful buildings and palaces as well as numerous museums.  

Our plan was to walk from the Karlskirche across the Ring and into the center of the Old City but we got confused and walked the wrong direction.  When we figured that out, we turned around to see if we could catch the Ring Tram but couldn’t find the correct stop.  It was really cold and windy today, so we crossed the tracks and stopped at Café Mendez to get warm and have something to eat and drink.   Have you noticed that when we are in doubt, or cold, or tired, or anything we just stop and eat!  Café Mendez was a very quirky restaurant right on the Ringstrasse.  Jody had a bottle of water and we had white wine (a Viennese Grüner Veltliner which was their premier white).  You will see us drinking a lot of wine here as it costs less than soft drinks!  Can you believe it?  Jody and Mike chose the chili con carne which was so thick they had to eat it with a fork.  They said it was delicious!  I had a huge Beyond Meat burger plus tortilla chips.  We all agreed that we had made a great choice. If you are in Vienna this is a fun place to visit as it has good food for both carnivores and vegetarians!

When we finished our lunch, the waiter gave us directions on how to get tickets and get on the tram.  So, we headed to the nearest train station and found the Tabak Traffic Shop (this was a tobacco shop that sold tickets for everything).  We had been told to get 2 one-way tickets so that we could go halfway and then hop off, so that’s what we did.   We rode the tram around the Ring to Schwedenplatz (translates to Sweden Square) which is near the Jewish Quarter and near the Danube Canal.  This square was said to honor the country of Sweden which took in Viennese orphans after WWI.  This was an area of neat old buildings, winding streets with lots of little shops and restaurants.  We just wandered without plans stopping to look in windows and shop when we liked.

As we were getting tired, we decided to not use our tram tickets and just catch the UBahn (underground train) back to our hotel.  Once back at our stop Jody headed to her room and Mike and I walked up to the plaza to get sandwiches for supper from Backwerk again. We got smaller and different sandwiches called Langenzopf Lachs Spiegel which we were sure had cheese on them this time (later we found out we were wrong again although it was a fried egg instead of boiled egg slices this time!).  We also stopped at the street vendor in the plaza area who was roasting potatoes and chestnuts over a barrel of hot charcoals.  We bought a spiral cut potato (kartoffelspirale) on a stick to have with our dinner.  We wanted to have the vendor wrap it in some foil so that it would stay warm, but she did not speak English!  That was frustrating for both of us as we tried to communicate using broken German and hand gestures. Thankfully another customer spoke English and translated for us or we would not have been successful.  We decided this product was fun to see being roasted and to eat but it was rather expensive.

Supper tonight was again in our room.  We shared the potatoes, added sliced cheese we had bought at Hofer to our sandwiches, and added the extra egg to mine.  Of course, we shared a nice white wine to drink.  After discussing plans for tomorrow, it was time for an early bedtime again.