There is a classic film noir from 1949 called The Third Man, starring Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles, which you may or may not remember was shot primarily in Vienna. Set in the immediate post war Vienna in which the city was split up and governed by the Americans, the British, and the Russians, and the French. A major component of the film is the city sewer system and there is a group that runs tours down into the places where the movie was shot! We made our reservations and woke up early Friday and walked not even a mile from the hotel to the place where the sewer is accessed in the famous chase scene of the movie. This is where things go south! :) First off we get there and the 10am tour is in German. We inquire as to when the English tour is and discover that there would not be one that day or the next (or ever?) What a rip off! If your website is in English and you respond to my reservation in English then I'm assuming you have an English tour... in fact I believe the 10 am was listed as an English tour. Well I didn't come this far to be turned away. I didn't need to know what they were saying, just wanted to SEE the caves. Then the next shoe dropped. They made us wear spelunker's helmets. I was fine with this, but Mrs. Heather was having a good hair day and the paper skull-cap and helmet were sure to ruin that! Strike 2. The next issue I'm sure you can guess was THE SMELL. We are already aware of Heather's super-human nasal abilities, so voluntarily walking into a major cities working sewer system was a true act of selflessness! The tour lasted about 45 minutes and we saw a number of key locations and our guide was kind enough to paraphrase a few points in English for us. I thought it was incredibly cool and I will never forget it.
In stark contrast to the dank, confined, and smelly Vienna sewer system we next made our way to The Shonbrunn Palace, the Hapsburgs' summer palace. A-mazing! The palace still holds many of the imperial families belongings and is decorated just as it was in their time. We had a wonderful apple strudel making demonstration and then walked the immense public gardens which include the worlds first zoo, a labyrinth and maze, and a giant monument to the Hapsburgs rule. Absolutely beautiful place and I think both of our favorites in terms of palaces.
That night we scratched our plans to take the subway out to the famous Reisenrad Ferris Wheel (also in the Third Man) choosing instead to go dine at Cafe Sprel and hitting the ferris wheel the next morning. Of course when we arrived they were still open, but had stopped serving food. Just our luck. Never the less we ordered a piece of chocolate cake and two coffee drinks. The cake had a thin layer of what we think was apricot jam and was nothing special, but the coffees were the best either of us had had to that point. Fantastic! We then set off to find a place to eat with the help of Yelp again. A highly rated "tapas" bar was right across the street. We walked in to find what looked to be a very cool alternative bookstore with chairs and tables and a ton of people lounging around. Pretty cool, but then we saw the menu and it was nothing we'd want to have for dinner so we walked out and a block away found an Asian noodle house that was also well reviewed. Having tired of local cuisine and Italian restaurants I insisted we go in for something different and we were both thrilled by our meals...
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