Birthday weekend, part 2

The birthday festival continued of course - and what is better than an afternoon downtown when one feels adventurous? So we hopped into the car, and just a short while later we were at the very Viennese heart, which is the Stefansplatz and the "Steffl".

St. Stephens Cathedral is the landmark of Vienna. Zillions of tourists visit "him" (in Austrian thinking "he" is male) every year, and also Austrian people like to come here and enjoy the special flair around our most important dome. Most of the time you find scuffolding on one end or the other - seems, when they restaurated one end the other one is falling apart again - but still we all love our good old Steffl. Its main bell, the "Pummering", welcomes New Years every year on the Austrian television. No other bell would do, that´s for sure!

On this beautiful warm day the main door (the Riesentor) of St. Stephens was wide open and the sun streamed into our favorite dome. Reminder: Need to take a guided tour there - it has been too long.

We were terribly hungry, so we could not stay at the Steffl too long. A quick walk brought us to the first culinary stop of the day. "Le Loft" at the new Sofitel Vienna Stefansdom.  Le Loft is the bar/restaurant at the top level of this ****-Hotel, dinner is very expensive there, so I suggest you go there for drink and starter and enjoy this very cool bar and its wonderful view over the rooftops of Vienna. Stefan took me there as a birthday surprise, I had never been there before, and it was brilliant! The food is excellent too - we had a squid salad (him) and a Cesar salad (me), best Cesar salad I ever had.

http://www.sofitel.com/de/hotel-6599-sofitel-vienna-stephansdom/index.shtml

The waiters are extremely nice too. Ours did not mind to take photos from us even though lots of people ask him to do that ever day, and he was very busy pointing out the famous sights one can see from the bar to us (it was really nice and a little bit funny too as he was from Germany and obviously new the skyline better then I did. *gg* Wienerberg City?? What the heck is that??)

Afterwards, with a first light filling in our bellies, we continued back to the citycenter. Our next culinary highlight was our favorite restaurant "Danieli" in the Himmelpfortgasse, close to the Steffl.

http://www.danieli.at/ Basically it is an Italian restaurant - yes, they do serve pizza - that is also a trattoria, oisteria... and it serves the best Italian food (besides pizza) that you can get outside of Italy. If you like meditarranian cuisine and seafood - that is the place to go!

We started with the Mixed starter platter for two, as always, I must confess, and then continued with the Spaghetti with lobster, which was delicious. I don´t eat a lot of meat (only from happy cows and pigs), but sorry, lobster, I love you when you are cooked!

This is one of the rooms in the restaurant, usually it is packed, so to pre-book a table is an absolute must. But it was a lovely warm and sunny Fall afternoon and people were preferred to spend time outside obviously, so for the Danieli this was quite empty. Lucky me!

And then back into the hussle und bussle of the the Kärntnerstraße. Everybody seemed to be outside, enjoying the mild temperatures and the posh shopping miles of Vienna. In the first district you find the most expensive stores, from Adelmüller to Fendi and Dolce&Gabbana, the hotels Sacher, Imperal and all the other luxurious houses are there. But recently the reasonable brands, like Peek & Cloppenburg also start to trickle into the historic centre. I am sure not everybody likes that!

This for example is the new Peek & Cloppenburg flagstore, right at Kärnter Straße. There is a big discussion going on right now if architecture like this fits into a historic city center, and even though the place was packed I have seen more people checking on the facade than on the clothes. But you have to see for yourself if you like it or not.

This, being a bag addict and all, is my favorite shop of course. The only problem is that sometimes it is hard to see any bags because there are hords of Japanese entering the place as probably they feel that they can make a bargain here compaired to Japanese prices. It spoils the fun a bit, when you want to indulge yourself in some luxury shopping and instead are wading in flocks (swarms?) of screaming Japanese women. Oh, and the rich Russians with their bodyguards of course.... *sigh* Envious? Naw.... Right now Louis Vuitton is building a new, four-floor flagstore in the 1st district of Vienna - business must be good!

It is always nice to stroll around the 1st district after some nice dinner. The small lanes are really charming, you just have to get a few steps away from Kärnterstraße, and walking is no problem anymore. Here you see the view on Michaelerkirche, when you are walking up from behind.

And this of course is the back entrance of the Hofburg, the place where the Austrian President has his office. But I guess most people do not come to see him. They rather seek the flair of the Habsburg monarchy - the Kaiserappartments, the Sisi museum and the Treasury for example are situated right here. But the area is huge - you better get a map before you start looking for any of these places!

What a strange address. Imagine living in the Habsburger Gasse.....

Here you see people going to work..... Just kidding, none of us does that anymore, whatever the tourist industry wants to make you believe, honestly. The Fiaker (like jodeling) are a strictly touristic thing - nothing would ever get me inside one. But I love watching the horses and pretending it is 200 years in the Past..... I know, nothing was better then, but we can pretend, can´t we?

Past the famous Pestsäule we slowly made our way back to the car, which we had parked in a garage. Parking is sheer horror in downtown Vienna, so just forget about wanting to find available parking space in the streets - simply surrender and park in a garage. And a few words to the Pestsäule: This one is not the only one in Austria, but it is the first. Erected by the Habsburgs after the Black Plague had left Vienna for good. Many of the Pestsäulen are dedicated to the Holy Mary, because in Catholic believe she is the one speaking for the people in times of need. (Don´t think I knew this before - I had to look it up myself.)

It had been a great day, and now it was time to get back into our green and golden Autumn paradise. I like to get into the city now and then, but it is always so wonderful to get back home. Home is where your heart is, right? Exactly.

And of course we had been expected...

Well, my dears, it was a phantastic birthday weekend! Thank you so much for your good wishes, for thinking of me on my special day and for sharing the memories here on my blog. Birthdays are wonderful if you can spend them like this - I am sure hoping for many more birthdays to come! And all of you out there - stay safe and warm and happy. Take care and see you soon!