Sophie and I both had another great night's sleep, and I went down for coffee again while Sophie finished getting ready. It was lovely to sit and sip my coffee and drink a bottle of water.
This morning, we were having breakfast at Café Sperl, another location in Before Sunrise. This café was where Céline and Jesse pretended to have a phone conversation with friends. It had rained overnight, and the sky looked full of more. We walked to the café and joined the end of the queue for a table. Sophie was very excited to be at the café featured in the film, and we didn't have to wait long before we were shown to a table.
We sat in the window and had a good look at the breakfast menu. Sophie chose an omelette with ham while I settled for two warm rolls with butter and apricot jam. Oh, and copious amounts of coffee! The service was a little slow, but we were happy to sit and chat and stare out of the window at the people passing, now carrying umbrellas.
A man in front of us had ordered breakfast, and he followed this up with a slice of sachertorte! Why not? We lingered over our breakfast, soaking up the atmosphere as more people continued to queue to get a table.
Wein Not?
Naschmarkt was very busy and crowded with people, and we kept getting dripped on from the awnings. We avoided the nut sellers (last time we were fleeced out of 10 euros), but the throng of people was a bit overwhelming, and Sophie wasn't even sure if the flea market had gone ahead, as it was out in the open. We decided to skip this, and we headed to Wein & Co instead for a glass of wine.
We took a table in the window again, and I ordered a Riesling while Sophie opted for a Chardonnay, both of which were Austrian, of course.
Outside, it was pouring, and it was almost hypnotic to watch the vehicles swishing past and people carrying umbrellas or wearing ponchos. The shop and wine bar were quiet, so it was lovely to sit and chat and watch the world go past.
We each had a second glass of wine - I chose a Sauvignon Blanc this time while Sophie sipped a second Chardonnay. The wine measures were 1/8 of a litre, so not huge. Once we'd paid the bill, we had a look in the wine shop, but it was a futile exercise as we couldn't take any home with us. We weren't sure if we'd be checking our suitcases into the hold, but there was a chance we wouldn't, so any liquids would be taken away from us. It was a bit mad, as at Heathrow we could take what we wanted in our hand luggage!
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| What a shame we couldn't take any home! |
The weather was still horrible, so Sophie summoned up an Uber to take us to the Imperial Crypt. He arrived quickly, but as we neared the area where our hotel was situated, he said he couldn't take us as the roads were closed. It was very lucky he had parked right outside where we were staying! Sophie was furious and hellbent on getting the payment refunded, as he hadn't taken us to our destination and didn't even try to get us there!
We decided to abandon the plan to visit the Imperial Crypt as it was 15 euros each, and instead, we relaxed in the room. We had a late lunch booking at Figlmuller anyway, and Sophie was determined to get her shoes on the way there!
Enormous schnitzels!
We relaxed in the room for an hour before setting out for Figlmuller. Before we took the U-Bahn, we crossed the road and went to Humanic, a shoe shop where Sophie had spotted the Birkenstocks. She asked to try them on and decided they were perfect and would go with a lot of her outfits. They looked so sweet on her!
As well as the shoes, she bought a pair of liner socks, and we set off for the underground, taking the tube one stop to Stephansplatz. We had bought another 24-hour ticket, which would allow us to get the train to the airport tomorrow, rather than taking an Uber or taxi. It was a short walk here to the restaurant, and the area was busy with Saturday shoppers.
When we reached Figlmueller, we saw a queue of people waiting for a table! We were so glad we'd booked, and we were able to go straight in and to our table on a gallery overlooking the ground floor.
We ordered two glasses of Weisburgunder (Chardonnay) and had a good look at the menu. The restaurant is famous for its schnitzel, but I wanted to try something different so I chose the calves' liver, served with onion rings, browned potatoes and an apple slice. Of course, Sophie chose the schnitzel accompanied by a cucumber salad.
We also ordered a large bottle of sparkling water and sat back to soak up the ambience. I loved looking down on the people dining below and was also intrigued by a group of four men at a table opposite. They looked like two sets of sons and fathers.
Sophie was delighted with her schnitzel, but I think I made the wrong choice. The onion rings were lovely, but I just knew the potatoes had been reheated (they have a kind of taste when they've been cooked previously), and my liver was overcooked. Still, the wine was delicious, the atmosphere was great, and the waiters were friendly.
After the main course, I decided to have dessert, and it had to be the chocolate fondant, served with cream. This did not disappoint! Sophie skipped pud and ordered a glass of Schnapps.
It had been a lovely meal, and the service was what I would describe as relaxed, despite the queue of people still waiting outside to get a table! We paid the bill (110 euros) and made our way to another underground station to get the tube back to the hotel.
Unfortunately, my heel was now playing up, so I limped behind Sophie until we got on the train. Back in the room, we relaxed for a while and then showered, ready to go out for 7:30pm. We wanted to spend the evening at the Eurovision Village, next to the Rathaus and could get the underground again.
No bags!
I put on the support bandage I'd bought from Amazon and hoped it would help with my heel. I'd been taking co-codamol, which I think helped a little, but by now I was heartily fed up with the pain. Over the course of the three days so far, we'd walked over 20,000 steps (imagine if we hadn't used trains, trams and buses?) and I think my heel was starting to protest.
When we arrived on the platform, there were a lot of people destined for the Eurovision village. Many of them were carrying flags. We all boarded an empty train and went three stops to the Rathaus. Signs directed us to the village, and there was a lot of construction work going on here.
There was a long line of us heading for the village, and the surrounding roads had been closed. There were numerous police vans parked up, and in front of us, we could see the bright lights of the village and a long queue of people waiting to go in.
If I had read the instructions on the app properly, I would have known that bags were strictly forbidden in the Eurovision village for the final. We queued up, only to be barked at that no bags were allowed. An Englishman behind us told us that he'd been in for one of the semi-finals, and they'd been allowed then, so he was annoyed as well. We could see another tent with yet another queue, and Sophie went to investigate. She said that people were just leaving their bags on a bench in a tent and being given a ticket.
This certainly didn't appeal to us, and the thought of getting the underground back to the hotel, leaving our bags there, and coming back didn't appeal either! We decided to give it a miss (I imagined it would be crowded and noisy anyway!) and stopped off at a wine bar before heading back to the hotel.
The woman running the place said we couldn't pay with a card, so, again, we had to be careful of what we ordered with our dwindling euros! We both chose a Campari Spritz and settled back to watch people arriving in waves for the Eurovision Song Contest.
We both felt a little disappointed, but over the course of the last three days, we'd come to realise that we weren't diehard Eurovision fans like we thought we were! We had seen people proudly sporting wristbands and others wearing T-shirts and hoodies.
As we sat and sipped our drinks, my foot really began to hurt, and I realised it was the support bandage. I took the bloody thing off, and the pain immediately lessened. So much for that, then! What a waste of money!
We finished our drinks, I paid the bill (15 euros), and we made our way back to the U-Bahn station, walking through a pleasant area of bars and restaurants. The Rathaus looked gorgeous all lit up and we'll definitely come back on a future visit.
The underground station was very quiet and only a handful of us boarded the train. There was a quiet atmosphere on the train, and I loved doing a spot of people-watching! Back at Karlsplatz, we emerged from the station and bought two small bottles of wine from the currywurst stand. The Spar was closed, and we never did manage to go in and buy what we needed!
We were able to catch the first song (Denmark), and we both settled down to watch it on the television in our room. No doubt, there were plenty of places in Vienna we could have watched it, but we were content to have a quiet night! While we were watching, Sophie downloaded a food delivery app, Foodora, and ordered some Japanese food - dumplings, crispy chicken and edamame beans.
We both went down to fetch it halfway through the evening and ate at the round table. We had everything we needed - cutlery, plates, bowls and glasses!
We watched until all the songs had been performed and then decided to go to bed. It was past 11:00pm by now, and we were shattered! The results could wait until tomorrow!
