1986 Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria Participants Nancy and Luther Hampton - Cindy (Nancy's sister) and her husband Bill Click images for larger views.

June 22 - Sunday

We rose and ran down the pretty little road along fields and woods and across pretty creeks. We had our breakfast. Our room was so very hot I had not stopped sweating after my run.

We left for Vienna. We drove down the Autobahn at about 80 MPH which made quick work of the distance. The scenery was mostly pretty, rolling hills. We got off the Autobahn in Melk and headed up the Wachau valley. We drove through a few nice little towns and decided to stop in Durnstein [right] for lunch. We parked and walked up the hill toward town, looking for a place on the river for lunch. We went along a small street to a pace called Richard Löwenherz [right]. It turned out to be a superior choice. W had VERY good Riesling. Lunch was - Cindy and Bill, nice ham, pork regional specialty, Luther veal goulash - me cold asparagus with ham. All nice. Later I found out this was a famous restaurant.

We drove into Vienna and noticed a lot of advertising. As we got into the older section less ads. We had a heck of a time finding the Koenig von Ungarn (hotel). But after many one-way streets we arrived. We got extremely lucky to find a parking place right in front of the hotel (there were only 5 places there) where we left our car for our entire stay for free. The man at the desk had some bad news. We would need to share a suite. We agreed to do so. It was nice but we had to share a bathroom. Our suite was on 2 levels. Cindy and Bill were up, we were down. We had a TV, mini-bar - it was a very nice place.

We went for a walk down a major pedestrian only shopping street and stopped at St Stephens Cathedral. It was very beautiful - especially the organ with stained glass behind. The only tower open was the south tower, the short one. It was still pretty high and I took some good pictures.

St. Stephens roof

From St. Stephens tower

Market and St. Stephens

Us at Cafe Bei Der Oper

Cafe Bei Der Oper

We returned and readied ourselves for dinner. We got a real iron and board for our clothes. We also got the menu.

We went down to dinner. It was a very pretty place with peach walls. They brought an hors d'oeuvres cart around first. What a great idea. You can pick anything from about 15 choices. Some of the things we tried: foie gras, smoked trout mousse, fish in garlic tomato sauce, sweetbread pate. The waiter recited some entrees. I chose veal stuffed with sweetbreads. Luther had pork medallions with noodles. Cindy did too. Bill had filet steak with mustard sauce. We all had a really good salad from the salad cart. They assembled it tableside.

Then for dessert Cindy and I had wonderful white and dark chocolate mousse with cherries. Bill had strawberry with fruit sorbet.

The big deal was this special drink - a fruit vodka. Cindy and I had it as an aperitif. It was nice and refreshing. Luther and Bill had champagne. With dinner our waiter recommended an Austrian Pinot Noir. He said it was the best in Austria and it was very good. We finished with coffee.

We went for a walk after dinner. The meal was only about $85 which was a very good deal considering what we had. The food was great. We walked around the cathedral as we are only 2 blocks away. It was a beautiful night, warm with a turquoise sky and one star.

Back in the room we had some Ausbach and watched TV. It was a good day.

June 23 - Monday

This was our first full day in Vienna. We rose and ran. We then got the bad news. Almost everything was closed on Mondays. We decided to shop - the stores were open. We went to a shop called Wahliss, which sold china and crystal. I bought some nice etched crystal called Bavaria Simphoni. Our sales girl was from Scotland. We got red wine, white wine, liquor glasses, brandy snifters and champagne flutes - 6 or 8 of each one. Price was $590.00. Cindy and Bill bought a music box for Bill's sister and a pretty set of blue and white china.

Next we went to the Hofburg Palace where we went on a tour. Too bad it was only offered in German.

By then it was lunchtime so we headed for Café Mozart by the Staatsoper. It was a pretty place with outside tables separated from the street by a glass and brass barrier, which had flowers on it.

The waitress was nice - pretty and freckled. She brought us beers. Luther and I shared a sausage plate with potatoes, cabbage and bacon. The best we'd had. Cindy had one all to herself. Bill had some great spatzle.

Next-door was the musical instrument museum, which was open so we went in. There were all kinds of antique instruments - forerunners to our instruments - pianos and harpsichords were the best.

We headed off for Viennese pastries and coffee in a magnificent café. I ate too much. We shopped some more. Luther visited a bookshop, Cindy and Bill went up the tall tower in St. Stephens and I went back to the hotel. During the day they had moved Cindy and Bill out. We kept the suite. There was time to read and relax. The only issue is street noise. It's amazing how loud this little street could be at 3AM!

We decided to dine in the hotel again. We all had champagne (they brought straws!) to start. I got the foie gras, Bill tried the appetizer cart, Luther had soup with semolina dumplings and Cindy had cucumber with dill. This restaurant is very old fashioned. The maitre d' always came over and recommends things. They always sounded so good. Cindy and I had no prices on our menus.

For main courses - I had turbot, salmon, and sole on a crab sauce and salad from the cart. Bill and Luther had the boiled beef with gravy and Cindy had beef (all Viennese specialties) I liked Cindy's.

We had no dessert. Cindy and I tried a nice, sweet Italian dessert wine. Luther had Armagnac and Bill had Spanish brandy. With dinner we had an Austrian Cabernet/merlot which was nice.

A good day.

June 25th - Tuesday

We had a nice breakfast after we ran and got on the road at 9:30. Vienna was a nice city.

We zoomed down the Autobahn slowed by some rain occasionally. We stopped at Chemisee for lunch. We got the awful Berlin beers with had raspberry syrup in them. They were undrinkable to most of us. With these we had awful wursts and pommes.

Then w headed back for the Autobahn. We arrived in Munich about 3PM and found our hotel with little trouble. We were impressed with the service. They opened our doors, got our luggage and whisked away the car. We went to our rooms, which were nice. They looked out on a pretty courtyard [left].

We headed straight out for a walk. We checked out a bunch of budget Bavarian restaurants and finally settled on Nurnberger Bratwurstgockl am Dom. Great looking place and it was really crowded. We headed back to the Glockenspiel in time to see it do its stuff. It was not as good as Strasburg's clock and the bells were horribly out of tune.

We returned to our hotel for a drink and a rest before dinner.

At 7:30 we left for dinner. When we got there we sat at a table with three other people. We had stood in the doorway, unsure of the protocol and finally seated ourselves. The other people were a couple and a drunk guy. We had 4 beers and 4 plates of Nuremberg sausage, kraut and potatoes - yummy. Then we had 4 more beers. Then 2 more - split. Luther had an Ausbach and by the time we left we were feeling no pain. But hey! This is Oktoberfest land so it was OK! We had coffee at the hotel and it was great.

June 25 - Wednesday

A busy day. We went to St. Peters Church circa 1190 and climbed up the bell tower to stand clinging to the walls. I got a picture of the Glockenspiel from up there. We visited the modern art museum which was good. Then we went to the regular art museum with many fine altar pieces. We had a pastry break and split up from Cindy and Bill. We went shopping for gifts. We returned with time to read and relax.

Glockenspeil

From St. Peters Church

From St. Peters Church

Luther clinging

Dinner was at Aubergine this night - a 3 star Michelin restaurant. We were seated - it was 8:30. We were given menus which were entirely hand written. If we could have read German we still couldn't have read the handwriting. The seven course tasting menu was - are you sitting down? - $175 Marks each. Since we couldn't read the menu we decided to have it. We got a magnum of the Hermitage. Before dinner we had Kir and champagne.

The course dragged on. We had a plate of hors d'ouvres - a quail let, shell with salmon steak tartar on toast, sole on toast. Next Cindy and I had a terrine of salmon and sole mousse. Each layer divided by spinach leaves. - wonderful. Luther and Bill had marinated steak. Then Luther, Bill and Cindy had soup served cold with caviar. I had spiny lobster with sauce of crab with vegetables. Next we all had pineapple sorbet to cleanse the palate. After that we had liver with white and green asparagus. Next medallions of lamb. Next cheese, peppermint soufflé (Cindy and I) Bill had wild wood strawberries.

The meal was very good but took WAY too long. We finally left at midnight. We did not enjoy the experience.

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Extra Pictures

Durnstein lunch

Vienna street

St Stephens

Spanish riding school

Our hotel