Graz - Vienna

Up this morning at sparrows again.

Last day of the conference so we went to a couple of the last deliveries of papers, some interesting stuff on waste disposal, and another on the use of swiftlet birds nests as a very sought after culinary product in Asia, these have been around for hundreds of years but now they are starting to farm them, fascinating stuff.

So the conference is over, very rewarding and I’ve learnt so much, I will be on the look-out to write more abstracts….definitely!

Before we left for the train station the conference organized local artisan suppliers to host a mini farmers market and discuss their local fare, very well put together and appreciated. There are lots more photos in the movie from today, follow the link at base of this section.

 

 So we took a taxi to the train station, a local train to Graz this led us to the first snack of the day from a local bakery, a plundergebeck, I think I’ve got that right, a large Danish pastry filled with rows of poppy seed paste, vanilla cream pate, and a hazelnut spread…also a apricot and vanilla pastry, with a salami roll…wonderful. This experience was saddened a bit when a small boy came up to us begging for change, with his mother looking on from a discrete distance…poor wee bugger.

Then we caught the Main rail to Vienna.

About two and a half hours on the train, stunning vistas again…what a beautiful looking country!

We arrive in Vienna and book into Kaiser 23 Hostel, nice clean place with friendly people to help us out. The rooms on our floor have names…Sacher Torte, Wiener Schnitel and Guglhupf, all well known Austrian dishes.

We catch the Metro then a tram into the “Ring” tourist central….man overwhelming buildings and statues everywhere. (Again, check out the Vid)

We went to Demel for a Hot Chocolate and cake, this is one of the oldest and most well known coffee houses in Vienna, a glass walled kitchen is on view were you can watch the days production. Not cheap but well worth it.

 

Walked the streets again just looking and soaking in the Atmos….brilliant.

We had dinner with a couple of people from the conference, one of them a local. We ended up going to one of the oldest Inns in Vienna, the Gmoa Keller restaurant. Great meal, great conversation and cemented some very god contacts for the conference next year. The restaurant was very traditional but again have a look at the Flick….

 

So much food…Soooo tired….but now the next part of the adventure begins, off to Prague in the morning so who knows what that will bring, I hope the food will continue to be as good as we have had so far.
Bye Vienna.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UMgFFZL0-U