It's actually Thursday and we arrived in Carrickfergus late yesterday afternoon after being up at 5.00am for an 8.00am flight out of Prague to Koln/Bonn for a two hour connection to Dublin, the hassles of picking up our rental car and the two hour drive north. We were sound asleep by 9.30pm and it is now 6.00am. Carrickfergus is a little north Belfast and is where my GG Grandfather was born and where my GGG Grandfather settled when he left Scotland in the 1820's.

Anyway, with the luxury of an hour to spare as it drizzles outside ..... Vienna.

Don't get me wrong, however Vienna was something of a letdown. I love rivers running through my towns and cities, and the fact that they diverted the Danube around the old city and converted the river on the flank into a canal just doesn't work for me. OK, it works for the Austrians in that they no longer have floods to contend with, but it just doesn't give me a ????

Obviously I cant put my finger on why it just doesn't appeal as a city to which I would love to return. Thay's not to say we didn't have a good time. OK we didn't take the 3 hour orientation tour (ring road bus and walk). We figured it was too big a city and therefore the tour would be superficial. Instead we opted for a kind of Vienna as the Viennese see it tour. It involved a guided tour of the different types of housing and residential areas,

We started with "The Hundertwasser House" which is an apartment house in the 3rd district, designed by Austrian artist "Friedensreich Hundertwasser".

The house was built between 1983 and 1986 by architects Univ.-Prof. Joseph Krawina and Peter Pelikan. It features undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. Hundertwasser took no payment for the design of the house, declaring that it was worth it, to prevent something ugly from going up in its place.

Amazingly, the apartments are part of the Austrian public housing. Rent for public housing is around 300E per month while open market in the prime areas in the city are around 2,000E - 3,000E. After jostling with a dozen other tour groups and masses of individual tourists, my initial reaction about an amazingly cheap accommodation became one of "but at a cost". It must be like living in a goldfish bowl with so many tourists massing outside every day.

We were then bussed closer to the centre of town for a walk through courtyards to view the more expensive residences, with the stairs and walkways to access the apartments built on the interior walls of the courtyards. Then there were the aristocratic residences, such as the one with an entrance paved with wooden cobbles to deaden the sound of the horses hooves and carriage wheels, the staircase to the right is a tight spiral staircase for the staff, the staircase to the left a marble one for the family, with a guards room with a massive fireplace to keep him warm. Upstairs in another, the first indoor tennis court. The king had seen one in Spain apparently, and liked to play dressed to the 9's. Not too energetically apparently.

It wouldn't be a tour without the obligatory visit to a church or cathedral. This time a Jesuit church which was much more tastefully decorated than St Stephen's cathedral. The Jesuits were invited to town to provide teachers for the university (and to educate the young). The original university adjoins the church. Ches and I barely walked through St Stephen's and gave much more time to the exterior, particularly the patterned tiled roof which reminded us of the roofing in Beaune in Burgundy.

We also stopped off at a café for a coffee and pastry as part of the tour, and generally wandered the narrow streets close to the centre of town. It was Ok but not as good an experience of what we migh have had if she had chosen the "cat" caffee instead. We stumbeled across this cafe in a small side street. All the windows were from floor to ceiling and covered in mesh, with chairs and boxes grouped around the inside. Here resided cats sunning themselves. Inside was a regualr cafe. Not surprisingly, most of the clientel were women and girls. The idea is that in a large city where people can't have pets, they can visit this cafe regularly and have some stress relief.

With a city map, we were now on our own from 11.30am. The options were to spend the day wandering the city or meet a bus to return to the boat at 12.30 or thereabouts and then return to the city in the afternoon. We opted for aimless wandering.

We had come armed with a newspaper article about the best places to eat Weiner Schnitzel. We headed off to the supposedly oldest in Vienna and it was to be as much for the décor as the schnitzel. Supposedly cooked in three pans at different heat and when served, you can sit on it and it wont leave a mark on your trousers. I didn't plan on putting it to a test






Wiener Schnitzel



four escalopes
of around 120 grams each

To apply the Breadcrumbs:

• flour


• 2 eggs


• breadcrumbs


• salt / pepper


• oil or lard
  for frying

Recipe
The escalopes will need to be
pounded until the meat is around a 1/4 of an inch thick. Make sure to trim
the edges of the meat carefully.
Lightly season the escalopes
with salt and pepper. You will need three shallow bowls - 1 for the eggs, 1
for flour and 1 for breadcrubs. Dip the escalopes in the flour first, then in
the whisked egg and then in the breadcrumbs. Be careful to ensure that the
the entire escalope is completely covered with the breadcrumbs.
Place the escalopes in a hot
frying pan, the oil in the pan should be deep enough that the schnitzel's
float whilst cooking. Cooking time should not be more than 4 minutes for each
side.
Remember to serve hot with
fresh lemon and potato salad Viennese style!




Now here is where it all came unstuck. Ches was convinced that they were cooked in a pan and the waiter said "no", deep fried. Ches still can't come at deep fried anything, so we up and left and went in search of what she believed would be the more authentic pan fried.

We asked the sales ladies at a jewelry store ... "where can we get the best Weiner Schnitzel in Vienna ... where would you go? It was unanamus "either my mothers or my place". They didn't invite us however, so off we went again.

There has been a resurgence in "Biesl" restaurants in Vienna. Kinda chic bistros. I asked a couple of waiters standing out front about theirs campared with the more famous older establishments. They made no claim to the quality, just that theirs was more expensive and didn't really try to sell us on entering. Maybe dressed in shorts and a T, I didn't look like someone they really wanted in their establishment.

Anhoo, we decided to just wander the streets and get a feel for the city. After a little while, who should we run into but Stan and Bev (from our ship). OK, 4 can make decisions better than 2, so we joined up .... for a while. At a museum, there was an exhibit that appealed to them and not to us, so we sepparated for an hour and reconnected at Hotel Sacher for a coffee and their famous "torte". Now that's a Vienese experience.
Torte:

• 4 1/2 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spoon gently into cup and level top)

Assembly:

• 1 cup Apricot Glaze
• Small Batch Chocolate Glaze
• Sweetened Whipped Cream , for serving

preparation1. To make the torte: Position a rack in the centre of the oven and heat to 400°F. Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment or wax paper. Dust the sides of the pan with flour and tap out the excess.2. In the top part of a double boiler over very hot, but not simmering, water, or in a microwave at medium power, melt the chocolate. Remove from the heat or the oven, and let stand, stirring often, until cool.3. Beat the butter in the bowl of a heavy-duty standing mixer fitted with the paddle blade on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. On low speed, beat in the confectioners' sugar. Return the speed to medium-high and beat until light in colour and texture, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the chocolate and vanilla.4. Beat the egg whites and granulated sugar in a large bowl with a handheld electric mixer on high speed just until they form soft, shiny peaks. Do not overbeat. Stir about one fourth of the beaten whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold in the remaining whites, leaving a few visible wisps of whites. Sift half of the flour over the chocolate mixture, and fold in with a large balloon whisk or rubber spatula. Repeat with the remaining flour.5. Spread evenly in the pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 45 minutes. (The cake will dome in the centre.) Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan, and invert the cake onto the rack. Remove the paper and re-invert on another rack to turn right side up. Cool completely.6. To assemble: Using a long serrated knife, trim the top of the cake to make it level. Cut the cake horizontally into two equal layers. Place one cake layer on an 8-inch cardboard round. Brush the top of the cake layer with the apricot glaze. Place the second cake layer on top and brush again. Brush the top and sides of the cake with the remaining glaze. Transfer the cake to a wire rack placed over a jelly-roll pan lined with waxed paper. Let cool until the glaze is set.7. Make the chocolate glaze (it must be freshly made and warm). Pour all of the warm chocolate glaze on top of the cake. Using a metal offset spatula, gently smooth the glaze over the cake, allowing it to run down the sides, being sure that the glaze completely coats the cake (patch any bare spots with the spatula and the icing that has dripped). Cool until the glaze is barely set, then transfer the cake to a serving plate. Refrigerate until the glaze is completely set, at least 1 hour. Remove the cake from the refrigerator about 1 hour before serving.8. To serve, slice with a sharp knife dipped into hot water. Serve with a large dollop of whipped cream on the side.More wandering of wide streets all with the vast marble buildings and still not doing for me what Paris does so easily.

Eventually we wandered into a non touristy area and stumbled upon a restaurant with only locals having a late lunch. We joined them. Now, their schnitzel may never feature in an article about Vienna, and sad to say, I can't even remember the name of the establishment (nor the street). The Schnitz was fantastic and so were their bratwurst sausages and we shared pates of both. That is, the men ordered the schnitz and the women the bratturst and we swapped portions (not halves ... Ches doesn't do halves). She does do beer now however and shortly I will post a blog with just photographs of Ches with beers. She has drunk more beer in the last fortnight than in the last 46 years.

The food and company were excellent. Our waitress was born in Perth but returned to Vienna with her parents when she was 5. Now in her early 40's (I guess), she returns to visit grandmother in Perth every couple of years.

Eventually we returned to the ship by cab and with an extroverted cab driver .... no really, a cab driver who likes a chat! I know it's hard to believe. His insights into Vienna more enlightening than the guides.

Tomorrow a day trip to Bratislava and a concert in Vienna.