Our last full day in Vienna was rainy and cold. We attempted to walk to an open air market but lost our way so instead stopped for coffee and sweets, a favorite pastime of ours here (coffee and pastries…not getting lost)! After the rain finished we wandered around looking at other sections of the city that we’d missed before. Had an ethnic dinner, yummy and a nice change from the plain food we had so far found in the city…I think we just didn’t go to the good restaurants. We made a group decision to up our game and price tag for dining from here on out! Found that we all liked pumpkin oil on our salads and in our soups.
The next morning we left Vienna and headed for the “Vienna Wood”. It was beautiful, great views, would have been nice to walk it but we were pressed for time. We headed south to Graz via the byways, taking our time and enjoying the day. Another stop for coffee and pastries mid morning, leisurely wending our way through the rolling hills singing and humming to the sound track of “Sound of Music” (do you really think I could have listened to that?). On the way to Graz we made a few stops in the surrounding area to see a few castles. Had a wonderful meal at one of the castels of cream soups and lots of pork dishes with sauerkraut! It was the best meal so far!
We arrived in Graz, the hometown of Arnold S. We’d decided a few days ago to go ahead and make reservations at a hotel as all four of us seem to be challenged when it comes to making an on the spot decision…an interesting dilemma! It turned out to be a good location, across the river from the oldest part of town within view of the castle. Nice comfy beds (we’ve only had bad beds once so far with sheets like emory boards) and a spacious living area. The next morning we wandered downtown, walked up to the castle, wandered more, stopped for coffee (no pastries as we are all dieting today) and then more wandering. Please make sure you ask Bernie about his “Killed Jesus Statues”…no joke…he did really say that….it was very funny! After commenting on all of the crosses (Bernie) we stopped for lunch and had another wonderful meal! We discovered that we all liked pumpkin oil on our salads and in our soups. We finished the city by 2 pm so decided to head south down the Wine Road. Beautiful drive, lots of backing up and turning around, finally ending up in Slovenia…it was amazing the immediate change between Austria and Slovenia. Slovenia was a bit depressed, mind you, we only saw about 10 miles total!
