SEPT. 20 - HEURIGER

 We wanted to drive to the areas described as where expats lived in Vienna (District 18 & 19), Wahring and Dobling, on the edge of the Vienna Woods. Wahring is described as having grand, elegant homes, and the international schools are located there. 

It was piloting through a maze - stressful driving - and then along miles of train tracks with many cute shops created under the viaducts. But, it was all covered in grafitti.

We programed Doebling into the GPS, and it took us to a big, modern shopping center, Q19. So scary driving up the circular towers of the parking garage. They don't give you a centimeter to spare! This wasn't the atmosphere we were looking for, but thought they might have everything we needed. There was a huge Interspar, H&M, Douglas and other chain stores. We had high hopes for Interspar, but we didn't find much that we wanted. We needed a cutting board with handle to replace the damaged one. Contrarily, we saw every color except  plain old white. If you wanted a blue or gray or purple cutting board, you would NEVER find it. But plain old white? Just another frustration.

Returned to the car - convenient with elevator and handicap parking. So glad we had thought about bringing a handicap placard, and a neighbor had laminated it for us. 

Drove further on Grinzinger-strasse and stopped for lunch at Figl's. It is probably the most famous restaurant for schnitzl in Vienna, with the main restaurant in the city, Figlmueller. Ron dropped me off, and I slowly made my way across the cobblestones and up the stairs into the restaurant. After some diversions, we finally met up in the garden. The garden terrace is plateaued with three or four steps on each level. I noticed on their web-site that they are "barrier free", but they don't mention the steps. Very pleasant sitting in the garden, not too hot and a gentle breeze blowing.

I had their famous schnitzel, and found it so puffy with too
much breading. Unusual. Served with potato salad. Ron had the kalbsbraten.

After a nice lunch, we drove up into the hills, and coming back down, for memory's sake, we drove to Mayer Am Pfarrplatz. That was the first heuriger we ever went to. It was 1973, when we took off, on a whim, at midnight with another couple, driving all night from Nurnberg to Vienna. After the night of driving, and a full day sightseeing, we went to Grinzing. At that time I only drank beer, no wine, and the heuriger did not serve beer. So, I stayed sober and alert while the other three, who all smoked, played a game with cigarettes, burning holes into a napkin atop a glass, and the one who put the coin into the glass had to buy the next round. By the time we left there, many rounds of wine had been consumed, and the hour was getting late. We were walking, and Ron and Bob were trailing their umbrellas along the vertical bars of the windows, and "dueling" geraniums in the gardens. Lights began coming on, and we had to make a hasty escape.

Anyway, back to today. We just wanted to reminisce, nose around, and have a heuriger wine, but it turned into an interesting hour. The man at the next table asked what we were drinking. I thought I detected an Australian accent. We got to chatting, and one coincidence after another kept coming up. It was amazing. They lived in Wahroonga, and we had briefly lived in the adjacent community, Turramurra. They were amazed that any American had ever heard of Turramurra, let alone could pronounce it properly. Somehow, Ron got talking about his career in Melbourne and Sydney, and the guy seemed interested and kept asking questions. I asked him what line of work he was in, and he said he had just made partner at E&Y, and that's why they were in Vienna - celebrating his achievement. So funny, as Ron had been an E&Y partner back in the day, so then they had even more to talk about.

The wife had studied in NY and is an architect in Sydney.

We then drove back through the woods, a much more attractive and calm route than we had taken that morning.

All-in-all, an interesting, enjoyable day.