Vienna, Sachertorte and Chocolate

The power of tour guide books (think Rick Steves and others) is evident by the number of tourists standing in lines at various cafes, coffee shops and hotels. These guides encourage visitors by recommending they not leave a place without tasting this or that. We saw several lines of people, winding wound around a block, just to buy a piece of chocolate Sachertorte cake. (Which the locals told us is a bit dry, anyway.)

The Sachertorte

Gerster’s coffee shop is one of those kinds of places. A “must visit” according to the tourist books. Austria is known for its coffee house or cafe culture. We decided to pop our heads into Gerster’s, a very historic coffee house, just to have a look around. We were told these historic cafes are beautiful inside.

We had to squeeze past the line of people (telling them we were only looking, not staying to be seated). On the lower level was a small gift shop with pastries, cookies and treats. We went up the elevator and got a quick look around before we were asked to leave because we had no reservation. The place was full of traditional Austrians having a traditional Christmas afternoon tea.

The gift shop.

The upstairs parlor.

Instead of this hoity toity cafe house, we found a little local restaurant and we each had a bowl of soup. I had chicken broth with a cut pancake (my Grandma used to make this) and it was delicious.

Many of the families around us were celebrating Christmas with a traditional roast duck dinner. It was festive and fun.

After lunch, there were more and more people in the streets, coming out of their apartments after their late Christmas Eve celebrating. And I suppose many of the people out and about were tourists like us. The many hotels certainly seem to be full of visitors.