Jun 3
Vienna
Vienna is pretty. But unlike other places in Europe, there is no ban on smoking in public places and many, many people smoke here like chimneys. Makes walking unpleasant when you keep getting smoke blown in your direction. Otherwise it’s a lovely city to walk in. The public transport is fantastic and for about 6 Euros you get a 24 hour pass on all public transport in the city.
Beni was our tour guide along with Amit and Seema who were monitoring everything long distance from Berlin.
First we went to Schonbrunn, a very beautiful, big huge imperial palace with even lovelier grounds surrounding it.
Dinesh and Beni
There must have been some good times here coz the energy was light and airy and unlike Versailles that I had visited many years ago, it felt nice to be there.
A huge fountain, the fountain of Neptune dominates the gardens, which are surrounded by wild parkland, a labyrinth (didn’t go in) and a zoo (was not interested). We took a long walk to the top of the hill through the rolling parkland and were rewarded by a stunning view of the city.
Neptune's Fountain
On top of the hill overlooking the palace is a structure called the Gloriette, which has been turned into a café where I had the most delicious pink lemonade with ice cream. Dinesh and Beni had strawberry milkshakes. The inscription of the date was very strange, see the pic below, some of the Cs are mirror imaged. Could it be a typo? 
… Can anyone tell what it means? What date it actually is?
Decipher this...
After we got our tickets booked for our onward journey to Florence, we went to have lunch at Xu’ Kitchen, a 100% vegetarian hotel which serves mainly mock meat. We had mock fish, duck and chicken… a very delicious meal. They were closed, but very kindly agreed to serve us when Beni mentioned that we were from India and there for only a day.
The service was slow, they didn’t have the required staff in the kitchen, but the food was memorable. She even threw in some free desserts and sushi at the end of the meal, saying she was sorry that the food took so long to come… We really appreciated her gesture.
Lunch
Then went to Tichy’s for dessert, a place that serves some of the most delicious ice creams I have ever had… I had vanilla mixed with pineapple pieces, dinesh had a big cassata and Beni ordered an ice cream which had a frozen apricot in the center, surrounded by vanilla ice cream and held together with various powdered nuts… very nice indeed! If there is one reason to come back to Vienna, it will be the ice cream of Tichy’s. They run their shop from April thru September or so and on the opening day and closing day serve free ice cream to whoever comes by. The crowds outside the shop seemed like they were serving free ice cream everyday This is real quality stuff and if I had had more time, I would go everyday and check out every flavour they had.
We went to the Vienna City Park that has a life size golden statue of Johann Strauss. Posed for some photos and walked around for a bit.
The King of the Waltz and me!
Benny at very short notice had managed to magically produce 2 tickets for a Strauss and Mozart Concert at the Kurzsalon adjoining the park. It was a chamber orchestra, just 14 people but they played with feeling and the 2 singers who did some arias were pretty good, as were the ballet dancers who swept onto the stage and danced to the music being played.
All the music was light classical with waltzes, polkas, marches and happy arias all mixed together in a heady brew. They cheated a bit, which was very surprising to hear in Vienna, the music capital of the world. They skipped a few parts that a more mainstream orchestra would dare not. It was clearly an orchestra that didn’t take it self too seriously and was the better for it.
Some very pretty chandeliers lighted the salon, and the effect was rich, cozy and elegant, but they unfortunately use incandescent bulbs for the lighting, which meant that as the evening wore on, the hall got uncomfortably warm.
The Chandeliers got hotter and hotter...
The seats were the most uncomfortable seats I have ever sat in, in any concert, possibly anywhere!
Even dinesh who is fit and slim had trouble getting both his bottoms onto the chair together. The hall was full, but somehow the seats next to us were vacant, so it was just this side of bearable. The musicians must have been pretty sure of a great show, to risk making their audience so uncomfortable with the terrible chairs and the extra hot lighting… I am sure many would have walked out if they didn’t like the concert.
For a ticket the price of 35 Euros, they should have provided better, comfortable seating… I enjoyed the music, but had a backache by the time it was over.
Beni was a great guide and has a great sense of humour and gamely walked all around the city with us, even though I am sure he must see all the stuff we saw everyday.
It was a long day, and we reached home only after midnight… and I was asleep as soon as my head was on the pillow.
The next day, dinesh and igor went off to the railway station to book our tickets onwards from Florence to Venice in Italy. I stayed home and cooked some food for both of them.
Made a quickie pasta, with a tomato basil sauce, and some brocolli and oyster mushrooms thrown in. Then I garnished it a few slices of gouda cheese and baked everything until the cheese was golden brown.
We ate a lot. It was quite tasty.
Which was a mistake, coz then I went to sleep and woke up only at 4:25. I didn’t want to leave the house before doing a Guru Pooja there, which meant we missed our train to Innsbruck from where we were supposed to have our connection to Florence. We even took a taxi to make it to the station on time, but got caught in the rush hour traffic and the train had left minus us…
Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa
(6 votes, average: 4.83 out of 5)
Loading ...
Dear SIr,
A very lovely place indeed
By the way i am very hungry and the snaps of the food makes me go still more hungry
By the way lovely photos
JGD
Sudha.P
Wow Bau thats nicely explained just filling like was there with you. I think slowly you will reach Berlin where we met
Oh! was just coming along with you,suddenly stopped..
Then what happened?
So vivid description of the trip..
jgd
where is the picture of the food you have made?
bau u cook awsom.
wnt to hv smthng From ur kitchen asap
jgd:-)
got eaten before i could get the camera
Nice details to know…..:)
….
And everything was going fine in above blog till you posted the pic. of your lunch…:)
and since then I am diving into the the screen of my PC
Notice: Neeche likha hua notice yes!+ graduates ke hit me jaari….
Bawa Plz Plz Plz avoid writing about food on your blog
…..coz then after I cant resist… You right that so much deliciously 
e.g. “Then I garnished it a few slices of gouda cheese and baked everything until the cheese was golden brown.”
kash mai naseebwala hota toh woh golden brown cheese blog ki jagah aaj mere pet me hota…
I think Summer Magic is not too long from now ….Bawa please remember my name
Sameer Sathe from Pune 
. I Loveee your Dishes…. 
Can I have it on Summer Magic?? Plzzzzzzzz 
:)
Lovely pics, dinesh looks cool in d first pic
To decipher that date would take sometime I guess….
n FOOD………………………….. shuts me up quiet literally.
JGD
i was almost in vienna, almost ate that food..
what experiences..
amazing grace..!
Nice crisp description
Pics are wonderful ..i liked the umbrellas
I had logged out when I realised that I hadnt commented on this post despite reading it
Came back just to make sure that I comment! I remember you telling us once to read if we comment 
I liked the article!
Jai Gurudeva!
Dear sweet Bawa and Dinesh
always enjoy your posts
loving the details and all.. like being there with you
JGD
Brit Kim from Copenhagen / Seoul
Superb Post Bau!!
Felt as if i was travellingg!!
Lovely!!
Keep Rockin Bau!!
Love and Regards!!
Jai Gurudev!!
Swapnil
dear bawa,
u have such a flowing style, it seemed like i was travelling with u, kind of, u know what i mean, so now i know that u are a very good cook, so will u treat me once with yr handmade delicacies when i am in the ashram? I can take GODIVA choc. from here, or anything else u want from the US, take care and JGD! TO U.
Vienna in Spring ,The King of the Waltz, Bawa & ,,,,,
The Viennese Waltz …..Ummmmm…… added to that the picture perfect food
….If Vienna is so charming then how the remaining parts of Europe series would be …..cant wait to get more and more of this [and bawa 
]
wow Dinesh bya looks like a warrior.:-)
Vienna has always been on my ‘Places to See Before I Die’ list. So I won’t be all nice and say that I am NOT envious of you.
I like the idea of mock chicken,mock fish etc. For many of us who have converted to vegetarianism, don’t eat meat, but still miss it; this seems to be a good option.
Do you have any idea how they make them? If you add it to the blog it would help scores of people like me.
Love and regards
its made of soya and sea weed and some other stuff… you have to buy it off the shelf and then cook it. You get it in India now in very select places, Natures Basket in Bombay carries it for example, Spar in Bangalore too
Dear Bawa n Dinesh
I love to see both of you.Come to New Zealand.It’s nice place.
I did buy vegetarian sausages once. Spat it out immediately :-p
Shall check out mock meat whenever I get the chance. Never been a sea weed fan. But you liked, ergo I try it
Thanks a ton!
i liked veggie sausages. So if you didnt like that you are not going to like the taste of mock meat much
Wowie Bou Bou …it was such a blessing to read all this …u made our day!!!:) privileged..honored…blessed..!!!LUV U MASTER … JGD!
Dear bhaiya
A lovely article. Really, i enjoyed reading every part of it.
You guys definitely must have enjoyed a lot. nice to learn about the exclusive Xu’ Kitchen. Its difficult to find such 100% veg places abroad. Also after reading your article i felt like visiting the city for its yummy ice creamzzz
Anyways, it was an amazing article to read also ‘coz of your very explainatory and wonderfully put english. Sometimes have to turn up the dictionary while reading your articles. Please keep up with your blog, its an awesome way to stay in touch with you:) Jai Guru Dev
Dear Bau,
:-d
currently are you there in Vienna only?
Coz I heard that all senior teachers like you are there in Ashram for Ashtavakra..
Very much in the Ashram… am tweeting bits of Ashtavakra for all who are not here
Marvelos loved it line by line the.. the mock meat lunch looks so awesome
Dear Bawu,
You to can go for it bawu!!!
You are toooooooo good at narration and the pictures made them more beautiful. I am hunger now by looking at lunch picture
Dinesh Bhiya looks good in T- shirt
Love to have something made you bawu.
Eagerly waiting for 21st June to come down to Bangalore ashram for summer magic and meet guruji, you and dinesh bhaiya
Jai Gurudev!!!
Love you, bawu an dinesh bhiya
Perfect description of the tour……. Pics are cool………………… Waiting for the summer magic…..
nice pics bau……. dinesh da looks really cooool…….
:)
nice pics; and a very good description….
regarding the date this what i found
“The front face bears the following inscription:
IOSEPHO II. AVGVSTO ET MARIA THERESIA AVGVSTA IMPERANTIB. ERECT. CI?I?CCLXXV.
(“Erected under the reign of Emperor Joseph II and Empress Maria Theresa, 1775.”)
The way of writing of the year uses a Latinization of the Greek letter ? (phi) for 1000. In Ancient Rome it was also common to represent the number 1000 by the Greek letter phi instead of with an M. “