vienna, day three: kunst und waffeln mit der eltern

On Thursday we took the streetcar down to the city center, where we got some tasty breakfast pastries at a bakery called Felzl. Rich & Robin met us as we were finishing our coffees, and together we walked to Votivkirche. Although we hadn't even heard of it before arriving, this turned out to be the best cathedral in Vienna, with beautiful stained glass windows and high painted ceilings.

We returned to the Rathaus to ride a never-ending elevator:

Next we visited the Kunsthistoriches museum, an art gallery in a grand building that was formerly part of the Imperial palace. The permanent collection was mostly paintings by European masters (including some Vermeer), but we were especially excited for the Caravaggio & Bernini exhibition.

We grabbed our third wurst of the trip before returning to the craft market at Karlsplaz. We decided that since we'd be sharing the waffle between four people this time, it made sense to get one with caramel sauce, and this was a very good decision.

St Stephen's Church was impressive but very crowded. R&R went off for a break, so B and I decided to tour the Hofsburg Palace, where we saw thousands of gilded things and learned that everything we thought we knew about Princess Elizabeth (which, admittedly, was nothing) was actually quite wrong.

We ate dinner at Griechenbeisl, founded in 1447 and now the oldest restaurant in Vienna. It consists of a series of homey rooms on two floors connected by a tight, winding staircase, all decorated like an Austrian grandmother's living room. The food was quite fine.