Cafe Central

A day of many steps, more than 22,000. In the morning we did a walking tour of Vienna, not only a way to see the sights with a guide, but a good way to start to know our way around. An interesting tour which covered a lot of ground, it accumulated a lot of steps for the start of the day. In the afternoon we went to the Hofburg Palace to visit the apartments. The Palace complex is huge and was expanded by each of the emperors up until 1918. The city is occupied by many grand buildings as befits an imperial city. We were informed it was largely undamaged during WWII compared to Germany, only about 20% of buildings having been destroyed. Where a modern building appears in a row of older buildings, it is probably the site of war damage.

In the late afternoon we returned to Cafe Central, (shown in the picture). There are three particularly famous coffee houses, we visited two, and Cafe Central is by far the one we prefer. The interior is very grand with columns and portraits of Franz Josef and Sisi. The picture shows the exterior of the cafe. There are tables outside, but it is the interior which impresses, and on a short visit to sit outside seems to miss the point of going there, even though the weather has been warm and sunny. In addition inside we can enjoy the music from the resident pianist.