Munching in Vienna

Part of our original itinerary in Vienna was to visit the Naschmarkt (literally translated as "Munchie Market"). However, a misreading of the subway map on Saturday caused us to put it off to Sunday, since we thought it was way outside town. Saturday night we discovered it was right by the opera house, about 10 minutes from our Pension, but then Sunday morning we discovered it was closed. Since it's the most famous market in Vienna, and I have an entrenched fondness for all things market, I might have been pretty disappointed... were it not for the culinary delights available on every single street we passed through, Naschmarkt or no Naschmarkt. See the pictures and descriptions below to understand the taste adventure that is Vienna!

Though Vienna offers a wide variety of taste sensations, I think my favorite is one of its simplest and most ubiquitous: the giant salt pretzel.

Brett's favorite is also quite easy to come by: the wiener, available with curry, horseradish, sweet mustard, hot mustard, and bread rolls. True Austrians alternate bites of roll and meat, they never wrap the one in the other. Brett managed to put away 6 in our 30 Austrian hours.

Tea Sandwiches at one of Vienna's many cafes, where half the population seems to congregate around 4 pm for coffee and cake - the table next to us at our cafe managed to spend almost 50 euros on their late afternoon snack...

And the cakes...

Roasted chestnuts are called "marroni" in Austria, and they are OH SO GOOD

Another of Betsy's pictures of fruit markets, you are thinking? Nope. This is all Marzipan, on display at Vienna's famous international grocery store, Julius Meinl's.

Another view at J.M.'s: artisan chocolate bars.