Hapsburg - Renaissance Trip - Day Nine and Ten - Nothing Then Something

On Friday we did nothing.

Well not totally nothing because we did laundry. But I seemed to have some kind of allergic something after the weinstrasse drive and slept very poorly plus it was a rainy day so we just decided to chill. That's one of the nice things when you rent a big place. 

Dinner was courtesy of pop-up Chez Michel again

Wurst, Mixed Mushroom Ragout, and Home Fried Potatoes

Saturday was back on the sightseeing trail again. Our major mission was to go to and explore one of Graz' primary sights, the Schlossburg.  Fortunately for me, there was very good signage throughout the area so I was able to take pictures of the descriptions instead of having to do a bunch of writing.

First thing we did however is go to a huge market they have every Saturday. As we had lots to do and have food we will need to finish before we leave, it was a bit frustrating since I wasn't going to be buying anything.

Let's start with the official tour of the Schlossburg

It can be accessed buy walking up a butt ton of steps, a more inclined walk, an elevator or a funicular. We chose the latter as it is included in our week long rapid transit pass.

So what is the Schlossburg?

The first site you come to is the Bell Tower

Next is the old medieval entrance, The Gothic Gate

When you come up from the Gothic period your are greeted with a Glorious sight of the modern age

Next the Hacker Lion

I forgot to take a picture of the explanation of this but these are casements which were storage areas, barracks and prisons

Then on to some examples of cannons - The Cannon Hut

Oops. Guess we're not going into the Cannon Hut

And then the major part of the fortification the Stall Bastion.

Then on to the Chinese Pavillion

And finally on to the Clock Tower

Of course there were all kinds of view of the city from up on the Schlossburg hill

Somewhere among the houses of those hills is our rental

Remember I said there would be an opportunity to get a much better view of the Kunsthaus, the Modern Art Museum?  Clearly this was designed to be seen from above.

This is the Hauptzplatz looking down the Herrengasse

And remember our shots from the K&O Department Store? Here's a shot of their terrace restaurant

After our tour of the Schlossburg, we walked down the gradual way. I wanted to go back to Krebsenkeller where we were before because there was an old style dish on the menu that I haven't seen elsewhere.

Wife wanted to try a Potato and Mushroom Soup

It was a very flavorful broth with potatoes and mushrooms in it - quite good

This was the dish I was after.

It was a plate with smoked pork, roast pork, black pudding, sauerkraut and a potato dumpling.

The flavors were excellent but boy that's a lot of food!

Wife had a variant that had much the same ingredients but combined with potatoes with and egg.

Add some New Mexico Green Chile and you have a  New Mexico skillet breakfast :)

The food was very salty and just cried for something sweet afterwards so while we were walking around it was gelato again. Once more we found an Italian gelato place. You definitely can tell the difference in the style. It is much creamier in texture.

The rest of the afternoon we cruised around old parts of town again.

This a Glockenspiel which unfortunately only goes three times a day so we didn't get to see the figures coming out.

Glockenspielplatz