Hapsburg-Renaissance Trip - Day Two Pictures

Alright as no one ever comments on my brilliantly biting prose, I will go back to what you really want - PICTURES!

Let's start with our food tour from Friday morning.  As I mentioned this tour was of a market that embodies the trend throughout the world to a more international flavor, in city markets catering to a younger market that looks for entertainment, and a capturing of the crossroads of the world the Vienna (like Istanbul) represents.

This is actually some buildings that were across the street from the U-bahn (Metro) station we arrived at for our tour. They're not special or anything but it reminds me of why I like cities such as Vienna and Paris that are dominated by architectural consciousness throughout their history. These date from the end of the 19th century.

On to the market itself

Baked goods

A device for making a Hungarian baked good. You put a dough/batter around a cylinder and put it in like a rotisserie to bake. When it is done they sprinkle cinnamon sugar on it, take it off the cylinder and cut it into slices.

Heirloom carrots and parsnips

These are peaches that are grown in the same fields as wine grapes. Even though green they are ripe.

Signs - You know how much de-I loves signs

I liked this one so much I made it my Facebook page picture.

This was outside an Indian food stall. I wanted it because it represented the international aspect of the market.

Our tour guide has a relationship with one of the stall owners that specializes in Middle Eastern food products. She actually has her own little corner in back for holding items she wants her customers to taste.

Here we're tasting a variety of flavor spice blends you can use with oil for a bread dip and for marinating cheese like feta cheese.

These were a variety of dried fruits. The most interesting was the coconut (white square in the front) that was not sugared in any way but became sweet naturally through the dehydration process.

This is actually a different shop. The guy sold a selection of roasted/marinated vegetables stuffed with a soft cheese along with many kinds of feta cheese. This was without doubt the best artistic display we saw with a great sense of color plus great lighting.

There were a couple of local types doing local type foods. One made gherkins and sauerkraut the traditional way with just salt. They were very good especially the kraut but I didn't get pictures unfortunately.

These next two are from a guy making vinegar and infused oil of very high quality.

Vinegar

Oil

Back to produce

It is mushroom season and they have cremini, chanterelle and porcini. I hope we can find these at a local market in Graz.

There were these neat oranges that were green on the outside but fully ripe

And some heirloom apples

After a long nap to recuperate we were on a search for art work. We found a work of art alright, the art of gelato!  Not only was this some of the best we've ever had, it was cheap!  The two double scoops were 5 Euros or $5.55.  Wife the day before had some that was no where near as good that cost 3.90 Euros for just one double scoop.

Now on to some serious photography of a mass quantity of undefined monumental buildings

A museum - there are only about 50 of these in the city so it is hard to keep track of them

In front of another one, this I'm pretty sure is a statue of Maria Theresa, a famous Queen during the 18th century who not only fought off all kinds of attempts to dismember the empire, but brought reform, a love of music AND had a happy marriage that produced 16 children! According to a woman friend I have that came from Austria, she's kind of a hero to Austrian women.

 

Pretty sure this is the museum of Natural History

 

Camera Sherpa Failure

I saw what looked like from afar a place where we could get the kind of panorama I was seeking for the photographer only to run into...

...gigantic freaking street fair!

I invoked the spirit of the Austrian Imperial Army to slay the fair...

...however the Austrian Imperial Army was much better known for their failures than their victories and likewise we failed to defeat the street fair here either.

Scads more shots of large impressive buildings, some with fairly decent settings for the shots. 

Think this might be the University

 

Took this shot because of the garden

Parliament

I just like this shot

Parliament again

And last but not least a shot of the yummy grilled fish (before being eaten) from our Croatian fish restaurant. The skin/crust was so good even Wife (who doesn't like fish skin at all) scarfed it up.