K & L's Travel Blog

We will be leaving tomorrow, so we decide to just include a couple of last-minutes sites. Kitty wants to see the ornate underground toilets off the Graben, and I’m eager to see Otto Wagner’s secessionist building, the Österreichische Postsparkasse. We ride the bus into the city center (first time we’ve done this), and enjoy passing by the mobs. The toilets have great tile work and look quite classy. We are spared the €.50 fee as we are “only looking.” I suspect the attendant gets a lot of that. 

Just down the street we find the gourmet food store, Julius Meinl an Graben. What a beautiful place! The only other place we’ve been to that comes close is a store in Paris. This is big with two floors, and separate stores for carry out and an extensive wine store. The food stuffs are of the highest quality and lovingly displayed. We consider getting together a picnic lunch, but it’s too overwhelming. We end up with some cheese crackers and a small tube of Coleman’s mustard that will be handy for future picnics. Everything is top dollar here as well. I have a great time taking pictures.

Our path to the postal savings place leads us down some wonderful shopping streets (and we are not at all shoppers). We look at the jewelry and think of our friend Pam. We view men’s shoes and we think of our friend Eric. We see elephants and think of Ellie. Sadly, everything is so dear we can only think of our friends and not indulge in gift buying. 

The savings bank was designed for the working classes. It’s much larger than I had imagined, but the studs and lines set it apart from other impressive buildings in the neighborhood. Inside, I was struck by the light. The interior has a glass ceiling with teller windows lining the outside.

Sad to leave, but we are coming back on October 27 to catch the Caravaggio/Bernini at the Kunsthistorisches Museum.