What is it with the Cafe Central in Vienna? Living in Vienna for 30 years now and still fascinated about people queuing up for it. No Austrian would ever go there.
Outstanding work (as usual). We are amidst our Euro trip, will just re-iterate your point- hotel shower controls are reeedickulous. My wife has come to expect cursing the first morning at every new hotel. Also the Spritzes have in fact taken over the bar menus it is uncanny. You should do one of your business deep dives on how Aperol owner Campari has created one of the world's craziest beverage trends.
Water bottles at the hotel? Tap water should be drinkable everywhere.
And yeah, the caps being attached to the bottle is annoying. Did see one benefit this summer. They used to remove the caps from your bought water bottle at festivals, they can no longer do that. Why did they do that? To prevent people from throwing full bottles. I guess the eu rules make festivals more dangerous 😅
Some festivals also marked the water at the toilets as non drinkable. Just to sell more water bottles cause according to the staff, it’s just tap water…
And funny to see you have to visit Eastern Europe to see a Flemish painting.
The EU bottle top “innovation” is in the UK too, even though technically we don’t have the legislation, the manufacturers don’t want to have a different process just for us on this Island. For kids I don’t think this kind of bottle top is safe, it’d be easy to catch a finger in it - I’m saying that as I’ve nearly done so as an adult!
I’ve been to Vienna a view times on business trips but I’ve never been to the museums. I really want to see The Tower of Babel in person now. Looks so good.
Living in the UK I try to avoid most tourist sites in Europe in July and August, but sometimes there is a certain charm to the tourist madness and being part of it! Some places like Croatia or Malta can still be pretty warm in early October and a lot quieter then too of course.
The only decent place to have Aperols is... well, Italy. Caffè dell'Epoca in Napoli serves some of the best I've had so far. And the cost? €2. Seriously.
Thank you for sharing those notes and ideas. It's a wonderful read.
I couldn't stand more than 4 paragraphs. Starting with the destination cites, I can't think of a less relevant wordy commentary on I'm not sure what. Sorry if it got better after Munich.
A very enjoyable read. I concur with the hotel plumbing situation (I remember having the same experience as early as the 80s when I first travelled to Europe.)
But I would add lighting to the list of hotel stay annoyances. There’s often much trial and error involved to operate the controls, and rooms are frequently poorly lit – particularly above the area where you unpack your suitcase.
And touristy café or not - that schnitzel looks so good.
What is it with the Cafe Central in Vienna? Living in Vienna for 30 years now and still fascinated about people queuing up for it. No Austrian would ever go there.
I totally get that. tourist trap. I'm a sucker! Where is the best schnitzel?
Outstanding work (as usual). We are amidst our Euro trip, will just re-iterate your point- hotel shower controls are reeedickulous. My wife has come to expect cursing the first morning at every new hotel. Also the Spritzes have in fact taken over the bar menus it is uncanny. You should do one of your business deep dives on how Aperol owner Campari has created one of the world's craziest beverage trends.
Thanks for the read Trey and hope trip is going well! I will do a deeper dive on Aperol. Some marketing magic for sure.
Really enjoyed this. Going to cite your shower observation, it's perfect!
Thanks for the read, Paul! If anyone gives more details on the shower, I’ll def share.
Nice to read the blog again.
Water bottles at the hotel? Tap water should be drinkable everywhere.
And yeah, the caps being attached to the bottle is annoying. Did see one benefit this summer. They used to remove the caps from your bought water bottle at festivals, they can no longer do that. Why did they do that? To prevent people from throwing full bottles. I guess the eu rules make festivals more dangerous 😅
Some festivals also marked the water at the toilets as non drinkable. Just to sell more water bottles cause according to the staff, it’s just tap water…
And funny to see you have to visit Eastern Europe to see a Flemish painting.
Hey Andy, thanks for the read. Hilarious regarding the festivals. The bottle cap is just a bag of unintended consequences haha
Excellent write up. I enjoyed reading this.
The EU bottle top “innovation” is in the UK too, even though technically we don’t have the legislation, the manufacturers don’t want to have a different process just for us on this Island. For kids I don’t think this kind of bottle top is safe, it’d be easy to catch a finger in it - I’m saying that as I’ve nearly done so as an adult!
I’ve been to Vienna a view times on business trips but I’ve never been to the museums. I really want to see The Tower of Babel in person now. Looks so good.
Living in the UK I try to avoid most tourist sites in Europe in July and August, but sometimes there is a certain charm to the tourist madness and being part of it! Some places like Croatia or Malta can still be pretty warm in early October and a lot quieter then too of course.
Thanks for the read, Matt! Now that you mention it, my kid did have some problems with the bottle cap.
Re: Vienna, yes! Highly recommend that museum and the Natural History Museum right across (great 1-2 punch)
The only decent place to have Aperols is... well, Italy. Caffè dell'Epoca in Napoli serves some of the best I've had so far. And the cost? €2. Seriously.
Thank you for sharing those notes and ideas. It's a wonderful read.
Thanks for the read, Kaspar! I need to make my way to Napoli now!
I couldn't stand more than 4 paragraphs. Starting with the destination cites, I can't think of a less relevant wordy commentary on I'm not sure what. Sorry if it got better after Munich.
though...
How come comments that are not overly sympathetic to the piece are deleted?
Although the blog is interesting, some of the remarks about the places mentioned in this post are stereotyped and oversimplified
A very enjoyable read. I concur with the hotel plumbing situation (I remember having the same experience as early as the 80s when I first travelled to Europe.)
But I would add lighting to the list of hotel stay annoyances. There’s often much trial and error involved to operate the controls, and rooms are frequently poorly lit – particularly above the area where you unpack your suitcase.
And touristy café or not - that schnitzel looks so good.