Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
10:00-19:00). The room is filled with Art Nouveau boxes of Empress Sisi's choco-dreams
come true:
Kandierte Veilchen
(candied violet petals),
Katzenzungen
(cats' tongues), and so
on. The cakes here are moist (compared to the dry Sacher-Tortes). The enticing window dis-
plays change monthly, reflecting current happenings in Vienna. Wander inside. There's an
impressive cancan of Vienna's most beloved cakes—displayed to tempt visitors into spring-
ingforthe€10cake-and-coffeedeal(pointtothecakeyouwant).Fartherin,youcanseethe
bakeryinaction.Sitinside,withaviewofthecake-making,oroutside,withthestreetaction
(upstairs is less crowded). Shops like this boast “K.u.K.”—signifying that during the Habs-
burgs' heyday,it was patronized bythe
König undKaiser
(king and emperor—same guy).If
you happen to be looking through Demel's window at exactly 19:01, just after closing, you
can witness one of the great tragedies of modern Europe: the daily dumping of its unsold
cakes.
NexttoDemel,the
ManzBookstore
hasaLoos-designedfacade.Bytheway,acrossthe
street (and back a few steps) is a fine travel book and map shop (Freytag & Berndt, which
carries most of my guidebooks).
• Kohlmarkt ends at the square called...
Michaelerplatz
Thissquareisdominatedbythe
HofburgPalace.
StudythegrandNeo-Baroquefacade,dat-
ingfromabout1900.Thefourheroicgiantsillustrate Herculeswrestlingwithhisgreatchal-
lenges (Emperor Franz Josef, who commissioned the gate, felt he could relate).
Inthecenterofthissquare,ascantbitof
RomanVienna
liesexposedjustbeneathstreet
level.
Spin Tour:
Do a slow, clockwise pan to get your bearings, starting (over your left
shoulderasyoufacetheHofburg)with
St.Michael'sChurch,
whichoffersfascinatingtours
of its crypt. To the right of that is the fancy
Loden-Plankl shop,
with traditional Austrian
formalwear, including dirndls. Farther to the right, across Augustinerstrasse, is the wing of
thepalace thathousesthe
SpanishRidingSchool
anditsfamouswhiteLipizzaner stallions.
Farther down this street lies
Josefsplatz,
with the Augustinian Church, and the Dorotheum
auction house. At the end of the street are Albertinaplatz and the Opera (where we started
this walk).
Continueyourspin:TwobuildingsoverfromtheHofburg(totheright),themodern
Loos
House
(now a bank) has a facade featuring a perfectly geometrical grid of square columns
and windows. Compared to the Neo-Rococo facade of the Hofburg, the stern Modernism of
the Loos House appears to be from an entirely different age. And yet, both of these—as well
as the Eiffel Tower and Mad Ludwig's fairy-tale Neuschwanstein Castle—were built in the
same generation, roughly around 1900. In many ways, this jarring juxtaposition exemplifies
