Europe pig-out 2: Austria's culture of cafes

This morning, we took a 90-minute drive into Salzburg , the capital of Austria, home to the 18th Century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the setting for parts of the American musical and film "The Sound of Music". It was an ice-cold morning and we escaped the cold wind by running into the first cafe we saw, which was also the famous Cafe Tomaselli Salzburg. 

A landmark in Salzburg since 1703 and a regular hangout for the young Mozart

Service was as cold as the Salzburg weather by a bunch of old school waiters who took more pride in themselves than in their service. You can google all the bad service reviews by tourists from around the world! It's wickedly expensive too. Personally, I enjoyed the experience of a hot cuppa to warm my cold hands in such a traditional Viennese-style cafe and took more interest in the pastry than the people.

A tray of gorgeous pastries was shoved into our faces for selection. She frowned when my son asked for a croissant instead! I had read about the apple strudel and made a beeline for it. 

Awesome apple strudel based on a 300-year recipe

All these pretty cakes waiting to be picked up. They won't have to wait long.

The aroma of warm pastry filled the room and overwhelmed my senses.

Here's one fun fact about Mozart to end this post. In 1774, he wrote about a girl that sparked wild speculations and scholarly disputes about his love life - 

"...she shall not doubt my love; she in her lovely negligee is in my mind all the time. 

I have seen many pretty girls here, but I have found no such beauty as her."

The mystery lady, as it turned out, was his landlady who was more than 45 years older than Mozart, and the letter was meant to be a joke. As I sipped my coffee, I couldn't help but think that Mozart and I could have been really good friends. 

We strolled back to where we thought our car was parked and found to our horror it had been towed away. But that's another story for another day. 

Please click here to see Europe pig-out 3.