Day 702: Wiener Wiazhaus

27/06/2023

This morning we sadly had to part ways with our mega apartment. We headed back to Anna’s Cafe for breakfast. On the way, Eloise upgraded her PEZ candy dispenser to a Hello Kitty. Thoughtfully Eloise then handed down her treasured Buggs Bunny PEZ that Lachlan was not allowed to touch to Lachlan himself, poor boy, story of his life. Although this did make Lachlan quite happy now he had his hands on the forbidden bunny. Grandpa DAVE was telling Eloise how PEZ did not exist when he was a child before the historical development of polymers lecture began. Eloise was just happy to have her Hello Kitty.

We had the morning in Budapest, Super Mum and Nali wanted to head back to the Great Market Hall, going in hard on the sweet merch. Nali had bribed Eloise and now had her own little shopper sidekick, she had created a monster. Eloise was thrilled to join forces with Nali and picked up a knitted Hungarian cardigan for next winter. Eloise made sure to select presents for her Glaswegian besties.

Da boyz were fixated on a special toy, we were in the home of the Budapest’s Rubik’s Cube. The rotating cube kept them occupied until something else jumped out at them.

The Rubik’s Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle originally invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube… It won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of 14 March 2021, over 450 million cubes had been sold worldwide, making it the world’s bestselling puzzle game and bestselling toy. The Rubik’s Cube was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014… In the mid-1970s, Ernő Rubik worked at the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest. Although it is widely reported that the Cube was built as a teaching tool to help his students understand 3D objects, his actual purpose was solving the structural problem of moving the parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart. He did not realise that he had created a puzzle until the first time he scrambled his new Cube and then tried to restore it. Rubik applied for a patent in Hungary for his “Magic Cube” on 30 January 1975, and HU170062 was granted later that year.

The kids had not forgotten about the playground so we had to let them run around.

Just after midday, we walked to the train station while trying to keep Lachlan awake.

This train was rad, not only did it have bays large enough for the Silver Surfer but it also had a kids’ area which they loved.

Luckily we had just enough reception to dial into Lachlan’s NHS dietician video appointment. No milk just yet for Lachlan, you can see in his reaction how he felt about that.

Lachlan had slept for two of the almost three hours on the train. We had crossed the border into Austria and arrived at Vienna Central Station, where Eloise swiftly fell asleep.

We were grateful when leaving Vienna Central Station that they had gone to the effort of flying the Australian flag just for us.

It was cooler in Vienna, especially compared to the Budapest smelter, with the big buildings acting like wind tunnels, Eloise was quick to throw on her new knit.

The colourful terraces that never seemed to end were bold, striking and in immaculate condition.

Once we had dropped the bags and settled in we set out to explore and find dinner. Grandpa DAVE made a great call with the schnitzel suggestion. We are staying not far from Karlskirche so swung past for a quick look.

The Vienna Karlskirche is a Roman Catholic church in the 4th district of Vienna, Wieden. The Rectorate’s Church is dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo and belongs to the City Dean’s Office 4/5 in the Vicariate of Vienna City of the Archdiocese of Vienna . The church, built in the first half of the 18th century, is a listed monument . It is located on the south side of Karlsplatz near the center and is one of the most important baroque church buildings north of the Alps and one of Vienna’s landmarks.

We were getting hangry again so headed straight for Wiener Wiazhous. As Aussies, we pride ourselves on our schnitzels, we even did a parmi masterclass to celebrate Eloise’s second birthday However, these were on another level, cranberry jam is the way to go.

Unbelievably Eloise was getting through Liam’s schnitty at a rate of knots, it was like the pork belly nightmare coming back to haunt him. After putting a serious dent into Liam’s schnitty she turned her attention to Grandpa DAVE’s. Lachlan was also making quick work trying to scoff as much down before Super Mum could.

Wiener schnitzel is a type of schnitzel made of a thin, breaded, pan-fried veal cutlet. It is one of the best known specialities of Viennese cuisine, and one of the national dishes of Austria. The designation Wiener Schnitzel first appeared in the 19th century, with the first known mention in a cookbook from 1831. In the popular southern German cookbook by Katharina Prato, it was mentioned as eingebröselte Kalbsschnitzchen (roughly, “breaded veal cutlets”).

After the best schnitty we have ever had and most certainly the largest we had to walk it off and let the kids end their day where they started, at the PG.