This morning, we set out to see Nasch Makt to purchase some souvenirs for friends back home. I’m not the best negotiator, so we prepared for our negotiating by only placing what I was willing to pay for items into my pockets. Sarah wanted a tapestry for her room at college. When we were there the other day, the tapestry was 20 euro, but Sarah didn’t want to pay that much. Today, we had our plan. Accept the price or walk away. Sarah found her favorite and we offered half what the price was the other day. After a few back and forth exchanges, we walked away because the merchant’s price was more than we wanted to spend. As we walked away, the merchant grabbed us and accepted the offer. Sarah was very happy with her purchase.

We saw a 500kg bike / coffee cart during our travels today. We also saw hundreds of 80s era bicycles on the bike racks around town.

Belvedere Palace was the next stop on the touristy tour. Because it’s on the on the other side of town from Nasch Makt, we needed a plan. Do we walk or take the UBahn again. We decided to take the train one stop and walk to the palace. Belvedere Palace has a palace, gardens, and a museum with works from Klimt, Van Gogh, and Renoir. The girls were not into walking through a museum, so we did some exploring on the palace grounds.

There were Sphinx statues and lots of beautiful fountains throughout the palace grounds.

On the way to the Palace from the UBahn, we saw lots of cool street art along this really high wall. Turns out, it was right near all the different embassies/missions from around the world.

Our last stop of the day took us to a more somber place. After a fantastic lunch, we tried to find Tempelgasse, the street that used to feature Vienna’s oldest synagogue. The Leopoldstäter Temple was built between 1854 & 1858. It seated 2000 people, which is amazing considering the small amount of space that the temple occupied. On November 10, 1938, Kristallnacht, the temple was burned to the ground while fire brigades made sure to save the surrounding buildings. Interestingly, the writings along the street do not reference the fact that paramilitary groups destroyed 267 synagogues and damaged or destroyed 7000+ businesses. This is a plaque that stands in Nestroyplatz. It lists the names of individuals taken during the Holocaust.

The restaurant for lunch.