Foodie Tour Part 5: Vienna and home

Renting a car for our road trip initially seemed surprisingly cheap, but with all of road tolls and gas spend on curvy, hilly routes, it ended up being equal to what train travel would have cost. However, without the car, we wouldn't have been able to visit a handful of Istrian villages or stop in Vienna on the way home.

Although we didn't have time to properly tour the Austrian capital, we did have a couple of hours to fritter away on its incredible 1.5 km-long outdoor Naschmarkt food market, which I really wanted BW to see. If he tells you that we could have spent more time there had I not gotten us ridiculously lost in Vienna, tell him ER says that's preposterous.

The market didn't disappoint with its piles of goodies from every shade of the color spectrum. I think I drooled on myself more than once.

Any fruit you can think of was dried and sold at this stand

So not amused 

You can pickle just about anything and stuff it with cheese

A fleamarket was next door; we didn't spend long there

Fruits and veg as far as the eye can see; I felt healthy just standing by it

One of the dozens of outdoor food market cafes

In summary, it was a super trip. Would we do the car rental thing again? Probably not, unless it was absolutely necessary. It's nicer to chill and let someone else manhandle the transport. 

Would I write 5 separate posts about 1 trip next time? Hopefully not; sorry if this felt like a vacation slide show! 

Would we visit a place based on the whims of our stomachs again? Absolutely :)

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Foodie Tour Part 1: Gmunden, Austria

Our stomachs led us to choose our first Euro-trip destination: Camping on the Istrian Peninsula of Croatia. Here's how we reasoned the location for our midterm break journey:

1) It's currently truffle season there. When are we ever going to afford to eat truffles again?

       But it's kind of far, especially for a few days...

2) And it's famous for wine. Wine is good.

       We'll have to rent a car; there are no direct trains/buses/flights.
 
3) The drive will be beautiful; it's on the Adriatic Sea. And just think: Fish! Squid!

       We DO miss seafood...   

4) Istria was once a part of Italy, so it has excellent Italian/Croatian cuisine.

       Sold!

To get to the peninsula, we had to pass through Austria and Slovenia. So we planned a route that allowed us to visit Cousin Liv in Gmunden, Austria, where she's working as an English teacher. Here are a few shots of the idyllic little community she lives in, on Lake Traunsee:

Posed in a cobblestone intersection 

Even the doors are cute

St. Nepomuk keeps an eye on the lake

A pretty city... and lots of coots

We ate a traditional Austrian dinner at a fancyish place on the lake that, of course, let Jayda sit with us. I didn't get pictures of the food, but BW had a porkbelly hash, Liv ate spinach knodel, and I had a meat version. The owner has published a line of cookbooks; here's a picture of the knodel from her site:

It was good

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