It was bound to happen. All the subway rides, stuck underground in a little airless tube with hundreds of strangers coughing, breathing, talking nonstop. It was only a faint wisp of disequilibrium as the evening closed last night and woke up as a headache in the frontal lobe and a serious lack of energy. Lance worse.
So after a late wake-up and missing breakfast in our hotel (actually a good thing to me), we walked two blocks down to Cafe Sperl:
a rather famous, classic coffee house that’s been serving up kaffee bruner (with milk) and schwarzer (black) since 1880. Herr Hitler was known to frequent its booths, but we don’t hold that against it. We both drink a pot of tea, as per our bodies’ request, but I cannot resist ein heisse schokalade mit schlag (just LOVE that schlag):
and we chat and enjoy the vintage ambience:
chandeliers, gentlemen opening their mail with silver instruments built for such a purpose, snooker tables, dozens of newspapers in several languages, the tourists popping in for sachertorte and kaffee or the regulars, chatting with their neighbors. Waitresses, dressed in black and white, bustling to the kitchen and back, stopping for a slice of kuchen from under glass, or a piece of brot for the side of steaming java.
Breakfast arrives and Lance is pleased that his is the over-the-top yummy egg and egg dumplings dish, pan roasted/browned in plenty of butter. Oh my….my salad is rather pedestrian next to such a creation!
We enjoy the rest of our meal. He’s starting to feel worse, so we walk back to the hotel, and he heads up to rest, and I walk to the Main Street in front of our place to look for the Apotheke for some cold meds.
Along the way, I encounter a huge vacuum, which sucks me into a large shoe store, which has at least 4 or 5 pair of shoes I must try on. So many beautiful and highly unusual shoes. Though I could have done much more damage, I leave with one pair of boots and a (!) matching pair of gloves. Oh boy!
Further down the street, I come upon Spock (no, dammit, not him), the bakery, and pick out 4 or 5 good-looking treats to sample later. Then across the street to the drugstore for something the pharmacists recommends and back towards the hotel. I also dip into the market, where there’s an awesome machine and I can press the button and fill a container with fresh OJ, kind of like the freshly ground nut butters I get in Holy Foods at home.
I get back to the room, and we have a little picnic and then spend the afternoon napping and resting. Dinner reservations for tonight are cancelled in the hope we can be MUCH better for our big day tomorrow!