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We have a leisurely morning enjoying the warm sunshine and leave the site at midday.
Today is a different metro ride; the U6 takes us to Lagensfeld where we change to the U4 for Karlsplatz. A few hundred yards from Karlsplatz brings us to Nasche Markt, 'the snack market'. Two long avenues of stalls sell a myriad of foodstuff, from oysters and fresh fish, hams, salamis and sausages, olives, spices, cheeses, fruit and any number of cooked savouries, pies, kebabs and falafal, and we are surrounded by the smells and the stall-holders' chatter. There are cafes and bars with people enjoying a drink in the sun.
Ali and Grete assemble a bag of goodies and we have a drink before catching the 'D' tram to Belvedere Palace, where we sit in the back garden and enjoy our picnic. Apart from olives and ham, the stand out items are small Russian pasties with potato and fish filling [a KGB - Kernow Great Britain - speciality], a cheese that smells [and tastes] like a cow pat, complete with straw inside, and a refreshing red watermelon.
Hunger sated, we can look at the palace, a grand white structure looking like cake-icing with huge equine statues and friezes of ancient weapons. The garden consists of a huge pond flanked by trees. We walk around to the front garden, which falls away from the house in a series of formal box-hedge patterns and large stone and bronze fountains. Only the backdrop of modern Vienna spoils the panorama.
We take the tram back to the main shopping area of Graben, which is now very busy. Hotels have tail-coated top-hatted doormen attending to black Mercedes limos at the curbside, and outside the jewellery and watch shops there are besuited greeters-cum-guards to put off delinquent browsers.
We find Neuer Markt with its imposing fountain and the surprisingly plain church where the marriages of Marie Teresa and Napolean took place [although not to each other].
It's a short walk back to Stephens Platz where we linger near some street theatre before taking the metro for our ride back.
Ali and Grete get off a couple stops early as there is a supermarket nearby then catch a later train back to site. Meanwhile, Nick has the cowpat cheese in the backpack and enjoys plenty of space around him on the usually crowded train.
We pick away on the remainder of our picnic over a bottle of wine then have an early night in readiness for our early start tomorrow.
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