Maria and I spent a wonderful day in Vienna on December 23. We had great fun walking along the shopping streets and watching other people rushing from one store to the next, looking for christmas gifts. We also enjoyed a great coffee at the local Starbucks. Starbucks really managed to combine the Starbucks business model with the strong Viennese "Kaffeehaus"-Tradition. I could sit for hours in the first floor of Starbucks on Maria-Hilfer Straße and watch the busy life on the streets below. In addition, the whole place is non-smoking only, which even more improves the experience for me. I wish more restaurants would follow this model and at least offer non-smoking areas. I really hate coming home from a public place with all my clothes awfully smelling after cold smoke. Anyway... Other highlights of the day were the Italian lunch at barbaro and the "Christkindlmarkt" at the Rathausplatz in the evening.
Posted by guenter at December 25, 2004 02:07 PM