Full disclosure: I’m writing this blog posts (and will write the next few as well) from my home office in South Carolina. Due to a rather slow internet connection in our hotel room that made it TORTURE to upload images, and a few other circumstances that I’ll talk about in this post, I never got around to posting anything else while in Vienna. But I still have some stories and images to share with you, if you are interested.

First, I wanted to tell you a bit about the neighborhood where our hotel was located.

I booked this trip through an online travel company I’ve used in the past: Go-Today.com. They offer great travel packages to Europe — airfare and hotel, with options to add ground transportation to and from the airport, tours, discount transit passes etc. When booking this trip, I had the advantage of being familiar with Vienna, and knew I wanted to stay away from the city center, but within a reasonable distance via tram/bus or taxi/Uber to allow us to get there with little fuss.

By the way, I know that Uber gets a bad rap in the U.S., but we love it. We have used Uber in Paris, Munich, Nuremberg and Vienna and have always had great experiences with friendly, accommodating drivers and clean, fresh-smelling vehicles. Plus, you know exactly how much the ride will cost you BEFORE you get in the car, which is a big benefit when you don’t speak the same language as the driver.

So back to our hotel: We ended up selecting the Hotel Lindner, which backed up to the Botanical Gardens and the grounds of the Belvedere Palace, which is a lovely building housing a so-so assembly of Impressionists.

This is the Belvedere — front view:

And back view with the ornamental gardens:

But it is best known for its Klimt collection, specifically Klimt’s masterpiece “The Kiss.” I’ll talk about that in another post.

It was a lovely neighborhood; in addition to the Belvedere and the Schwartzenberg Palace, there were several embassies on our street, which meant that it was generally quiet in the evening and very safe.

The Nigerian embassy was right across the street from us:

And the Italian embassy, housed in the former Metternich Palace, was a block away:

Plus, there were a bunch of little shops along the street, and a small food market which offered a deli, bakery, fresh produce, dairy, etc.

My favorite two were the florist, which offered a different display of spring flowers every day:

And the combination locksmith (this one’s for you, Lee Rink!) and shoe repair place:

Check out the display of wooden shoe lasts in the window!

Fortunately for us, there was also an apothecary a few blocks away.

In Germany and Austria, there is no such thing as a self-serve pharmacy like CVS or Walgreens, where you wander aimlessly along the aisles trying to find the display of Extra Strength Tylenol. And what we consider “over the counter” meds and first aid supplies are never sold in grocery or convenience stores. Instead, you go to the apothecary, which is a combination of a CVS pharmacy, walk-in clinic and high-end skincare boutique.

Here, you speak with a trained medical professional who can both diagnose minor illnesses and recommend OTC and herbal treatments — as well as fill prescriptions from a medical clinic.

So when mom woke up on Day Four with a nasty cough and lots of congestion, I took her to the apothecary, where the lovely lady behind the counter not only spoke English, but was able to review mom’s medication list and sell her some OTC and herbal meds to treat her symptoms. (Granted, the herbal tea she sold mom tasted “like old feet, dipped in dried thyme leaves” according to mom, but it seemed to give her some relief.)

But the bad news is that Miss Doris spent most of Day Four and Five in bed in the hotel room. It pretty much sucked for her. The hotel staff was very accommodating, and provided me with hot water for the “old feet tea”, but it just sucks to be sick away from home. By Day Six she was at least well enough to leave the room and come down to dinner in the hotel restaurant with me. But we never made it to our special dinner at the Hotel Sacher.

Regardless, I am grateful to the apothecary and her remedies, since they helped mom feel well enough to endure our long day of travel home.

Now for the rest of the story: On Tuesday morning (today) I took mom to our primary care physician, who diagnosed her with a bronchial infection. So she’s back home and in her comfortable Lazy Boy recliner for the rest of the week, pushing liquids, taking antibiotics, and resting up.

Not how she wanted to spend her time in Vienna, trust me.