Breakfast in Café Central, with white bone china. Where once Trotsky sat. And Freud, Adler, Tito, and even Lenin. The tea is still excellent, and so is everything else. Before 9 am it is quiet, but after 11 am there is a line lasting the rest of the day.

Afternoon coffee in Aida. One of the many pink places scattered around Vienna. Aida has a helpful guide for the bewildered tourist who thinks coffee is just coffee, whereas in Vienna it is avec a whole lot else, too.

And in Aida, cake is preferably taken “mit muziek”, or with music. Perhaps a shot of kirsch, or an amaretto. This fluffy pink establishment claims that in olden times, if one wished for a little shot of liquor, one only had to say one wished for a little music. Of course. (Only in Vienna….)(Vienna, Austria; February 2017)