There's a first time for everything...

This, the first proper day in Vienna has had it's fair few "firsts".

I foraged for bread and a newspaper for breakfast for the first time.

We went to our first exhibition at the Kunstforum, Belgian Symbolism - The Kiss of the Sphynx, which was a brilliant collection of exquisite paintings and sculpture by Belgian artists from around the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century: Fernand Khnopff, Odillon Redon, Felicien Rops plus others i can't remember! I was also told off for taking photos in the gallery, hey ho, I'm sure that'll happen again! The pic posted is An Angel by Fernand Khnopff.

We had our first gulasch for lunch (a bit too salty, sadly) at the Kaffee Alt Wien, which has been a favourite haunt since visiting in the mid 1990's.

We visited Julius Meinl am Graben (surely this is the poshest supermarket in the world?) to top up on bourgeois fripperies (to keep us happy) and then popped into the former Konsum (Co-op) off the Rotenturmstrasse which is now a Spar ("Gourmet", apparently) to buy some proper food for dinner.

We had put our other full carrier bags (accumulated along the way) in the trolley as we were going round the supermarket, to free hands to buy more thing, and also, by this time (6pm) we were a bit knackered and it meant we didn't have to carry them around. As we pushed the trolley through the till to load new bags with food, the woman behind the till called me back and proceeded to rifle through the bags already in the trolley to make sure I hadn't pinched anything!

If I had had the presence of mind (and also the necessary vocabulary) I would have reassured her by saying "No, we haven't stolen anything from here, we only shoplift from classier establishments!"

Never mind, I'm sure I will experience Viennese charm again before we leave.