The Ring - Part I
No, not the one you wear on your finger but the one that circles around the inner city of Vienna! The wide boulevard-like street is just over five kilometers long and celebrated its 150th birthday in 2015. Along the Ring - or Ringstrasse as it is called in German - you find some of the grandest buildings in Vienna including the parliament, the famous city hall, the University of Vienna, the Burgtheater, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Natural History Museum, and most impressively of all the State Opera that Tom Cruise descended off of in one of the Mission Impossible movies. Sprinkled in between these monuments are some of the grandest hotels of the city. Men in top hats open the door for guests. Royalty and pop stars take up residence in one of the hotels along the boulevard when they come to Vienna. As a local, I would of course never stay at any of these hotels, however, I am fascinated by them and there is one way to soak up their atmosphere: the hotel cafes! It is a common...