Der Liebe Augustin

Walking down a street on day 1

Welcome to Griechenbeisl , which is the oldest inn in Vienna dating back to 1447.(This I know from my mini-internet search just a while back). I found this on day one. This was taken around 8:15am with minimal people around. The folks I met were people walking in a hurry to open their shops. I was possibly the only tourist about at that hour. At that time I didn't know that, so I wrongly assumed Vienna was quiet and devoid of tourists. You can just make out the wet roads. It started raining again about 10 minutes after this picture was taken. This time a steady flow with got progressively heavier. And it continued right into the night. 

A random shot....which shows something of interest!

Okay let's try and write more about this place. Here's what I found:
Opening hours: daily 11am – 12.30pm
Kitchen hours: daily 11am – 11.30pm
Closed: only December 24

No wonder the place was all quiet and deserted at this hour:) You can taste authentic vienese cuisine here. And possibly imagine having a meal with the other famous folks who supposedly supped here as well. Here are the list of folks; Beethevon, Schubert, Strauss and Wagner.  Sadly I didn't enjoy a meal here. But on the up side. Going through my pictures and finding interesting tourist spots is very fulfilling in a weird way.

Do you see the words Der Liebe Augustin in the second picture?    In 1679 , the people of Vienna suffered from the plague. Nobody ventured out much. Liebe Augustin was a poet, bagpiper and minstrel would sing and drink.The story is that he passed out cold at the side of the road and was picked up by the plague sweepers and thrown into the plague pit.  He woke up ( shocked I'm sure by being surrounded by horrendously ill folks around him) played the bagpipes ( luckily for him he still had it ) until help came and he was rescued. He didn't die from the plague and lived for many years on. Did his humour or the wine save him from the plague??