Thursday 13 May 2010

Coffee, Anyone?
Espresso with Cream at Café Prückel


Your Choice
Single red Zinnia
to the left


or single red Zinnia
to the right
of your reading lamp


Having a hard time
deciding which side your zinnia should lean to?
No problem, simply sit down
and enjoy the view of an orchestra's
worth of flowers on top of the
glass vetrine with the sweet
t e m p t a t i o n s


and order your
espresso with cream
on the side


Select a newspaper
or three or a magazine,
but feel also free to read
your own book
from cover to cover


Your waiter will let you get lost
on your island
between the lines,
as lost as you allow yourself to become,
because everything stands still while you read
or contemplate or create in the far corners
of your mind.
Time does not exist here,
no waiter will nudge you to consume more,
and if it takes you a hundred years
to finish your thought or your book,
he will still be there -
he has been already for 106 years -
he will be there to serve you
as soon as you lift your hand
for more coffee or call out
"Herr Ober, zahlen bitte!"

*

Photographed in the late afternoon
of Wednesday, 12 May 2010,
at one of the famous Viennese Ringstrassen Cafés,
Café Prückel *, founded in 1904
Images and Text © by Merisi

* Clicking on the name
will lead you to an article in the
New York Times -
if not for any particular reason but
for an amusing misspelling of the German name
for Vienna, twice: Wein and Weiner, instead of Wien.
Now I am not so sure anymore,
is it Wiener or Weiner Dog
?

+

Nota bene
The New York Times
has corrected the spelling
since I published this post
on 13 May 2010

18 comments:

  1. You have such delightful cafe' and coffe houses in Wien. I love seeing places where one can just sit and relax and people actually read the newspaper.
    I think I need a latte about now.
    (:0)

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  2. Beautiful! I agree--this makes me want to head right there.

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  3. Sounds like a wonderful place! I chuckled re: your commentary on the NYTimes article.

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  4. Sounds like a wonderful place! I chuckled re: your commentary on the NYTimes article.

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  5. I'm so jealous. I could spend hours...no days here!

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  6. A cafe out of time with a timeless waiter -- I love it!

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  7. NICE! I want to go :).

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  8. I would love that such pleaces also exist here, very elegant and simple, must be relaxing

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  9. a perfect viennese feeling. relax and sip a coffee...

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  10. photowannabe,
    those coffee houses are part of what amounts for a higher quality of everyday life. I really treasure them!

    A Brush with Color,
    I am sitting here, at my dining room desk (barely space for a plate for days on end), with a fresh brewed cup of coffee and wished I were there! ;-)

    Kelly H-Y,
    it is a truly wonderful place!

    Rhonda,
    I know, I'd love to do that do! ;-9


    Vicki Lane,
    one has to be careful not to disappear for good! ;-)

    She Writes,
    I'd come with you! :-)


    Ola,
    veeeery relaxing! ;-)

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  11. I'm sipping my coffee (at home) while looking at your pictures...and I feel a perfect communion with you!

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  12. Hello!! Thank you so much for your kind comment. I'm also happy to have found your blog...Wien is on of my favourite place i've visited...and to see in your photos is really a great joy for me. Have a good weekend, Zaira

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  13. Bridget,
    I wished I were sitting at Prückel's right now!
    I needed to do some weekend grocery shopping and thought it would be a nice little break from studying. Bad idea, the weather has turned sort of subtropical, high humidity like back in Washington after a thunderstorm at the end of a hot day, only sans air conditioner, and I feel anything but refreshed now!

    Zaira,
    welcome and thank you! :-)

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  14. LOL about the misspelling.
    I wrote a post yesterday about a wild boar, not a bear :-)

    Beautiful colours as always.

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  15. Your captures always so endearing and that you find so many wonderful places to take your captures from. We have Starbucks and home, and a few nice cafe's about 25 miles from home. Have a great weekend~

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  16. I love that cup...so different. Vienna coffee houses are so amazing I have to get there one day! thank you for the great shots!!

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  17. I feel like I'm there! And it is soooo comfortable.

    Thanks for the spelling lesson, I'm not sure I would have known which was correct.
    LL

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