Breakfast at home (29)

What pleases one from Vienna (and Salzburg) when he comes back from vacation? High spring water for Twinings tea and hand made bakery.
Breakfast tastes delicious. No sweetened bread, ordinary, strong Earl Grey prepared with good water, jam that tastes like fruit and the luxury of beautiful china plates. I enjoy breakfast even mire because of the fact that I've lost two kilos on vacation, which is unfortunately a minority position in the family.

The better food must be earned because friendliness and service in the Viennese stores is far from US standard. It was quite an impressive experience after three wekks in the US to observe unfriendly faces in the food store, the lack of any smiles and murmured comments. OK, Vienna is probably in this respect the most difficult terrain after North Korea, but after visiting the US in a Vienna business you feel rather as distorting factor and not as a customer.

The common breakfast starts at 8.30, because the Jet lag is generally noticeable. Time to remember, recap and rate. The tenor is unanimous: it was exhausting, but above all beautiful and interesting. The West was really terrific as the title of the round trip has promised.

The slight criticism of the tour operator FTI is also consistent. The last week was too dense. Yosemite was clearly the highlight of a stressy day, but our drive from San Francisco to Santa Maria was felt so too. Regarding the hotels Comfort Inn in Palm Springs and the ramshackle and unprofessional Whitcomb in San Francisco are negative points in memory; others are like the Hospitality Suite Resort in Scottsdale or Aarchway Inn in Moab highlight positive.

Together we have done very well all-in-all despite incriminating factors such as long car trips, short breaks and constantly changing hotels. Now we share the common memory of the most lively of all holidays.