Like the U.S., there are many grocery stores in Eisenstadt (7 kilometers away from Klingenbach which doesn't have a grocery store). This is Merkur, the supermarket we preferred. Note the empty parking lot - we took the picture on a Sunday. Grocery stores are closed every Sunday, every national holiday (of which there are way too many), and they close around 6 or 7 in the evening.
I guess this is to show you that it's a supermarket.
The phrase on the cart says, "Note: This is the Merkur deep price slat." Not sure what that means, but that's the translation.
The grocery carts require a Euro coin inserted into that little slot which then releases the cart to you for use while shopping. When you leave, you get your coin back. This prevents carts from being left anywhere but the cart area, but the idea certainly didn't appeal to a lazy person who would prefer to leave the cart by the car instead of trundling it back to the front of the store in single-degree temperatures!
This is the only store where we could find saltine crackers. They have a lot of different items like small and large appliances and underwear. It's kind of small though and feels way too crowded in there.
Lidl has a 1950s feel inside, and I didn't much like it.
This is a small strip center just outside of Siegendorf about 1 km from Klingenbach.
A closer shot of the strip center
Smaller than a supermarket but bigger than a convenience store, Billa was handy when we wanted just an item or two.
This Avia station at the point of that strip center is where we always bought gasoline. At the average price of 1.14 Euros per liter, that works out to about $6.00 a gallon. They have regular gasoline, but we wondered why - all the cars, including our independent-minded Citroen, took diesel. We regularly saw license plates from several countries, including Austria of course, Hungary, Germany, Romania, Czech Republick, Slovakia, Poland and occasionally Netherlands and France.
This Huber store is great for lingerie.
There are Kik stores all over the place. It is a really cheap clothing store with a few toys and knickknacks.
Our bank in Siegendorf
Our pharmacy in Siegendorf. All the prescriptions come in little boxes, not plastic bottles, and the pharmacist handwrites the instructions on each box.
Our family doctor is a hearty, pleasant women we grew to like very much. She has two offices in the two neighboring villages and splits her time between them. You queue up first and use your ecard (the Austrian health system card) to get prescriptions. If you want to see the doctor, you return to the waiting room. This is her office in Siegendorf.
This is her office in Klingenbach. You go through that gate, and the office is down the way. It's in the old part of the village where many of the homes are built like this. They're more like compounds than houses with the long courtyard flanked on both sides by buildings where various generations and branches of the family live. I guess this was also the safest way when people like the Turks, Napoleon's armies and all kinds of marauding raiders from the east came rampaging through the area.
This is the post office in Eisenstadt. We originally used the one in the gemeindeamt (city hall) in Siegendorf but found this larger one to be more efficient. There was a small post office in Klingenbach with limited hours, but it closed permanently during our stay there.
Of course Eisenstadt has its version of the competing Lowe's and Home Depot stores. The hardest part was finding what we wanted - my German definitely didn't measure up to this. This is bauMax which Bob preferred.
And this is Obi which I preferred.
Note that many of these parking lots are empty - clothes stores also are closed on Sundays and holidays and also close by 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. on weekdays.
New Yorker is a trendy clothes store where I bought things for Meg and Becky.
C&A is one of my favorite clothes stores - quality and price similar to Kohl's.
This is another favorite clothes store. Charles Vogele is a step up in price from C&A.
Vogele also has a nearby shoe store - awesome place!
Intersport is a store with overpriced sports clothing.
Located in the Old Town area of Eisenstadt, Pagrodiskont is a fun store. It has office, school and art supplies and a lot of cutesy stuff.
The Austrian version of Toys R Us
Mobelix is a very popular chain in Austria. It has super cheap kitchen, bed and bath stuff and also some appliances and office furniture.
Ah, Kika! A fabulous place! Best comparison is to a pricey Bed, Bath and Beyond. They also have a large fabric selection and upstairs a whole lighting section and furniture - all in that hard and uncomfortable but modern and colorful European style. Needless to say, Bob hated it when we went shopping in there!
Saving the best for last, this is my favorite store in Austria. Bob called it my "mother ship." He'd say, "Do you need anything at the Mother Ship?" and of course I always did. Muller's is a strange combination. It has high end cosmetics and perfumes, the typical selection of a CVS (except no medicines of any kind) store, trendy office/school supplies, DVDs and CDs, cleaning supplies, toys, some food. What could be better? I loved this place!
And when all failed in Austria, we could go to Tesco in nearby Sopron, Hungary. Based in the United Kingdom, Tesco is like a Walmart. Everything was just in Hungarian! We bought a computer printer, iron, DVD player, speakers, etc. in the electronic section and also toiletry supplies, some clothes and foods of course. We tried several brands of pickles but could never find anything edible (in our opinion), but we did find cheese that approximated American cheese, and this was the only place we could find Lay's potato chips, part of the basic requirement for a healthy diet.
Of course there were other stores. In Wiener Neustadt we went to a store called Metro which is like a Best Buy. There is a huge mall just south of Vienna we went to occasionally - it's the size of 4 or 5 regular malls with enough parking for one mall. My favorite store in there was Ulla Popken where I bought the first jeans I've had in 30 years. There were also a lot of restaurants; yeah, I know that's common in malls, but this had a startling variety of unfamiliar foods (to us at least).
Turning to eating, of course McDonald's was the place we went to most when we wanted a taste of America. Bob almost always got a crispy chicken wrap while I experimented with many of their special hamburgers which usually were advertised as American, New York or Texan. Not too close, people - we ended up bringing our own mustard packets (brought from the States) with us.
That's our gold Citroen parked out front, second from the right.
The old lady with white hair in a black leather jacket is me. I can't be in line for a doughnut though; it has to be to get Bob a muffin.
Note the two hamburgers on the wall on either side of that blue star. They are advertised as New York and Texas style. Believe me, I've never eaten a hamburger like that in Texas! It's good, but not Texas.
This was my favorite place to eat in Eisenstadt. It's a Chinese buffet place, and I thought the dishes were great.
This is a nice little Chinese restaurant, called Chinese Restaurant Mandarin. It's in the old part of Eisenstadt across the street from the Bergkirche (Josef Haydn's church). They even have an English menu, probably because they are in the tourist area. Those are rare, let me tell you.
There were several other restaurants we tried at one time or another, in Eisenstadt, in various places in Hungary, in nearby Austrian villages like Wulkaprodersdorf, in Vienna (we actually found a KFC there), but there are four restaurants in Klingenbach itself so we could walk downstairs or just a block to enjoy a delicious meal.
Down the street from us is Schoko's restaurant and winehouse. The owners are Schoko and his wife, Astrid, who have two school-age daughters, Lily and Miaand an awesome Viszla, Janusz, who is the mascot in the restaurant. Formerly owned by Schoko's parents, the restaurant is decorated in a trattoria style. I loved a penne dish with arugula and potato-wrapped shrimp, and Bob really liked their chili. They have an outdoor seating area which is very popular in the summer for their famous ice cream.
This is Zwonarits Cafe, popularly known as Burschi's. Burschi is the owner's nickname, which dates from childhood and apparently means something like "adorable little boy." His parents owned this place before him and at one time had a bowling alley which is half underground and extends out perpendicularly from the back of the restaurant. Now it's called the Bonanza Bar and used for bigger events. Also, we live in one of the flats upstairs - the three windows on the far right here. Directly below our flat is the tanning parlor (also owned by Burschi). The car on the left is our Citroen.
Burschi has a wide menu of course, and especially good is his wienerschnitzel and ham and egg omelet, but Burschi is most famous for his pizza. We always ordered salami (which gets you pepperoni), knusprig (crispy crust).
This picture shows Burschi's during Kirtag, an annual, four-day-long, summer festival in which all the restaurants participate. Hundreds (or maybe more) of people come to enjoy the great food (I highly recommend Burschi's ribs and Schoko's chocolate sundae), fun rides, tram tour of the village and shop at the little booths the carnival people have there. The booth owner/operators are Indian, Sikh I think, and I wondered how many decades/centuries they've been wandering central Europe peddling their cheap wares.
This is Gregorits Restaurant there in the rear center (to the left of Hotwell). Gregorits is currently being run by the third generation of the family and is the only four-star restaurant in Burgenland. On the weekends people come from Vienna to eat here. They are known for their wienerschnitzel, goulash, spaghetti and several other dishes. This picture was taken on May Day when the Black Party (Gregorits is the center of the party in Klingenbach) is raising its flagpole.
This is Ivanschitz Restaurant owned and operated by Hannes and Elisabeth, two of our favorite people in the village. They are always so welcoming and friendly and frequently offer us schnapps for us toast in which they join us! Their menu is delicious, and I spent many hours translating it into an English version (also did one for Schoko's). I loved their Croatian-style fish, spicy wienerschnitzel, and Bob loved their goulasch. We frequently had their ham and eggs on Sunday evenings. Their desserts are pure heaven. Ivanschitz is the biggest restaurant in town and hosts most of the wedding receptions and other large parties in town. Eating there on Sunday evenings frequently offered an additional treat - leftover wedding cake from the Saturday night reception. Man, there is nothing better than wedding cake!
This is the side of Ivanschitz after the May Day pole has been put up. Ivanschitz is the center of the Red (left of center) Party in Klingenbach.
So, although we were so used to our American stores and restaurants, there were plenty of places in Austria to open our wallets and entice our palates!
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