We went to Judenplatz (Jew Square) to see the Rachel Whiteread-created Holocaust Memorial. Then we went to the Judenplatz Museum, which has the excavated remains of this first synagogue in Vienna. Parts of it date from around 1240, and it was destroyed in 1421as part of a wave of anti-Semitic persecution. Parts of the synagogue were then used to build part of the University of Vienna.
We visited the Shakespeare & Co. bookstore before that. One of the things I spotted was a textbook called "American Civilization: An Introduction". It had photographs of an American flag, fireworks over the U.S. Capitol, and Ricky Martin on the cover. They also had a series of books called the Xenophobe's guide to... They were sold out of the American one -- apparently it's quite popular.
We then had lunch at Restaurant Gustl Bauer on Drahtgasse after the Judenplatz Museum. The good was great, with a good atmosphere. The table next to us was a group on a culinary tour. You can basically get any kind of tour in Vienna it seems. The one American turned out to be a chef at the Ritz Carlton in Maui.
