I don’t think I ever tasted such a bad hot chocolate, yet very expensive, as in Graz! I paid 6 euros for 100 ml of crap, made of cocoa powder and cream, served in a fine porcelain cup!
It was so unbelievably poor! The only good thing was that I could enjoy the view to a nicely painted building on the othe side of the street. Every tourist stopped by to take pictures. We never figured out, what all those colourful paintings were representing:
Nevermind the world’s worse hot chocolate on a sunny morning; Flemming and I were going to see the Vincent van Gogh exhibition, called The Immersive Experience, and we looked forward to that. We took a tram – the tham connections were excellent in Graz, very easy to use:
The exhibition was touring since 2017, and I long wanted to experience it. A couple of times I was close to it, in Hamburg and in Toulouse, but never made it. So I was very excited.
It was pleasantly cool inside, a relief after being in +35C. Besides paintings, there was a mirror-room where the sunflowers of Van Gogh were projected in an endless movie, accompanied by the Vivaldi’s Four Seasons music:
In a big hall, one could take a sit or lay down and immerse into the world of Vincent van Gogh. His paintings were projected on the walls and the floor, moving, changing, with music and narrative in German. It was quite spectacular. I took many videos of them. Here, it is just a picture of Starry Night from that hall, one of the most recognised pieces of art in the world, so timeless and universal:
To be honest, I expected more of the exhibition and of that big hall. I think I was influenced by the promotional videos. But it is definitely worth visiting!
Back in town, there was heat, people, cold drinks.
Flemming and I looked for a place to have lunch, and it wasn’t easy. All best restaurants were full.
We went to a rooftop restaurant, and waited for a table there, sipping on freshly made smoothies:
In general, we were astonished by how much alcohol people consumed in Graz. They didn’t get drunk, but champagne bottles were opening constantly from the early morning – we could hear it from our apartment and everywhere. The food was fancy, restaurants – full, and people seemed to be very happy.
From the rooftop restaurant, the views were lovely:
Those times, we didn’t want to go to a restaurant, we would just make our own sandwich at home, and go down 50 metres to the Town Hall Square, sit there and enjoy.
There were surprisingly many food stalls at that square, very good ice-cream, and more. Just look at the selection of beers:
Musicians were giving concerts, tourists were taking selfies, the life was very relaxing:
In the evening, we walked up to the Schlossberg, to memorise that wonderful view of Graz by night:
Next morning we were going to Croatia, and looked forward to some days by the sea.