YUM. Morning, noon, or night in Vienna, that's an opportunity for dessert.

Pastries and sweets are as Viennese as the waltz and the foods for which Viennese cuisine is best known around the world. Culinary connoisseurs fill the city's 2,000 cafés, bakeries, restaurants or bistros nearly every hour of every day to savor life one bite at a time.

My mistake a few years ago was to book too little time in Vienna. I mentioned the bratwursts there and on the station in Frankfurt-Main, but not the desserts. Rest assured, dear readers, they make pretty good desserts at Panhans in Semmering too.

The idea is not to eat and leave. It's to stay a while.

On the other hand, hanging out with new colleagues talking about railway history on top of the Hirschenkogel was worth it. (The chaser was beer, not tortes! Ein prosit!)