Vienna & Bratislava

My parents had been telling us we had to get to Vienna ever since we first moved to Europe, so this past weekend we finally took their advice.  We added an extra day to our trip so that we could squeeze Bratislava in too since it is just a short train ride away and an easy day trip from Vienna.  Vienna was everything I thought it would be; clean, beautiful and civilized.  It has a very Parisian feel but with the efficiency and cleanliness of a Germanic city, a great combination if you ask me.  We arrived mid day Friday and headed straight out to hit the top sights.  Our hotel was located right across the street from the Stadtpark, Vienna's "musical park," which is sprinkled with busts and statues of Austrian composers.

Like Paris, Vienna is a wonderful city for just wandering around and admiring the architecture.  Our first stop was for some lunch at a cute cafe just around the corner from the main square.  It was a cool, cloudy day so we had goulash soup and something called "devil toast" which was basically grilled cheese.  After lunch, we visited St. Stephen's Cathedral with its beautiful tiled roof.

Next, we made our way over to the Rathaus, city hall, which was slightly obscured by a circus/festival that was set up out front.  Just down the street from the Rathaus is the Parliament building, also an impressive structure.

Rathaus:

 Parliament:

From there, we walked over to Museum Quarter, not particularly to go to any of the museums but to check out the beautiful buildings.  We walked by a pop up called "Henry Cafe" and had to stop for a coffee on what was definitely one of my favorite streets in Vienna, Mariahilfer Strasse.

Natural History Museum:

Next to Museum Quarter is the Hofburg Palace.  Hofburg was the principal residence of the Hapsburg dynasty during the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  It now serves as the residence of the President of Austria.  It is yet another impressive building facing the Heldenplatz garden square, a great place to lounge in the center of all of Vienna's mains sites.

Heldenplatz:

 East entrance gate, inscribed with F J for Emperor Francis Joseph:

On our way back to the hotel, we made one more stop in an Austrian gourmet grocery store, Julius Meinl.  Gourmet food stores are my favorite and this one was full of local specialties as well as foods from all over the world.  When we arrived back at our hotel, we were welcomed with a bottle of Prosecco and a huge plate of chocolates and berries.  Dan may not be a diamond member anymore but at least we still get some perks!  That night we had dinner at a cute Italian place just a short walk from the hotel.

Julius Meinl:

The next morning we headed for the train station to make our way over to Bratislava for the day.  Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and is just over the border so is only an hour train ride from Vienna.  On our way to the train station we took a stroll through the Belvedere Palace, one of the Hapsburg dynasty's many residences.  It has lovely sculpted gardens and now houses a museum.

Stadtpark:

 Wien River:

 Belvedere Palace:

After a short train ride to Slovakia, we arrived at the very eastern European looking Bratislava train station (ie, crumbling building, graffiti everywhere, basically exactly the image you would conjure up when picturing eastern Europe.)  We headed for the old town area, making a quick stop along the way at the Grassalkovich Palace, which was built by the Hapsburg dynasty and now serves as the residence of the president of Slovakia.  

We entered the old town through the one remaining gate of the original walled town, St. Michael's Gate, named after the church that once stood in front of it.  The gate leads you right onto Michalska street, one of the main streets of the old town, lined with cafes and tourist shops.  At the end of that street is the main square, Stare Mesto, which on the day we were visiting was actually covered with tents and blocked off for a 5K they were running in the city that day.

Michalska Street (with St. Michael's tower behind):

 Stare Mesto:

 Venturska street:

After a quick walk through the old town (it is only about 1 square mile) we headed up the hill to Bratislava Castle.  There has been a castle on this site for thousands of years, including most prominently, during the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it lay in ruins for much of the 20th century until being completely rebuilt in 1957.  So, the current building is relatively modern but the views from up there are great and some of the walls and gate date back to the 14th and 15th centuries.

We walked back down the hill and into Bratislava's main cathedral, St. Martin's.  It was a pretty standard cathedral but it had one of the best quires I have ever seen with really interesting and intricate carvings on the stalls. 

St. Martin's:

 Quire:

We then sat down for some lunch at Klubovna on Venturska street.  They had great beer and a huge menu, full of lots of yummy American bar food like onion straws along with more local things such as spatzle (German noodles) and schnitzel, and it was all so cheap!  The menu was about 15 pages long and included all kinds of fun facts about the restaurant and even a list of reasons why beer is good for you, including one that I immediately sent to my dad stating, "Beer is considered to be great prevention for kidney stones."  

After spending a good hour or two hanging out at our new favorite spot in Bratislava, listening to a band playing a couple streets over, we decided to walk over and check out where the music was coming from.  To our delight, it turned out to be a beer fest!  And being Bratislava, beers were super cheap.  We decided to hit the blue church which I had read about first, and then swing back to Beer Fest before getting on the train.  After enjoying a beer and listening to some traditional music, we made our way back to the train station and returned to Vienna for the night.

 Blue Church:

That night, after having had a big, late lunch in Bratislava, we headed for a wine bar near the Donaukanal to sample some local wine, along with some local meats and cheeses.  The owner was really personable and knowledgeable and picked out some great Austrian wines for us to try.

Sunday we woke up to bright sunny skies and made our way to the Royal Opera house for our 11:00 matinee.  We weren't exactly sure what to expect from the matinee when we booked our tickets and it turned out to be a rehearsal for a show, Idomeneo, premiering the following month.  Much of the time was spent with the director and others involved in the production discussing the show in German, so we pretty much had no idea what was going on but they did run through 3 or 4 of the songs.  In the end, it was a great chance to see the opera house and hear some music without shelling out 400 euro for an actual performance.  In fact, if we understood German, I think the rehearsal probably would have been really interesting.  

After the opera we got on the u-bahn and made our way over to Schoenbrunn Palace.  Schoenbrunn is a huge palace just outside the city center built as the summer residence for the Hapsburg emperors.  It has huge gardens behind it which were originally hunting grounds and now include a zoo, several cafes, and lots of beautiful fountains and sculptures.  We took a tour through some of the royal apartments, maintained in the style of the Franz Joseph and his famous wife Sisi, who were the last emperor and empress to spend a significant amount of time there in the late 19th-early 20th century.  We then wandered the gardens and had lunch outside at one of the cafes.  

That evening, after a beautiful sunset, we ate at Ribs of Vienna, which was excellent.  It was located in a cellar just off Karntner Strasse, and had many different varieties of ribs and good beer.  After some of their classic ribs, and some sesame ribs, we popped over to the Sacher Cafe for dessert.  It is located right next to the Opera House and is home to the Sacher-Torte, one of the famous Viennese cakes.  I washed mine down with a hot chocolate piled high with whipped cream.  

The next day we strayed from our standard breakfast at the Strock bakery across the street from the Hilton, and instead had a fancy breakfast at Cafe Central, a beautiful cafe just off Herrengasse.  They had a gorgeous selection of cakes and patisserie and I had a delicious apfelstrudel.  

After breakfast, we stopped in a chocolate shop just around the corner, Xocolat, for some gourmet truffles in some really interesting flavors such as "blue gin" and "raspberry brandy."  We then made our way over to the Hofburg palace again to check out the park behind there, the Burggarten, which we had missed our first day.  They were doing some remodeling so there was quite a bit of fencing, including some scaffolding on the Mozart statue, which was disappointing, but it was still a pretty garden.

Xocolat:

 Burggarten:

Our plan for the rest of the day was to rent some bikes and head over to the Donauinsel, a long thin island in the Danube river.  However, when we tried to register for the city bikes, Dan's rental went through just fine but I kept getting a message that I had been denied access.  Luckily, the Hilton had bikes we could rent so as the skies started to clear up, we started our bike ride over to the Danube.  We picked up sandwiches and had a picnic on the island, looking across the river at the suburbs of Vienna.  There was nothing on the island but bike and running paths so it was really peaceful and nice to get outside the city center.  

Donaukanal:

 Riesenrad ferris wheel:

 Danube river:

 Donauinsel:

We then did one last loop through the city center and the main sights, Hofburg palace, Museum Quarter, and the Rathaus, before returning our bikes and heading to the airport.  Vienna is a beautiful city and one of the last top European destinations on our list.  

 Votivkirche:

 Museum Quarter: