Lopez Blogs

In the words of Sahara Hotnights....."heeeeeey, I need a visit to Vienna!"

If you're in Bratislava you can't resist the opportunity to visit the neighbouring capital city just over an hour away. They call Bratislava and Vienna the "twin cities" so it's appropriate that we travelled there on the Twin City Liner - a smooth and speedy hydrofoil which zips up the Danube. Yes it's a bit expensive but it's worth doing.

The first thing that struck us about Vienna was its size. Unlike its small, cosy Slovakian counterpart, Vienna is a more traditional, big, capital city and impossible to negotiate on foot in the five and a half hours we have there. After hunting high and low for a lunch venue which would provide us both with a schnitzel (pork for him, chicken for me), we eventually found somewhere. Vienna seems to offer less options for almost-vegetarians-who-eat-chicken like myself, although maybe if you dig deeper....

Vienna is visually striking and filled with stately grandeur everywhere you look. We took the one-hour Vienna Sightseeing bus tour which left from the opera house and took us round all the major sights.

Here are some pictures from our trip. Warning: may contain chicken schnitzel.

After the small-town atmosphere of Bratislava, I was a bit overwhelmed by the Austrian capital. There were lots of tourists, mixed in with the locals, and it was very busy. My dream of a traditional Viennese coffee-and-cake experience didn't materialise either, due to the coffee houses either being full, or prohibitively unaffordable - one charged 20 euros for a coffee and cake. So we had to settle for an outdoor cappuccino, even though the weather was probably a bit on the cold side. But Cinderella, you shall go to the ball, and you'll get your coffee and cake.....tune in for Day 5 and you'll see what I mean :)))

In our last hour I warmed a bit more to the city, even if I didn't form that immediate bond with it in the way that I had done with Bratislava. Nevertheless I'd like to return some time in the future for a longer stay.

Back to more familiar territory, and another evening meant another meal in another basement cellar restaurant - Bratislava is full of them! This time it was traditional Slovak cuisine (yep - bryndza halusky again - I must post a photo of it on here) accompanied by a nice bottle of Slovak red wine.

As it had been a long day we became party-poopers again and had an early night. We'll make up for it tomorrow!!