Bratislava - Slovakia's Capital

On our second to last full day of our brief European journey, we took a day trip to Bratislava, the nearby capital of Slovakia. It's only about an hour from Vienna by train, and the trains run about once an hour (with no need to book tickets ahead of time), making for a really easy day trip. Europeans are lucky to be able to just hop on a train and be in a city with a different culture and a different language so easily.

The train station in Bratislava needs an upgrade! It reminded us of the Lusaka Airport in Zambia.

The area right around the train station is a bit of a cluster****. But it's a short walk to the historic center.

It was a hot and sunny day, but we decided to climb up a big hill for out first stop, the Slavin Memorial. It's a memorial and burial ground for the Soviet soldiers who liberated the city from the Nazis in 1945. The monument is built in a striking Stalinist architectural style with a big plaza and commanding views of the city. It's a worth a short visit, as it's an interesting modern historical counterpoint to the other attractions in Bratislava.

Carving on the Slavin memorial

Huge empty plaza - a very Stalinist design.

View from the memorial towards modern Bratislava.

1960 communist interpretation of neoclassical architecture.

More views down toward the city, with the red roofs of the historic center visible, and the "UFO" bridge tower.

It was about a 20 minute walk winding down the hill back toward the main part of the city. We passed by Grassalkovich Palace, built in 1760 and currently the residence of Slovakia's president.

A lot of the residential streets looked about like this.

Grassalkovich Palace

Some friendly tourists took our picture in front of the fountain and palace.

It was another short walk to the historic center of Bratislava, the main tourist district. After World War II, the communists gained control in what was then Czechoslovakia. The local interpretation of these principles included ignoring the past and the historic center fell into disrepair. We read that people were so disinterested in maintaining the historic center that even the cobblestones were sold to German towns rebuilding after the war.

Today, post ascension into the EU and return to democracy, the city center is a charming area with medieval buildings full of restaurants and shops. It's clearly become popular in recent years, and we saw a number of large tourist groups exploring the sites. We wandered around for a while, stopped for a snack, and then visited St. Martin's cathedral. The cathedral was completed in 1452, but has been altered throughout the years, with much of the current structure from the 1700 and 1800s. Unfortunately, the communists built a huge road right in front of it, so it was hard to get any nice pictures of the facade.

We made it to the adorable historic center.

Historic buildings of old town Bratislava.

Michael's gate, part of the medieval city wall from 1300.

The main square. You can't tell in this picture, but it was bustling with tourists. Bratislava is firmly on the tour group map!

We stopped for some blueberry chocolate cake and mint lemonade on the main square.

The impressive interior of the cathedral.

The choir seats had these neat animal sculptures.

After spending time in the old town, we walked across the bridge over the Danube River to the "UFO," an observation platform perched on top of the bridge. It offered great views across the city and up and down the Danube and in to Austria. After enjoying the view and the breeze, we crossed back over the bridge and had lunch.

Walking across the Danube. Pedestrians and bikes have a level below the cars.

A newer area along the river on the edge of the old town, still under construction.

The view of the newer parts of town from the UFO.

Bratislava Castle and the Danube.

A leafy street on the edge of the historic center.

Traditional Slovakian food at Koliba Kamzik. It was good!

Paul had a "Zbojnícky horiaci čaj," a very strong aperitif made with Slovakian tea and herb flavored grain alcohol lit on fire! 

We also tried Slovakian beer.

Lamb and sausage with dumplings.

A sewer worker statue that is popular for some reason.

The "blue church." Creative name, right?

We weren't able to go inside, but the outside was covered with blue glass pieces.

In Soviet Russia, plaza makes you!

Unfortunately, most of the museums were closed since it was a Monday, but we still enjoyed our time walking around Bratislava for half a day. We know we didn't do this city (or country) justice by only visiting for a few hours. I'm sure we'll pass back through sometime in the future as we're criss-crossing Europe. To end our day, we took an early evening train back to Vienna and prepared for our final day in Europe.

Alpine Foothills and a Jaunt into Hungary

Continuing our Austrian journey, after visiting Melk in the morning we drove south without too much of a game plan. We hadn't planned this part of the trip, deciding to keep the day flexible and have a meandering drive through the countryside before returning to Vienna. It turned out to be a lovely day where we saw several cute off the beaten path towns and made a quick visit to another country.

Typical scenery from our drive through the alpine foothills.

Our driving route through Austria with a jaunt into Hungary.

Looking at Google maps in the morning, it looked like the town of Mariazell was not too far and was at a fairly high altitude, so we set off in that direction. One of the first cute towns we happened upon was Gaming. It has about 3000 people, and a compact little downtown with two mountain streams (Gamingbach and Mitteraubach). It was founded by Celts and was later part of the Roman empire before becoming Slavic (thanks, wikipedia). We walked around for a bit, and continued on, passing gorgeous mountain scenery and tiny towns.

Downtown Gaming.

A stream running through town, with city hall in the background.

A waterfall running alongside the road.

An old church in the tiny "town" of Neuhauser. There were about six buildings in the town.

We arrived in Mariazell in the early afternoon. It's a small city (1,400 people) but has a nice downtown dominated by a large basilica. Mariazell is a site for Christian pilgrims, and also a popular summer day trip for tourists. In winter, people come here to ski in the nearby mountains and participate in other winter higher-altitude sports. We walked around for a bit and had lunch on the main square before visiting the basilica. The basilica itself is famous for its "miraculous" image of the virgin Mary, dating back nearly a thousand years. Only in Europe can you unknowingly come across a town that's been around for a thousand years and has had numerous visits from Popes, kings, marauders and martyrs.

Mariazell

Darn, we'll miss this concert.

The center of Mariazell.

The main square, surrounded by restaurants and guesthouses.

The basilica, with Christian tourist shops in front.

We had Italian for lunch. Not bad! It was a bit chilly, which was a nice change from the hot weather in Vienna.

The view from the graveyard in Mariazell. Cue the Sound of Music songs.

Leaving Mariazell, it was about a 2 hour drive back to Vienna, but we noticed driving to the Hungarian city of Sopron would only add about 45 minutes total. From a quick google search it appeared to be a cute city, so we made up our minds and drove to Hungary. Thanks to the European Union, you can drive right across the border. The old border gates are still in place, but you just drive right through them. God bless the European Union!

Hungary doesn't use the Euro yet, so our first stop was an ATM to get some florints to spend and to keep as souvenirs. Entering from the edge of town, Sopron isn't very glamorous. Hungary was behind the iron curtain for a very long time, and it shows in the architecture and atmosphere of the city. This short trip to Hungary was actually our first visit to an old Eastern Bloc nation. Once you get towards the old historic city center things lighten up and it resembles a more typical historic European city.

Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, most of the shops in the city were closed, but the main ring road  surrounding the old city was bustling with people going on family walks and getting gelato. The actual old city was lovely, but fairly deserted because most things were closed. This city seems a bit off the tourist radar, but if you're in the area we recommend you check it out since it's only 45 miles from Vienna.

Part of the old Sopron city wall.

The street around the historic center had a lot of shops and cafes, and was very pleasant.

David on the firewatch tower.

View of the old town churches from the firewatch tower.

We walked up a lot of spiral steps like this on our European vacation!

We can't pass these by. Paul is... umm... a rappelling elf?

Roman foundations below the museum at the base of the firewatch tower.

The beautiful main square in the old town.

Looking back towards the old city's firewatch tower.

Typical old city street scene.

Some colorful buildings in the old city.

Another building in the beautiful but quiet historic center.

A monument to the German speakers that were forced out of the city after World War II.

These types of signs are somewhat ubiquitous now. We even have one in Atlanta.

Gelato number four of the trip. Don't judge us.

Sopron was actually a bit of a surprise. It's a nice city to spend a few hours walking around, and it's very close to Vienna. The language barrier is a bit of an issue - it's frustrating seeing a language written in the Roman alphabet and not even having the slightest idea about most of the words (a theme that would carry on when we visited Slovakia). As English speakers with some experience with Spanish we're pretty accustomed to Germanic and Romance languages. Hungarian is a very unique language, not related to any other major European language - with ties to Finnish and some Russian languages. Fortunately, some people spoke English and written German was somewhat common. We got by at the museum and ordering ice cream mostly in English with a bit of German.

Hungary is an interesting country. The current political situation isn't great and we're curious to see how the people that live there juggle their modernization and ascension within the EU with their current semi-dictator situation. We'll definitely be back to Hungary someday to visit Budapest.

Hungary flag in the old city of Sopron.

Getting the rental car was a great experience overall. It ended up being a bit more expensive than we thought, after insurance and gas were included, but made the entire day possible. I think we'll be less anxious about renting a car again in Europe. The car even came with bonus awkward baby-tossing Euro-signage:

Signs in Europe are the best. This was in our rental car.

To end out day we drove back to Vienna, which is only about an hour from Sopron. We had to return our rental car at the airport and then take a train back to the city to check in to our hotel for our last two nights in Vienna, Hotel Beethoven Wien. This hotel was just south of the innere stadt near the large food and goods market (the Naschmarkt) and the large beautiful Karlskirche. We took the opportunity to check these landmarks out over the next couple evenings, as we used Vienna as our base for our next day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia. That evening we went out for a walk to Karlskirche, where they were showing a movie in the park, and then got dinner at a trendy Asian noodle house called Ramien. The food here was really good and we'd highly recommend it as a break from wiener schnitzel.

Random Hungarian beer Paul got at a gas station in Sopron.

Karlskirche at night.

Next stop Bratislava, then wrapping up our trip with a final day in Munich.