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This is somewhat unusually a morning blog at 11-ish – having had breakfast in Bratislava and the day outside is pretty grey and coolish (17 max.) and forecast for showers (maybe). Further east where I am going tomorrow it is even cooler – like 14 – but will warm up from Monday onwards so that is OK.
I was up VERY late in Vienna forming some impressions of where I was going next and booking this hotel, the 4 star Hotel Devin right beside the Danube (but at my price (63E which was cheapest in town with this location) no doubt given a back view room, not a (premium) river view). Anyway it is the first single room I have stayed in a hotel that is actually a “single” bed and not a double. Did not affect the sleep though….
Vienna yesterday – time to do one thing (and later realised too late that could also have got to a modern art show at some main gallery on Museumstrasse) – however when you are up too late there is not the time. Out of the hotel at noon and then used my 24 hr pass to go down to
Schlonbrun horses
with cute green pixie earsthe ferry dock at Schwedenplatz on the Danube canal (side bit of the river) to check out in advance and getthe ticket for the Twin City Liner – my choice of transit from Vienna to Bratislava. This cost 22E online for the 75min. trip and it was different choice of travel so why not – and a reason for going to Bratislava which is the capital of Slovakia, but is stuck right in the corner virtually on the Austrian border. Having got myself ticketed I was on the same Ubahn line straight to Schloss Schonbrunn. The LP guide suggested that the gardens were more worthwhile than the interior, and decided that I could save the 10-13E. and spend the available time seeing the gardens instead. These are massive – well the whole place is – 1441 rooms after all in the Palace building – it is quite some pile of a summer palace and you realise what vast resources these Emperor types had available (at the cost of a few other people of course). Anyway the gardens are one of the few free things in Vienna. Behind the palace a long walk down to a massive fountain – then up
the hill to the Gloriette monument (Wiki tells me actually a gloriette ”is a building in a garden erected on a site that is elevated with respect to the surroundings”. Well its certainly that as you will see from pix. I did not pay 2E to go up to the roof (well I am cheap) as could see almost as much from the top of the hill.
Then back to the hotel and grabbed my bag and headed back to the Schwedenplatz river ferry terminal. Hardly needed to rush as it had to arrive, disgorge passengers from the upriver trip then set off again. Which was not that scenic really – lots of fisherman’s little cabins with nets on poles to catch dodgy poluuted fish? Ended up in a conversation with the guy behind who had a “I (heart) NZ” button on his bag. He was a Kiwi with his wife and 2 young boys and was now working with the UN in Vienna with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) – did not know they had one. He had been 4 years in Fiji office of UNODC (some meth labs there apparently busted), had just been
to Afghanistan for a trip to check out the opium scene there and had been in “head office” (Vienna) since the start of the year. He also said he did a bit of counter-terrorism. Never got to ask what his quals for all this were! It was a really interesting chat. They were just down in Bratislava for the night/weekend.
It was a short stroll along the riverfront from the “propeller terminal” (they also run old hydrofoils down the river – now that is getting to look like Old technology). Like places that are in a straight line – places in Old Towns tend to be twisty and turny to get there which can be “scenic” (but also confusing). After some Net research found out that Prasna Basta was rated no.1 by TripAdvisor, which I would not normally rely on but all the reccs were solid and recent. It turned out to be a very good choice. I was minded to have the trademark bryndzove halusky (apparently slovak national dish of mini gnocchi with sheep cheese and bacon) but was told by the waiter that with the pork main dish it would be too much. So had the smoked
cheese (very smoky) covered with a fresh horseradish cream, which was v nice. The main dish was like a Viet banh xeo folded over pancake but filled with sliced pork in a spicy (or was it salty?) creamy sauce. It was really v nice as well, and with a large glass of local red only barley 20E. It was in a rather atmospheric old cellar type thing and had some rather bizarre music choices. From there went for a wander and some music drew me into a smoky beer bar, There 2 guys on acoustics did two killer Led Zep songs - Stairway to Heaven (what else) and another one about “Valhalla I am coming etc etc” (you know the one). They both sang pretty well and maybe the blond one was the Robert Plant one. It was absolutely magic 5 minutes or so then they started playing some other stuff that broke the spell so I left....
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