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| Goodbye Cesky Krumlov! One last look out of our hotel window |
We travelled back to Slovakia, specifically to Bratislava, our last stop on our tour. Vienna was conveniently on the way and was designated as a "stop". As we crossed the border from the Czech Republic into Austria, we steeled ourselves for Western European prices. This bargain loving family was overjoyed to get a capuccino and chocolate croissant at McCafe for a mere 2 euros! Cheaper than coffee by itself at the adjacent petrol station by 30%! Unfortunately no further bargains were to be found once we hit Vienna. Food was roughly double that in Eastern Europe :(
At this point, it would be sacrilege for some to hear that we headed to the golden arches for lunch. We had a few hours in Austria and we HAD to try the local offering. The Signature truffle burger was one of the best international variations we've tried, a close second to the ebi burger in Japan. The 1955, Clubhouse Chicken & Shrimp wrap rounded up our Austrian McDonald's experience finishing with sweet fries (deep fried vanilla potato dough with berry sauce).
Our lightning quick "highlights" walking tour of Vienna was perfect. Enough information to be educational but brief enough to survive the cold! Martin had briefed us on generic Austrian history on the bus and thus only needed to convey interesting facts or important facts on each attraction as we came across them.
Not bad for a stop off on the way to Bratislava! By the way, Bratislava and Vienna are the closet capital cities in the world - by distance. Elon Musk is working on a super train to make the jump in 5 minutes. That must be mind boggling for people who stared across the iron curtain 30 years ago. An apartment in downtown Bratislava might be a pretty good investment if that ever goes ahead!
Our final destination was the Radisson with all the usual trimmings of a big chain hotel. It is perfectly located with smallish, but comfortable rooms. We used an AMEX perk to snag a discounted hotel meal before catching some well earned zzzs. Wahoo for bargains!
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| Opera House |
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| The famous Sacher Hotel, where the Sacher cake originated from |
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| Damn you truck for ruining my photo. The line for the cake... |
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| The glorious truffle burger! |
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| Sweet fries. Can't be good for you... |
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| St Stephen's Cathedral |
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| Can't see it clearly unfortunately but Leopold 1, rightfully should be credited for the "duck face" look. He had a large lower lip and was very proud for it to be accentuated/exagerrated! |
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| My favourite of them all. The baroque St Peter's Church |
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| Gorgeous ceilings |
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| Known not only for beauty but also for outstanding acoustics |
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| Amazing details |
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| Hofburg Palace and the thousands of years of Vienna in front of it from Roman times |
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| Augustinian Church within Hofburg Palace where the hearts of many Hapburgs are kept... |
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| We're at Bratislava! Radisson Blu Hotel |
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| Funky Mirror Bar |
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| Bubble Trouble |
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| Candy Crush. A hit!!! |
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| More creature comforts |
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