Departing Prague we are now technically on our way home. Rather than retrace our path back directly to Vienna we decided to come back via Bratislava in Slovakia. Peter has never been, although it is about an hour away via car (2 hours by boat) from his home in Vienna. I had been testing him saying that I would take him to Bratislava as a return for all of the sites he has shown me or to which he has directed me.
We arrive about lunch time at the castle overlooking Bratislava, officially known as Hrad Bratislava where hrad is the word for castle. We were walking around the castle and discovered a modern food festival ongoing, but decided to pass. So we decided to have lunch at the Hrad Restaurant on the balcony overlooking town. Our waiter spoke excellent English (he served on a tour boat for Americans) and we experimented with several foods. It was a terrific lunch with great weather and scenery.
Incidentally, my biggest contribution to weight I need to lose after this trip was from the Apple Strudel. As mentioned I am a big fan and decided to experiment everywhere we went. There are dozens of recipes and I was determined to find the best. So sometimes I would have strudel, as in this day, for all three meals.
After lunch we drove around and found the historic section of town. It was quaint with a collection of shops. In general, though, we felt the level of restoration and quality of life was considerably below Prague. Walking around town we met some students carrying a poster and seeking donations for their upcoming graduation party. I threw in a few Euros after they asked politely, but forcefully, in excellent English.
After touring historic Bratislava we returned to Gigi’s apartment in Vienna. We settled in and readied for a dinner rendezvous. I spent some time working on Gigi’s computer for her, making adjustments and teaching her how to maneuver around and to make adjustments herself. She has a french MacBook Pro
Our plan for dinner was to experience Heuriger. Apparently this dates back to the time when wineries weren’t allowed to serve food, except during certain periods when showing off their young wines. Now some wineries offer this tavern environment during extended periods.
We went to one near Peter’s house called Weinhoff Zimmermann. It had about 50 picnic tables situated alongside the tavern/deli and adjacent to the vineyards. It was quite a bucolic setting. We had young wine and plates and plates of Austrian/German/et al goodies. We were stuffed, but it was good.
The next morning I did some more computer work, Nancy took another load of stuff to the Post Office, and Gigi worked on breakfast. After a fun breakfast in Gigi’s loft Peter came and picked us up in his Bentley.
We drove around central Vienna site-seeing. However, many people stared at us and snapped our pictures. As you will see below the car is remarkably stately looking and it definitely turns heads. After about 90 minutes of touring we headed to the airport started our transportation home.
First was a flight to Amsterdam where we spent the night. We stayed at the Amsterdam Hilton which is located in a nice semi-residential section of Amsterdam on a canal. We had some snacks in the executive lounge, substituting for lunch and dinner, and the struck out on tour of the village.
We left the hotel about 7AM getting to the airport early to check-in, seek VAT reimbursement, try to get some chip cards we weren’t able to use turned in, and do some last minute shopping.
At PDX out town car was waiting and we hustled home to rejoin Pixie, Angel, and Casper.
What an amazing trip and experience. It’s one we will never forget and hopefully this journal will be part of those memories years from now.
Steve
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