For the spring half-term break we decided to get out of the uk for a bit and headed to Austria.
We flew into Vienna via Brussels on some of the shortest flights I've ever been on. We definitely spent more time waiting in airports than we did in the air, which is a big win in my opinion. Travelling East we lost a lot of daylight so it was dark when we got to our hotel. We opted to get an early night.
We flew into Vienna via Brussels on some of the shortest flights I've ever been on. We definitely spent more time waiting in airports than we did in the air, which is a big win in my opinion. Travelling East we lost a lot of daylight so it was dark when we got to our hotel. We opted to get an early night.
Schönbrunn Palace was our destination the next day. A massive Baroque palace with extensive gardens, Schönbrunn was the summer residence of Austria's Habsburg sovereigns for some 300 years. Upon their demise in the early part of the last century, Schönbrunn became the property of the state and was opened to the public as a museum. It has since become one of Vienna's primary tourist attractions. We - the tourists- spent the day exploring the gardens, had an Almdudler in the Gloriette and walked through the palmenhaus and wüstenhaus, beautiful greenhouse enclosures full of flora and fauna from all over the world.
The following day we headed into the streets of Vienna. Just across from our hotel was the Belvedere, an impressive palace-come-art gallery that houses the world's largest collection of work by Gustav Klimt, including Judith and Lovers (The Kiss). I love these converted art galleries because they're more than just buildings that contain art. Like the Louvre, the Belvedere's ceilings and walls are beautifully restored or preserved and offer a unique insight into the ludicrously lavish and ostentatious lives of long-dead people who considered themselves important once.
Pretentious ramblings aside, it was a nice building full of nice art. We left through the equally as impressive gardens towards Vienna town centre. Passing Karlskirche and the (speaking of pretentiousness) Russian war memorial we arrived at the breathtaking St. Stephan's cathedral. In my opinion, European cities can be defined by their cathedrals. Notre Dame, St. Paul's, Berliner Dom, The Doumo. Each have their own unique blend of beauty, majesty and artistry influenced by their historical and cultural contexts. Short story long, St. Stephan's is Vienna.
From St. Stephan's we headed out to Stadtpark and then across town to the Rathaus. We were lucky enough to be in town in time to catch the end of Vienna's winter festivities and when we arrived at the imposing town hall, we found a winter wonderland set up including curling, food stalls, an observation tower and a beautiful ice rink. So we hired some skates and went for a... I can't think of a cool synonym for 'skate'. Australian. Ice melts. I'm thinking 'slice'. Anyway, we did that, then we went up the observation tower, had a giant chocolate filled doughnut and a pint and headed back to the hotel.
Vienna's sister city, Bratislava, is just a little way up the Danube, so we decided to head out there for the day to have a look. There are two main train stations in Bratislava, and both are equally as terrifying. Stepping off the train onto a deserted concrete platform, through an equally deserted (and equally concrete) terminal and into a desolate looking street, we arrived in the Eastern Europe that you see in the movies, the one where you wake up in a bathtub full of ice with your kidneys missing. Walking through high rise estate housing, sad looking abandoned playgrounds and grey concrete as far the eye can see, I realised who the ugly sister was in this sister city relationship.
But I'm being unfair, once we crossed the river into Bratislava's old town it was lovely. Beautiful old buildings surrounded by twisting medieval laneways encircled by largely intact town walls. We wandered through town and set off up the hill towards Bratislava castle which is undergoing restoration. Lacking the state funding that a similar project may have in the nations I can call home, the breadth and ambition of the project is inspiring and the results thus far are amazing. The scale of this alone makes Bratislava castle one of the most spectacular I've seen to date and it certainly rivals Urquhart as my favourite.
On our final day in Austria we headed out to Mödling to spend the day hiking through the Wienerwald (Viennese forest). Here we saw Liechtenstein Castle and some amazing views as we weaved through the forest. We had schnitzel for lunch in a little pub in Hinterbrühl village before heading to the Seegrotte, a network of tunnels that includes the largest subterranean lake in Europe. Formally a gypsum mine, it was flooded and subsequently abandoned in 1912. It was then drained by the Nazis during World War Two and used as an underground plane factory. We took a tour which allowed us to enter the Seegrotte via the original mining tunnel, wind down to the lake and go for a quick boat ride.
After the Seegrotte we finished off our day with a hill climb up to Mödling Castle where we saw more amazing views of the Wienerwald, Mödling and Hinterbrühl.