Vienna, Austria - Sat/Sun

We headed for the Schonbrunn Palace on Saturday morning. It is on the edge of the city and was the summer home of the Habsburg rulers. We didn't bother touring the palace. When you've seen one, you know what to expect and we have seen a few . Our rather, we had visited one of their palaces in the city earlier in the week. This palace had over 1000 rooms and 40 of them were on display for viewing. Instead we just walked the grounds which were amazing.

Heading to the palace, the view was obstructed by tents being raised for an international equestrian event being held there next week. Once we went around the palace, we entered a huge garden area known as the Grand Partere. This lead to a large Neptune Fountain area. The distance from the castle to the fountain had to be at least three football fields. Behind the fountain we walked up the hill to the Gloriette, the crowning jewel of the garden. It was said that the emperor would have breakfast here. He either took a carriage ride or worked up an appetite walking! From this point, there were great views of the city. Around this area was wooded park with walking trails. This part of the Schonbrunn is free so there were locals out for a jog as well as tourists. We took our time coming down on the walking paths passing a faux Roman ruins and an Obelisk Fountain as will as a few other statues. On the palace grounds there also is a public swimming pool and a zoo.

Once down the hill we headed back to our apartment before our evening adventure, which was .... an amusement park! Elena was the one who suggested us going to Prater Park. It was only about a 20 minute walk from our apartment, right in the middle of the city. The Prater was celebrating its 260th anniversary. The park is free to enter and walk around - there are no gates. You pay for the rides individually. There are many rides, restaurants, and food and games stands. Each ride, stand, etc is independently owned hence why you pay for each ride. As a result there are also duplicate rides. And yet, for the most part, they were pretty busy.

The rides are crammed in there with an emphasis on going up since there is so little space. It is amazing how they can put an exciting roller coaster in such a small space. We ate sausage and fries from a stand and rode two Ferris wheels. The first one was the oldest functioning Ferris wheel in the world, dating from the 1890s, and had carriage type cars that held about a dozen people each. It moved very slowly taking about 15 minutes to go around once. The second was a very tall basket type ferris wheel with great views. The baskets also spun so one could easily see all around. After that we found a beer garden with music and enjoyed both as did many of the older people. The park was much larger than we expected when we entered and we enjoyed just walking around.

A note about the subways. We bought a 7 day pass that was good on the subway, bus and tram. Randomly they would check tickets but not always. We were never checked after we bought the pass and we rode many, many times. However if they do check and you don't have a ticket, there is a $250 fine. Also the subways run frequently but when the door closes you are out of luck. Once I got on and Jeff didn't, lol. I only had to wait about 5 minutes for him to come in the next one

Sunday we had a little time before leaving so we took in an art museum, Kunsthistorisches, in Museum Quarter where there are many museums. The paintings were primarily the personal collection of the Hapsburg dynasty and covered centuries of fine art. In addition to the paintings, it houses the Kunstkamner Wein, an art chamber or "cabinet of curiosities". This was the Habsburg's collection of precious, unusual, ingenuous it exotic things from the era.

We then headed to the river where we caught a river cruise to Bratislava, Slovakia. This was a nice change of transportation from train or subway. The weather was perfect for a boat ride and the scenery was great. We passed a lot of fishing huts and some people fishing as well as tugboats and river cruise boats.

After checking into our apartment in Bratislava we found a sports bar that put on the Steelers game for us. A little bit later, a group from Philly also came in and the bar people also put their game on another TV. The way the Steelers played, we should have just walked around the town and visited a more classic local bar.Read more