Wenen - Bratislava - Brno 2024

Maandag, 18 december 2023
Een nieuwe poging
Het "moeder-dochter tripje" van afgelopen november naar Bretagne, was dus geannuleerd. Emma en ik hadden het plan om dat in de herkansing te doen, ergens in mei als het voor Emma's werk uit zou komen. Want YAY, ze heeft een CDI sinds deze maand. Iedereen heppiedepeppie.

De Kosmos besloot anders.
Emma zou geopereerd worden op 27-12-2023, maar helaas belde het CHD in La Roche alwéér, af. Het is nu voor de tweede keer verplaatst en nu staat het vooralsnog gepland op 22 mei 2024. Tja. Hoe kan een mens op die manier iets plannen?? Nou is de maand mei voor mij ook niet geweldig, dus ik zei tegen Emma, weet je wat, we zoeken iets voor in november.

Uiteraard kunnen we niet zomaar overal naartoe. Het is afhankelijk van:

1. kunnen we er naartoe vliegen vanaf Nantes?
2. zijn de vluchttijden een beetje fatsoenlijk?
3. zijn de prijzen te doen?

Ik ben eens gaan kijken op de site van NTE. Opties waren Lissabon en/of Porto, Edinburgh, Corsica. Oh wacht eens, Wenen kan ook! We besloten voor Wenen te gaan met daarbij een dagtochtje naar de hoofdstad van Slowakije: Bratislava.  We zijn in beide steden nog nooit geweest, dus dat is ook wel eens leuk.

We konden kiezen uit twee vliegmaatschappijen: Volotea, maar we weten uit ervaring dat zij hun vluchten nog wel eens annuleren en heel vaak de tijden veranderen, of SWISS. Ietsje duurder, met een tussenstop in Frankfurt (heen) en Zurich (terug), maar verder prima. Dus we hebben die geboekt. Stoelen erbij, koffers en handbagage, helemaal goed. We gaan van 11 tot 18 november.

We hebben ook een leuk appartement gevonden maar wachten even met boeken tot de prijzen weer iets lager zijn.


Wenen


Bratislava

Dinsdag, 2 januari 2024
Accommodatie is geboekt
Emma heeft gisteren het appartement in Wenen geboekt.

Zondag, 30 juni 2024
Andere vluchten......
Afgelopen mei kreeg ik een e-mail van Swiss dat ze een vlucht hadden geannuleerd. Hè?? Watttttt?? En dat voor een gerenomeerde maatschappij als Swiss. Er werden geen alternatieven geboden dus hebben we de boel geannuleerd. En jawel, alsnog geboekt bij Volotea, goedkoper, rechtstreeks en betere tijden, zo lang er niks wijzigt..... We gaan het zien.

Zondag, 4 augustus 2024
Slowakije en Tjechië
Emma had wat dingen bekeken voor in Wenen en was tot de conclusie gekomen dat die stad echt ENORM duur is. Nou hadden we toch al het plan om vanuit Wenen een dagje naar Bratislava te gaan, gewoon met de bus, want dat ligt op spuugafstand. Vorige maand, toen Emma een paar dagen thuis was, hebben we de trip veranderd. Als we in Wenen landen, dan nemen we de flixbus naar Bratislava. Daar hebben we een studio geboekt in een hotel. We blijven hier dan 2 nachten en hebben genoeg tijd om de stad te bekijken.

Van hier nemen we de Flixbus naar Brno, ook een goede en snelle verbinding. Hier hebben we iets geboekt in B&B Placzek voor 2 nachten, inclusief ontbijt.

Daarna nemen we weer de Flixbus naar Wenen, die moet ik nog boeken.
In Wenen blijven we dan nog 3 nachten, dan hebben we 2½ dag voor die dure stad. Het appartement dat we hadden geboekt hebben we dus gewijzigd qua data.
We hebben er allebei wel veel zin in om het zo te doen. Komen er ook weer twee landen bij ons lijstje met bezochte landen.
In de Flixbus hebben we de voorste stoelen geboekt, dan zien we ook nog wat van het landschap onderweg.

Emma heeft het verslag geschreven.

Monday, 11 November 2024
Day 1 - Somewhere to the east of the west

That’s about where we are right now.
We left this morning under a clear pinkish orange sky, and arrived in a cloudy Nantes. We waited patiently for our flight, wondering if the tall group of guys were basketball or volleyball players. They were obviously a sports team going somewhere. One of them ended up next to Mom on the plane so she struck up a conversation. Volleyball team and one of them was actually on the Dutch national team. The guy next to Mom knew his name was Luuk van der Something and that was enough for me to look up the Dutch national team: Luuk van der Ent.

We arrived at a chilly Vienna and our bags were among the first ones out. That’s never happened before! As we had to wait an hour for our Flixbus to Bratislava, we sat down at Costa where I got to order in German. Because I speak German even though I tell all the tourists that I don’t. It was an interesting conversation: here is the dialogue.

Barista: Hallo
Me: Hallo. Zwei toffee cake lattes, bitte, und ein Mexican chicken sandwich.
Barista: Medium oder large.
Me: Medium, bitte.

 There was so much English that I did just fine. It got a little complicated when she used a word for whipped cream that I didn’t know. Basically, she said whipped cream and when she just said cream I could understand fine. Anyway, it was just like a regular latte because I couldn’t taste the toffee.

We waited outside in the cold for our bus, which took its sweet time coming. We were almost convinced it wasn’t going to come. Mom had booked the panorama seats, which are the seats all the way at the front. You didn’t see much since it’s just highway but they were nice seats. She followed the tracker on her phone as she was convinced we were going to cross into Hungary. Spoiler alert: we didn’t.

But we did cross into Slovakia, if we didn’t that would have been problematic. Border crossings in Europe are pretty lackluster, and this was no different. The first glimpse we got of Bratislava was misty and with Soviet-era-look-a-like apartment complexes. We crossed the Danube river three times before we made it to the bus station under the shopping center. It’s actually a great concept because it was a big space with all the international buses in one space.

Navigating through the shopping center was easy, as there were signs and they were even in English. We bought enough bus tickets for the time that we are here and found the bus we needed without a problem. Honestly, it all went very smoothly. I once read somewhere that if you can manage to navigate public transport in a foreign country, you can manage anything.

We checked into the apartment, which is nice and modern and clean. It was also very hot. And while we were looking forward to being able to turn up the heat without having to pay extra for it, it was too hot. Luckily, the balcony door opens and we’ll remedy that problem after we’ve eaten.

We actually went back to the mall for dinner. I had a pub with traditional Slovakian food but Mom looked up all the different options in the food court, and really wanted some of that. There were a ton of options but most of it was Asian. And most Asian stuff is the same. She ordered orange chicken with noodles, which we shared. The noodles were disappointing but the orange chicken was good. It’s always a little sweet for me but there was more chicken in it than we’ve ever had in the US. As we waited for that to be ready, I walked around to see what else there was. I can’t read any of it but I can look at pictures.

So once we were done with the orange chicken and ready to get some things at the Lidl and go back to the apartment, I wanted to go back to the Turkish restaurant. To me, kebab isn’t necessarily Turkish, just Arabic in general, but they had something else on the menu that looked good. It’s called pide. Mother knew it was some kind of Turkish bread. We got one with feta. The moment I asked the guy there if he spoke English and then ordered one with feta, he felt the need to translate feta to cheese for me. Like, thank you, but I know feta is feta cheese.

Again, mom struck up a conversation with the guy as he made the pide. The guy speaks most of the ex-Yugoslavian languages but aside from English, nothing western. Whereas for us, it’s the exact opposite. Anyway, we went down to the Lidl where we got some schnebbels and some drinks and went back to the apartment.

We’re in the same time zone as home but because we are so much further east, sunset was at 16h20-ish and it was full dark by the time we went to dinner. It really plays tricks on the mind and the internal clock. But that also mean the sun is up earlier tomorrow, so I think we might be up early. We’ll see, I guess.

    


Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Day 2 - Baby, it’s cold outside

The night was terrible. At first I thought I couldn’t sleep because it was too light in the room (would it kill them to hang some blackout curtains?) but eventually, I don’t think that was it. Neither of us was able to fall asleep easily. In the end, after three hours of twisting and turning, we both took a sleeping pill, twisted and turned some more but were finally able to sleep. Although, in the morning, I didn’t feel rested at all.

The hotel offers quite a good breakfast with bacon, sausages, eggs and cheeses, but also fruits and cereals and plenty of bread options. I had two bacon sandwiches and a chocolate croissants. While good, I don’t really get those stuffed croissants. Either get a pain au chocolat or get a regular croissant! Sorry, my French side came through.

As soon as we stepped outside, we kinda wished we had taken our scarves. It was damn cold. We walked to Freedom Square and its fountain. Mom thought it looked like a flame, I thought it looked like a flower. The square was surrounded by government buildings, the national bank wasn’t far and the Technological University of Slovakia was also there.

    

From there, we followed the tramline through the shopping street (I was going to say busy but if anything wasn’t busy, it was Bratislava this morning), and from the shopping street to the old town. We climbed the hill to the hrad (castle) first. It wasn’t open today but we walked through the gardens. The castle doesn’t look like what you imagine a castle looks like, and the gardens, despite the wintery weather setting in, don’t look dreary.

    

    

    

    

    

    

Once we managed to find the exit, easier said than done, it was downhill from there. The castle was on a hill after all. We stopped in this little cafe with old living room vibes for two cappuccinos. It was just an excuse to sit down and warm up a little. After that, we finally ventured into the Old Town proper.

This is where the follow-the-flag tours started appearing. And there were quite a few of them, although, Bratislava still didn’t feel crowded. The buildings are a lot of Art Nouveau, and the Christmas Markets are being set up everywhere as well. Unfortunately, we were here too early for that (we will get to see the markets in Vienna though). We wandered through the different streets, in and out of souvenir shops and tried (and failed) to find a place to eat. We bought our magnets, and I also bought a Starbucks’s mug and a Christmas tree ornament.

Eventually, we left Old Town behind and headed back to the slightly-busier shopping street for a restaurant called the Slovak Pub. They have traditional Slovakian food and a “to share option” for reasonable prices. We got the garlic cream soup served in a bread bowl as starter and then a platter to share. It came with potato dumplings with sauerkraut, potato dumplings in a cheesy sauce and pierogi with another kind of cheese filling. The potato dumplings are the size of raisins, no bigger. I thought it was delicious but the portions were too big. We took it home but ended up not eating it. We both got a Vinea drink with it, which is a grape-based soda, and we already have a full size bottle in the fridge.

    

    

    

We did some shopping at Pepco, a little like Zeeman, and at Tedi, a mess but cheap store, before heading to the apartment. We rested there for about an hour and a half before heading out to the Eurovea shopping center. It was bigger than yesterday’s but just as clean and beautiful. We had kebab in the food court and went into different stores but didn’t get anything. We did some more shopping at Tedi again before wrapping up the Bratislava adventure.

    

In conclusion, I liked Bratislava. You don’t need more than a day even if you decide to visit a museum here and there. Old Town is small and everything is easily accessible on foot. It is also clear and we didn’t feel unsafe at any time. It’s worth a day trip from Vienna, especially if the weather is good, but not necessarily longer.

Mom doesn’t like that she doesn’t speak a single word of Slovakian, and can’t remember the word for “thank you” to save her life. That’s very different from when Mariecke and I were in Slovenia. It wasn’t that big a deal to us. Even in the Baltics I just accepted it and moved on. Especially since tomorrow we are switching to Czech.
Hopefully we’ll sleep a little better tonight. And then tomorrow we take the bus to yet another new country.

 

Wednesday, 13 November 2024
Day 3 - Destination Unknown. Just Kidding, Destination Brno

This morning, we had another good breakfast in Bratislava with bacon and cheese and coffee and croissants. We actually took a croissant sandwich and a chocolate filled croissant with us for the bus ride. After we finished packing our bags, we checked out and made our way to the bus stop and eventually to the mall where the bus station was located.

It was morning rush hour so it took a little longer and it was a little busier but it was all very doable. In fact, we compared it a lot with London and Madrid. Those cities are obviously much bigger and with a much bigger population. But we compared it with how clean the streets were, which was also the case when I visited Madrid, and we compared how the people in London are always rushing everywhere and Bratislava felt more relaxed, even during rush hour. Honestly, I quite liked the city.

In the bus to Brno, we had front row seats once again. Though, once again, there wasn’t much more than highway to see. We crossed the Danube one last time for a final glimpse of the UFO and Bratislava castle. Then, onto the highway and onto Brno. The bus was on route from Budapest to Berlin, which is still quite a ways to go. Luckily, we got off after about two hours.

OMG, we saw an Action just outside of Brno! I didn’t know they had that here. Not that we are going, I wouldn’t even know how. Instead, once we got off the bus, we found our way to the café/B&B and our room. Well, it wasn’t ready but we didn’t expect it to be as we arrived around 11:30. Instead, the guy took our luggage and explained to us how the tram tickets work in good English (I think Mom is surprised how well everyone seems to speak English because when someone tells you “a little” they speak better English than the average French person).

And so we headed out. To the zoo.

But first we got money out of a wall. The Koruna notes are light colored notes and the coins take some figuring out, the same way I need to figure them out every time I’m in the UK. What is nice is that they don’t have any cents. Everything is just nice and round, not comma something or other.

Anyway, we made it on the tram and all the way out of Brno again to where the zoo was. One student and one senior (LOL) entrance and we were in. The whole thing is built on a mountain so we had to work to see any animals. It started out a little disappointing because we didn’t see anything but then there was Timone. There is always a Timone (meerkats) on the lookout so that exhibit never disappoints. There was one in particular that just sat there and reminded us of Grummelke.

Not a lot of animals were about in the outside exhibits but we managed to spot the lions, the giraffes, some Prezalski horses and some wapitis. The tiger was passed out on the inside enclosure, no bear to be seen. We did see most of the exotic we-like-to-be-nice-and-warm-inside animals. Not the best zoo I’ve ever visited but it was quiet and for 180CZK, we won’t complain… much.

    

We went back to the cafe to final check in and get settled in the room. It’s a pretty little place with a double bed, a big shower and a small fridge (that actually makes a shit ton of noise so Mom unplugged it for the night, just so it doesn’t bother me). We can see the street through the window as well as the church. Mom really likes it. Like really really likes it. She keeps reminding me that she likes it too in case I forget, though if one of us is likely to forget, we both know it ain’t me.

    

Sunset was at 16h14 today, which is much earlier than at home and it plays tricks on the mind. Also, I didn’t want to take off my shoes only to have to put them back on for dinner again so we headed out for dinner. First we went to Billa; the one we visited yesterday had a salad bar and we have yet to eat any veggies (aside from my gherkins, obviously). But this Billa was much smaller. Instead, we went to KFC.

We had already decided we wanted to see if KFC here does buckets with real chicken pieces like they are supposed to (but don’t in France because of the French not liking bones in their food). And they do! But even better, you can build you own bucket! You can add as much chicken as you want, fries, coleslaw, onion rings or corn-on-a-cob. That’s what we did. 6 chicken pieces and one large fries. And damn, was it good to eat proper KFC chicken!

On the way there, I spotted two yarns stores but Mom was actually the one to suggest we go inside one. I would have waited until tomorrow. Since we were both pretty tired, I had a quick look around the yarn (and definitely want to come back tomorrow) but I only grabbed a crochet hook. Might crochet some tonight.

I have a full day planned and I’m not sure Mom is going to be able to keep up. But we have one day here and many things to see!

     

Day 4 - The Not So Touristy City of Brno

I’d like to say that I slept better in this apartment but I didn’t. I lay awake in bed for a long while, the light right outside the window didn’t help either. And even though I slept most of it, I didn’t feel rested at all when I got up.

Since the apartment isn’t really in a hotel but goes with the cafe below, we headed out to the cafe for our breakfast. Mom had already looked at the menu last night but, of course, the menu was different for the apartments. And the delicious-sounding things I had picked out weren’t on there. So, change of plans. Mom got the eggs Benedict with bacon, and I got the French challah toast. Challah is a Jewish bread, though I couldn’t tell with all the fruits, cinnamon and syrup on top of the two thick slices. Both dishes were really good.

    

Once we headed out for real, we walked through the streets to the Ossuary, hoping it would be open. It wasn’t. After flooding in September they had to do maintenance and it’s been closed for over a month now. Which is bummer because I really looked forward to it.

Brno is a collection of pastel-colored Art Nouveau buildings along broad avenues where the trams come and go. There are a few Art Deco buildings through into the mix but mostly it’s the curves and flowers of the older style. It’s a pretty city and has much more city vibes than Bratislava. The shops are all in business and there are plenty of people about.

    

    

    

    

We saw the Brno dragon (which is actually a crocodile) before heading into the tourist office because Mom needed to know where the public toilets were. There was a BRNO sign tucked away into a small courtyard, though I wonder if they’re usually on the bigger vegetable market square, where the Christmas market is currently being set up. It’s annoying to be here while they are setting up the market. Basically, the construction work ruins the views and you can’t take advantage of the market yet. So yeah, bummer.

    

    

 

We followed the walk I had uphill to the Saint Paul and Saint Peter cathedral, which was a very light church on the inside, and then around the corner where you can climb up to the viewing platform. It wasn’t actually that high, very doable, but a little weird at the top. The stairs just stop and you find yourself in a room below the bell. There is a small path that takes you across the church’s attic and at the other end, there was a door. Since there was nowhere else to go, I tried that and it opened! There was a similar door on the other side. On one side, you have a view of pretty old Brno and the castle on the hill. On the other side, you have a view of ugly modern Brno.

    

We walked through more streets and were impressed how they were setting up bits of the Christmas market everywhere. On every square there was something! Eventually, we stood at the foot of Spilbek castle’s hill and considered our options. The stairs, the paths, how steep was everything going to be. It was a climb!

    

At the top, you walk through the castle gate and out a viewing platform where the view is a little obstructed by trees (but not as obstructed as it could be because the trees didn’t have leaves anymore). The castle had a bunch of different tickets to offer and we ended up getting the Lookout Tower and the Royal chapel combo. The royal chapel was a modern looking church but not really. A little strange. From the Lookout Tower, we could see Brno and the hills beyond. The weather in the distance did not look inviting!

    

    

It was barely lunchtime at that point, though we still had to get down that hill, and we were mostly done with what I had planned. We went and got some more KFC for lunch and headed back to the apartment to rest a little. Just an hour before we headed out again.

I wanted a picture of the Brno dragon (which I couldn’t get in the morning because of all the kids) and we also visited the Papilonia, the butterfly garden. It was small but there were so many butterflies flying around everywhere! We really liked it!

 

    

    

    

We got a coffee somewhere as well as two different pieces of cheesecake, one coconut and chocolate and the other pistachio, to share. Then we went to Lidl to find some schebbels and got some cheap sushi (cheap compared to what we were planning to get at a restaurant). We’ll go back tomorrow one last time for snacks on the bus and that’ll be the end of our Czech Republic adventure. Mom is glad she speaks the lingo tomorrow, and while I’m not as bothered, it will make things easier for sure.

Day 5 - Fun Fair Vienna

            After another breakfast at the bed&breakfast cafe this morning (horseradish and ham eggs Benedict for Mom and a yogurt and cinnamon minipancake bowl for me), we went to Lidl to spend some of the last Czech Korunas on schnebbels for in the bus. We checked out a little later and waited an hour for our bus to Vienna.

            The road from Brno to Vienna isn’t even a highway. The border crossing was as exciting as the others, but once we made it to Vienna, we were actually in a “bouchon”! It took forever to get anywhere. And then suddenly we were in the city and it actually felt like a city. Maybe a little London vibes but different.

We took a tram and then walked to our key pick-up. We arrived too early and the keylock box was still empty. A lady arrived, made a phone call and suddenly we were walking into the apartment. It’s a big apartment with a living room and kitchen, a separate bedroom, a bathroom with a bathtub, and even an entry hall. It’s the biggest we’ve stayed at so far.

Once we unpacked, we headed out to Prater by way of the U-Bahn to Praterstern. The first stop on the way to the fair, there was a Würstelstand that we wanted to try. Mom is really happy that she can speak with people again, so she struck up a conversation before we ordered a grillwurst and Käsekrainer, hot-dog-style.

Prater is very much like the fun fair in Angers. Some of the rides were closed but enough were open. We were there in the afternoon so it wasn’t very busy but I liked it. I like the idea of being able to walk around for free and only needed to pay for what you want to do. But at the same time, it felt very much like walking through a theme park.

The lights were on as the sky got darker. There were a few roller coasters and those fun/scare houses. We watched people go up into the sky in rides we didn’t want to get on even if you paid us. We got a Schaumbecher at a stand and watched as people voluntarily got dropped in freefall from a great height. We did go on the Blumenrad, which is the smaller of the two Ferris wheels in the park. They gave us a blanket and we went around three times, taking in the sights of the park from above. We really liked that, the views were great.

As we made our way to the exit, we stopped at the souvenir shop but everything was too expensive (forever frugal in our Dutch hearts). Hopefully, they will be cheaper in the city. Though you never know, Vienna is expensive.

We did some grocery shopping, getting sushi for dinner once more. There is an Action not far from the apartment and we might go there. If we have time… and energy. Tomorrow we explore old town Vienna and we might go back to Prater once it’s dark to enjoy the lights.

 

Day 6 - Beautiful, We-Had-Too-Much-Money-In-The-Past Vienna

We woke up to blue skies for the first time all week. And blue skies as you walk through a new city totally influences your feelings about the place. So Vienna was lucky and got good vibes.

We took the U-Bahn to Karlsplatz, where we walked to Karlskirche. One of the towers was in scaffolding, which was too bad. The church is very pretty on the outside. One of Vienna’s many Christmas markets had been set up on the square in front of it but it was too early to be open. Only the piglets and the goats were there to welcome us.

We continued onwards to the Oper, which is another beautiful building. Spoiler alert, the whole city is full of them. I think most of them were built around the same time, 1880-ish, and Vienna obviously had too much money at that time and decided to spend it all on architecture. The opera building, as well as most other buildings, is decorated with enough statues to make an art museum jealous.

And as you walk further into the city center, the pretty buildings just keep coming. The shopping streets in the center are car free and, while busy when we came by the first time, they were really busy with tourists later on. We were actually surprised by how many people were already up and about by 10AM. That’s usually when it starts to get busy without being too busy.

Stephansdom is the cathedral in the heart of Vienna. It is a beautiful church with lots of little details but the roof in particular. It’s like the roof shingles have been individually painted. They even made the Austrian coat of arms. We went into the church and back out before realizing the entrance to the Nordturm was inside, we just hadn’t seen it. You can go up both towers, but the Nordturm actually has an elevator. Up 50 meters in 20 seconds and suddenly you have views over half the city (because you can see the other half from the other tower but there is a tall roof in the middle). We could even see Prater with the Riesenrat and the Praterturm, and even our smaller Blumenrat.

Once down on the ground again, we actually wanted a cup of coffee. But preferable one that wouldn’t cost us more than 5 euro for a smaller cup. We walked through a few more streets, took many more pictures and eventually found the Starbucks I had wanted to go to get my mugs. At the moment, they have them small and call them ornaments, which are really cute! They also have their winter/Christmas toffee nut latte which I had in Madrid two years ago and loved.

And since a medium-sized special-flavor Starbucks drink is only a little more expensive than a tiny cup, we also go coffee. Mom has come to the dark side, mouahaha!

We also stopped at Five Guys were we got a medium fries just to be able to get free peanuts. We filled the bag with them. Mom saw a konditorei, which is a patisserie, and wanted to get pie for later. So, we got a slice of Mozart cake which we ate later at home. It’s chocolate cake with a layer of hazelnutty cream in the middle and a thick layer of something very, very sweet over the top. She enjoyed it more than I did.

I still wanted to see the different palaces like the one that houses the Sissi Museum, and Hofburg. We took a bunch more pictures because some angles of the building are just too pretty. The inner courtyard was just plain. You can walk through the gates at the front and the back of the palace even when you don’t go to the museum and suddenly you’re in a park. In the distance we could see the tower of another pretty building and spent a good five minutes figuring out on Google maps which one it was.

The Rathaus.

We walked there, enjoying the sun and were excited to realize there was a Christmas market set up in front of it. The stalls feel a lot more Christmassy than whatever you see at a market in France. For one, they have stuff for your Christmas tree. I got three ornaments, plain but pretty. And there is so much food! I read about the markets on a website that said there is enough food to feed a blue whale. They even had an ice-skating rink set up.

As we left the Rathausplatz behind and made our way in the general direction we thought we needed to go, we passed in front of the parliament building which is, you guessed it, very pretty! From there, we continued onward to the next pretty buildings, which were the Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery.

And yet another Christmas market set up between the two buildings. There is so much food everywhere. Yet we searched the place for something to snack that wasn’t excessively expensive. Eventually, we saw someone eating something that looked good so Mom, who is glad she can talk again, asked them what it was. It’s langos. After a quick Google search, I can now inform you that it’s deep-fried flatbread; a Hungarian food that used to be made with leftover dough and baked in front of the oven. A little like the fouees we make in Angers. We got one filled with sheep cheese, and apparently garlic as we later discovered.

That was basically the end of our day. At this time is was about 14h00 and that was a great time to head back to the apartment as we wanted to go back to Prater tonight as see the lights. We might also stop at Stephanplatz for all the pretty lights there. We just have to wait for the sun to go down.

***

We went to Prater in the dark to see the lights. It’s just a little ridiculous how exciting you can get when you see pretty lights in the dark. It was busier than last night, which makes sense since it’s a Saturday night and the beginning of the Christmas market. It wasn’t much of a market though. Mostly food.

We got another Schaumbecher, a bigger one and I don’t want another one. We walked around and watched the attractions and the people dumb enough to get on them. I also wanted churros because you can’t go to a fair without getting churros.

After we were done there, we took the U-Bahn to Stephansplatz, where I also wanted to see the lights. There were so many people there. So many people! Half the Christmas market is food. The other half is just people. I think now that I’ve seen the one this afternoon and tonight, maybe at Belvedere tomorrow, I’ve seen enough for this year. Because they might be nicer here than in France but they are still very similar.

Anyway, the lights were nice and then we moved on because we aren’t used to this many people anymore (after those two provincial towns we visited first, lol). We needed some buns for breakfast tomorrow morning and got some Leberkäse and a piece of pork called a heurigenstelze according to the sticker, which Google translates to “this year’s knuckle”. Make of that what you will. And then we were done for today.

 

Day 7 - A Day At The Zoo

            After our visit to the Brno zoo which was a little disappointing, Mom looked up the most beautiful zoos in the world and in Europe and somehow we ended up booking a combination ticket for the Schönbrunn Zoo, the Palm House and the Desert House.

Today was the day to use them!

We left the latest we left all week; at 9h30, we were finally out the door and waiting for the bus. And from the bus to the U-Bahn and to the zoo. The first difference was that, even at 10h00, there were already more people than in Brno. And so many kids! The horror!

We started at the Schmetterlinghaus but didn’t see a single Schmetterling. But whatever. Even as we went from exhibition to exhibition, we saw most animals. I’m disappointed the panda exhibit was getting renovated and so we didn’t get to see them, and a lot of the birds weren’t in their exhibits either. Whether because of the cold or renovations, we wondered where the animals had gone.

But we saw the giraffes, the orangutans from a distance, the lions and the cheetahs, etc. One of the elephants was being trained as we watched, which is always cool to see. The arctic wolves were fighting for their food. The lynx was sitting on its house, his back to the guests and, now that I think about it, maybe watching the wolves. A bear was sitting at the top of a tree and watching everyone down below, trying to decide who was going to be its next snack (but as Twix says, “it doesn’t matter if you choose left or right, they are both chewy, crunchy and delicious”).

The red pandas were as adorable as always (like soooooo adorable), Mom wanted to see the capibaras but they were probably inside because of the cold. We watched the penguins as we snacked on yet another langos, this time just a plain one and I liked it better this way. And the prairie dogs! I know they are considered as vermin in the US but they are so cute. A little bit Grummelke sized.

We got lunch at one of the restaurants, the one in the rotunda. We finally got a Wiener Schnitzel, which was very big and very good. And the price was good too. We also had a plate of some kind of potato dumpling and veal goulash, which I didn’t like as much. Then again, I’m used to Mom’s goulash soup flavor and this didn’t taste like that.

We continued on and right before we left, we finally got our Sachertorte and our Apfelstrudel. Both were good but I preferred the Apfelstrudel. We got some souvenirs before moving on to the Palm House and the Desert House.

The Palm House is a big Victorian-era greenhouse, much like the one in Kew Gardens. Turns out, Mom never visited that one. It wasn’t nearly as warm inside, however. The palm trees and the tropical plants were everywhere, turning the greenhouse into a jungle. I do like to visit those places. But we didn’t think it was worth the original price and were glad we got it in the bundle ticket.

Across the way was the Desert House, which also wasn’t as warm as we thought it was going to be. Honestly, the desert was a little chilly. There were cacti and a few turtles but it was a little disappointing. Again, not worth paying full price for.

Finally, I wanted to walk to Schönbrunn palace and see that from the outside. It’s a big palace and does look beautiful from the outside. I’m glad I got to see it. Also glad we didn’t spend the day there because it was busy! There was yet another Christmas market there which we kind of skipped on our way back to the U-Bahn. We stopped at the Hauptbanhof where we got another schnitzel for dinner (same size, even cheaper) and got our train tickets to the airport for tomorrow. Only € 4,20 for 2 tickets, London Transport should take note of that. And then we went home.

We are done. It’s been a week. We saw plenty but I’m ready to go home.