Anniversary trip: Bratislava

 

Did you know that Vienna and Bratislava are the two closest capital cities in the world? They are only about an hour apart from each other. We took a bus from Vienna to Bratislava to spend the day and check off Slovakia from the list of countries we have visited. 

To get the most of our time in the city, we booked a walking tour through Airbnb. It was the perfect start to our day as it gave us a ton of interesting information and history about the city, but it was short enough that we could meander around afterward. 

The above picture is showing where the Jewish synagogue used to stand. You can see it outlined in stone on the ground and there are a bunch of displays talking about the history and showing pictures of it. I love that they memorialized it this way and it's a shame that it was torn down.

There are a few quirky statues around the historic center of Bratislava and this is one of them. It's located just outside the French embassy and is poking fun at the French. 

This statue, as was explained to us by our guide, is memorializing a man who was iconic to Bratislava. From my understanding, he was a homeless man, but he was always dressed to the nines as depicted in the statue. He was a very jovial and friendly person and I just love how the artist is showcasing an everyday person. 

This one is called Man at Work. In normal times, our guide said, this statue is surrounded by crowds for pictures. When we went after the tour to grab a picture, there were a few people but it was nice not to have to wait around too long for a picture. 

When researching Bratislava, we saw this blue church and chose to see it in person. It's just outside the historic city center, but it was so neat looking that I am glad we took the detour to see it. We did not go inside, so I'm not sure how it compares to the unique exterior. 

This is a fun statue of Hans Christian Anderson that is along the boulevard in the city center. This was a lovely tree lined area with cafes and benches. Great for people watching!

For lunch we found a restaurant that serves traditional Slovakian dishes and gave it a try! Everything was delicious!

Labor Day Weekend in Austria: Side trip to Liechtenstein

Another goal of our Labor Day weekend trip was to visit Liechtenstein. It's a small country that borders Austria and Switzerland and you can drive through the whole country in an hour (or less). We started in Vaduz, the capitol. It was filled with sculptures, like the one pictured above. 

We did not go inside the church since we had Suzie with us, but the outside gave us some good photo opportunities and they had a free bathroom that we took advantage of. 

We drove up the hill to see the Liechtenstein palace. The royal family lives there so visitors are not permitted inside, but there are hiking trails nearby that give different vantage points of the outside. On our way out of town back to Germany, we visited the Prince's winery and picked up a few bottles of wine. 

For our one night in Liechtenstein, we stayed in Malbun. It's a big ski resort town, but in September it was just beautiful and chill. We walked into the town from our hotel and snagged some pictures of this little church. 

We found a little free library with a Max & Mortiz book inside. I snapped a photo and sent to my sisters who I knew would appreciate it. There used to be a German restaurant in our home town that was named after these characters. I was tempted to take the book home with me, but thought it better to leave for a little kid to enjoy. 

For dinner in Malbun, we visited a pizza place. For some reason, the restaurant was decorated like a cave complete with cave paintings like the one pictured behind us. The pizza was pretty tasty and the ambiance was interesting. The place was pretty empty, but I imagine during ski season it is a happenin' place. 

This is what happens when you are an American living in Germany and visiting a country that uses the Swiss outlets. We did not realize that Liechtenstein did not use the same outlets as Germany, but luckily the hotel had an adapter that we could borrow. 

Our hotel had a great breakfast buffet! It had the typical sliced cheese and deli meats and breads, but also sausage, eggs and more. We also tried Ovomaltine for the first time. It's a chocolate and nut spread not unlike Nutella, but it was crunchy! I am going to have to look for it in the German grocery store next time I'm there. 

Labor Day Weekend in Austria: Feldkirch

On our way out of the Braz/Bludenz area, we stopped in Feldkirch, Austria. I had originally thought about staying here, but when it came time to book the hotel the one I had my eye on was fully booked. We visited on a Sunday so most of the shops were closed, but we still had a nice time walking around the area. They had a river walk that was lovely, too. 

Labor Day Weekend in Austria: Braz and Burs

For our long Labor Day Weekend, we visited Austria. After a few weekends in cities seeing all the sites, I was ready for a relaxing, no pressure kind of getaway. After searching and searching for just the right spot, Charles found an inn in Braz, Austria that would fit the bill. It was right next to a beautiful Alpine church that came complete with church bells. 

The inn had their own in-house restaurant which included free breakfast in the morning with a selection of meats, cheeses, rolls, yogurt and more. The coffee was delicious and it filled us up for our hiking ventures. 

On the first night, we enjoyed dinner at the inn's restaurant. I had goulash with polenta and Charles had venison. Everything was delicious!

Right near the inn was a hiking path by the river. We brought Suzie down there and she enjoyed splashing around and drinking the fresh water. It wasn't quite like being at the beach, which is one of Suzie's happy places, but we could tell it made her happy nonetheless. 

For hiking, there were tons of options within the area. We chose a trail that started in Burs which was an adorable town in its own right. Can you imagine what it would be like to live here and have views of the Alps right out of your window??? 

Part of the trail we took was a Fairy Tale trail and had these gnome people at various stops. We somehow veered off the trail onto another one so we missed some of the tales, but we still had a nice walkabout.

Anniversary Trip: Vienna

Our thirteenth (I can't believe it has been that many years already) wedding anniversary was earlier this month and to celebrate we took a trip to Vienna, Bratislava and Nuremberg. 

Upon arrival in Vienna, we grabbed dinner around the corner from the Airbnb at a place called Coconut Curry. We had some delicious sushi and Asian dishes. One thing I thought was neat, and then noticed it at other restaurants and cafes around Vienna, was that at the outdoor tables the restaurants provided blankets. It was a slightly chilly evening, but I am sure the closer and closer we get to winter the more necessary those blankets become! 

Vienna is set up in different zones and we stayed in the zone with Prater Park which is a very old amusement park. The Ferris wheel is iconic to Vienna and promises great views of the area. Since I am afraid of heights, this was not something I wanted to try out for myself. The park is completely free to enter so we walked around to see all the rides and other typical amusement park booths. 

St. Stephan's Cathedral is at the center of the 1st District and where all the tourists flock to. It has a really interesting roof made up of a patterned tile. 

This is a neat art installation inside the Cathedral. I love that it's included as a statement of how the Cathedral is still a modern part of the city and that it still values art. Cathedrals and churches throughout Europe are great places to see amazing pieces of art and architecture, but they don't always feature anything new. 

St. Stephen's has two towers that visitors can visit for views of the city. One of the towers is only accessible by elevator and it was broken on the day of our visit, so we visited the top of the other tower which is accessible by climbing over 300 stairs. Needless to say, I was a bit tired after that climb. But we got that promised view over the city. 

We visited the Butterfly House and saw a bunch of beautiful butterflies fluttering about. This would be a great place to visit on a cold day as it was nice and toasty inside. However, after visiting the butterfly house in Niagara, this one felt so small. 

Vienna, like many old cities, is filled with statues. I have no idea what this one is representing (if only I remembered more symbols from my college art history classes), but we loved the faces and drama of this one. 

We did not take any other pictures inside, but on the rainy day of our visit we headed over to the House of Music to walk around. It had a lot of interactive exhibits and information about some of Vienna's famous composers and musicians. At the very end, you enter a hallway that is dark except for this neon sign. I loved how, after all the music and sounds from the museum, they offered a relatively quiet space to reset before heading back out into the bustling city.

One of the highlights of our trip was a pastry tour that we booked through Airbnb. Unlike our food tour in Prague, we had two other couples on the tour with us which led to some fun conversations and a little less awkwardness. We visited several places all over Vienna and tried a variety of traditional Viennese desserts. This picture is from one of our favorites where we tried dumplings and strum. Strum is from the first harvest of grapes for wine and has a low alcohol content and is very sweet. It is only available for a limited time, though, so our trip was timed perfectly to try it!

Oktoberfest Quiche

I am not normally one to go off-book when it comes to recipes. I love following directions. I love rules. I am not a confident cook. However, I had this idea to make an Oktoberfest or German themed quiche to bring to a Fest potluck with the other residents in our apartment building. I searched Pinterest and did not come up with anything exactly like what I had in mind, so I combined ideas from a couple different recipes and came up with my own Oktoberfest Quiche. It is a little risky serving something you have never made or tried before, but it turned out pretty tasty! 

This was my first time wearing my brand new dirndl! I am in love with it and so glad I found it in the sale section. Not only did I save a bunch compared to buying a current season style, but I had my eye on this exact one from my online browsing. Finding it in my size at 50% off made my day! And of course Suzie was a big hit in her "dirndl". 

In addition to my Oktoberfest Quiche, I brought my German Apple Cake. This is one of my favorite things in life and this time I made a salted caramel frosting instead of the typical vanilla buttercream. Yummy! It's not authentically German AT ALL! Germans would never make something that sweet, but it was made with apples we picked in Germany, so that makes it more legitimate to me. 

Apple Cider Rum Punch

During the fall there is nothing more refreshing and delicious than a glass of apple cider. I'll take it in just about any form--cold, hot, slushy... I was attending a social function and wanted to bring a fall beverage for everyone to enjoy and ran across a recipe for apple cider rum punch. I had to settle for grocery store apple cider, but I bet this would be even better with some freshly pressed cider.