Bratislava & Vienna

This morning was another early day. Breakfast at the hotel started at 6:30, so we packed up and took our stuff down before that, and came back for breakfast (can't pass up free breakfast). The it was off to Bratislava. If you look at a map, you can see that Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia come together at one corner, and Bratislava is very close to that corner. There's no way we could come so close to another country and not take the opportunity to visit it. Plus, Bratislava is just such a cool sounding city.

If you look way over to the left, you can barely see the Slovakia sign

We got there about 9:30. The only thing I really wanted to see was St. Martin's Cathedral, where the monarchs of the Kingdom of Hungary were crowned, including Maria Theresa, who is probably best known as the mother of Marie Antoinette and Joseph II (the emperor for whom Mozart played in the movie Amadeus)

I had also read that the old town was really nice. Luckily, we had to walk through old town to get to the cathedral, so it worked out perfectly. Turns out old town is a mecca for cool doors. Max was in heaven.

The rest of the day was earmarked for Vienna, so we walked back to the car and left Slovakia for Austria.

There were a few things I really wanted to see in Vienna - Zentralfriedhof (the cemetery), The Augustine Church, the Capuchin Church, and Hofburg. I also wanted to see Schonbrunn Palace, but I knew we wouldn't have time.

The cemetery was first. As the Viennese say, it's half as big as Zurich, and twice the fun. Having been to both, I agree! Just kidding. I enjoyed Zurich. Kinda. Anyway, the cemetery is indeed half the size of Zurich. It took several minutes to drive from one end to the other.

The white lines that look like little roads are actually full-size roads

The main entrance was lined with stands selling wreaths and other flower/plant arrangements.

Luckily, almost all of the people I wanted to see were together, and pretty near the main entrance. You can pay and drive inside, but we just parked outside and walked in, since they weren't far away. Much like in Prague, it had some beautiful tomb colonnade areas, and in one was an awesome tomb with dwarves. It apparently belonged to an Austrian mining magnate.

Next, we found the Ehrengraber, the Tombs of Honor. Many of these people were moved from their original burial spots.

We saw Beethoven

Schubert

Strauss Jr

Strauss Sr

Brahms

Gluck

And a memorial to Mozart, who was buried in a mass grave at St. Marx.

On the way out, we also saw this super strange tomb.

It's a woman sitting on a bone, wearing one high heel, being held by a skeleton. The mutilated body laying down was there on purpose

We also saw a funeral. The procession was huge.

We stopped by the flower stands to buy a wreath for our door. We have a very nice spring one that our neighbor gave us when we first moved in, but we don't have anything winter-y. It seems that everybody in our neighborhood has seasonal door wreaths, so we bought one. We hope it doesn't have some hidden meaning in the German-speaking world where people are going to offer their condolences.

Next was Vienna proper. It was difficult to get to parking. Lots of one way streets and traffic and quick turns. We ended up at another parking lot entirely from the one we had planned, but it turned out fine. As we came out of the parking garage, we saw the Opera House.

We walked through the Burggarten towards Augustinerkirche. Augustinerkirche is where many Habsburg weddings took place, including Maria Theresa's to Duke Francis of Lorraine, and Archduchess Marie Louise to Napoleon.

Next was lunch. Max & Em were feeling cranky because they were hungry, so we stopped in at a little restaurant near the church.We had pizza. It was mostly unremarkable, except for the people at a table across the room. At one point, to call the waitress, they knocked on the table and said, "Penny." three times. That was pretty funny. Big Bang Theory is popular in Germany.

I wanted to see the Kapuzinergruft (Capuchin Crypt), because that's where the Habsburg crypt is. They have some seriously ornate coffins.

Kaiser Karl VI

Here's Maria Theresa, with her husband in the one in front

Here is Empress Sisi on the left, with her husband Franz-Joseph on the right. I love her.

Then it was time for Hofburg Palace. First, we went through the Imperial Silver Collection, which wasn't just silver. It was all of their dishes, table decorations, a bunch of copper cooking vessels (the ones for making fancy desserts) and that sort of stuff. It was pretty impressive to see. I never really thought about how many candelabra one would need for a palace!

This is just half the room

After the Silver Collection was the Sisi museum. They had some of her clothes, and reproductions of her jewelry. It was a no photos zone, so I had to be careful.

The Imperial Apartments were next. I thought I got some neat pictures in there, but apparently the camera had turned off by then, because I only got one, and it isn't good. That's OK. They were neat rooms, but much like the other palaces we've seen. I wanted a picture of Sisi's odd exercise equipment, but oh, well.

We had some time (but not enough to get in the car and drive to Schonnburg before it closed), so we went to the Schatzkammer (Imperial Treasury) to see the crown jewels, but it was going to be more than we cared to pay, so we skipped it. Next door was the Burgkappele, the home of the Vienna Boys' Choir, so that was cool. We didn't get to go in, but it was still neat to be right there.

We decided to go see St. Stephan's, where Mozart received his pauper's blessing when he died. One of his houses was right around the corner from St. Stephan's, so we wanted to see that, too.

St. Stephan's

On our initial walk from the car, we had seen a butterfly garden. Em really wanted to go see that, so we went there first. I was rather surprised that it was open, as the butterfly houses I've seen in the past have been spring & summer things. I think this one would have been really nice in the spring or summer. It was huge, and decorated very prettily. As it was, though, there were very few butterflies (live ones, anyway, we saw lots of dead ones), and most of them were the same species. Not even a very pretty species. but, Em enjoyed it, and that was the point, so all was well.

I just wanted to see St. Stephan's and the Mozart House from the outside, since I couldn't subject Max & Em to another cathedral, and we had seen Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg.

Mozart House

We still had a 3 hour drive to our hotel in Linz (so we wouldn't have to drive the 8 hours from Vienna all in one day, I chose a hotel kind of in between), so it was time to go. On the alley leading from Mozart's house, there were lots of little mirrors with accessories painted on them. Most of them were too tall for Em & me, but we got some funny pictures.

On the way back to the car, we saw a Zombie Walk

We headed out of Vienna and on to Linz. It was uneventful. The hotel is nice. Tomorrow is the drive home!I love vacation, but I also love getting home, where I don't have to wear shoes or pants. :)

Emma says - It was all really, really pretty, but I'm too tired to remember most of it. I'm so glad we got to go to the butterfly garden. The butterflies were HUGE! It was really warm in there, but not uncomfortably warm.