On The Way To Vienna

I have to always remind myself how small countries are here compared to the US. In fact, many of them are the size of US states. Thinking of them that way helps understand the scale. We woke up today in Salzburg, Austria; dropped our "German" car off in the suburb of Freilassing, Germany (to avoid cross-country drop charges); picked up our one-day "Austrian" car rental for our drive to Vienna; and took advantage of the transportation to overshoot Vienna and have dinner in Bratislava, Slovakia, before ending the night in Vienna, Austria. Crazy.

There are trains that go from Salzburg to Vienna, of course - good ones. But I really wanted to see the famous abbey in Melk (midway between the two) and see a bit of the Wachau valley, where the Danube runs swiftly past quaint towns. That made using the train impractical. So we had to do the seemingly odd one-day car rental. Although the day was a long one, it worked well. We got to see everything we wanted to see including the seldom-visited capital of Slovakia; Bratislava.

The Abbey in Melk (top photo inside the church) is quite the spectacle. It is a huge complex dominating a small town in central Austria. The abbey survived many crisis over the centuries, the likes of which caused many other monasteries to close. In the last century it has gradually undergone extensive renovation. Some might say almost too much renovation. The library and church, in particular, are so extravagantly finished now, that it makes a person wonder where the money comes from and whether it might be put to better use somewhere else. It is breathtakingly stunning, but not at all peaceful or contemplative.

The next stop was the little village of Durnstein where, by this time, we were mostly concerned with finding food. The town was, indeed, very charming - built on a rocky promontory over the river (middle photo) - but we were too ravenous to enjoy strolling much. We had some ice cream and moved on down the road to Krems, where we popped into a grocery store for healthy snacks. It's amazing how much food you can buy for relatively little cost in a grocery store vs a restaurant.

Then we drove past Vienna, to Bratislava. Doing it this way saved time over taking a big chunk of the next day away from Vienna to see it, and saved the money it would have taken to buy round-trip train or boat tickets. 20 years ago Bratislava (formerly Pressburg) wasn't much to see. It suffered from both the neglect in the central city and the attention in the suburbs of it's communist-controlled past. But it is changing quickly. The central "old town" is now very attractive, vibrant, and welcoming to tourists. It's difficult to choose a photo that defines the city, since it lacks a big-name site or central major central square. But we found it charming on our short visit (bottom photo) and had a good pizza and pasta dinner outdoors.

Now we are in Vienna, at our youth hostel without air conditioning, but with free wifi (yes!). We now have two full days to see what we can of Vienna. Tomorrow morning we turn in our 2nd car and travel by train the rest of the way. It will be a relief to not have to worry about driving anymore.

Before we sign off for the night, I wanted to include a brief movie clip of our dinner last night in Salzburg. Note the bells chiming in the background and all the steeples and domes. It was a nice evening...