Trencin - Slovakia

Ahhhhhh Slovakia - you are beautiful!   We studied the route where we were going today and the times involved while drinking our champagne the night before.  Originally we were going to go to Trnava then Trencin on our way to Prague, but we soon realised we had 5 hours of driving from Bratislava to Prague.  We made the decision to only go to Trencin which is one hour away, then another four hours to Prague where we had to catch our plane back to the Netherlands at 3.30pm.  So Trnava we will have to come back to you another time! 

To fit Trencin in we were up at 6.30am, checked out and on the road by 7.00am, just as the sun was just coming up.  We arrived at Trencin at 8.00 and parked the car just behind the town square.  The ticket machine ate all our money, but didn't issue a ticket, so Anne went off in search of an ATM while I wandered around the square.  I found this great fountain (turned off for winter), of a man in a top hat climing out of a well.  It was rather intriguing, and have since found that it relates to the legend of the Vodnik.  However the only google reference of the legend I can find is from Prague...

'The Vodniks are the elf of the waters, creatures with a green body. Some of them live under the Moldau. Usually they are nice people but don’t get them angry because they are very touchy. Sometimes they have fun turning over the boats of lovers or fishermen but they also have the noble duty of preserving the souls of people who die in the floods of the river.

A vodnik used to live in a pond out of the city and moved later to Prague under the Charles Bridge because the wheels of a wagon had made turbid the waters of his previous home. On his way to Prague he met a merchant who was telling him about the pond and the dirt water. This man had idea he was talking to the vodnik from that pond…. The following day the wagon had to pass by the bridge so it was a good chance for the vodnik to revenge. The cry of the merchant was useless and he got caught in the floods of the river. A hat and a rose stolen near the pond the day before were the only things left about this merchant.'

After finally getting a ticket from another machine to display in our car we started heading for the castle high up above the township. We found a local bakery on the way and got some breakfast.  Very yum and very cheap.  We munched on the way up.  And up.  First up 92 stairs, to the start of the path up to the castle...

To rest, I occasionally stopped to take photos!  It was the only way I could reach the top. Anne was miles ahead of me!

Beautiful views on a stunning autumn day!

Number 19.  (Are there 19 castles?)

Old doors...

Still going up and through archways... (I think Anne is already inside the castle! )

And up....

Another stop to take photos of the beautiful view of the city down below...

The river Vah flows through it.  The population of Trencin is approx 56,000.

Oh look!  Finally I'm at the castle door.  I found Anne sitting on a seat waiting for me just inside!

A sign about the the Rotunda of the castle dating back to the 11th Century.  None of my photos turned out of the Rotunda which was behind glass and the glass was too reflective! However this is the oldest part of the castle.

The courtyard.  I try to imagine a typical day sometime in the 11th century with castle staff wandering around here! The Trenčín castle, experienced not only war and terror, but also hosted kings and queens from almost all over Europe.

The Matus Tower...  was built by the family Matus Cak of Trencin sometime in the 14th century.  It is extremely well preserved.  Later on, gothic palaces were joined to the tower.  These are: the Matus palace (that was later destroyed); the Lodovit palace; the Barbara palace and the Zapolsky palace.  If you're interesting in reading more about the history of Trencin Castle - you can find it all here.

I should explain here that we had a guide of which we paid 4 euros for, and which included a tour of the 2nd floor of the 'palace' and the Matus Tower.  I wasn't aware of what just what was involved until I got up to the palace.  I managed to survive the walk up to the top of the castle, and even up the steps of the 2nd floor of the Palace.  But then I had to walk up 5 floors of medieval steps to the top of the Tower.  Now that killed me!

A view from the steps of the palace of the soccer stadium down below...

Birds eye veiw of the town...

Going up...

At the top of the Matus Tower were incredible views over the city.  It was still early morning, and there was fog about too.

Way up high - I can't believe I made it..

Autumn over the castle grounds...

I took a few photos, then realised that if I didn't start down before everyone else, I would be holding everyone up.  So I started down again almost immediately.  I left a good 10 minutes before everyone else, yet we all arrived at the bottom at the same time. Mind you, I did stop a few times to catch my breath and take some more photos...

Old ropes down the wall for me to hold onto...  (I had to come down these stairs backwards in parts as they were pretty steep)

The tower from the bottom...

Anne looking at the view.  I kept this photo because of the pigeon flying above!!

At the top of the steps to the entrance of the 2nd floor palace.  It was a museum inside with old weapons on display.

On our way down again...

Back out the castle door...

A watch tower...

Through the archways...

A leftover ruin from a castle that has seen better days...

Back down the way we came...

Down towards the 92 steps....

Old castle walls with lots of pigeons...

I swear the building smiled at me as I left.  Are those two eyes and a nose?

We reached the bottom and I could barely walk.  I was so much in pain.   Not only my foot but my back as well.  Anne rushed in and got me some stronger painkillers while I went to the car to collapse!  On the way I found this sculpture outside the Pardon Newspaper office.  I thought it was quite clever!

We then drove four hours to Prague airport through gorgeous countryside and little towns and villages.  We arrived around 2.00 and wondered if our plane would even take off as there was thick fog all over Prague.  No problems though, and we got back to Amsterdam around 8pm.  Unpacked and hit the sack early!

Vienna to Bratislava - One day in Vienna

I found these two images of Vienna, that I took when we arrived.  As I said before, I had no tripod, so this image was taken by putting the camera on top of a crate!  Lots of renovation work going on which is why there are wooden crates everywhere...

And this is the torte we shared in the cafe before heading back to the hostel.  It was cold as well, so I also had a hot chocolate.  Very nice, but a bit rich after our stomach problems!!

As we only had one day in Vienna, we picked up a self walking tour of Vienna from the hostel reception.  So we stuck to that.  Anne was up fairly early - I took a little longer to get moving, but we were out the door by 8.00am.  We took the U4 to Schonbrun Palace which the walking tour recommended, especially for the gardens.  Both Anne and I were blown away by the beauty and sheer size of them, and Anne mentioned they were the best Palace gardens she had ever seen.

Being Autumn made it even more beautiful in my opinion. We wandered down pathways totally covered in a canopy of autumn leaves...

 One pathway, after another...

And another - it was hard to choose which path to go down.  Did I mention it was really beautiful?  There were lots of local people walking, running and wandering through the gardens, and a few tourists like ourselves as well.  If I lived in Vienna, I would be wanting to visit this place on a regular basis.

We came out of the pathway to the back of the Palace.  Very imposing, beautiful and large.  Imagine living here!  Which room would you take?  You wouldn't like to drink to much the night before, you may forget which room you were in!

Opposite the back of the palace was a sweeping avenue that takes you to the Gloriette.  I would have liked to go up, but my foot was too sore and it would have taken too long.  Plus it was steep.  Anne did ask if the horse and carts took you up, but it was even too steep for those.

At the bottom of the hill to the right was the oldest zoo in the world.  Unfortunately it wasn't open as it was too early so we didn't get to see it, however we did walk around it a bit.  We didn't see the labyrinth or the exotic palm house, or the rebuilt 'roman ruins' in the park - it was simply too big to see everything!

Back under the canopy, we stopped here and had our schnitzel that we had saved from the night before, for breakfast.  Very yummy in a lovely place.

Which path to take?  You can see about 5 different pathways going off in different directions here...

Through another path to a fountain completely surrounded by a double row of fir trees..

An arbor taking you to another part of the palace garden..

Then around to the front of the palace.  Lots of horse and cart rides you could take around the grounds. Quite pricey too so we didn't take one!

We decided to do a tour of the palace, but first I had to use the public toilets inside the palace.  They were rather posh with painted leaves on each door...

And my view of the cubicle from inside the loo!  I know - very unconventional but I couldn't resist it was amazing!

We did he tour around the palace and Anne ordered a wheelchair for me to save my foot.  I didn't realise that you weren't allowed to take photos.  This was he third one I took before I got told off.  But it shows you the beauty, wealth and art within its wall. Very 'palatial' and grand.

The front of the palace as we were leaving.

Back to the metro line U4 to catch the metro to Karlsplatz.  Here we saw the Opera House and we were approached so many times to get tickets to see the opera that night.  We said so many times that we weren't going to be in Vienna that night!!!  I forgot to take a photo of the Opera House!!

We walked across the square then strolled along Karntnerstrabe.  Along here were lots of stores from the most expensive and posh clothing chains to souvenir shops and McDonalds.  Unfortunately for us, everything except the souvenir shops were closed because it was Sunday.  (Or maybe that was fortunate!)

A beautiful new building on the corner reflecting the old St Stephens church in its windows...

Graben...

St Stephens Cathedral.  Very imposing and the highest religious building in Vienna.  Once again it was Sunday and a service was in progress so we weren't able to get the guided tours.  We could have climbed the 343 steps up to the top of the cathedral to see the most glorious view of Vienna.  Alternatively we could have got the elevator up on the other side which wasn't as high but still amazing.  I decided I wasn't up to the 343 steps but we did enquire about the elevator.  Unfortunately that was closed until the afternoon so we carried on...

Inside the cathedral a service was in progress so we couldn't walk around...

Outside - very gothic looking, the church was founded in 1137.

Adjacent to the cathedral on Stephansplatz, there is an ample road that almost looks like a square called the Graben which is another main street of the city.  We wandered down there passing a number of memorials and fountains.  We arrived at St Peters Church which is on the site of the oldest church in Vienna possibly dating back to the early middle ages.  St Peters Church was begun in 1701, the design was inspired by St Peters Basilica in Rome.

Not huge, but very beautiful inside with an amazing domed ceiling with amazing art.  Once again a service was in progress so we could not explore.

Back outside we came across some fun statues...

To Hofburg Palace.  In front of the palace where everyone was milling around, is an excavation site of roman ruins...

Vienna was built on top of an ancient roman city.

Hofburg palace currently serves as the residence of the President of Austria, but has housed some of the most powerful people in Austria.  It has been the documented seat of government since 1279 for various empires and republics.  The oldest sections of the palace date from the 1300s, and form a square, in which a gothic chapel from the 15th century is situated.

We didn't go on the Hofburg Palace tour seeing we had done the Schonbrunn that morning.  Instead we walked through Hofburg Palace to the other side onto Heldenplatz, crossed it and followed on to the two huge national museums which face each other.  One was the Museum of Natural History.  Turn 180 degrees...

And the other is the Museum of fine arts.  I'm not sure which was which though!!!

My foot gave up here.  Couldn't walk a step further.  We were in great need of sustenance as well and Anne wanted us both to experience the Sacher Torte at the Sacher Hotel.  So we caught the tram back to the Opera House area and got instructions from one of the ticket sellers where to go.  I walked on while Anne got instructions and when he found Anne was English he got her to help her with some English grammar on a play he was writing.  I wondered where she had got to!! 

We then queued up at the Sacher Hotel at their cafe (Cafe Sacher)  which I don't have a photo of but you can view it here.  It took about 20 minutes before a table became free.  We were ushered to a coat service where they took our coats, then we got a table for two and shared the famous Sacher Torte.  This is the worlds most famous chocolate cake.  Well worth a look and if you are in Vienna, this is well worth going to. If you can't get to vienna to try it and you want to try it, you can treat yourself by having it delivered to you through the website!!

After the Sacher Torte we headed back to the hostel where our car was parked, picking up a bottle of Austrian bubbly to drink in Bratislava, picked up our luggage, and drove to Bratislava which was an hours drive away from Vienna.  I took some grab shots out of the car on the way of some of the many wind farms we passed.  Actually everywhere we went in Europe were alternative methods of power - mainly wind and solar.  I even saw a 'solar' farm.  Even in greece most of the buildings had solar power and after seeing this, I think New Zealand is not as 'green' as they try to make out to be - we have a long way to go before we catch up to the rest of Europe!!

We arrived in at our hotel in Bratislava about 5pm - it was really nice, quite luxurious with a glass elevator going up outside the building, which we figured would be cold in winter!  Very modern.  We popped the wine in the fridge, then headed out to explore the town and get some dinner.

We drove into the city centre as we were a bit far to walk.  We got a bit lost but saw a policeman, so drove up to him to ask directions to where the carpark was.  He got a policeman who spoke english, and gave us directions to the carpark, then asked us for our passports, and proceeded to fine us with driving where we were.  Apparently the road we were on was only for taxi's and people who lived there.  I was a bit miffed about this as we were obviously lost, couldn't read Slovakian road signs, and we had actually approached them to help us!!!  He charged us 10 euros, saying that it could have been 60 euros.  Grrrr!

We then parked the car, and started walking - coming across a really neat little Christmas market.  We bought some handmade decorations.  We found a great place for dinner and ordered local dishes.  Anne couldn't decide what to have, so halfway through our meal, our waiter bought out a small plate of the other dish Anne was tossing up whether to have or not, for her to try.   Wouldn't charge us for it either, so we left a generous tip.

We headed back to the hotel and Anne went to the gym while I collapsed on the bed.  When she came back we drank the bottle of bubbly, and that's when we found our fridge was totally complimentary!!  We emptied it!!! So Anne has Slovakian beer on her dressing table in Amsterdam!