Trnava

This morning we caught a double decker train from Bratislava to the seventh biggest city in Slovakia - Trnava.

Possibly a strange choice you might think, but we had seen most of the sights of Bratislava, and Trnava was the easiest large place that we could reach easily. It's not that large, only about 70,000 people, but it had one of the prettiest welcome signs ever.

However, we did a round trip from the station and started with the boring side of town first in order to reach the Synagogue Café for coffee and cake.

There are two synagogues in Trnava, but 82% of the Jewish population were sent to concentration camps and killed in the second world war. So now there is only one and this one instead has been beautifully renovated and turned into an excellent café.

Feeling refreshed we set off again and then we were surrounded churches and glorious avenues.

Trnava has an ancient old town, with church spires on almost every corner.

It also has a huge city wall, and quite a bit of it still remains. Someone has also thoughtfully put model people on the top showing how they would have defended the city.

Once we got outside of the wall we could see how difficult it would be to get in, although nowadays there is a handy gate for cars and people.

We then walked along a lovely street filled with cafes and flowers on our way back towards the station.

Finally, our last image, which if we had been more logical would have been our first, were the local people welcoming us to their city.

Then it was back on the train to Bratislava. A surprisingly nice day out.

Sightseeing in Bratislava

Our hotel is slightly outside the centre, but that meant that we would see the beautiful and curvy roof of Michael's Gate every time we went in or out.

Once inside the capital city of Slovakia it is always busy, and full of lovely buildings.

A small treat on a corner was this statue of a man climbing out of the drains. Actually it looks much better than it sounds. And it also looks better in real life than this photo.

My favourite place was a gorgeous blue church, apparently called the Blue Church, and it fitted it's description.

We arrived by chance exactly at 11am and watched latecomers rushing in, while at a side entrance the priest and his entourage stood to attention before heading inside.

Down by the river is a curious sight, known as the UFO building. It was built during Soviet times as apparently they were very interested in the idea of visitors from outer space.

We walked past the base of it and visitors were waiting for the angled lift in one of the legs to take them up to a rather expensive viewing platform.

Instead of gaining altitude in an elevator, we walked up to the castle on the opposite bank.

It's a forbidding looking place, although it has nice cool tree lined gardens and a great view of both the UFO tower and the town.

This is St Martin's Cathedral, and is known for being the coronation church in the Habsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary. 

(For those with a good memory, the amazing palace in Vienna was built by the unbelievably wealthy Habsburg family.)

I am interested in this cathedral because we also have a clear view of it from our Coronation bedroom at the hotel. 11 kings and queens were crowned there between 1563 and 1830, and their pictures fill our wall. My favourite is Rudolph.

Final interesting fact, a replica of the Hungarian crown weighing 300 kilograms and almost as tall as me is on the tip of the tower.

Vienna to Bratislava

Good start to Saturday with a nice, not too hot run around Donaupark parkrun.

The Austrians call the River Danube the Donau, and our run was on a little island in the river.

However, Susan and Paul who are out here with us had done this run before so instead caught a train to Graz to do the parkrun there.

Their route is in the shape of a duck, and I am very jealous!

After the run we checked out of our hotel and went down to the bank of the Donau. All along the bank were bars, cafés and ice cream stalls, and a pontoon style bridge to get to the other side.

Then it was just a one hour bus ride from the capital of Austria to the capital of Slovakia.

At first glance Bratislava seems very small and compact in comparison and our hotel is up on quite a steep hill.

At the hotel we have checked into our room, and it is called the City of Coronation room. Basically it is a normal sized room, but we have a shelf with a crown in a glass box and lots of pictures of past kings and queens on the wall opposite to the bed.

Ps, I don't think that we are allowed to wear it, also it doesn't make up for the aircon being very poor.

Schloss Belvedere and the Albertina

Another beautiful day of sightseeing around Vienna. 

This time another Schloss, or Palace, which is a baroque masterpiece called Belvedere.

It is another summer palace, and it was built for Prince Eugene of Savoy.  He was a very successful soldier who in later life was an obsessive collector of paintings.

Also mirroring our outing yesterday, we didn't go inside the palace, but just enjoyed the gardens.

Then to add a bit of culture, we went to the Albertina Gallery and actually paid to go inside.

The museum currently has a special exhibition of work by the famous pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein.

They were good fun and there was over 90 paintings on display.

There was another connection with Lichtenstein, but this time the country, and not the surname.

In 2019 an unbelievably wealthy banker from Lichtenstein died at the age of 90, and bequeathed his collection of paintings to the Albertina. 

His name was Herbert Batliner and he began collecting works of art from the 1950s. He gave over 500 paintings including lots by Monet, Picasso, Degas, etc. The list just goes on and on.

As we walked around the gallery we could guess which pictures used to be his as they were always the best ones.

The Batliner collection is worth an estimated 1 billion dollars, can you imagine how over the moon the Albertina staff would have been!

Schloss Schönbrunn

The Austrians knew how to build both stylishly and enormously.

This amazing palace was built in the 1700's by the Habsburg family and was their main summer residence.

We didn't go inside as the queues were long, but we spent all of our time in the gardens.

One amazing fact about the palace is that it has 1,441 rooms. 

Tucked away near the edge of the gardens is a beautiful Japanese garden. This was originally laid out in around 1915, but was gradually forgotten and became completely overgrown with weeds and ivy. 

However, in 1997 a visiting Japanese tourist saw it and recognised a distinctive turtle rock outline amongst the weeds.

It has now been restored and is beautiful, but strangely, we found it by accident and read this information on a small plaque, as it is not mentioned at all on the official leaflet.

This stone folly/building is high up on the hill opposite the palace and does get a mention though.

It's called the Gloriette Viewing Terrace and this is the view of it

and this is the view from it.

The lake behind me is there to power a waterfall and fountains that line up exactly with the palace.

Walking closer to the palace are formal gardens with swirls of colourful begonias making beautiful synchronised patterns.

It's all a bit too big to properly appreciate, and I think a bit too showy offy. (Apart from the Japanese garden.)

In the evening we went to a show in another lovely building. The show was similar to one of the Andre Riu concerts that are often on the telly, but on a smaller scale.

All of the music was either lively or well known, and a very glamorous opera singer sang a couple of arias.

There was also a ballet section with more beautiful outfits.

Finally, for the second time this week for us, a clap along with the music finale.

Darren's birthday outing

This is a one time only extra blog that should have gone out a few days ago.

Also, it's fortunate that hardly anyone reads this blog, as what you are about to see is highly illegal.

I have only just become aware of its existence, and I can share it with you now...

Even though Darren doesn't like Abba (or so he says), he booked the Abba Voyage concert many months in advance as his birthday treat.

Lots of people dressed up in sparkly tops and flares, but we didn't join in with this extra bit of fun.

And then it was on with the show. The announcer told us all to dance and sing along, but fiercely said that anyone caught recording the show would be thrown out.

It turns out that Darren discreetly took quite a few photos.

The show was fantastic, and the avatars looked completely real. I think that I was expecting it to be different, but it was like a normal large concert with the people on the stage and large video screens showing the action at either side of the stage.

I think that I was expecting the avatars to be fifteen feet tall or something, but this was probably better.

The lighting and special effects were brilliant too, and by the end everyone was up on their feet swaying along to Dancing Queen.

Apart from Darren who had to keep up with the pretence that he doesn't like Abba.

Kipchoge world record marathon course

Our first full day in Vienna and it is extremely hot and humid. Not on paper the ideal day for an epic run.

We are on the exact course where Kipchoge ran under two hours for a marathon. Its completely flat and straight with a roundabout at each end.

Of course, we weren't going to run the whole way, just one loop of eight kilometres. 

There were drinking fountains every two kilometres and I stopped for a drink at every one of them. Totally drained and exhausted, I was relieved to make it back again to the start and the train station back to the hotel.

By the finish I was so hot that my face was almost purple (definitely no photo!) and I was quietly perspiring. The 15 minute train journey was a huge embarrassment as the quiet perspiration turned into a full scale sweat in a busy carriage. I pretended not to notice and ignored the other passengers and was relieved not to leave a puddle on the floor.

After a shower and a very long break, we headed into Vienna town centre and first item on the agenda was a well earned ice cream.