We had a lazy day after Vienna. We found a place to park up next to the Danube about 1hr east of the capital at Bad Deutsch-Altenburg—near the old Roman town of Carnuntum although there’s not much left off it to see.
We just read our books and watched the world go by. Being a national holiday, there wasn’t much to do anyway.
In the evening we went for a little walk and did find some illuminated Romanesque stone pillars, and to Wendy’s delight, an Egg Vending Machine, such fun!
The following day, we made a short trip over into a new country for us, Slovakia, to visit the capital Bratislava.
It’s a big city but most of it is urbanisation, the interesting old city part is actually quite small and after a couple of hours, we’d seen it all. What a contrast to Vienna.
It’s a pretty place and it had the bits that Vienna didn’t have, much more Medieval and Renaissance type stuff and some ‘different’ bronze artwork, including one called “Man at Work”, made in the 1960s. It’s a sewage worker, head and arms, popping out of a man-hole, who—so the story goes--is watching the girls walk past in their mini skirts!
We headed back into Austria for the night.
The next day we drove around the Neusiedler See, apparently the largest steppe lake in Central Europe, and a great place for bird-watching so we read. Although it was nice to see various wading birds—that we have seen before—we didn’t see the one that we hoped we would see, the Great Bustard, we were too late. Speaking to one of the local experts, he said they would be sitting on the eggs for a while now.
We also stopped at Rust, a pretty little town with lots of Storks! We got a few pics and made our way to our next stopover for the night.
Wendy’s birthday! And over to country number three in as many days, Hungary.
Just over the border, we stopped at our most random place yet, a disused limestone quarry in Fertorakos. It doesn’t sound overly interesting I know, but it was, in as much of what’s been left behind, a huge, tall cave. They’ve also made it a little bit more informative from a point of view of ancient fossils they’ve found whilst digging, and it’s now a music venue.
Next, we drove the short distance to Sopron, a town that voted in 1921 to become part of Hungary instead of sticking with Austria. The Habsburg influence can be seen around here, pretty renaissance and baroque buildings in the old centre, although quite a few need some love to get them back up to their former glorious best.
We had a huge Wiener Schnitzel for lunch—the Hungarians like to feed you so we read, and if our first meal is anything to go by, then it’s certainly true—which was very tasty, but we couldn’t get any cake for Wendy’s birthday. We were too full to eat any after the Schnitzel and being a Sunday, the bakeries were closed, oh well, another day perhaps.
We then drove south for about 45 minutes to stop over at a campsite, down a very busy and bumpy road. After the pleasant driving conditions in Western Europe, this could be the taste of things to come now, hope the suspension holds up!
Bad Deutsch-Altenburg
Bratislava
Neusiedler See & Rust
Fertorakos Quarry
Sopron
We just read our books and watched the world go by. Being a national holiday, there wasn’t much to do anyway.
In the evening we went for a little walk and did find some illuminated Romanesque stone pillars, and to Wendy’s delight, an Egg Vending Machine, such fun!
The following day, we made a short trip over into a new country for us, Slovakia, to visit the capital Bratislava.
It’s a big city but most of it is urbanisation, the interesting old city part is actually quite small and after a couple of hours, we’d seen it all. What a contrast to Vienna.
It’s a pretty place and it had the bits that Vienna didn’t have, much more Medieval and Renaissance type stuff and some ‘different’ bronze artwork, including one called “Man at Work”, made in the 1960s. It’s a sewage worker, head and arms, popping out of a man-hole, who—so the story goes--is watching the girls walk past in their mini skirts!
We headed back into Austria for the night.
The next day we drove around the Neusiedler See, apparently the largest steppe lake in Central Europe, and a great place for bird-watching so we read. Although it was nice to see various wading birds—that we have seen before—we didn’t see the one that we hoped we would see, the Great Bustard, we were too late. Speaking to one of the local experts, he said they would be sitting on the eggs for a while now.
We also stopped at Rust, a pretty little town with lots of Storks! We got a few pics and made our way to our next stopover for the night.
Wendy’s birthday! And over to country number three in as many days, Hungary.
Just over the border, we stopped at our most random place yet, a disused limestone quarry in Fertorakos. It doesn’t sound overly interesting I know, but it was, in as much of what’s been left behind, a huge, tall cave. They’ve also made it a little bit more informative from a point of view of ancient fossils they’ve found whilst digging, and it’s now a music venue.
Next, we drove the short distance to Sopron, a town that voted in 1921 to become part of Hungary instead of sticking with Austria. The Habsburg influence can be seen around here, pretty renaissance and baroque buildings in the old centre, although quite a few need some love to get them back up to their former glorious best.
We had a huge Wiener Schnitzel for lunch—the Hungarians like to feed you so we read, and if our first meal is anything to go by, then it’s certainly true—which was very tasty, but we couldn’t get any cake for Wendy’s birthday. We were too full to eat any after the Schnitzel and being a Sunday, the bakeries were closed, oh well, another day perhaps.
We then drove south for about 45 minutes to stop over at a campsite, down a very busy and bumpy road. After the pleasant driving conditions in Western Europe, this could be the taste of things to come now, hope the suspension holds up!
Bad Deutsch-Altenburg
Bratislava
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| Man at Work - Waiting for Skirt |
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| Napoleon's Soldier |
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| The Witch |
Neusiedler See & Rust
Fertorakos Quarry
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| Megalodon Jaws, glad they're not around anymore! |
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| Silly Selfie |
Sopron
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| Birthday Girl |
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