🚴 Palaces, Pedals & Pastries: Biking Vienna and Slovakian Hot Chocolate (Days 5-6)

Vienna home of the Habsburgs and Strauss families.

Matt Wolfe, has three degrees. Graduate of St. Pete Junior College, A.A. Mass Communications, B.F.A. University of S. Florida, Art & Photography, Therapist A.S., Walter’s State.
Carol Birkner, holds a B.S. East TN State, as an educator, IT technology specialist.
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St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Excellent example of Gothic architecture. Climb the towers to a panoramic view of Vienna.

Vienna

The AMALea arrived in Vienna early in the morning in the midst of clearing fog on Day 5. With a full day and evening planned in the city of Johan Strauss, known for great composers, beautiful architecture, and museums I was particularly excited for this day. 

Once again we had chosen a bike tour to see the city, the most active of all levels offered by AMA. This was a busy bike tour through winding streets, on and off designated bike paths with many stops to allow the group remain together. Our guides were fantastic as AMA provided a lecturer and a rear rider to watch over us while crossing roads. We biked to and past many iconic landmarks of Vienna such as the Opera House, Imperial Palace of the Habsburgs, St. Stephen’s Cathedral just to name a few. A real treat was riding by the Austrian University of Economics to view the unique architecture built around 2010 as part of the college’s expansion. It currently has 200,000 students with the cost for most European students of 44 Euro per year! American’s can attend for just 1750 Euro for an entire year.

We had lunch back on the ship, then took Carol’s father to see more including a tour of the magnificent Schönbrunn Palace. From there we took another taxi to the area near SIsi Museum and the Hofburg Palace. So many palaces in Vienna so little time. As the sun was setting, this being late fall, it was 445pm sunset, we thought it would be special treat to take her father on a carriage ride around this historic area before we had to return to the ship for dinner. Although it was just 20 minutes it will be something we remember until we can come back again. 

Dan resting while listening to the self guide audio tour of the great hall. Very similar to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles Palace.

Our day was capped off with an additional optional tour we paid for to attend a concert in the House of Strauss. It was a 10 piece orchestra performing in what was the original performance concert hall of all the Strauss family. I am a novice when it comes to classical music and had no idea that there were four composers in the Strauss family beginning with the father and continuing with three sons. The evening included champagne pre concert and touring the museum. It concluded with the Blue Danube played without embellishments, just as it was written. 

A fantastic concert featuring works of the Strauss family at the House of Strauss Concert Hall.

One of a few quirky finds in Bratislava that greets visitors just off the main square.

Bratislava

The next day was spent in daytime cruising to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. We had a morning guest lecturer who explained the history of region over the course of the past several hundred years, through communism, and current time post Soviet era.

Guest lecturer discuss the regional history of Slovakia prior to arrival.

 Known as the Coronation City, where 16 kings and queens were crowned in the church of St. Martin’s Cathedral. I must confess that to go from Vienna to Bratislava was anticlimactic which isn’t a fair comparison I know. Few cities in the world compare to the beauty of Vienna. Having not spent time with the other two couples in the group we decided to do the gentle walking tour with them. It lasted about 1.5 hours and was informative but we only went into one church, it was mostly an overview tour. The general consensus in our group was that the walking tours provided a lot of explanation about the exterior of buildings and history, but we would have liked to see more of the interiors.

As these are one day stopovers I understand the limited time constraints of the tours.

Exterior of St. Martin’s Church, coronation home of 16 kings and queens.

After the tour I talked the group into spending some time in a cafe right in the central square area for some hot chocolates and wow what a great decision. The hot chocolate in Europe that we had there and other cities are so thick with chocolate it’s like syrup or sipping melted chocolate not at all like our liquid watery hot cocoa. Once we finished the family members returned to the ship and we did some shopping, viewed the interior of St. Martin’s Church. 

Hot chocolate break in Bratislava with our group. Easily the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

A war memorial from 1945 that reads, "To the Soviet Army Liberator, Grateful Bratislava." Slovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc and under Soviet influence until the collapse of Communism in 1989.

Next up is the conclusion of the cruise Budapest, Hungary.