It’s been a crazy year in a lot of ways, so here’s a quick recap of what Eric, Riesling and I have been up to this year…

January—Eric started a new job at Syngenta Biotech and I celebrated the first anniversary of my web design business. Obama was inaugurated and it snowed in NC.

February—We enjoyed many beaches in St Maarten.

March—Visited friends in Berlin and my folks in Florida.

April—I got a new passport, drank some wine in Napa Valley and ate at the world famous French Laundry!

May—We tried three local restaurants for Triangle Restaurant Week,  got a fancy new grill, Eric gained a year and poor Riesling was attacked at the dog park.

June—Went to Seattle to see a friend get married and found some new Washington wineries.

July—Tried some Long Island wine on the 4th, partied with my sister’s friends in Chicago and got a complimentary wine tasting via Twitter.

August—I turned 33, finally got to see The Bean and my little sister got married.

September—Acquired multiple insect bites at one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, celebrated our 8 year anniversary, got completely soaked during our waterfall trip to Asheville and had a much deserved spa day.

October—Celebrated SchOctoberFest, saw U2 in concert, bought a new washing machine, had to rebook our Brussels flight after being stranded overnight in Atlanta and spent some quality time with Ryan and April in a beautiful setting.

November—Ate one of the best meals ever with family, and visited the two closest capital cities in Europe over Thanksgiving.

December—Drove 37 hours to visit family for the holidays and Riesling met her first lizard.

Happy New Year everyone!

As some of you probably know, finding reasonably-priced accommodations in Europe can be quite a challenge. Luckily, between Eric’s Starwood points and a good deal spotted months in advance, we kept the cost to $135 (~94 Euros) per night over three hotels.

Our first night in Vienna was at our favorite hotel of the three, Le Meridian. Not only did they have a complimentary mini-bar (but only one beer for two people?) and ridiculously comfy bed, but the concierge was very helpful and the location (near Karlsplatz) was right in the thick of things. It didn’t hurt that we found a cozy wine bar two blocks away.

you can see the view of the city from our room here

The best part of the bathroom was the deep claw foot tub. The worst part was the heated floors that we never figured out how to turn off. There was quite a lot of “hot-footing” while teeth-brushing! Other features included a towel warming rack, open shower with wedge drain and frosted glass walls.

not quite sure about the “stripper pole” by the tub

Our room at the Art Hotel William in Bratislava was huge – meaning Eric didn’t have to wedge himself in the corner to get a full shot of the room. The striped wood paneling details, striped tile bathroom and decor were very attractive. The location was fine, as the Old Town of Bratislava isn’t terribly large, we were able to easily walk anywhere we wanted to go. The big downside was the street noise (i.e. barking dogs, loud talkers) as we had a room overlooking the cobblestones versus one of the the interior rooms. Additionally, some idiot starting shouting around 2am which echoed off the buildings and rudely woke us both up.

ballroom dancing optional

the zebra bathroom

Vienna is apparently the land of free mini bar items because our second hotel,  Steigenberger Hotel Wein , also had a daily restocked mini bar with orange and apple juices, Römerquelle still and sparkling (prickelnd) and two Gösser beers. This room was (by far) the most cramped of our stay but the bed was comfortable, the shower had good water pressure and there was a cubby-area for our bags and a place to hang our nice clothes, so overall a good experience.  We also enjoyed a glass of wine at the hotel lounge during our stay and we found both the atmosphere and prices agreeable. The breakfast special of a latte and croissant with nutella (yum!), honey and jam was also good. The location of the hotel is also excellent, a half block from a subway stop and within a few blocks of the major shopping district and Christmas markets.

individual down comforters was a nice touch

Generally, we preferred both the concierge and the bath products at the Meridian property but the complimentary mini fridge was better stocked at the Steigenburger. We would stay at any of these properties again.

Sunday was our last day in Vienna, and we spent most of it on a “day of culture.”  We started the morning by attending mass at Hofmusikkapelle, home of the Vienna Boys Choir. Thanks to the helpful concierge desk at Le Meridian we were able to book tickets earlier in the week and walked past the line of people queued for tickets that morning, the first Sunday of Advent. The cathedral is rather small, the chairs are hard, and most everything is in German, but the singing is beautiful. On some of the songs I enjoyed the men’s choir even more then than the boys choir…

Coming out of the service we noticed that it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a trip out of the city to Schönbrunner Park.

After hiking around the grounds for a few hours, we discovered another Christmas market where we enjoyed a huge soft pretzel and sissipunch, our favorite warm concoction of the trip: white wine, apple cider, sugar, cinnamon, clove and a dash of rum. Delicious!

hmm, sissipunch :)

After warming up our insides, we took full advantage of our 24-hour metro passes and headed out to photograph another estate, Belvedere Palace.

After the sun went down, we went back to our hotel room to thaw out and pack before heading back to the Schönbrunn Orangerie for a Mozart and Strauss concert. The 90 minute show was performed beautifully by a six-piece ensemble and was punctuated with singing and dancing. This was a bit of a splurge for us and a touch touristy, but it was a great way to experience a little classical music by two composers closely linked to Vienna.

We didn’t have much planned for Saturday, so we took advantage of that luxury and slept in.  After walking around town a bit we took a tram up to Stammersdorf to experience some authentic heurigers (a Austrian wine tavern where wine-growers serve the most recent year’s wine). There are plenty of districts in Vienna with heurigers but we read in several spots that the one furthest out was going to give us the best experience. Considering that almost no one spoke any English, I think we got our wish. Thankfully, Eric was on point with his German, so we managed to get our point across with little trouble.

come on in and drink some wine!

After receiving the first round, it became clear that we were never going to make it to all the places I had mapped out…

Above is a photo of the mugs of wine we were served at Heuriger Wieninger. The heurigen (or new wine) was light, slightly spritzy and very easy to drink. In fact, many of the older folks (so, pretty much everyone else in the tavern at 3pm) ordered new wine spritzers. Eventually, I also ordered a spinach and cheese pastry to add something else to my belly. The atmosphere was relaxed and casual, not unlike a pub, but the only thing on the menu was their own wine. Eric’s note: Leandra also ordered a red wine, which came out in a standard wine glass along with a decanter. Turns out everything they serve is large…

I convinced Eric to try one more place before heading back into Vienna, so we visited Haus Schmidt Heuriger closer to the tram stop. Here we tried the rotwein (red) and weißer (white) and once again, a mere 2 Euros got us 0.25L of wine each. For those slow at metrics that would be 1/3 of a bottle!

I wanted these wine glasses but we couldn’t figure out how to ask about buying them (in our limited German) and frankly, weren’t sure they would even survive the trip home.

On the journey out of town, we were surprised at how urban Vienna stayed a good half hour from the city center. Stammersdorf is the last stop on Tram 31, and this scene was more of what we expected… quiet streets, colorful houses and private courtyards.

We thought the wine was better at the first place, but didn’t try the heurigen at the second place, so it’s difficult to fairly compare the two. Ultimately it was nice to escape the bustle of the city for an afternoon and experience something uniquely Austrian.

Although we do not typically take organized tours, upon further research it became clear that we were not going to be able to get out of the city and see the Slovakian wine region on our own. Rental cars were prohibitively expensive and most of the winery websites we could find weren’t in English, so we had no way of knowing if they would even be open.

We were able to easily book the tour through the hotel for the next day and when we showed up at the designated spot, we discovered that we were the only people signed up—thus we had our very own private tour guide for the day!

Roman, our driver/guide, filled us in on some of the recent history of communism and all the steps toward rebuilding the city and even more importantly, the nation. Much of the farm lands were seized during the communist rule and by the time the property was returned to the families, the children were no longer farmers. This means much of the farm land is unused and overgrown, just waiting for development companies to name a good price.

Our first stop was a pottery shop in Modra where we got to see a potter, Miroslav, throw clay on a wheel. He showed us several different methods of creating these traditional vases, cups and dishes.

After leaving the studio at the back of the property, we visited the actual store where the painter was working to decorate the air-dried pieces which will then be fired. This woman had a very steady hand!

Our next stop was Hrad Červený Kameň (the red stone castle) which, as you can see in the photo below, was a little hard to see. It was very misty/rainy outside and we weren’t allowed to take any photos inside, so it was mostly a history lesson.

We were looking forward to the next stop at a family owned winery because it meant being indoors for a spell. Ján Paták Mountain Winery is located at the end of the narrow winding road and we were treated to a tasting of four of his wines, three white and one red. We sampled a Riesling, Gruner Veltliner, Devin and Blaufrankisch. Unfortunately for us, he didn’t speak English so our guide had to translate everything for us. Thankfully Roman knew a little about wine, so we probably got most of the story along with the tasty snacks.

The Bratislava Christmas markets started on Friday, so once we got back in town, my #1 goal was to try the traditional Slovakian honey wine, Medovina. We enjoyed this sweet wine with Lokse, crepes filled with nuts (for Eric) and chicken liver pate (for me).  After visiting a few booths, we decided to pick up our luggage and head back to Vienna for the rest of our trip.

After the confusing experience of getting to Slovakia, we were ready to take advantage of the rest of the daylight hours (and stretch our legs) by hiking up to the castle and enjoying sweeping panoramic views of the city.

We braved the chilly weather and watched the sunset over the Danube from the castle grounds…

Once the sun went down, we explored the town a bit before it was time for dinner. Unfortunately, the Christmas markets didn’t open until the following day, so we found a pub, Sladovna House of Beer, and sampled two Slovakian beers from Zlatý Bažant – a light beer (svetle) and a dark beer (tmave). Surprisingly, we both liked the darker one better as it was sweet but not too cloying like a porter or stout. Actually, it’s pretty amazing we managed to get anything because no one at the pub spoke English, so there was quite a bot of pointing and scowling when they had trouble breaking my 5 Euro note. That’s right… our two beers were only 1,60E!

After our round of Slovakian beer, we walked up to our dinner place, Traja Musketieri, and thankfully managed to snag a table amidst two large parties. We figured we would celebrate Thanksgiving properly by enjoying game… venison ragu for Eric and wild boar medallions for me. Everything was absolutely delicious and filling and the local wine was lovely.

At this point we returned to our hotel and called our families who were six hours behind and preparing Thanksgiving dinner. We had just enough energy to try a wine bar inside the hotel building where we had a lovely time sampling Slovakian wines. Once the owner knew we were more interested in the local wines—versus trying the standard stuff we can get at home—he gave us a lesson on some new varietals and wine-making styles. For example, the new Slovakian whites are named after castles and the reds are named after rivers.

The one thing we did notice was that at both the dinner place and the wine bar, we were charged double for our glasses of wine. I still haven’t been able to find an explanation as to why the prices are listed like this… a tourist tax perhaps?

Thankfully, by the end of our trip the transportation system in Vienna seemed a lot less complicated than it did at the beginning. However, making our way to the Sudbanhof station to catch a train to Bratislava proved to be a bit more challenging than either of us would have liked. When we got back from breakfast and checked out of the hotel, we realized we only had about 15 minutes to make the 11:05 departure. Knowing that would be pushing it, we relaxed for a few minutes then decided to just get to the station and wait for the next train at 12:05pm.

The U-bahn ride to Südtiroler Platz was easy but between the poor signage and construction where we came above ground, it took us a good 10 minutes to figure out where exactly we were and then which direction to head for the train station once we arrived. This is a huge train station and it is a good third of a mile from the U-bahn stop. By the time we hoofed it to the station, bought our tickets and found the correct line, we made the train by about 7 minutes. Whew! (We figured out later that we were meant to transfer to a tram, so we did that on the way back, but it was definitely not obvious.)

The train ride took about an hour and we saw quite a lot of small towns, green fields and windmills.

The next part of our adventure began at the train station in Bratislava… we arrived at the Petržalka station which is only about 1.5 miles from Old Town but unwalkable because of a busy highway and bridge over the Danube. A little old lady at the tourist desk reaffirmed our plan to take a bus to old town, then a tram to our hotel. But after watching every bus (save for the number we needed) stop, we found out that almost every bus crossed the Danube, and decided to get on the next bus and just get off at the first stop after the river.

Once we got to the Old Town side of the river we walked up what we thought was the main street trying to find our location on the map (thankfully we pack light!). After a few minutes wandering and speaking with a second kind old lady, we were able to figure out that we were 10 blocks north of where we expected and therefore only about three blocks from our hotel. Hooray!

In general, we thought Bratislava was very easy to navigate once we got our bearings. Plus, I think the whole exploring thing is way more fun when you are not rolling your luggage behind you on cobblestone streets. :)

Our first day in Vienna was more like a half day as we arrived around 3pm and the sun was already well on it’s way to setting for the evening. We settled into our very lovely room at the Le Meridian near Karlsplatz then set off on foot to explore Vienna and visit the large Christmas market in front of the Rathaus.

The street decorations did not disappoint. All the main shopping drags were lit up spectacularly and many of the stores were dripping with Christmas lights.

After a very convoluted path led by all the decorated streets, somehow Eric managed to get us to the main market which was bustling even on a Wednesday night. He snapped a few photos while I explored the stalls for ornaments and gifts.

We bought several pretzels from the Brezel stand twice on our trip – one savory (cheese),  one sweet (chocolate and powdered sugar), and one standard.

After we had our fill of market fare we wandered about some more and discovered at least four other small Christmas markets – all with their individual mugs describing the location (and sponsors) of that particular market. I really enjoyed the fact that hot beverages were served in these mugs which you could either keep (as we did) or return to get your 1-2 Euro deposit back. From the amount of people at these markets it’s a good thing locals returned the cups!

We weren’t hungry enough for a full dinner, so we headed back to the hotel and asked about a nearby local wine bar to get a glass (or two) of Austrian wine. The concierge recommended a wonderful place just two blocks away named Weinquartier.

Not only were the wine prices reasonable, we were also served a complimentary basket of bread and olive oil. Eric had no trouble picking out his whites but the reds were a bit more intimidating to me, so our server (perhaps also the owner?) let me sample a few wines to see what I liked best. What a lovely way to end our first day in Austria!