At the Prague central train station, waiting on an early morning train to Vienna.
We spent the first day in Vienna walking around, getting our bearings. We visited the Kunsthistorisches museum, a large art museum in central Prague.
The entire area around the museum is like a giant park. The natural history museum is directly across from the art museum and looks the same.
This is a direct ancestor, Nicholas Lanier, painted by van Dyck. He was a musician on the king’s court.
Our first dinner in Vienna did not disappoint. Lisa had the wienerschnitzel.
We pre-booked tickets to visit Shonbrunn Palace. We were excited, as this is one of the main attractions in Vienna. We scheduled everything out, took the train out to get there in time, and made our way to the turnstile. Unfortunately, we mixed up the days. Our tickets were actually for the next day.
Since we had the day now, we decided to check out Vienna. First, we stopped at the palace cafe for cake and coffee. I go the Sachertorte, a cake famous in Vienna.
We spent a good portion of the day walking around central Vienna, checking out the sites.
The Hundertwasserhaus – a bizarre apartment building completed in the 80s by an Austrian artist.
Crossing the river, after visiting a small market away from the city center.
After dinner, we saw a string quartet play in an old church.
Back at Schonbrunn, this time on the correct date. We did tour the inside, but they do ask that you take no photos inside. The grounds are massive, and you are free to wander around them after the tour.
The gardens around the palace are enormous. It feels almost like a really nice city park more than a private area. Locals do use it to jog and treat it like a park.
Our ticket included access to the top of the Gloriette, which is located on a 200 ft hill opposite from the palace.
The view from the top of the Gloriette
We spent some time walking around the palace grounds. This fountain was actually built as fake Roman ruins, built in the 1700s.
The Gloriette, seen from Schonbrunn Palace.
The Orangery was built to house non-native tropical plants during the winter. They were on display during warm weather and transported into the giant greenhouse-like structure to keep them alive during colder months.
We spent a good portion of the day at Schonbrunn, as it is massive. After arriving back in central Vienna, we did a little more sightseeing. This is Karlskirche, a massive baroque church.
Vienna has no shortage of museums. This is Belvedere Palace, which houses many famous artworks from ancient times to modern.
The museum has a permanent Klimt collection. This one is kind of a big deal. There is some questionable history behind the “acquisition” of some of the palace’s priceless art.
For dinner, we had traditional Viennese food in a cellar restaurant.
Vienna is known for its cafés, and Cafe Central is probably the most famous. It was our last night in Vienna, so we had to try it.
Our spread at Café Central. The Café is known for its famous historical patrons like Sigmund Freud, and some more notorious patrons (Hitler, Stalin).
The main square, Stephansplatz, was a short walk from our hotel. We both really enjoyed Vienna, and can see why it is consistently named the best place in the world to live. Everything is clean, orderly and beautiful. The people were all extremely nice and helpful as well. The whole city just felt “elevated,” in the best way.
The final stop on our trip was Budapest. We were really looking forward to this leg of the trip, and were hopeful that we’d get a little off the tourist beaten path. We found what we were looking for. Arriving at the central train station, we were excited to hit the ground (after missing our originally booked train in Vienna)
After lunch, the first stop was chimney cake. We had it in Prague, as all tourists must, and wanted to try it in Hungary where it originated.
A running theme during this trip was the city on one side of a river, and a castle on a hill on the other. It really made for some scenic views.
The Danube River at sunset, crossing over the chain bridge. The parliament building is visible in the distance on the right, and the castle on the left.
One very unique thing to Budapest are the ruin bars. They are old ruined buildings that entrepreneurs have turned into giant social spaces. During the day they serve as markets, and at night house various bars. This is the “original” ruin bar, Szimpla Kert.
The really cool thing about these bars, is they haven’t really been fully renovated. This one has an open courtyard in the middle, and has a very eclectic vibe.
The bar is more like a complex, with several bars of various types housed within it. There are craft beer bars, wine bars, and everything else all sharing the space.
This gives and idea of the “unfinished” aesthetic of the ruin bar.
It’s really hard to capture the vibe in photos or videos.
Another ruin bar. This one was also cool, but we were a bit spoiled by Szimpla Kert. We did try the local liqueur, Unicum. It packed quite a punch.
We took a walking tour the following day, starting at the Hungarian Parliament building, Országház.
It was interesting to learn that Budapest is actually two cities, split by the river. This side, “Pest,” is actually very new. Most buildings were completed in the late 1800s.
The largest church in Hungary, St. Stephen’s Basilica. We learned that Budapest has no Cathedrals.
The Soviet heroic memorial. It was interesting getting a first-hand account of living under communism from our tour guide. They did not have many good things to say about it. It’s also interesting that the Hungarians chose to keep the memorial up, but placed a statue of Reagan next to it.
The holocaust memorial is controversial among those living in Budapest due to the Hungarian government being complicit with the Nazi occupation of the country, and aiding in the extermination. There are photos, belongings and messages from the survivors and victims all around the memorial in protest.
We learned about a local artist, Kolodko, that places pieces all around Budapest. This one is on the British embassy… Mr. Bean’s teddy bear. It was fun to spot them throughout our tour.
After the tour, we headed to the city central market hall for lunch. This is a street food from Budapest called Langos. It is a piece of fried bread covered in sour cream and cheese.
We learned during our trip that Strudel is originally from Hungary, not Austria. We had dinner at a restaurant known for their strudel. Spoiler, the Viennese is more famous for a reason.
We took a river cruise down the Danube right as sunset was beginning.
The views from the water were outstanding.
The Parliament building at night, from the river. It really is a beautiful building, and the way they light it up at night is striking.
Looking towards “Pest”, with the castle in the background.
For our final day in Budapest, we walked across to the “Buda” side to visit the castle.
We were warned during our walking tour that the castle is actually very plain inside, and not worth the admission. It is also new. The views from the hill were worth the walk though.
The castle complex is huge, and there is an entire town adjacent to it.
Budapest is famous for its thermal bath houses. We reserved the most famous one, Szechenyi.
The water is all naturally warmed, and gets quite hot. There are several bath rooms in the complex, and two large pools outside. The weather was actually cold, but the warm water was comfortable.
Visiting the thermal baths required using the subway. This is one of the oldest stations, which is very small. The trains are much smaller and slower than others we are accustomed to.
Our last dinner in Hungary. The food was simple, but delicious.
We took trains starting in Berlin and ending in Budapest, but it would have been an 11 hour train ride to get back to Berlin. It was an easy decision to make.
Back in Berlin, having our final meal of the trip. There was a lot of heavy, stick-to-your-ribs food on this trip.
One last wienerschnitzel.
At Checkpoint Charlie
We didn’t get a chance to visit Checkpoint Charlie during our original stay in Berlin, so we took the opportunity to see it (actually, we kind of stumbled upon it)
