Spring holidays. In 2017 we went to south to Italy. In 2018 we went West to France. So the obvious logical step was to head East. We had been to Vienna twice — once before Kai was born with my parents, and later when Kai was still an infant with Yukie. As it turns out being late in planning, the availability of apartments wasn’t so great but then discovered that an hour further in Bratislava (the capital city of Slovakia) were some good properties available with Hilton points which I never seen to able to spend anywhere. It was worth exploring, and being so close to Vienna we could always use it as a base.
It was about 5-6 hours drive, so we decided to stop in Salzburg on the way. As we had visited before, I decided to explore some a new destination, Schloss Hellbrunn. Actually when searching TripAdvisor a business school classmate had posted about the “trick fountains” as a must see. I was curious how could a fountain be that exciting. We were not disappointed. It turns out the Archbishop whose summer estate it was had a great sense of humor — in various areas of the garden he had hidden spraying jets and would spring them on unsuspecting guests. On a perfect Spring day, these were delightful — the whole family enjoyed immensely. In addition, I highly recommend the restaurant.
On to Bratislava. There were a number of accidents which showed up on our navigation, leading to some extensive detours. Over all, we missed many hours of traffic jams but did arrive around 8pm to our hotel. They had upgraded one of our rooms to a suite, which was great for ordering in room service. The next morning we enjoyed a great breakfast buffet (also comped by the hotel) and headed up to Devin Castle, with origins over 1000 years old. Amazing outpost with great views of the Danube. After a quick stop at an petting zoo, we headed into the old town. The biggest problem we found in the old town was deciding what to eat — there were multiple Japanese restaurants (one specializing in Kobe steak), wine bars, Scandinavian, and of course Slovakian. And there were more ice cream stores than in any other area I have ever seen in my life (I am being serious). We spend the rest of the afternoon leisurely eating before heading back for some swimming at the hotel.
The next morning we debated what to do next — do we head back to Berlin via Krakow or Prague, stay another night, move on to Vienna. In the end of the day we decided to pack up and head to Vienna and then decide from there. We ordered the best Kaiserschmarrn on the planet at the Imperial Hotel. The food there was also quite nice. Afterwards we spent some hours walking the innercity of Vienna before it was time to head home.
After trying all the directions, it is hard to say which is best. All of them have great things to do and eat. I am happy to return to any of them again.
