A weekend in Bratislava and Vienna
Justin and I spent Valentine’s and President’s Day weekend in Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia. Our first day was spent in Bratislava. It reminded me of a very mini version of Prague, though without anything particularly spectacular. The old town is quaint with red roofs. There is a castle where at the top you have a nice view of old town and the river Danube. We stayed the night at a botel right next to the castle and old town, overlooking Bratislava’s famous UFO building on a bridge. The botel was a boat/hotel, if you didn’t pick up on that. It was a little crappy, but very convenient. I can see that Bratislava is a good party town during the summer, but during winter, it is quite empty and lackluster…which was both good and bad. We found a small bar/restaurant with some neat decorations (if you see a small guy in a cage in the pictures that’s where that was). There were a lot of random statues all over the city which was a nice surprise. And there were a lot of people walking their dogs.
Our last half of the long weekend was spent in Vienna. Go from a mildly drab but quaint Bratislava to a city full of nothing but luxurious palace style buildings as far as the eye can see-Vienna was quite the change. Vienna was really fancy and very nice to walk through. There was a magnificent cathedral in the heart of town and a number of museums, two of which we ventured. The Museum of Art History was pretty great. There was a whole room dedicated to Bruegel paintings. (While in Europe I have given myself a bit of a challenge to visit every Bruegel painting, I am a few museums shy, but this was one more to check off the list.) There was an awesome Medusa’s head painting by Peter Paul Rubens, quite a lot of nice Dürer’s, Gustav Klimt’s, and even a couple mummified crocodiles in the Egypt section. Didn’t think about it until later, but we visited a lot of places Hitler did as well…go history!
Overall a great weekend away. Happy Valentine’s Day…Happy President’s Day!
Weekend in Roma
We ventured to Rome again this year…just a weekend trip. There was a Pieter Bruegel il Vecchio art show with a few Hieronomous Boschs’ and Peter Paul Rubens’ thrown in the mix. Not bad. I barely made it in time for closing, and I happened to cut about 150 people and got a reduced fare somehow…can’t complain about that! I visited the Pantheon and briefly graced the Spanish Steps. Justin did not partake in the show or Pantheon, but we met up at the Spanish steps and went to a couple bars and hung out. Not much else to the weekend other than two long train/bus rides to and from Rome. Ciao!
Adventure Time with Jenny and Justin! Part Uno 