Wai's Travels!: Wratchko

Friday, November 13, 2015

2015 - Eastern Europe Summary

Duration: 18 days (arrived on the morning of Saturday September 12, 2015 and left in the morning on Tuesday September 30, 2015)
Cost: Flight from Toronto to Munich and Prague to Toronto ($1,108.42 CAD), 3 trains ($214.15 for three people), overnight train (67 € I think for private room just three of us) Hotels (819 € + $1,519.45 CAD for two), $342.83 for car rentals, roughly 17 € per meal in Germany and Austria, 4,000 Forint per meal in Hungary, 300 Kč per meal in Czech Republic and local transportation and admission.

Highlights (in no particular order):

BMW Museum in Munich, this museum has given me a greater appreciation for the brand and makes me almost want to get a BMW for my next vehicle. I believe that even if you aren't interested in what BMW makes, you will like the layout, flow, and collection that is housed in the BMW Museum. In my opinion, it is a must see while in Munich.

BMW Museum

Dachau Concentration Camp in Munich, make sure to sign up for the guided tour and jump back to a time where things were different in Germany and learn about what happened here and how things were back then. The guided tour lasted roughly 2.5 hours and well worth the small cost of it.

Dachau

Salt Mine in Salzburg, while I didn't know what to expect nor did I actually know this was part of the plan (I didn't really look at our plan well), this was a surprise and the two slides plus the train out were excellent and worth the day trip here.

Salt mine slide #1

Salt mine slide #2

Linderhof / Neuschwanstein in Munich, while there were cool looking palaces in the other countries that we visited, these two really stand out the most in my mind (outside of the metal bird in Schönbrunn palace). Take a day trip and visit the two to travel back to a time where palaces were built with grand ideas and locations in mind and just wander and enjoy your surroundings. I feel that overall, Linderhof is my preferred palace of the two, but odds are, you will visit both given their proximity to one another. If you visit them, I would suggest Neuschwanstein first since it seems to be the busier one, but in my opinion, Linderhof is more enjoyable.

Neuschwanstein

Linderhof

Lowlights (in no particular order):

Kutna Hora, expectations were too high for me for this one. It is a small room, so much sure to visit the town nearby otherwise you spend a lot of time just to see this location. Make sure to go early because it gets pretty busy by 10:00am.

Kutna Hora

Must try food places:

Humboldt in Salzburg, was quite the surprise restaurant for me. It was the only place that we visited where I enjoyed all of the entrees that we got and unfortunately Humboldt was never topped for me for the rest of the trip.

Humboldt

Wratschko in Vienna, is a restaurant recommended by Anthony Bourdain and I would suggest it as well. Just note that the service was lacking for us but in my opinion, the food makes up for it.

Wratschko

Szazeves Etterem in Budapest, is a restaurant recommended by Allison's brother and worth visiting. Come on a Friday and be entertained by the live music there. Good food, good service, recommended.

Szazeves Etterem

What would I change?

Vienna could have been shortened to 3 days for us versus 3.5 days that we spent there. Budapest could have also been shortened to 2 days versus 3 days. Otherwise, I think the trip worked out well and everything worked out for us even though we were quite worried about the migrant crisis at the time which turned out to be a non-issue by the time we arrived.

I know that this is a common path that tours take and I can see why since it is very convenient to get from place to place. I do feel that we started on a high note and ended on a softer note which made me feel a bit bored by the end. Not so much due to planning, but the variety of things to see disappears after awhile and I think that happens to me a lot during longer trips. Not to fault the countries that we visited.

In hindsight, it may have been better to reverse the order of the cities, but that meant that we would hit Munich during Oktoberfest which is something that we didn't care to visit due to the additional cost.

Until next trip!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

2015 - Eastern Europe Summary (Vienna)

Duration: 3.5 days (arrived around noon on Sunday September 20, 2015 and left in the afternoon on Tuesday September 22, 2015)
Cost: Hotel Graf Stadion ($396.93 for 3 nights), average meal was roughly 17 € a person for us, and admissions to sights and transportation.

Highlights (in no particular order):

Schönbrunn Palace, I initially thought that I would be tired of palaces by now, but the scale of this one and the flow was quite nice and we spent an entire morning here. We didn't visit all the sights, but the ones that we saw were quite nice and even if you decide on not visiting the interiors, the outside is just as nice and it is free to walk the grounds. I would highly recommend visiting the maze section for the metal bird.

Schönbrunn Palace

Schönbrunn Palace

Belvedere Palace, similar to Schönbrunn Palace, I felt that this was a nice stop especially since it is close to the city but it feels like you are outside. It isn't a very large site and you can walk the grounds in under an hour which is free.

Belvedere Palace

Vienna Parliament, this was my surprise for Vienna. I don't recall visiting many parliament buildings in my time, but this was a surprise and I would highly recommend visiting and doing the tour (and skip the Vienna Opera House unless you REALLY want to see it). The tour is an hour long and it available in English and German and well worth it. Have a look at the pictures and decide (I won't spoil what the tour guide walks about).

Vienna Parliament

Vienna at night, the buildings in the city are well lit at night and I am surprised at how well the pictures turned out. Do make sure to try to visit the buildings when it is dark (or just admire the pictures that Allison took with her point and shoot).

Vienna at night

Lowlights (in no particular order):

Vienna Opera House, it may have been the time that we came, or my expectations for this place, but it was quite the let down. There were clearly too many tourists because they broke down an English tour group into multiple to accommodate and this meant that you are rushed around and you don't get a chance to appreciate anything. The tour guide just talks as they go and since you don't have headsets, you will usually miss things and have to ask them to repeat themselves. The last part of the tour is where you get to sit inside and admire the theater which is what you are here for. It is nice, again, our tour guide didn't go through much and it was just a Q & A session, so if there are no questions, you will be escorted out.

Vienna Opera House

Must try food places:

Wratchko, if you happen to get bad service, I guess you have been warned but this was my favourite meal in Vienna out of all the places that we have tried. The service was slow, the food was slow, but the amount of staff was low, so while I shouldn't be saying that they should be forgiven for this, I can sympathize with their scenario.

Grilled fish

Meatballs

Pork cheeks

Beer!

Figlmüller, come for the schnitzel experience. I thought the schnitzel was good but the highlight for me was their potato salad which was part of their salad choices. I would suggest not getting one per person like we did and just share one and have a salad and maybe something else. Make sure not to eat the bread because you will be charged for it (unless you want to).

Schnitzel with salads and roasted potatoes

Schnitzel next to a 5.5 inch phone for size reference

What would I change?

Based on what we visited and what we went into and what we just saw from the outside, I feel that 3 days would have been enough and I think that's the only change I would make. The last half day we had to figure out what to do and while Prater had the world's oldest ferris wheel, I don't think it is that important of a sight to visit (in my opinion). So, ideally, if we left in the morning of the last day, Vienna would have been fine.