#2978 vacation memories: day 8 - Linz, Austria (Friday, 12 Sept)

 

always down for a biergarten

When reviewing the itinerary for this vacation, I figured there were two days that were "throw-away days." I mean that there were two places we were going to stop and I'd get off the ship to see what was up and then go back and hang out on board the Aegir. The two towns without expectations: Bratislava, Slovakia and Linz, Austria. I've already told you I had a really nice day in Bratislava. Now I'm going to tell you that Linz was delightful and I had a fantastic day there.

We started out on a walking tour through Viking. The weather was grey and drizzly. The guide was very good, though, and I enjoyed hearing him talk about the third largest city in Austia - yeah, Linz! There is quite a bit of history there related to World War II and the little mustache man, but I won't go into that here because it was after the tour was over, when Lizzie and I got to wandering, that the day really picked up for me. Lizzie and I made a little plan that primarily involved getting coffee somewhere and wandering around for a little while. With this rather loose plan, off we went. 

The first thing to note is that, as with many of the cities we visited, Mozart was here! He wrote Symphony Number 36 in C Major here in about four days at the end of October 1783. (I'm listening to it as I write this, by the way. You may not know this about me, but I love classical music.)

Mozart wrote the Linz Symphony Number 36 here!

The second thing about Linz that caught my attention was flowers. I mentioned in my Vienna post that Austrians are the best at flower boxes, and Linz was just really great at flowers. Spoiler: the first pic and the third pic are the same light post from different angles, taken a few hours apart.

these cuties were at a little shop

a cute flower shop in Linz

Lizzie said she remembered seeing a little coffee place, so we went in that direction. We were sidetracked by a darling little bookshop. Most of the place was dedicated to children's books, but there was an upstairs portion for grown-ups.

We didn't buy any books, but we did find stickers and postcards and magnets (oh my!) I very nearly bought a coffee mug, but I chose not to simply because I was concerned it would get broken in my overly-stuffed bag.

Speaking of coffee, here's where we had some:

Friedlieb und Tochter

We sat at that orange table, sipping cappuccinos and enjoying cake. Lizzie had the most delicious cheesecake. It was incredibly smooth and creamy, and topped with a light layer of raspberry, I think. Here's what I had:

cappuccino and lemon cake

The sun had come out, the sky was bright blue, and I truly felt like I was living my best life, siting there having coffee and cake at an Austrian cafe. Could the day get better? (Yes, it could, and it did!)

After this amazing treat, we continued to wander around the quiet back streets. We decided to find the new cathedral, the Mariendom. It's fairly new, consecrated in 1924 and is the largest church building in Austria. We walked around inside and admired the stained glass, then walked out the door to find a biergarten!

biergarten with the cathedral in the background

I took this pic as we were leaving and the sky was clouding up again, but while we were there, the sky was blue and the air was warm and all was right with the world.

fav snack: fries with mayo and beer

a happy nun chats with a priest and a friend while sipping a pilsner

Lizzie likes it too!

Music was playing, people were having lunch, drinking beer and wine, chatting, and soaking up the sun and good vibes on this beautiful Friday afternoon. I took out my sketchbook and started doodling what I saw around me.

doodles done at the biergarten

We limited ourselves to two beers each, and as the clouds started gathering again, we decided to head back to the ship. On our way, though, we stopped at the oldest bakery in Linz to get a piece of the famous Linzertorte.

inside the Hofbackerei with a Linzertorte display

ooh! chandelier! (and a woman giving me the stink eye)

We took our slice of Linzertorte back to the ship to snack on later. We wanted to get back in time to have a tour of the wheelhouse with hot Captain Tomas - yet another highlight of a glorious day. 

My thoughts on the Linzertorte: it was dry and could have used a bit more of the jam. I think I would have liked the Linzer cookie more. The fact that I didn't get a cookie instead of the torte might be the only regret I have about the day in Linz. My favorite part was a toss up between the cafe and the biergarten. I had a great time at both places.  If I ever went back to Linz, I would cross the river and go up on the hill to explore the church up there and take in the view of the city.

maybe next time I'll go to the other side of the river and up that hill

The step count that day was 12,728 steps, 5.28 miles.

Next stop: the hills are alive in Salzburg, Austria!

#2977 vacation memories: day 7 - Krems, Austria (Thursday 11 Sept)

 

golden hour on the Danube

When we woke up on Thursday morning, we were docked in Krems. We had breakfast in the dining room and were enchanted by the cute town waiting right outside. We wished we had skipped breakfast on the ship and gone into the town to find a cafe, but we didn't. However, after breakfast we did go do a tiny bit of exploring.

Krems, Austria

I love fall!

Our excursion on this blissful late summer/early autumn day was a quick 15 minute bus ride into the mountains to visit Gottweig Abbey. This is a working abbey that was founded in 1083. It's been through some stuff, like the Middle Ages, fires, and Nazis, but it's still there, and the monks are still producing delicious apricot wine and ministering to the people of the valley. It is beautiful up there, and the views are spectacular.

so green!

my "art" shot of the valley

Gottweig Abbey church ussie

Our guide was a handsome Austrian fellow called Andrea. The church is pretty. There is a building there that the Hapsburgs (the royal family of Austria back in the day) used to come to because they could. There is a remarkably beautiful staircase and a delightful fresco on the ceiling. I would recommend checking out my sister's blog to see those two things. She took excellent photos of the staircase and fresco.

While most people were gazing up at the fresco, Lizzie and I spotted a put-your-face-here cutout and we had to oblige.

one must be serious in a monk's robes

Lizzie making Salvador Dali eyes

After the Abbey tour, we went back to the ship and pretty much immediately began the scenic sailing portion of the day. We were bummed out because we had been on the last tour, so we were eating lunch in the dining room when the sail began and missed out on a few things. As soon as we could, though, we went up on the sundeck with pretty much everyone else on the ship to take in the sights of the Wachau Valley. We were fortunate to share a table with a wonderful couple from New Zealand, Debra and Craig. We chatted easily about all kinds of things, including politics. They wanted to know if we, as Americans, are okay. Guess it depends on who you ask, right? Anyway, it was a super pleasant was to spend an afternoon. Our conversation kept getting interrupted as Debra, Lizzie, and I would get up to take photos.

a decrepit castle on the hill

another charming village

yes, that is a statue of a giant nose

Schonbuhel Castle

sunset on the Danube

That night for dinner, Chef George prepared "A Taste of Austria" which was basically a lot of meat. I liked it. If I remember right, the entertainment after dinner was a music trivia game. Lizzie and I would have placed in the top three if I hadn't messed up the decade of the songs that Lizzie had correct. It was fun and challenging. A highlight was an impromptu acapella sing-along  of "Take Me Home, Country Roads." All in all, it was a completely wonderful day.

Up next: an unexpectedly delightful day in Linz, Austria.

#2976 vacation memories: day 6 - Vienna, Austria (10 Sept 2025)

 

a rainy day in Vienna is still a really good day

When I first started thinking about this year's vacation, one thought I had was to see the Big 3 Capitals of Central Europe: Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. I'm not exactly sure why I wanted to see this cities so much, but I really did! When Lizzie and I spoke to our travel advisor, Candice, she recommended the river cruise on the Danube. (Of course Prague is not on the Danube, but we got there anyway. I'll talk about it in a future post.)

Because Vienna was one of my Big 3, I was really excited to visit the city. I was eager to just walk around and soak up the vibes, and I had another dream that I wanted to make come true: to have coffee and apple strudel in a beautiful Viennese coffeehouse. 

If you don't know, the coffeehouse culture in Vienna is a tradition dating back to the 1600s. There are cafes, and then there are the coffeehouses that are beautifully decorated with marble table tops, velvet seats, and elegant chandeliers. That's the type of place I wanted to go. I told Lizzie my dream, and she declared that we would make it happen!

Each of the cities we visited on this cruise had easy, walkable access to the historic districts, except Vienna. We were on a "panoramic tour" which meant that we were on a big bus with lots of other Viking guests. Our guide was born and raised in Vienna, and she had a take-charge demeanor and a no-nonsense way about her that I really liked. As in other cities, she did not shy away from the World War II and Communist history of the city. She also went even further back in history to Maria Theresa, the ruler of the Hapsburg monarchy and the only woman to hold that title in her own right, and Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as Sisi. You cannot get away from hearing about these two fascinating women in Central Europe. 

On the bus, we passed by many green spaces, which I loved, and the guide pointed out various statues of Mozart, Strauss, and other people of historical importance. She pointed out the Klimt museum and others. Off the bus, we walked around with our group and saw many beautiful buildings, including the Hofburg Palace and St. Stephen's Cathedral. The city is dazzling in it's grandeur. The buildings enormous and wonderful. These are buildings meant for the government of an empire, not a country smaller in size than the state of Maine. 

After the tour, our guide kindly looked at the list of places Lizzie had prepared and offered her opinions on what we must see and what we could save for another time. Based on this information, Lizzie took a few minutes to build a walking map on her phone (she's amazing!) and off we went. We wandered around, stopping in bookshops and churches, and admiring the glorious flower shops. I took photos of a few of them.

I'm going to tell you right now that I don't think any country does window boxes better than Austria. You will hear me say this again when I talk about Salzburg in a future post.

After an hour or so of wandering on our own, we were feeling hungry so we decided to get serious about finding a coffeehouse. We saw a few, but none were grand with chandeliers, so we just kept walking until suddenly, we found ourselves in front of Demel. This coffeehouse showed up on nearly all the lists I saw as one of the premier old school coffeehouses. There was no queue - I think there was only one couple ahead of us to be seated, so in we went. 

Demel was exactly what I had in mind for my coffeehouse experience. We were seated in a room painted Tiffany blue with sketches in white of cakes and coffees painted on the walls. A large chandelier hung in the center of room. There was a red velvet settee at the table next to ours, and our little table had a marble top and a little floor lamp nearby. 

I was excited to be in Demel!

I ordered a cappuccino and apfelstrudel.  Lizzie ordered a cappuccino and Sacher torte. 

Lizzie with our coffee and pastries at Demel

(I took this photo from a strange angle, so my strudel and coffee look enormous.)

apfelstrudel and creme anglais

Well, the strudel was kind of enormous, really. I think there might have been at least two whole apples in that slice. The creme anglais is a light custard sauce that you spoon over the strudel. Oh man...so good!

dreams can come true!

After our coffee and cake, we walked around the shop downstairs. The coffeehouse part of the building is upstairs, and the downstairs has a take-away cafe, some outdoor seating, and a retail shop. Demel makes chocolates and all sorts of lovely things. You can even buy a Sachertorte to go (we didn't), but I did like this display:

yes, that is a goat with a Sachertorte

Our food tasting at Demel was not over. Lizzie had read about a dessert called kaiserschmarrn, which are fluffy, shredded pancakes topped with a fruit syrup and powdered sugar. We opted out of the fruit syrup and just had the sugar. We bought ours from the take-out window at Demel, and it was hot and fresh, and amazingly good. It was quite egg-y, and the pancake was really fluffy and flavorful, sweet but not American pancake sweet. We sat on a bench across from the Hofburg Palace and got right after the kaiserschmarrn. It is a fun word to say. Go ahead. Say it out loud. And if you are ever in Vienna, go get some.

We walked around some more, and we were just not ready to go back to the ship because...Vienna. It's marvelous. We decided to try to find another grand coffeehouse we'd read about, and Lizzie lead us, after a slight detour, to Cafe Schwarzenburg, the oldest coffeehouse on the Ringstrasse. This time we sat outside and had our favorite snack: beer and French fries with mayonnaise. 

cheers to Vienna!

By the time we finished our snack, it was starting to rain a bit heavier. There had been light showers off and on through the day, but the rain became pretty steady, so we decided to finish up our time in the city and head back to the ship. I mention this because we stopped at a souvenir shop and we had to leave our umbrellas in a bucket by the door. This is where my umbrella suffered an injury that would eventually lead to it's demise. You'll hear more about my broken umbrella in the Amsterdam post. 

Lizzie and I successfully negotiated the return to the ship via the metro from Stephansplatz to the Vorgartenstrasse. It's just four stops between the two stations. It would have been far to walk, and like I said, it was raining pretty hard by then.  

My favorite part of the day was having strudel and coffee at Demel. 

If I had a regret, it's that we didn't have enough time in the city. I can think of at least three things I would do if I was to go back to Vienna. However, I feel very pleased with all the places I saw and the things we did, and I think we did the best we could in the time we had. You always have to leave something for next time!

My step count on this day was 17,109, a distance of 7.1 miles. 

The next stop is Krems, Austria where we will spend time at Gottweig Abbey and then have a very pleasant afternoon sailing on the Danube through the Wachau Valley and chatting with some new friends.

See you next time!

#2975 vacation memories: Day 5 - Bratislava, Slovakia (9 Sept)

ussie in the Old Town Square, Bratislava

 The cruise from Budapest to Bratislava was the longest of the trip. We left Budapest around 10 pm, I'd say, and we arrived in Bratislava around 2 pm. While we were having breakfast, it was announced that we would be going through a lock and that everyone was welcome to go up to the sun deck to check it out, so we did.

approaching the lock

Of course I have heard of locks, but I've never had the experience. It's basically a boat elevator. The ship pulls in to this cavern (the lock), then water from the river is pumped in and the boat raises to the next level of the river (and vice versa, I guess.) The thing that was most interesting was how close we got to the wall on the left side of the ship. I'm talking less than a foot between the ship and the wall. Why so close? Because another ship pulled into the lock with us.

two ships in the lock

That gate/door you see in the background closed and water came in and the ship slowly, slowly started rising to the top of that wall you see there. It was a really cool experience. There are eleven locks on the Danube between Budapest, Hungary and Passau, Germany. We passed through most of them overnight, but I think I was awake for three of them. None were as cool as this first one, probably because the weather was so delightful and I was excited to be on the river heading to a new place. 

we are in Slovakia!

I think this is a good time to tell you that I had a big crush on the captain of our ship, Tomas. He is tall, dark, and handsome with jet black hair, an awesome beard, and an effortless hotness that never failed to make my heart go pitter-pat. I also admired his skill at getting the long ship so close to the wall. At one point, he was leaning out over the rail and I worried he would scrape his beautiful head on that wall. I stared at him every day, and it's not a stretch to say that my overall enjoyment of the cruise had something to do with seeing him daily. 

Okay...

We had lunch on the ship (I had fish and chips that day) and we sailed along to the capital of Slovakia, the city of Bratislava. Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia until 1993, when the two countries separated. Slovakia joined NATO and the European Union in 2004, and it's main economic money maker is auto manufacturing. I had no idea.

Here's my first glimpse of Bratislava:

Bratislava, Slovakia

A rather unusual thing in Bratislava is the UFO Observation Deck/restaurant. We didn't go there, but we saw it from the ship.

UFO Observation Deck

I just mention it because it's unusual.

We had a walking tour of the old town that took us past a bunch of pretty buildings, one of which had a cannonball embedded in it that was from the time Napoleon Bonaparte bombarded the city. Besides Napoleon,  the Nazis were there in the 1930s, then the Communists came and didn't leave until the late 1980s. The place has seen some stuff.

When the tour was over, Lizzie and I explored on our own. Lizzie had a few places on her list for us to see. Our first stop was a cute shop that sold locally made crafts and things. I bought some postcards and a darling little watercolor, plus a couple of stickers. The next stop was a nice, modern bookstore in the not-touristic part of the city.  (Fun fact: Lizzie and I went into bookstore in every city we visited!) The bookshop in Bratislava was two levels. The first level had books in different languages, mostly Slovak, but also German, Hungarian, and English. The second level had more books and a really cute café.

café in the bookshop

cute!

Walking back to the older part of town, we saw a street lined with trees, restaurants, and shops so we decided to check it out.

Lizzie looking sassy in Bratislava

We happened upon a restaurant that Lizzie had tagged in her notes called Bratislava Flagship Restaurant. We saw a empty tables outside and decided to stop for a drink and maybe a snack.

Bratislava Flagship Restaurant

We were more likely in the pub part of the restaurant. I think part of it was a monastery and the monks brewed beer, as is pretty common in this part of the world. An interesting thing about most cafes in Europe is that you sit down and a server comes to you. You don't wait around for them to show you to a table, or you'll be standing around looking like a dumb tourist for awhile. Most of the time a server comes over right away. That was not really the case at this café, but a young woman did eventually come to take our order of "pivo and chipsy." Pivo is a draught beer, and chipsy is potato chips that come with a freaking delicious garlic dip.

Lizzie is delighted with pivo and chipsy!

This little snack was really, really good. The chips were freshly cooked, the dip was fantastic (I'll be looking for this recipe!), and the beer was excellent, so good, in fact, that we ordered another round. We were surrounded by folks walking home from work and school. People were out walking their dogs. Kids were running around and playing in the little park across the way. It was lovely.

After our snack, we walked back to the old town and looked at a confectionary shop that was absolutely beautiful and had gorgeous cakes. I didn't take a photo, though. (I don't know why. Maybe because there was so much décor I couldn't focus on any one thing.) From another shop, we bought something called a bajgel. Yes, it is similar to a bagel, but in Slovakia it is filled with "something," typically poppy seeds (very popular in Central Europe) or walnuts or other things. We bought one filled with walnuts in sort of a sweet mixture. It was tasty, and I bet they are delicious when warm. 

On our way back to the ship, we walked down a pedestrian walkway that was shaded by lots of trees. There were fountains and pots full of flowers hanging from the lampposts. There were benches full of people enjoying the late afternoon. The walkway was bordered by restaurants and cafes that were starting to fill up for drinks and later, dinner. I was charmed.

pedestrian thoroughfare

We got back to the ship and were rewarded with a glimpse of Hot Captain Tomas in shorts and a t-shirt. I think he got a fresh haircut in town, too. He has lots of tattoos, which just added to his allure. I'm surprised I didn't trip walking onto the ship. 

For dinner that night, Chef George prepared a traditional Slovak dish called halusky.  It might be compared to macaroni and cheese, but the "macaroni" is made from potatoes and flour, like gnocchi in Italy, and the cheese is not cheddar, but a sheep's milk cheese. We were told that the dish is usually topped with bacon crumbles, but Chef George topped his dish with crispy onions. I won't lie: it was astoundingly delicious.

halusky with a glass of sauvignon blanc

I enjoyed the day in Bratislava very much. I loved going to the non-touristy part of town to see what the locals do. There was one thing, though, that Bratislava is known for, and that is the big castle on the hill. We didn't go up there, and I think if I ever had a chance to go back to this city, I would go to the castle. It's said that the view is lovely and the gardens are nice. 

As we sailed away that night, Lizzie and I were on the top deck toasting the city with a glass of prosecco. The castle was all lit up, shining a bright white with a dark orange roof. We were excited to take a photo as we sailed by. We heard the church bells chime 10 or 11 times, and then...poof...the lights on the castle went out! So here's a pic of the dark castle:

Bratislava Castle

 I thought of something to add to the posts: how many steps I took and number of miles walked each day.

Tuesday 9 Sept - Bratislava: 12,408 steps, 5.05 miles 

Monday 8 Sept - Budapest: 13,476 steps, 5.53 miles

Sunday 7 Sept - Budapest 10,117 steps, 4.23 miles

Saturday 6 Sept - travel day Amsterdam to Budapest: 9,636 steps, 3.93 miles

In the next post I'll tell you about my day in Vienna, Austria. Vienna was city number 2 of the Big Four Central European capitals. Spoiler: Vienna is grand and awesome and I want to go back!