Gyor, Vienna and Salzburg

Now, I know what you're thinking... "Vienna...absolutely and Salzburg I get, but Gyor, where the hell is that and why would you stay there?"  That is a very valid question.  We asked ourselves the same thing.  Alas, sometimes what dictates your decision to stay in a town is not the town itself but the accommodation you find.  For much of our trip we used the http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/ website to secure apartments.  (It lists rental properties throughout the world mostly owned by Brits.  This facilitates arrangements since the owner speaks English!)  Through this site we found an apartment in Gyor and decided to use it as a base in which to visit both Vienna and Bratislava (capital of Slovakia), it being a one hour drive from both destinations.   We did make it to Vienna, but truth be told, the weather was miserable and we mostly hibernated in the apartment to read books and watch TV.  It is much more pleasant to do that sort of thing when you have a nice apartment. 

View of the River from our apartment in Gyor 

To be fair, Gyor was rather charming.   It is hard not to like the curved cobblestone pedestrian lanes and the stuccoed buildings painted in muted yellows, pinks and greens that are common to many towns in this part of Europe.  The Christmas market was in full swing and we came across the booth selling funnel like cakes just as our tummies started to get that mid-morning pang.  We had seen these in Zagreb and Hungary and I was very eager to try one.  It was quite good - one is plenty big for two to share.   

The Ràba River runs east through the  town where it eventually meets up with the Danube and it's lazy but powerful route passed our balcony by mere meters.  

I will always remember Gyor as the place that gave me a black eye.   About 30 seconds into a run I stepped on a plastic Xmas tree binding and caught my other foot in the loop - I went down in an instant, banged my brow bone hard on the pavement (oh yeah, I was on the street when I did this in front of the market selling Xmas trees - it was busy with cars and people.... oh and it had been raining so there was a big mud puddle right where I landed).  I wasn't hurt, but surprised because I couldn't imagine why I went down so suddenly.  I picked up the nasty culprit, gave a mean look to the guy selling Xmas trees and continued on my way.  I received quite a few stares but I thought this had more to do with the fact that no one runs here.  It wasn't until I got back home that I realized I had mud all down one side of my face and big swollen eyebrow!

Looking better here...
 

Vienna!  What does one say about this amazing city without sounding trite?  I figured that one must not visit Vienna without taking in some musical entertainment.  So we drove from Gyor to Vienna to catch an evening with the Vienna Imperial Orchestra (doesn't that sound grand?).  The route into Vienna took us through the industrial area with smoke stacks and a huge OMV (oil) refinery - I couldn't believe this was beautiful Vienna!  The airport comes after this zone so most tourists making their way into the city would not experience this wrong side of the tracks.  Downtown, we quickly found some expensive underground parking, made sure we would be able to find our way back before leaving, popped into a hotel for a map and restaurant recommendation, and then walked a quick tour of the major sites.  We weren't quite sure what to make of the young men beside in the restaurant who wore cow bell's around their necks!  The pedestrian zone and St. Stephensplatz were very busy with shoppers and buskers and the Christmas light displays were spectacular.

    

At one of the Christmas markets (there were several) we came across a outdoor concert with gospel singers.  They were very good so we listened to them while Marcus sipped a Glühwein and I downed my first Starbucks latte in months.  Heaven!  Before too long we had to head to the orchestra. Luckily we had scoped out the location just after parking the car because it was not easy to find.  The master of ceremonies introduced each piece of music in both English and German obviously catering to the many tourists that visit Vienna at Christmas.  The hall itself was quite beautiful with wooden painted ceilings, gold-leaf biblical scenes and I took pictures of the trompe d'oeil stone walls hoping to one day recreate it in a room in our next home.

This looks easy, don't you think?

The orchestra put on fun show playing typical pieces you'd recognize like the Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and we were also entertained by two opera singers and a pair of ballet dancers.  We quite enjoyed it.   On our way back home in the car, we both agreed we'd come back to Vienna for a much longer stay.

 

 

We had one last stop before heading to Munich and that was Salzburg, Austria.  We'd been through Austria once before in 1996 when we drove from Munich south across the Alps to Merano, Italy.  Most of our memories from that trip had to do with big mountains and this was the image we had in our heads when we headed across the top of Austria.  But somehow we made it the whole through Austria on a flat highway without encountering any mountains!  Where did they all go? 

In Salzburg we stayed at the Marriott.  It was about a 20 minute brisk walk along the river into the downtown.  Since we had done the castle on the mountain once before we felt we could bypass the steep climb to the top of the hill and wander throughout the pedestrian zone along the base of the hill.   In addition to the wonderful metal work signs above each shop door, many windows were adorned with very creative Xmas decorations.  We hadn't seen this anywhere else and they were quite delightful to look at.  We bought cookies at the Christmas market and black bread at the St. Peter flour mill.  To give you an indication of how heavy it is, it was priced by kilogram.  We found ourselves once again charmed by the cemetery and catacombs at St. Peter's church.  The elaborate scrolled ironwork that marks the graves are beautiful - each a work of art.  The beds are carefully maintained and planted for Christmas.

More pictures:  http://picasaweb.google.com/kristine.d.morris/Gyor#