Europe Winter Trip ✈ Vienna

After hopping through various cities in Austria with detours to 2 countries, we finally made it to our last stop in Austria...Vienna. For someone who've learned piano for 10 years, I ought to be excited about visiting the city of classical music, the city that was once home to famous musicians like Beethoven, Mozart, etc. But pardon my shallowness, I'm just not that artsy and certainly not intrigued by history or museums. Before our trip, we were told that Vienna is amazing and we definitely need to go see 'The Kiss', the famous painting by Gustav Klimt, and to be honest, I was absolutely clueless and for a second I questioned myself if this is a general knowledge that I was supposed to know? Oh well, at least I heard about Beethoven and Mozart...lol! 

Thanks to the HiltonHHonors points that I accumulated from my work travels during the year, our 3 nights accommodation in Vienna was free. =) Even though we stayed 3 nights in Vienna, we spent only one day (6 hours to be exact) sightseeing around the city. 

Dec 29 - Jan 1 (Tues - Fri): Vienna

We usually travel on a budget and try to save on accommodation whenever we could, but as mentioned above, our 3 nights in Hotel Vienna South was absolute free (don't even need to pay for taxes)! It was definitely nice to 'upgrade' to a hotel after the past 4 nights in an apartment and a hostel. =P As a Diamond member, we also received a free upgrade to the brand new 'executive bedroom'. Nothing fancy but it's always nice to get a free upgrade...haha!

As shown above, this hotel is scheduled to join the Hilton Garden Inn brand in 2016. That means it had been undergoing renovations to upgrade the hotel and most of the areas were newly renovated, including our room. =) Considering that Dec 29 - Jan 1 was super peak season, we definitely got the most value out of the 10,000 points/night rate. If we were to pay for these 3 nights (which we wouldn't), it would have costed us €517...crazy! Better still, I actually received this 30,000 points as a compensation for being stuck in the elevator for 20 minutes during my stay in Houston...haha! I wouldn't mind being stuck in the elevator again. =P

Free breakfast...another perk of being a Diamond member (thanks to the status match for my SPG Platinum). =) The breakfast variety was actually pretty good!

The only downside about this hotel is that it's located in the middle of a business park, not close to the city. But it wasn't really an issue for us coz we could still get to the city center pretty easily within 30 min by public transportation. In fact, we walked 20-25 min to Wien Meidling railway station and from there we were able to catch trains to Bratislava and Wien Mitte station (city center). Definitely wouldn't mind spending a lil' more time commuting than using 50,000 points/night to stay downtown at Hilton Vienna. =P

Dec 31 (Thurs): Sightseeing in Vienna

Took the train from Wien Meidling station to Wien Mitte station and started our walking tour around the city.

Our first stop in Vienna...4th church of this trip...Jesuit Church (Universitatskirche). =P


And another cathedral...the very cool looking St. Stephen's Cathedral.

6th church for this trip...St. Peter's church (Peterskirche).

Enough of churches...next stop...Hofburg Palace.


Also within close proximity to the palace...the outer castle gate (Äußeres Burgtor) and New Royal Palace (Neue Burg).


GoPro wefies around the palace.


Passed by Palmenhaus Schönbrunn...a large greenhouse in Vienna.

Then we entered the busy part of the city center, also the venue for the New Year's Eve countdown. Initially we thought about hanging out until the night but it was too cold (even though the weather looked so pretty) so we decided to call it a day at about 1pm. 

Had lunch at the train station before heading back. At this point, we were too cold (as you could see from my Rudolph's nose) and all we wanted was to get back to the hotel. 

Guess how we countdown for New Year? Nope we didn't wanna be out in the crowd and the cold since Europe was on 'high alert', no thank you to the hotel New Year's eve gala dinner that cost €78/pax, and yes to enjoying beer and wafers in the hotel room. =) Thanks to the Dubai fire, we got to watch the Dubai fireworks on the news and also saw fireworks from our room window. =P Happy New Year 2016!!

Last but not least, our walking route map for Vienna. One more post to go for Prague and it'll be a wrap for this Europe trip! 

Europe Winter Trip ✈ Bratislava

Bratislava is definitely not as popular as compared to its neighboring cities like Vienna, Prague and Budapest. And to be honest, I wouldn't have known about this place if it wasn't for my previous job. This is one of the main reason why it automatically made it to into our itinerary for this trip (instead of Budapest). I've gotta at least see how this city looks like after hearing this 'word' so much for the past 3.5 years. =P I must say, we didn't have high expectations for this city and allocated only a day for sightseeing, which was more than sufficient. Castle, cathedral, old town...sounds pretty familiar huh! =P

Our initial plan was to spend the day sightseeing around Vienna but after checking the weather forecast, we changed our plan to visit Bratislava instead coz it was cloudy all day in Vienna but sunny in Bratislava. Gloomy weather absolutely turns my sightseeing interest off coz it makes everything look boring and sad (you'll know what I mean in my coming Prague post). 

Dec 30 (Wed): Bratislava Day Trip

We started our day pretty late and by the time we got to the train station, it was already 10am. Bought the OBB EURegio Slovakia (Bratislava day ticket) at the train station for €16/pax, which covered our return journey between Vienna and Bratislava, and also public transports within Bratislava. Actually, nobody bothered checking our tickets at all for the whole day, even after traveling back and forth between two countries...lol! 

Hopped on the 10.37am train to Bratislava Petrzalka (not the main Bratislava station). The one hour journey brought us through vast farmlands and lots of windmills. As you can see, I got bored and started taking selfies...lol!!

The OBB website has all the information on how to get to the city from the train station. We diverted from our original itinerary and didn't take the train to the main station, but fortunately there was free wifi at most OBB train stations so we were able to look it up before our train departed. From Petrzalka train station, we hopped on bus 80 that brought us to the city center within 10 minutes.

Our first stop for the day was to hike up the castle, it wasn't a difficult hike but look at someone's face along the hike...haha!!

The pretty modern-looking castle, and nope we didn't go in for a visit. =P

Nice view of river Danube, UFO bridge (no I didn't come up with that name), and the old town from the castle hill.

GoPro wefies for Bratislava.

3rd cathedral for this trip...St. Martin's Cathedral. We came earlier but they didn't allow visitors coz there was a service going on. 

After a quick visit of the cathedral, we spent some time walking around the old town. It was nice walking around the old town coz it wasn't crowded and the entire area is a giant pedestrian-only zone. We were able to stroll around slowly and stop for photos whenever we wanted without having to watch out for any vehicles. =)

Last stop for the day...Slovak pub...gotta try some Slovak food and beer before we leave. We were surprised that this place was crowded at 3pm, and we were a bit lost when we first got in coz the staff told us that the non-smoking area was full and just walked away after that. After looking lost not knowing where to go for 5 minutes, we decided to find an empty table sit. 

Glad I did some homework before coming, I wouldn't have known what to order even after reading the English menu. Btw, food here is pretty cheap. 

Thanks to the recommendation from this website, we ordered the traditional Slovak platter (dumplings with bryndza sheep cheese, pirogi with bryndza sheep cheese, dumplings with cabbage), Kofola (Slovak version of Coke), and Zlatý bažant (Slovak beer). Note the super huge mug of beer, I couldn't even lift it up with one hand...lol!

Saw the Presidential Palace at Hodžovo námestie square before take bus 93 back to the train station to catch the train back to Vienna.

That's it for Bratislava. Here's our route map. It's not a big city but has its own charm and just nice for a day trip. Glad to finally made it here and add one more country to my travel list. =) 

Europe Winter Trip ✈ Hallstatt

After spending 3 nights in Salzburg, it was time to move on to our next destination...the postcard-perfect town of Hallstatt. Considering that Hallstatt is a really small town and we could walk from one end of the town to the other within an hour, we decided to spend only half a day sightseeing here before continuing our journey to Vienna. Glad we made this decision coz it was so cold and 6 hours of sightseeing was more than enough for us, plus we were carrying our backpacks all around the town. Apparently, Hallstatt is called a 'cold hole' because the sun disappears sometime in November and doesn't return till March.

Dec 29 (Tues): Salzburg - Hallstatt - Vienna

Getting to Hallstatt from Salzburg by bus was easy. We took bus 150 at 8.15am from Salzburg Hbf to Bad Ischl. Bought our one-way ticket for €10.50/pax ($12) from the bus driver. This was a popular route so I wasn't surprised that the bus was quite full. Thanks to my kiasu skill, we were the first to board the bus...haha!! The bus route passes by the picturesque village of St. Gilgen so try to sit on left side of the bus to get great landscape views along the way.

Arrived at the Bad Ischl train/bus station after 1.5 hours and waited for about 10 minutes to board the next bus 542 (and switched halfway to bus 543) towards Hallstatt Lahn. The journey from Bad Ischl to Hallstatt took about 45 min on both bus 542/543 and costs €5/pax ($5.50). It may sound complicated switching 3 different buses but it's actually real easy and the bus drivers know where you're going. Another good thing about taking a bus instead of a train is that we didn't need to take a ferry coz the bus stop is on the same side as Hallstatt town. 

We were welcomed by this amazing panoramic view as soon as we got off the bus..so pretty!! Our sightseeing route for Hallstatt was to walk from here to the other end where the church is (spot that one and only taller building). According to Wikipedia, "Hallstatt can be toured on foot in ten minutes"...told ya Hallstatt is small!

No snow but still pretty with the blue skies. =)

The swans of Hallstatt. Swans on the lake = Swan Lake?? =P

Can't stop taking photos as we stroll along the water towards the town. 

Houses here are all built close to the cliffs on the mountains overlooking the lake, that's what makes this town so pretty. 

And this is the main 'small' town of Hallstatt...10 minutes is all you need. =P

We wanted to find a restaurant to have lunch and warm ourselves up but it seemed like there was only one restaurant open and it was packed. Then we found this kebab stall near the boat dock. Even though it was cold eating outdoor, it was nice to have some hot food while enjoying our Hallstatt beer. =)

Last but not least, the classic village view point for the postcard-perfect photo. =) We were standing here for about 20 minutes and saw the sun barely for 10 minutes before it was blocked by the mountains again...no wonder it's called a cold-hole.

GoPro wefies.

I was so cold waiting for the ferry I really didn't bother how I look anymore...lol!!

Boarded the ferry (€2.50/pax) to cross the lake to the train station. Goodbye Hallstatt!!

Hello from the other side!

There was really nothing on the other side of the lake apart from this small train station. Fortunately, there was a place to sit indoor while we waited for our train at 3.25pm. The train from Hallstatt to Wien-Meidling (Vienna) took 4 hours and costed €19/pax ($21).

Snowy scenery along the way.

Had to change trains twice along the way and finally made it to Wien Meidling station in Vienna at 7.30pm. We chose to stop at this station instead of the main train station in Vienna because it was closer to our hotel, where we stayed for the next 3 nights.

Our sightseeing map for Hallstatt.

Europe Winter Trip ✈ Berchtesgaden

Berchtesgaden (not sure how to pronounce but I think I heard 'buck-tis-ga-den' on the bus) was the last destination we added on our itinerary for this trip. As mentioned in my previous post, our initial plan was to make a trip Lake Bled in Slovenia but getting there was too much of a hassle so we ended up looking for an alternative destination for a day trip from Salzburg. Came across this small German town 30km south of Salzburg, and considering that we were already in the Bavaria region, we figured we should at least spend a day in Germany and enjoy some German food and beer. Hubby still wants a Germany-only trip so this was just a brief intro, we'll save the rest for the next trip (who knows when).

Dec 28 (Mon): Berchtesgaden Day Trip

Took the 8.15am RVO Bus #840 from Salzburg Hbf to Berchtesgaden. We bought the all-day pass (Tagesticket) for €9.80/pax ($11) from the bus driver, which covered all our transportation to and from Salzburg and all the local buses in Berchtesgaden. A one-way ticket would have costed €4.70 so it's a no-brainer to get the all-day ticket. I was quite surprised that the bus was almost full with tourists (and a dog) doing the same thing as us, majority young Asians our age, we're definitely a generation of 'DIY' travellers. 

Arrived Berchtesgaden bus station after 45 minutes. It's a small bus/train station and all the buses coincide their timing with the tourist route so it's hard to get lost. As soon as we hopped off bus 840, we hopped back on to bus 841 that goes directly to our first stop for the day (Lake Königssee) in just 10 minutes.

The scenery of the Alps surrounding the lake is known to be picturesque but you would have to take the boat ride to see it. Even before we started the trip, we've decided that we would give this boat ride a pass and just walk around Königssee Village and see the lake from the boat dock. It was only about 9.30am when we got there and most shops were still closed and the surrounding was quiet, tranquil and cold (the sun wasn't up yet). Typically waters around boat docks are a lil' polluted but not this one, the waters were crystal clear...literally!! As we were leaving, we saw the electric ferry silently pulled into the dock to pick up the first batch of visitors for the day.

Our next stop for the day was Salzbergwerk Salt Mine. There are several salt mines in the region (including the ones in Salzburg and Hallstatt) but this is the only one that stays open in the winter. I don't know what's with us and salt mines, it seems like we love visiting salt mines (this was our 2nd salt mine visit within a year after Peru), but nope it was just pure coincidence. We could have taken a local bus from the main station but ended up walking 30 minutes to the salt mine coz I didn't want to wait for the bus, what was I thinking...lol! =P 

The 1-hour guided tour costs €16/pax ($18). We changed into our miner's outfit, got an English audio guide, and off we went on the salt train ride that brought us deep into the underground mine. To be honest, I wasn't really interested in the 'educational' aspect of the tour but it was fun sliding down the wooden miner slides and taking a boat ride in the underground lake. If you're wondering how an underground lake looks like, it's the bottom right photo (p.s. I wasn't supposed to take photos but this was too cool not to share). :P The water was so still with perfect reflection of the 'ceiling' it didn't even look like there was water at all! 

It was 1pm by the time we finished the salt mine tour, just in time for lunch at the nearby Braustüberl Beer Hall, 10 min walk from the salt mine. Btw, it's never too early for a beer in Germany...haha!!

After a good experience at the beer hall in Salzburg the day before, we were looking forward to another good meal/beer hall experience at this local beer brewery...especially since we're in Germany. 

We ordered the Berchtesgadener beer, roasted potatoes, sausage, roasted chicken, sauerkraut, and a dessert. These may not look fancy but everything was so good, the beer, the food...yummsss!! 

Oh and I forgot to mention, it was our 2nd anniversary so this was how we celebrated two good years of marriage...practical and simple. =P

After filling our stomachs, it was time to burn some calories and hike up Lockstein Hill. This place is not quite a tourist spot but thanks to the recommendation of this website, we found this Wine Field Chapel that "offers an awesome countryside vantage point for taking photos of Watzmann Mountain." The hike wasn't too difficult but was steep enough to make us panting. We saw a local old lady hiking up the hill and she told us she's 85...we're not even half her age and already panting...lol! Good reminder for us to keep moving and stay fit to see more of the world! =P

 Picturesque view of the chapel overlooking Berchtesgaden with Watzmann Mountain in the background. =)

As you can see, there weren't many people here...best of all, it's FOC. =P

Playing with the sun-rays again. =P

Our last stop in Berchtesgaden before heading back to Salzburg was the Market Street (MarktStraße)...a pedestrian only shopping area filled with local authentic shops. Bought a heart-shaped pastry to celebrate our anniversary. =P One thing I realized on our bus back to Salzburg...the entire bus was filled with Asians apart from 3 ang mohs (including hubby)...and this was a public bus. At that point I felt like I was traveling in Asia instead of Europe...lol!!

Last but not least, here's the google maps link for our sightseeing route in Berchtesgaden.

Up next, we'll be heading back to Austria with a quick detour to the quaint little town of Hallstatt on our way to Vienna. The past 2 weeks had been nothing but work and it looks like my busy season this year will go all the way until May. =.= Gonna be tough finding time to blog while juggling with work and study in the next few months, but I'll try my best to squeeze some time in and finish blogging about this trip. 4 more to go, I can do it!