February 13-14, 2016

There isn't much to say about Vienna.  We arrived after a 3-hour private shuttle bus from Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic.  Our hostel was nice though huge.  There must be 50 rooms.  We spent both days walking around the sites.  The city was beautiful but we didn't find anything very unique about it.  After having been in 90 cities (this being the 90th) over the last several months we've come to be aware of the intricacies of what makes a city 'feel' unique.

There were many high-end shops in the center part of town.  We found it difficult navigating the non-grid street system.  Cobblestone roads were quaint but made for uncomfortable walking.  We visited the Naschmarkt, which is a large outdoor market dating back 400 years.  We sampled some foods and then made it into town.  On the way back we stopped at Gösser Bierklinik for a drink and then again at a microbrewery called 7 Stern Brau.  I really missed Bavarian beer.  Czech Republic had shit bear...and I mean SHIT beer.  Germany (ex-Bavaria) wasn't that much better.  I was shocked that Poland has had the best beer outside of Belgium.  I could tell that the Soviet Union has had some impact on that as Baltic Porters were ubiquitous there.

We stumbled upon an enormous outdoor iceskating rink but ended up deciding not to go because it would have cost over $30.  It was larger than anything either of us had ever seen.  There were no less than 3 different rinks all connected by a maze of one-way zigs and zags.  We walked all the way through city to the large ferris wheel (2.5 miles away) only to find out how expensive it was to ride.  Fuck!  It's close to impossible to escape tourist traps everywhere we look.  Eastern Europe couldn't come fast enough.

We anticipate being in India within 4-5 weeks hopefully!  We have opted not to go to Turkey and have agreed that we will visit it during our next RTW trip.

Tomorrow we leave early to spend a night in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia.

Find out how to get Austrian visa.