Day 88b: Bratislava to Vienna

JUNE 30 - A large number of wind machines along the way, more or less just scattered everywhere across the fields. Stop in the central bus/train station of Vienna, and take both the subway and a tram to get into the north of the city where our hotel is.

Austria is not technically Eastern Europe as it was never behind the Iron Curtain, but I have included it in this section for geographical continuity.

Other than our flight to London three months ago, we have not seen any real masking measures until now. Masks are required on all Vienna public transport, and there appears to be about 80% compliance. I do remember, many months ago, when I temporarily routed our trip around Austria due to their prolonged COVID lockdown.

My original plan had been to take a ferry up the Danube between these two cities. However, upon reviewing the route, I found that few people had anything good to say, as the river route did not show much, and is about five times more expensive.

The area our hotel (Apart-Hotel Marien-Hof) is north of downtown, in a district with a lot of businesses run by Middle Eastern immigrants. This is reminiscent of where we stayed in London.

A bit on immigration to Austria. Traditionally (pre-2015), the largest groups of immigrants were from ex-Yugoslavia countries and Turkey. This is apparent in our district of Vienna, where many restaurants have Turkish-sounding names, and kebab is the main dish. But in 2015, somewhere around 90,000 asylum-seekers were taken in, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan. A lot of these immigrants probably ended up in Vienna, that being by far the largest urban development in the country.

Eat and head to Augarden, a huge park just south of the hotel.

Down to Stephansplatz on the metro, in the early evening after the heat wears off a bit.

From here, walk south through area after area of museums, theatres, and art galleries.