Danube River Cruise Vacation Part 5: Vienna and Bratislava

My husband and I have been on two big vacations this summer, which is highly unusual. Now that we are back from the second trip, I am able to continue writing about the first trip. I have a lot of catching up to do, so not spending as much time on editing as I normally would.

This post is the fifth in a series about the Danube River Cruise vacation we went on with Wayne’s two sisters and their husbands in June 2024. Click here for the link to Part 1: Planning and Getting to Munich. Click here for the link to Part 2: Our Day in Munich. Click here for the link to Part 3: Harburg Castle, Rothenburg, Getting to Passau. Click here for the link to Part 4: Passau, Linz and Krems.

This post will be about time spent in the ports of Vienna and Bratislava, with more commentary about our cruise experience.

The free tour provided by Viking Cruise lines for Vienna was an overview bus tour, ending at St. Stephens Cathedral. After that we walked around all afternoon on our own. The photos I took through the bus window had reflections, poor composition and too many people and distractions, so I have not included any of those.

Following is a photo inside St. Stephens Cathedral. All the cathedrals start to be a blur and it seems like more than one are called St. Stephens. This one has origins in the 12th century, but the current version of it took shape in the 14th century.

The next two random photos were taken as we were walking around in Vienna.

There is a big central square in Vienna called Maria Theresin Platz (Maria Theresa Plaza). In that area was the natural history museum, as well as the art and artifact museum, and the Hofburg Palace.

In the square is a prominent statue of Maria Theresa, a badass woman from the 18th century. She was a capable, effective Habsburg ruler for 40 years, while also giving birth to 16 children in 19 years.

There was a street market in the Maria Theresa Plaza area. I found it amusing that in addition to traditional leather lederhosen for sale, there was a stall with “cargo” style lederhosen made out of twill fabric.

My sister-in-law, Marlene, is an art teacher and artist, so she was keen on going inside Kunst Historisches Museum. The rest of us were game and it was free to enter.

This art and artifact museum is a huge place. Without a specific agenda and without a lot of time, we followed Marlene around through many rooms of religious themed paintings by old masters. There was a large collection of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, with scenes of daily life in the 1500’s. Following are two that I especially liked, titled “Children’s Games” and “Peasant Wedding”.

After doing the museum we had an excellent lunch at a place called Speiseplan. After completing our meal we realized it was highly rated on a short list of recommended restaurants. More walking around brought us to Volksgarten, near the Hofburg palace complex and known as the “People’s Garden”.

Vienna is known for it’s culture of hanging out at coffee houses. By the end of the afternoon we were ready to sit down at Landtmann, one of the most well known local coffee houses that has been in business since 1873. The inside was very elegant, but we decided to sit in the large outside patio area.

I was missing my daily mocha on this trip. I had heard about the 24 hour a day coffee station on the ship. You could select from various options such as espresso, cappuccino, latte, regular coffee, and hot chocolate. However, when we got there I was disappointed to see there was not a button for mocha. You could make one by hitting the espresso button, and then hitting the hot chocolate button, but it was not the same. Throughout the entire trip in Germany, Austria and Hungary, no coffee shop had mocha on the menu. I guess that is not a thing there. I resorted to having a daily cappuccino. OK so sometimes I had two.

It was warm out, so at Landtmann I ordered a cold coffee drink instead of a dessert. Wayne ordered Sacher Torte, the signature chocolate cake dessert in Vienna. Coming from a family who are connoisseurs of chocolate and desserts, he was not impressed. It was a little of dry. Later back at home, someone brought a chocolate cake from Costco to a potluck meal. I was surprised at how delicious it was, much better than Wayne’s Sacher Torte. Sorry Vienna.

Someone else in our group ordered a yummy looking apple strudel.

The next photo is a case of desserts for sale inside the Landtmann’s.

There were a couple of expensive shore excursions offered in Vienna, in addition to the free panoramic bus tour. One was a behind the scenes visit to the famous Spanish Lipizzan horses and riding school. Luckily we got to see a few of the horses for free when we happened to walk by where they were stabled in the middle of Vienna.

We took the subway back to the ship in time for dinner. The Embla was the third ship double parked out from shore. There was a forth ship double parked on the other side of the Embla.

The next day we were in Bratislava, Slovakia, where we had a walking tour of the old town. I did not know anything about Slovakia except that it used to be half of Czechoslovakia. I found out that it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before World War I. Czechoslovakia was formed after that. In 1993 Czechoslovakia separated peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (the Slovic Republic). Today it is considered a “high income economy“.

The next photo was taken inside St Martins Cathedral. All the Cathedrals are impressive and beautiful and unique, but it is hard to remember the details later.

Following are several photos taken while walking around in Old Town Bratislava.

There is a famous street sculpture in Bratislava of a sewer worker called “Man at Work”. There is controversy as to whether he is a celebration of working people, or a creepy guy looking up under women’s skirts.

There were many tempting colorful toys and textile items for sale. I bought a horse hand puppet for our granddaughter, but I did not get a photo.

We walked around on our own after the tour until time for lunch on the ship. There was a lovely shady street as we headed back to the boat.

The ship set sail for Budapest after lunch. The temperature outside was very warm, but it was comfortable with a breeze on the top deck under a canopy. We sat up there watching the scenery along the river as the ship sailed down stream. In the middle of the afternoon there was a special High Tea with tiny sandwiches and tiny pastries. Later there might have been some napping.

The reason for leaving Bratislava after only half a day was to make sure there was enough time to get to Budapest by about 10:00 pm, when all the buildings would be lit up.

The next and last post about our Danube River Cruise vacation will be about our time in Budapest and the journey home.