Levitating towards Spis Castle

Driving in Central Europe is nothing like driving in Western Europe. Highways are practically non-existent and rest stops are not so easy to find. The drive from  from Budapest to Levoca took us quite a while, and we were glad when we finally arrived in Levoca.

We spent a night in Levoca as it was the nearest town to Spis Castle. It was quite an experience arriving in Levoca since we got there really late. The town was really really tiny and we were lucky that the hotel owner was nice enough to wait for us to arrive. If not, we might have had to spend the night in the car instead!

Other than being located near Spis Castle, Levoca also had a tourist attraction in its own right, St James Church, which has the largest Gothic altarpiece in Central Europe. There was a school excursion when we were there, but even without the school kids, we wouldn’t have managed to see it. It was under restoration so it was covered up and you can’t see the full height of it.  In any case, it was just somewhere we dropped by before heading to Spis Castle, the appetizer before the main course so to speak.

Spis Castle

Spis Castle is one of the largest castle complex in Europe and also on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. It was a bit of a hike up from the car park but totally worth it. We also got to whip out our hiking sticks. Since it wasn’t summer yet, it wasn’t crowded which was nice for exploring the place. Still it was a pity that it wasn’t summer, cos apparently that’s when the castle has night tours and people dress up as in medieval times. Nevertheless, it was pretty pleasant to walk around the castle and enjoy the view. It may be in the middle of nowhere but definitely worth paying a visit for.

Our hiking sticks

Bathing like the locals do

We visited Memento Park the next day as part of our Communist tour and it was a major disappointment. First, the agency screwed up and thus we only managed to do the tour on our second day instead of the first. Next the tour guide didn’t actually offered any interesting information and only did a short spiel so we actually spent a lot of time traveling to hear basically nothing. Memento Park was really just a park filled with statues from the communist era, and even then, there weren’t that many statues and it wasn’t even that big. The only thing that was mildly exciting was the film ‘Life of An Agent’ which explains communist secret service operations. They also had the Trabant, the East German people’s car but it wasn’t very well maintained so it was a bit disgusting to get in to take photos.

Communism's dream car

We followed that up with a walking tour which was really good, so the day wasn’t spoilt at least. We learnt that when the communists took over, they only built over the areas which were destroyed in the war, but left the rest of the buildings untouched, which was lucky for everyone I guess.  Our walking tour covered both the Buda and the Pest area so we covered quite a bit of ground.  It was worth it though and we were lucky to have a good guide.  We ended the tour up at Castle Hill, but it was late so we couldn’t enter any of the buildings to have a look-see. Our guide did recommended that we do the Labyrinth of Buda Castle as they had a special evening session where you can walk around with an oil lamp in the dark. It was a bit freaky but also quite fun, we had a few scares and a few laughs so still worth it in the end.

What's left of Stalin

We finished the day with a cruise down the Danube River. There were a few companies running cruises but we went with Legenda Cruise as it provided personal headsets as well as 2 glasses of champagne. The evening cruise was definitely a good idea as it provides a very different view of Budapest and it was wonderful to see the buildings all lit up at night. Parliament, which was supposedly modeled after Westminster, was really grand and absolutely stunning. Gellert Statue up above on Gellert Hill was also pretty imposing at night. The only thing about an eveing cruise was that we didn’t have time to visit Margaret Island, which was a pity. Oh well, perhaps next time.

Romancing down the River Danube

Hungary's answer to Westminster

One of the very last things we did before leaving Budapest, was of course to visit its famous baths!!! There were two famous baths, Gellert and Szechenyi. We chose Szechenyi partly cos we couldn’t find Gellert, haha… Szechenyi is the largest thermal spring bath complex not only in Budapest but in Europe as well. We went there early but apparently not early enough, it was crazy crowded and almost impossible to book a massage with them. In the end we managed to find some other massage within the complex but it was privately run so it was a bit more expensive than what Szechenyi charges. The massage was weird though as they had only one woman masseur with the rest being men. Obviously I requested for the woman since it would have been too weird to get a guy masseur. There were supposed to be three outdoor pools, with two for soaking and one for serious swimming. One of the soaking pools was closed for maintenance so it was a bit crowded at the other pool. There were also fifteen indoor pools so while it was fun to keep dipping into different pools, it also got a bit confusing walking around the place. We seemed to be the only Chinese there and sometimes people were really staring at us, still it was a pretty fun thing to do. Definitely recommended to buy tickets beforehand (you should be able to buy them from any hotel) to avoid the queues, otherwise just go really early or late.

With one last dip in the pool, we ended our journey in Budapest and headed for Levoca for some knights in shining armor!

Spellbinding Budapest...

Budapest has always conjured up images of mystery, romance, and a little bit of horror to me, so I was pretty excited when we finally reached there. I was definitely looking forward to the mystery and romance though not so much of the horror, I definitely did not want to see or encounter any vampires while we were there!

The first thing that struck me about Budapest was how lovely the city was, in spite of its previous communist history. Sure there were the usual communist buildings which looked totally horrible but there were also buildings with lovely neo-Gothic architecture interspersed throughout the city.

We spent our first day just wandering around the city and taking in the sights. We had gone into the tourist office to get some information and ideas on what to do but it was staffed by a man who looked like he dragged himself to work, and decided to spend the rest of the day being grumpy so we got out of there in a hurry and decided to just explore it ourselves.

Walking around Budapest was kind of like walking around Paris, but cleaner and less crowded.  We wandered into the Hungarian State Opera House but they didn’t have any tours running. Then, we went into the Museum of Fine Arts as we read that there were tours of the exhibit, but again the tour wasn’t running. We decided to just view the exhibits, which was lucky for us as they had a section called ‘Hands On!’ which allowed the public to handle original artifacts and learn more about them. The artifacts we were allowed to handle were from the Egyptian collection and we had to put on gloves and use one hand to hold it and the other to touch. It was fairly exciting and I was pretty terrified that I would somehow drop the artifact and have to pay them millions in compensation, lol… That was actually the highlight of the museum for us, with nothing really standing out.

Hungarian State Opera

 The next stop was Heroes Square which was built in 1896 to celebrate a millennium of Magyar presence. The weather was a little dreary when we were there, which I suppose makes a rather dramatic backdrop to the impressive monuments around.  One interesting event we stumbled upon was Critical Mass. Hundreds of cyclists biked past us to raise awareness of cyclists rights on the roads and within the city. It was rather festive and there were lots of ringing bells as they cycled past us.

Heroes Square

Critical Mass Movement

We also took the metro to get around, which was an experience in itself. It’s the oldest underground, after London, in Europe and nothing has changed since then. While we may have shiny new MRT stations in Singapore, I think there’s something to be said for stations that have been around since 1896.

Our first day in Budapest ended with us walking back to our hotel, from Pest to Buda, enjoying the lovely view of the Danube river.

The Blue Danube

Overlooked Slovakia

Slovakia was our next stop after Vienna. Bratislava, where we were headed, was literally across the river from Vienna, I guess you can swim there if you are really short of cash, haha…

The perfect bun

Followed by the perfect beef salad

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and former coronation city of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, thus it has played host to quite a few important people in its heyday. When we visited though, it was playing host to VIPs of another kind, namely the sporting kind as it was hosting the Ice Hockey World Championships, alongside Kosice. We didn’t catch any matches though and if any of the players were to walk past me, I wouldn’t have known any better. The whole town was rather festive though and there were various sculptures of players from the different nations which was quite fun for us to spot.

Ice Hockey World Cup!!! Woohoo!!!  

We did a walking tour of Bratislava with the tourist office which was pretty alright. The guide committed a boo boo at the beginning of the tour and she never seemed to really recover from it. It was still an interesting tour though and we learnt a bit of history like how the separation from Czech Republic was fairly amicable, unlike some other countries where it was more chaotic. The buildings were interesting but nothing really stood out for me. What I did enjoy though were the sculptures placed all over the city centre. There is Čumil the workman, also known as Rubberneck, who emerges from a manhole at the junction of two streets, protected by a 'Man at Work' sign; a paparazzo who spies on passersby through his camera lens, and a rather relaxed looking Napoleonic soldier lounging over a bench, and many more quirky sculptures. There was a busker there who did the exact same pose as ‘Rubberneck’ and it was quite hilarious to see people’s reaction when the busker moves. You have to give it to the busker though for being clever enough to station himself there.

Right place, right time...

Other than the walking tour, we also visited a castle. Bratislava had 2 castles, Bratislava Castle as well as Devin Castle and since we didn’t have enough time, we opted for Devin Castle after seeking the advice of the tourist information office. The lady there was really nice and what was most surprising was that she visited Singapore many years ago! It is quite a rarity for us to meet someone who actually knows where is Singapore and visited it, so it was a rather nice moment. In any case, Devin Castle was situated outside of Bratislava and there was only one bus from Bratislava to Devin Castle which runs rather infrequently. The castle was kind of in ruins but the view was pretty awesome. Though the castle was in ruins, the authorities still managed to have a pretty good exhibition about war in medieval times in one of the intact areas. The people working there were also pretty friendly and helped us understand a little about what the castle was like then. If not for the fact that we had to catch a bus back, it would have been nice to walk around a little longer.

Along the walls of Devin Castle

Food Glorious Food!!!

Bratislava was definitely a good introduction to Eastern Europe with its friendly locals and absolutely wonderful food. This is our first foray through the "Iron Curtain" and you immediately get a sense of how life changes, not necessarily for the worse, but definitely different. And from there, its on to Budapest!

Spotless in Vienna

If you thought Singapore was clean, you ain’t seen nothing yet til you’ve been to Vienna. It was totally spotless and all the buildings have been cleaned til they looked shiny and new even though they were built hundreds of years ago.

One of the many grand buildings of the Habsburg empire

As is our practice by now, we took a guided tour by the tourist office to get a brief overview of the city/ country and also to decide which sites were worth paying to enter.

We visited the Imperial Apartments which I felt was about the same as the State Apartments we visited in Innsbruck, nothing really stood out for me. There were 19 state and private rooms of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth, aka Sisi which we were allowed to view. In its entirety, it is a whole lot bigger than the one we saw in Innsbruck but because we are only allowed entry to those few places, the things we saw were more or less the same. Most of the apartments today house a range of museums as well as offices, government ministries and the presidential chancellery, so at least they are making full use of the really huge buildings.

We also visited the Sisi Museum which I felt was rather small. There were only six rooms for the public to explore the personality and life of the empress, who was apparently quite the sensation in her day. The exhibits included a copy of the dress she wore at the ball given before her wedding, her jewellery, parasols, fans etc. From the exhibits and write-up, I kinda got the impression that modern day Austria doesn’t like her much, though people back then were probably quite captivated by her. She did look rather pretty from the various portraits of her though she probably suffered from some type of depression. She was probably a bit like Princess Diana, thrust into the life of a monarch from a young age and unable to cope with it.

Beautiful sunset

Other than walking around and doing the usual touristy stuff, one of the more interesting things we did was to watch opera at Wiener Staatsoper. They sell standing tickets for only 6 euro! It was definitely an affordable and easy way to try out opera and see if you enjoy it. I must say people there really dress up for the opera, it was really obvious who were in the cheap seats, or in our case, the standing seats. Of course this doesn’t mean that everyone was lovely, we witnessed this lady who was late in entering but who insisted on getting to her seat though she should have waited til an appropriate break. The usher was helpless and it just goes to show that all the money in the world cannot buy someone manners. It was really horrible for a while cos she just refused to listen and kicked up a fuss. In any case, the opera we caught was Parsifal which was super long, clocking almost five hours in total, and not very accessible. Needless to say, we didn’t stay til the end and left after catching 2 acts (or at least I think it was 2 acts, I could be wrong). Perhaps next time, we should choose a more accessible opera like Carmen or La Boheme and give it another go.

Inside the opera house

On the whole, Austria was pretty enjoyable and it was nice to have that as our last stop before we ventured to Eastern Europe. 

Wandering around the birth place of Mozart

Salzburg is perhaps best known for being the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as being the setting of The Sound of Music. The historic centre of the city of Salzburg is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site though honestly I can’t say it appealed much to me, cos I feel that most other old towns in other European cities look similar to it. Ah well, I guess I’m no expert so leave it to them to decide.

The Sound of Music came out in 1965 (when Singapore was kicked out of Malaysia, coincidentally), and after 46 years, there are still Sound of Music tours you can join! Since we weren’t that big fans of the movie, we skipped those tours and instead did a city tour with the tourist office. Can’t say I remember anything specific from the tour but the guide was friendly enough.

Beautiful ceilings in Salzburg Cathedral

We actually wanted to visit the Residenz State Rooms but they were closed for an event which was a major letdown. On hindsight it would probably be the same as any other state apartments but still it would have been nice if we were able to go in. We also visited the Hohensalzburg Castle which has a completely preserved fortress dating from 11^th century. The castle didn’t interest me much thus we left after a short while.

Man on golden ball by Stephan Balkenhol in Kapitelplatz

As Salzburg was the place of Mozart, you can imagine how much they were trying to milk it. Other than visiting his birthplace (we stood outside but didn’t pay to enter since the two of us would probably not be able to identify any works by him) and residence, you can also buy all kinds of items with his name on it like Mozart chocolates, Mozart dolls, Mozart mouse pads, the list goes on. It was quite kitschy actually but also funny at the same time.  

The one thing we did enjoy a lot though was the Hellbrunn Trick Fountains. The ticket allows you to enter the palace as well and since we had some time to kill, we went there for a short while. The palace was nothing to write home about but the trick fountains were fantastic. There was a fixed timing to enter the trick fountains and we were had a guide who would explain each item to us. It was a lot of fun and we did get quite wet though not as wet as some others in the group. Its not called trick fountains for no reason, water jets out from all sorts of hidden places and it was quite fun to try to spot where the water pipes were hidden. It’s also quite an amazing feat of engineering since it was all built almost 400 years ago! Definitely a fantastic way to end our stay in Salzburg though we did get a bit wet!

The long and winding road…

That leads to Grossglockner!

Grossglocknerstrasse aka Grossglockner High Alpine Road, the longest and most splendid alpine highway in Europe, and one of the biggest tourist attractions on the continent, was where we drove along on our way from Innsbruck to Salzburg. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road actually leads into the Hohe Tauern National Park, and naturally to Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria.

Taking the high road

The road is closed from November to May and since it also leads into a national park, you do have to plan properly if you want to be able to enjoy the sights. We were lucky that they actually opened the road in April so we could make a detour there before arriving at Salzburg. There are restricted hours to drive along the road and we managed to arrive there in time to see some of the sights before we had to leave. We didn’t do any hiking trails as we were pressed for time, we did see some people cycling and wondered how on earth they will be able to leave by the stated time. It was still pretty cold when we were there, so camping also doesn’t really seem to be an option as one could easily freeze to death overnight I think.

One of the more memorable stops we made was at Edelweisspitze, the highest point on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. Coaches are prohibited on the around 2km Edelweiss Road and actually even cars need to be parked at the car park and you have to make your way up by foot. We didn’t climb all the way cos I felt that it was too far and I was freezing. The scenery was beautiful though and it was a pity that we didn’t have enough time to complete the whole route.

Up in Edelweisspitze

After the adventure of Grossglockner, we arrived at Salzburg pretty late in the evening. We did manage to squeeze in time for a dinner at a beer garden, Augustiner Brau, which we took forever to find. This place has been serving beer since 1622 and given that a 5 litre mug option is available, you get an idea of how much beer one can drink here.

Holds up to 500 seats and lots more beer mugs

As it was pretty dark by the time we reached there, we weren’t sure if we had found the correct place, especially since the entrance was totally non-descript. Luckily a bunch of people spilled out from the door and it appeared we had reached the correct place. Once we got in, we had to walk down a couple of steps before entering what must be the largest indoor dining area I’ve ever seen. What was interesting was that you could actually bring your own food in and just buy the beer, otherwise there were also individual stalls (think something like our food courts), selling various types of food such as sausages, roast chicken, bread etc which you could buy and bring to your table. As for the beer, you could either do self-service, which is cheaper, or pay slightly more and have a waiter bring it over for you. We chose the self-service option, partly because we weren’t sure how to call for a waiter and it seemed like everyone was doing self-service. For self-service, you pay some lady at the counter and she will bring you a mug, after that you bring it over to a guy who will pour the beer straight out of the barrel for you. It was great fun and there were loads of locals just drinking their beer. I can’t remember the price now but it was cheap and the atmosphere was great. A pretty good way to end the day I must say.

Underneath the Golden Roof

Innsbruck was where we weresupposed to meet up with some friends from Singapore who were on their honeymoon, so we were pretty stoked about that. Unfortunately their tour schedule got changed and we couldn’t meet in the end which was a little disappointing.

We visited Schloss Ambras just before we reached Innsbruck. It was originally a medieval castle but Archduke Ferdinand II converted it into a Renaissance castle for his wife, Philippine Welser who was of lower social rank.

Gardens at Schloss Ambras

Armouries

The castle is famous for its collection of armouries, with armours from the 15^th century which originally belonged to Emperor Maximilian I and Archduke Sigismund. The Spanish Hall was pretty amazing and I could totally imagine holding fancy banquets there. The Wunderkammer (Gallery of Wonders) was quirkily interesting. It was like a form of after dinner entertainment to show off a room full of artifacts from all over the world. There was also a room full of portraits, but I didn’t really like them and the staff kept staring at us as if we would make off with one of the paintings. We saw couples taking wedding photos in the grounds, and it was fun to see them posing. One of them had a wooden frame which the photographer used to create some interesting photos. Pretty fun to watch.

Miniature all carved out of wood

Highly decorated safe

Grand hall

The town of Innsbruck didn’t have much that really interested us, so we took a walking tour, organized by the tourist office to learn more about its history. Innsbruck is most famous for its Goldenes Dachl, the golden roof on top of a three storey balcony. It is made up of 2657 glided copper tiles and was built to serve as a court box during the reign of Emperor Maximilian I. Itwas probably really awesome back in the day but it honestly didn’t do much foreither of us. There were some guys dressed up in traditional Austrian costumes having a stag party while we were there which was pretty entertaining to watch.

The "Golden Roof"!!!
A gold roof, thats all folks!

We also visited the Imperial Apartments which were pretty impressive. The Austrian Empire was pretty powerful back in the day and the Imperial Apartments was a showcase of that power. The Giant Hall, so named due to the series of paintings of Hercules, was a magnificent festival and ceremony hall in the alpine region. Portraits of Maria Theresa’s 16 children hung in the Giant Hall, to demonstrate the fertility and political power of her regency. Unusually, the paintings are hung by birth order, and not by sons first, which was probably quite modern in its time. Since women were expected to give birth and it was their duty (not the men’s) to ensure the lineage continued, having 16 children was considered quite a feat. The ImperialApartments owe its present appearance to Maria Theresa, with the rococo façade,the chapel and state rooms all reflecting her sense of taste.

No photos, no photos!
Sneaked in one...

We also went for a short day tripout to Swarovski Kristallwelten which was just a short drive outside of Innsbruck. It was designed by Andre Heller in 1995 and the Entrance Hall has the largest crystal ever cut, 310,000 carats in total, on display. The Crystal Dome which has a total of 595 mirrors, was quite a surreal experience. Within the gallery, there were mini crystal monuments by Swarovski of the world’s wonders, it looked interesting but nothing really stood out. There was also a rather nice park outside which was probably great fun for families with kids, too bad most of the stuff is really only for children otherwise we would have had quite a good time playing. We honestly expected more out of this place, but in the end it felt like an excuse for a glorified warehouse selling Swarovski, probably not worth making the trip there unless you are a big big fan.

Christmas trees and jelly fish made of crystals

After the beauty of Tschagguns,Innsbruck was a bit of a disappointment but we managed to get quite a lot of laundry done, which was a good thing afterall I guess. Hopefully the birthplace of Mozart would be much better.

Tscha… what?

Tschagguns, a little village in the Montafon valley was where we decided to go see if the hills are indeed alive with the sound of music. It is one of those little towns where it seemed everybody knew everybody. We had dinner at a restaurant one night and the waitresses were just chatting with everybody! It kind of felt like we were intruding on some big dinner party, but nonetheless we enjoyed ourselves.

Spectacular hiking trails

Beautiful place to see the alps
(much cheaper than Switzerland)

Great food!

The weather was great when we were there so we managed to do some hiking as we had planned. Since it wasn’t peak season yet, there weren’t many tourists around and we had the trails more or less to ourselves. As Tschagguns was such a little town, we felt really safe even when we were walking around with no one else around. The downside is that there were very few restaurants/ cafes where we could stop and take a break. All in all, a very pretty town to get some fresh mountain air before heading back to a big city again.  

Unobstructed views of greenery

Free alpine water

To paraphrase Shakespeare…

Two people, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene

From tiny Singapore, setting off on an adventure

Where discoveries are made and new experiences gained

Ok, that was really bad, but I am obviously no Shakespeare, otherwise I would be a published author by now :p

So, fair Verona, where we went to get one last fix of Italy before we head off to the rest of Europe. We did actually managed to squeeze in one final meal at Gargenelli where we had fabulous food way back in February. We kept talking about the food there and since it was kind of on our way (actually 2hr detour) to Verona, we just had to make a pit stop there. The food was every bit as delicious as we imagined and it was great to go there for one last time.

Words cannot describe our love for the food here

neither can the pictures express enough

We started the day in Verona, visiting what else but a church. Well we were in Italy afterall so visiting a church was definitely in order. We visited Basilica of San Zeno famed for its façade as well as for being the place of marriage between Romeo and Juliet. BUT it was undergoing major restoration, so we actually couldn’t see the façade. The bronze doors were quite a work of art though. They were assembled from different periods and from different artists and depicted scenes from the New Testament as well as the Old Testament. There was also a crypt which had a ‘forest of columns’ and they even had the body of Saint Zeno, the patron saint of Verona, preserved in the urn in the apse. It was a little freaky but interesting.

Intricately cast bronze doors

After getting a fix of some lovely Italian food which we will miss so much, we went to the famous Casa di Giulietta aka the location of the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. If you are so inclined, you could actually pay 4 euros (I think) to enter the house, pose on the balcony and make-believe you are Juliet wondering ‘wherefore art thou Romeo’. Otherwise if you are like me, you just enter the courtyard for free and laugh at all the silly women posing on the balcony above. 

Beautiful Juliet once stood there wondering
(the balcony is fake by the way, built for tourists)

Today tourists stand there waiting for their Romeo to take their photo

There is also a bronze statue of Juliet in the courtyard and its supposed to be good luck to rub her right breast for luck, we thought it was too pervy to do so we gave that a miss. Finally, it seems to be quite the thing to scrawl various messages of love on the wall near the courtyard. We saw this teenage boy climbing on top of his friends to scrawl a message but he only brought a ball-point pen to do it! Totally pointless…

Wall of sweet nothings
(Graffiti to me)

Verona was touristy and a little tacky but still pretty fun to walk around. It was a good to say our farewells to Italy before heading towards the Sound of Music!