VIENNA, AUSTRIA | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

Oh Vienna! We both loved Vienna; it was beautiful but gritty, our accommodation was amazing and finally we were out of Switzerland and back in a country with normal prices.. We stayed in Vienna for two nights, in a rooftop room that overlooked the city and the Naschmarkt, which is a huge area for food and market stalls.

We arrived mid-afternoon after spending the morning in Bratislava, checked in, and went straight back out to explore. We looked around the flea markets, and then headed further into the centre for a few hours to hunt out one of the Easter markets I'd read about.

The Easter markets are similar in set up to the Austrian and German Christmas markets, there are goods, food and drink stalls, some entertainment.. but for the Easter market there are also thousands (literally thousands) of hand-painted Easter eggs for sale. In Europe we noticed that people decorate with an Easter tree, and hang eggs off the branches. The eggs above are all real empty egg shells (as Vivienne discovered when she squeezed one..) but we picked up a few painted wooden ones as souvenirs too. 

We grabbed some foot at the market including a caramel and custard waffle for Vivienne, I had a few glasses of wine and it really felt like Spring had arrived. We walked back as the light was disappearing to our accommodation, which was hosting a party to celebrate their 7-year anniversary. There was a band on in the bar, which also had games and pool tables, and we lay on a day bed under the stairs hanging out for a while before heading up to bed. 

Next next day - our only full day in Vienna - was Easter Sunday! We got up early and headed out to Prater - a permanent fairground a little outside of the centre. We started by going on the huge ferris wheel which overlooks the entire city, then a rollercoaster (Viv's eyes were tightly shut the whole time!), looked around, then wandered back to the centre. We explored a little more before stopping for lunch. Viv and I had a deal that she would try some new foods while we were away, so she and I shared Goulash, Schnitzel and Sacher torte for lunch. We weren't far from the Easter markets ad couldn't resist popping back, Vivienne had some crazy chocolate-covered marshmallow thing, before hanging out and resting for a little while playing cards because it was getting pretty windy out there.

We also headed up to the museum quarter that day, but I think the past week or so and never really stopping was beginning to catch up with us and we were starting to flag.. At the same time everything around us started shutting early because it was Easter Sunday evening, and we were both happy to head back, play pool and have a bit of an earlier night (joking.. we watched more Fresh Prince..) Viv was pretty excited to be heading to Budapest the next day and finally see David and Sylvie again..

We had a few hours before we were due to get the train to Budapest the next day, so got a quick taxi over to Hunderwasser House and village - an area designed to promote living in sync with nature. You have to apply to live there, and can't live there for long. The idea is that you embrace it then move away to spread the gospel about living together with our natural environment.. We'd left suitcases at our accommodation, so slowly walked back, grabbed some brunch, and got ready to catch the train to Budapest!

  You can see a different variety of photographs from our time in Vienna over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - BUDAPEST!

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

It dawned on me, a few days into our trip, that I had a spare travel day on our Interrail passes. Our pass meant we could travel 5 days out of 15, and, with the night train having to be booked separately, we'd only planned to travel on four. I literally looked at a map on a train journey and thought "Hey! Bratislava is about an hour from Vienna, maybe we could pop over for a few hours when we get off the night train from Zurich?"

So that's what we did. We left our luggage in storage in Vienna train station, went for a quick coffee (it was 8am at this point which still feels early..) and got on the next train to Bratislava's central train station.

I'll admit, first impressions weren't great. I think Google Maps took us on a bit of a questionable route through an undesirable residential area which didn't help.. but we walked the half hour walk up towards Bratislava Castle, which is at the top of a hill meaning the views over the city are beautiful once you reach it. 

We looked over the river, and down over the rooftops of the Old Town, before making our way back down into the city.

The Old Town area was the prettiest part of Bratislava that we saw - some of the buildings were beautiful and there were plenty of bars, cafes and restaurants once you reached Michael's Gate. Vivienne got a piece of Oreo cake to take away, which meant she loved Bratislava and it was a big tick in her travel diary.

I'm glad we visited but also glad we didn't stay there and make it a larger part of our trip - a lovely few hours out, but it wasn't long before I was itching to get back and start exploring Vienna.

You can see a different selection of photos from our time in Bratislava over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - VIENNA!

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAIL WITH KIDS

Zurich was more of a pit-stop than somewhere on the trip that we were really excited about.. saying that, it was a wonderful city to wander in. We left our luggage in the train station after arriving at about midday, and set straight off to walk down the river and see the sights.

We walked uphill to find a park which overlooks the city called Lindenhof; it was sunny and full of people playing boules and chess, kids playing on the swings, couples sitting on the wall looking at the view and people going about their every day lives. We sat in the warmth and played cards, went on the swings, and took some photos of Zurich from above, before walking down into the Old Town to explore the narrow streets.

We took it easy and pottered down through until we reached the lake. I grabbed some food (currywurst!) from a stall there and we sat, people watched and looked out over the lake before deciding on a boat trip to kill some time and see a few other nearby places while we were there. We later wandered around what I think was the theatre/art quarter of Zurich on the other side of the River Limmat, but, to be honest, Vivienne was getting a bit tired at this point so we decided to walk back up slowly and find a good spot to eat, sort our luggage out and prepare for the night train - we were both *so* excited..

I admit, I get so nervous in train stations and airports and always turn up everywhere so, so much earlier than I need to.. I exceeded myself and we were in the station THREE HOURS before our train was due to leave. According to Google, at this point, it said our train had already left which didn't help.. 

Viv grabbed some hot take away pizza, I grabbed some dinner on the go, and we hung out waiting for our platform to be announced..

The NightJet was everything I'd hoped it would be - it pulled up and we found our cabin, a tiny little room with bunkbeds, a sink, a wardrobe and a welcome pack. We ordered our breakfast in advance and were told it would arrive with us at 6,15am (ouch).. we played cards too late and eventually settled down, ready to arrive in Vienna.. 

You can see a different variety of photographs from our time in Zurich over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - BRATISLAVA!

ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAIL WITH KIDS

Oh, well Zermatt was just a dream. The most idyllic little town hidden in the mountains; there are no cars, only electric buggies and horses, it's beautiful and small enough that you can walk around the entire place in one evening. The perfect little ski town.

We lugged our suitcases through the narrow streets form the train station up to our hotel, which was as traditional and old fashioned as they come but it had a balcony with a table and a few chairs overlooking the main street and you could peek up towards the mountains on the other side. I was *so* excited to be there, and so glad we were there for a few nights.

The evening we arrived, we explored and settled in our room, before heading out to find somewhere for dinner. Vivienne is a pretty good eater and had promised she'd try different foods while we were away; so we chose raclette with potatoes and some sort of jam, and rösti (pretty plain stuff for 'trying something new' but we both loved it!) I'd say we had an early night ahead of skiing the next day, but we ended up in PJs watching Friends on Netflix a little too late..

The next day we were up to have breakfast, collect skis, boots and poles and dragged our kit to buy lift passes to the starter ski slopes. I know I sound like a typical parent, but Vivienne did so well. She's always been a pretty cautious kid, but I was so impressed at how she took to skiing. we were on the baby slopes and practised snow plough and some turns, before going down a slightly steeper slope together (me going down backwards with her facing me). We skiied until about 1pm, then headed over to a different lift to make the trip higher and higher to reach the Glacier Paradise Experience.

The Glacier Paradise Experience (I'll link at the bottom), is at the highest point and has a viewing platform at 4000m, where you can see the Matterhorn on a clear day. Unfortunately visibility was zero they day we went up, which can't be helped, but we still visited the glacier experience while we were up there. It meant that we walked down a carved tunnel inside a glacier to a 'palace' which was full of ice sculptures, tunnels, slides, steps.. it was so bizarre. I think Vivienne felt slightly worried at the prospect of being in there too long "in case it collapsed on us", but loved it nonetheless.

Being so high up, it wasn't long before our hearts were racing and we couldn't catch our breath, we had some chocolate milk (Viv), beer (me) and frites before heading back down into Zermatt for our final night there.

We explored the chocolate shops (it's Switzerland, after all), grabbed some food and wandered around the beautiful town one last time. We wrote postcards, updated travel diaries, and packed up a little - the next day we would get the train to Zurich ahead of getting a night train to Vienna the following evening! We FaceTimed home and told Dav all about skiing, before falling asleep, exhausted, after what had ended up being a long and tiring day..

You can see a different variety of photographs from our time in Zermatt over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - ZURICH!

LINKS

HOTEL HELVETIA
GLACIER PARADISE

MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND | TRAVELLING AND INTERRAILING WITH KIDS

Montreux is just so bloody beautiful. It's a small town at the other end of Lake Geneva to Geneva itself. Later afternoon/early evening Vivienne and I collected our bags after exploring Geneva for the day, and took the train for just over an hour around the lake to Montreux. We went wandering out on the evening before finding somewhere to eat, and unfortunately couldn't see much because of the visibility, but the town lights sparkling on the water were  still pretty beautiful. We found an Italian place and ate dinner (bloody pricey but I guess it's Switzerland..), before heading back to our room and watching Netflix in bed before falling asleep.

In the morning, we dumped our bags at the hotel reception and, I swear, I think I ran to the water's edge to fully see the mountains that were now visible on the other side of the lake. SO beautiful. We wandered and saw the Freddie Mercury Statue and a sculpture piece dedicated to him, and stood on the viewing platform that jutted out into the lake to fully see the amazing view up into the Alps. We grabbed some breakfast on the go, and walked for about an hour around the lake towards Chillon Castle, stopping to take photos and look at the view.

Chillon Castle was quite interesting - very Game of Thrones-esque. We definitely could have spent more time wandering around it; I think Vivienne enjoyed it more than me and there was a kid's guide book that she worked through - definitely worth a visit for a few hours. 

Mid-afternoon, after catching the bus back to the centre to save a little time, we trundled back up the hill towards the train station; stopping, again, for snacks from the Coop for our journey and for picnic-ing in bed later. 
 

We were both so, so excited to get up to Zermatt and have a look around before skiing the next day. The journey took a few hours from Montreux up into the mountains, which left plenty of time for writing in travel diaries and playing Rummikub..

You can see a different selection of photos from our time in Montreux over on my photography blog here.

NEXT STOP - ZERMATT!