After breakfast at about 9:30 we went back into the old town which was now "open" and I purchased the requisite gift for my mother. Rob thought that there might be a chance that if the waters of the Danube had receded then maybe we would be able to go up to the flying saucer. However, as I expected, as we were further downstream, the water levels might be higher. This was the case and we found that the police and firefighters had cautioned off most of the promenade with tape and were working on the steel flood defences. One restaurant right on the bank of the Danube was now under about 6 inches of water.
Bratislava is a small capital city and our first impression on the walk from the station when we arrived was that it was clean, (compared to Budapest) but a little sterile. For me, Bratislava, and this maybe the effects of psychogeography, has grown on me. This is a city of contrasts, there is the charm of the small old town with its cobbled streets, pastel buildings and ample restaurants, this sits along side a modern town with sterile banks and offices. Across the river you can see a concrete apartment jungle, a throw back from the communist rule. The skyline also has it's contrasts, on one view there is Hrad Castle and on the other is the UFO bridge from the 1970's.
We decided to get an earlier train to Vienna so we returned to our hotel, collected our bags and decided not to walk to the station instead we took the number 93 bus. Just as we were boarding the train a chatty Liverpudlian presented us with 2 travel passes for use in Vienna that were valid from the 3rd to the 9th June, for some reason he had to leave early.
The train arrived at the brand new Wien Hauptbahnhof (Vienna Main) station on time, this station is not fully functional as yet, this was evident at the taxi rank, two taxis were in the rank but we were third in the queue so had to wait 15 minutes for ours to take us to our very modern and well-equipped hotel.
We wasted no time after checking in and made use of the travel passes that were gifted to us and hopped on an underground train at the station which is about 100 yards from our hotel. First point of call was Stephansdom (St Stephens Cathedral) just 5 stops away. From here we walked to Motto am Fluss a restaurant overlooking the Danube Canal and had a delicious, if not somewhat expensive lunch.
After lunch we took the underground to district Leopoldstadt as I wanted to see The Riesenrad (Ferris Wheel) which had achieved fame in two films, The Third Man (Harry Lime) and The Living Daylights (James Bond). From here we walked through the park to The Danube by the St Francis of Assisi Church. The Danube, as in Bratislava, was running very fast and close to bursting its banks. From here we took a short trip on the underground to the Museum Quarter as I wanted to have coffee at one of Vienna's most famous of cafés, Café Sperl (thanks for the guide books Jo, they been really useful x). After coffee and cheesecake we took the underground train back to the hotel.
In the evening we used our gifted passes once again on the underground to go back to the Museum Quarter where we ate at Asia Time. Tired after our days sight seeing and travelling we decided to head back to the hotel for an early night.
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