We attended Mass in the chapel of the main church and ate our left overs from Munich for breakfast. We went out for a short walk in the small town and met Father Joe, who used to be the pastor of St. Joseph’s in Herndon, where we met Father Matt. It was a nice connection far away from home. We wrapped up with some pastries and coffee, and of course my daughter got more gelato. We said our goodbyes since Father Matt had an all day conference to attend to, and we were going to Bratislava for the evening, which included a detour to a Cistercian monastery, which was a providential experience since it was the feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the original Cistercian monks. This was possible due to shifting our schedule to see Father Matt a day earlier than planned.

Upon arrival at the monastery, I immediately went to the giftshop while my daughter was napping in the car with my wife. I found a special German icon of St. Bernard which made my day, in addition I found one for my daughter with the Italian spelling of her name which was also special since they’re usually in German in the region, or English back in the states. This brought my daughter great joy as well. When she woke up, I showed her and she immediately recognized the spelling of her name. From here we did a simple visit to the church since tours were limited that day due to high activity, probably since it was a special feast day. However we were fortunate to find a cistercin priest to bless our icons. Again another highlight to my day.

From here my wife took a look in the gift shop and realized the Abbey produces wine down the road. We never say no to an experience that is or was produced by monks, since it always lives up to something special. This detour was a blessing as we enjoyed a nice lunch at the resturount and generous wine tasting, which reminded us of our experience in Tuscany. Unfortunately we only left with a small amount since they don’t ship to the USA. Our daughter loved her Champagne chocolate. Everywhere we went, we tried to allow her to participate in a kid friendly manner. It reminds me of when kids come with their parents to get coffee. I always give a small cup of iced tea in a disposable espresso cup that has coffee images on it. It always makes the kids smile to participate with the adults.

A sign entering the winery which states it was founded in 1141, one of the oldest winery’s in Austria

We finished our journey to Bratislava. Crossing into Austria and Bratislava was interesting since there were no board checks. This is disappointing if you are looking for stamps in your passport, something Germany and Lufthansa were happy to provide for us later in the journey, that is a story for a later time. Upon arrival, my daughter was happy they gave her a coupon for free ice cream at the restaurant and she was happy to use it before dinner. Thanks to this experience with the nice server, we decided to order a couple glasses of Slovakian wine to try something unique and local. He shared with us the winery was about 40 minutes away, which quickly led me to feel inspired for another detour since it was in the town that our general contractors roots are from. At the minimum I thought it would be nice to say a prayer at the church in his family’s town and bring back a small souvenir for him.

Our night in Bratislava finished up with a walk through center of the city looking for the right place for a traditional Slovokian meal. My motto of rejection is God’s protection helped us find the perfect place. Before leaving our hotel, I did my Google search as I always do to find well rated places, that have a lot of reviews, which show me consistency in experience over years of service. The first place we went to said the kitchen just closed and had no interest in accommodating us despite being open for 3 more hours. As we walked to the other place I wanted to go to, but listed it as my second option, I decided to walk a little more just to be thorough with our options. I tried walking to another place, which also expressed no interest in serving us since they just had a big party and had no accommodation for us. This led us the Food Factory, which turned out to be exactly where we belonged for the evening.

Despite their kitchen closing for the evening, the server named Milan said he could offer us some simple options that he could get an order in for quickly. We accepted the offer and went with his suggestions, which also include beer recommendations. My wife was skeptical when she ordered the goulash, but to Milan’s promise, it was some of the best my wife enjoyed. I ordered a dumpling dish of sorts which was also amazing and my daughter had some fried breaded cheese blocks with what appeared to be homemade fries. As we talked to our server however, he shared he spent the past several years in the states doing various work, which included Ridgewood, Queens an area I recently visited which boarders the area I grew up in. We had a great connection and I gave him a holy car that I produced from my church in Glendale, NY as a nice connection. In addition I gave him one of my Slovakian saint too. A nice providential moment. He said he would actually be in the DMV area later this year, and I offered to connect with him during his visit. Here’s the album from the trip.

Day 4 Austria/Slovakia