I attended Mass at the local cathedral in Bratislava, walked over to the “Blue Church/St. Elizabeth of Hungary” and we had breakfast in our hotel. From here we walked around the town visiting our first castle which was a journey to the top, but it was a special one. For hundreds of years, kings and queens were crowned here and St. Stephen of Hungray’s crown sits atop of the cathedral and the castle in remembrance of the glory days for this region. Before we left the area, we walked around town grabbing some more small souvenirs which included my traditional hat purchase, thankfully from a Catholic lady, who I gave her my saint of Slovakia card and she immediately knew the full name, even though I didn’t print the name on it. We also grabbed some traditional Slovak pastries and we were on the road again.

We made the journey to the wine region the next day and enjoyed a nice tasting at a small local shop that opened their doors to accommodate my wife. The owners were very kind and generous and we were fortunate to get some bottles from them. I regret not visiting the local winery they represented because we went down the road to the place we initially planned to visit, only to never have a winery or tasting experience. We had a nice meal, that we provided our own experience with at the winery. Unfortunately however no one at the winery ever served us in the tasting area. It was disappointing, however we were grateful for what we experienced previously at the local shop that served Malik wines in Modra. The day wrapped up with a drive to Vienna for the final leg of our trip.

Day 5 Slovakia/Austria