We have 4 days to do up to 100 scavenges, and to get ourselves from Vienna to Paris, while scavenging along the way. There are scavenges possible in cities across Germany, France, Switzerland and into Eastern Europe. It was daunting, and headache/stomach ache producing to look at the huge array of possibilities, to figure out how best to get to Paris given the possibilities. Our first instinct was to disregard any options that were east of Vienna, as if anybody would go east when we need to be going west. We ended up heading east – but more on that in a moment.
Europe’s leg started on Monday evening around 5:00 PM. First stop was the English bookstore to buy the Lonely Planet for Western Europe. We chose it because it has some good overviews of most of the possible cities. A few drawbacks, though. It is about 7 inches thick and feels like it weighs 17 pounds. I can’t wait to ditch it.
For the first evening in Vienna, we started out just as everything that has a closing time – was closing. Of the few things that were not closed for the night, we were able to do the mandatory food scavenges (of course). We had coffees at Café Hawleka and we bought Manner Schnitzen (a wafer cookie that is sold in a very upscale store. We got to the House of Music before it closed, just in time to see Johann Strauss’s exhibit, which we needed as one of two commemorations we had to find. Since the museum was closing shortly and the ticket seller was really nice, she let us in for free, to run upstairs and look at the Johann Strauss exhibit. Johann also is commemorated by a sculpture in the park across the street from our hotel.
We sought something to eat at a restaurant called Huth, around the corner from the hotel. While there, we did a wine taste test, took pictures of knockoff products (a Breitling watch and a Mont Blanc pen), and we sat next to a couple from Rhode Island. Woonsocket and Cranston. They asked us to snap a photo of them at their table, which led to a “Where are you from?” conversation. Small world for a small state.
After dinner, we tried to make a plan, at least for the next morning. But we were too tired. I woke up in the middle of the night, with my mind racing around possible solutions. To not disturb Christine by turning on a light, I went into the bathroom , sat on the floor, spread out the books, maps, clues, and papers on the floor, and worked for a few hours to figure out a timeline. I am fully aware that most people do not think of this as their idea of a fun vacation. By the time I had roughed out a plan, it was time to wake up.
My plan was to get out of Vienna as soon as we could, not staying to do the little 25 point scavenges of a museum here or there. Rather, it seemed to make sense to go west, stopping in several cities linked together along the way. That seemed efficient and logical. But, it also was what we were supposed to think. Christine looked at the plan and suggested we do something different, and go east instead. That’s what we did. And was it ever a great move. Brilliant. We went to Bratislava, Slovakia. It was an impulsive decision. Our guidebook (Western Europe) had absolutely no information about it. We set off blind, taking all of our luggage with us. Although now burdened with all our stuff, we decided to take a boat from Vienna to Bratislava, and then a train to the next place. The boat ride was an hour and 15 minutes up the Danube. Beautiful ride!! The trees along river’s banks were fully green, and sprinkled with fishermen’s cottages. It was bucolic. On the boat, we met a 21 year old young woman named Christina, who is studying English. She was eager to talk to us in English and we were eager to talk with her about the weird questions we needed to get answered. Like: what do local Slovaks think Hrad Castle looks like? (ask three). The answer is: an upside down table with its legs in the air. We got two boat crew guys to tell us their views, and got the same answer. Fortunately, the boat had some tourist maps and even more fortunately, we met Christina and another woman who lives in Bratislava and could help us map out a very efficient plan to do a loop around the city to find the things we needed to find. One of the spots was a place formerly known as Stalinove Namestie and to say what happened there on December 13, 1992. The answer is that it is now known as the place of the Slovak National Uprising, when the people declared independence from Czechoslovakia. The cathedral, St. Martin’s, has hosted coronations of dozens of royals. Having known virtually nothing about Bratislava, in about one hour, we got a cram course and a whirlwind view. We got back on the boat and returned to Vienna to finish up a scavenge we had not completed the night before, and then off to “the” train station. At that point, we were considering three alternative routes. To decide, we needed accurate information about train schedules. We decided to go to the station in the south of the city because it is the departure point for Graz, where we thought we were most likely to go next. However, it turned out that the schedule was much too infrequent and would cause us to waste several hours to get the next train out. Oh! If we could only use the internet. This game lacks reality. Instead of juicing up the iPhone to check the train schedules, I am embarrassed to say that we spent over 15 Euros taking taxis (because we are lugging our suitcases now) from the boat to a train station and then to a second train station - to get the schedules so we could make our next move. A big factor in our move across Europe is to minimize the luggage hauling. We have to lock up our bags in train station lockers while we run around a city; retrieve the bags, and move on to the next city. We decided to go to Salzburg for three hours, on our way to Munich, where we would spend the night. As we dragged our bags toward the train station exit, Christine spied a hotel across the street that looked like it was decent. And…it was across the street.
We looked at the room, checked in, and zoomed off to do some scavenges in the old city. A lot of the things we saw were architectural – three old gates to the city, three different types of clock towers, and four different types of architecture. Last task of the evening was to go to what was once the World’s Biggest Bar – the Hofbrauhaus, where we experienced gemutlichkeit (having a good time), and did the bonus of singing along in a German drinking song, and then getting some fellow revelers to sing our national anthem. Choosing the right table to sit down at was key. We sat with two guys who did not know each other, and who we could draw in to create a happy little table. There was Willy, who was well on his way to merriment; and Joseph who was red-faced, smiley, and wearing lederhosen and a straw hat. They were ready to party. The oompah band was oomping away and the mood in the Hofbrauhaus was high-energy happy. Moments before we walked in, Munich’s soccer team just won a game that got them to the playoffs. We also aimed to do the taste test challenge of tasting three different kinds of beer (Pils, Helles, and Weizen) and making a video to comment on them. The thing was – no order smaller than a liter of beer. We passed on the idea of ordering three liters of beer at 6.90 Euros each. As it was, the one liter I ordered went unfinished, and Willy happily polished it off as we left – close to midnight.
The next morning, we did a really cool scavenge before our train left. We had to go to the Deutsches Museum, which focuses on industry and technology. We had to find out who created the World’s First Globe. The globle was in a case with a whole bunch of other globes – not singled out in any way. The little information card next to it states that it was indeed the world’s first globe. The creator was Martin Behaim. The thing is – he created it in 1492 the year of, but before he knew that Columbus discovered America. Bad timing! That was a really fun discovery.
In the train station before boarding our 10:08 train, we bought three beers and did the taste test which we passed over the night before. The verdict? All three taste really bad before 10:00.