Bangkok, 2009

This coming Tuesday we are setting off on our next big adventure! We are going to Thailand and Cambodia for three and half weeks! Not only will this be a much needed vacation for all of us, we are also going to meet up with my dad, who is originally from Bangkok. Other than via Skype, I haven’t seen dad since last summer when we went to the US for my brother’s wedding. We are going to be dividing our time between visiting family in Bangkok, traveling to Siem Reap in Cambodia and then spending a week at the beach in the Krabi province.

I would love suggestions if you have been to any of these places, especially for places to eat. A few fellow wordpress bloggers have been been inspiring me with their recent voyages to Siem Reap. You should check out these blogs if you have insatiable wanderlust: The Selfish Years, Retireediary, and My Vie à Somplace in This Word.

I will not be blogging while in Asia, but you can following the adventure on Instagram.

Last weekend we rented a car so that we could escape the city for a little while.

We visited Lake Neusiedl which is a bit south and east of Vienna. The strange thing about this lake is that, even though it is quite big (36km long), it is not very deep. My husband pointed out that he would be able to touch everywhere because the deepest point is only about 1.80 meters. It was extraordinarily windy when we visited and there were a number of windsurfers, which was fun to watch. There was also a fun playground for Louis.

On Sunday, we drove through the Wachau valley along the Danube river. This area produces quite a bit of wine and vineyards dot the beautiful countryside. We stopped in two little towns along the way, Krems and Melk. In Krems the town was very quiet since it was Sunday and everything was closed, but we did manage to have our first lunch of the year outside. Krems is very close to the location of the Durnstein Castle, where Richard the Lionheart was held captive during the 12th century. It is incredible to me that something that old is still standing.

The Durnstein Castle can be seen just above and to the left of the bell tower.

In Melk we visited the incredibly impressive Melk Abbey. I wish I had taken a picture of the abbey from further away because the exterior is just incredible. I hope we have more opportunities to explore Austria this summer.

We found a good deal on a hotel, the Corinthia and it was just lovely. The only downside is that they had strict pool access hours for children under 16. Children could only use the pool from 11:00 to 15:00. Had we known that, we may have stayed elsewhere. That said, we did make it to the hotel pool once during our stay and it was definitely the fanciest hotel pool I have ever seen (no photos allowed).

Our Budapest weekend was coupled with a visit from my in-laws, who arrived on Saturday afternoon and stayed in the same hotel. Louis was very happy to see his Mamie and Papie on our little vacation. The weather was very uncooperative for most of our weekend, but, fortunately, there are plenty of indoor things to do in Budapest.

One of our main activities was eating. And let me tell you, much to my delight, we ate very, very well. I didn’t know what to expect with Hungarian food (I’m a food wimp), but I found many new flavors and tastes that I loved. Friday night we ate at a Koleves, an inviting restaurant that had something for everyone. Saturday we had breakfast at the famed and fancy (and touristy) Cafe Gerbeaud. The breakfast for two was copious enough for the three of us and served with coffee and orange juice. We liked it so much that we took my in-laws there for breakfast on Sunday morning too.

Saturday afternoon we wanted to eat at the Central Market Hall, but after strolling around this gigantic and crowded market, we decided to go elsewhere. We ended up at a restaurant not far from the hotel called Ket Szerecsen. There, we had a leisurely lunch as it drizzled outside.

After our late lunch Saturday, my in-laws stayed at the hotel to rest and the three of us went to check out the baths. There are a number of large and small bath complexes in Budapest and our hotel gave us free passes to be used in some of the more renowned ones. We chose to go to the Szechenyi Baths which are located in the City Park. The baths were my number one reason for wanting to go to Budapest, and what is even better is that they are a great activity for drizzly and cold days. There were three large outdoor pools. Two for just bathing/swimming in and one for lap swimming. While I didn’t go in the lap swimming pool the other two pools were just fantastic. One is heated at about 34°C and the other at 38°C. After running from the inside of the bath house in a bikini in temperatures hovering around zero, it was fantastic to step into a nice hot bath. We stayed in the outdoor baths for quite some time before checking out the indoor baths. There are about a dozen indoor baths ranging in size and temperature; the temperatures were displayed next to each pool so you knew what you were getting into. Night fell as we were in the baths and it was such an amazing experience to be in a huge heated outdoor pool with the steam rising from the water in such a sumptuous setting. I didn’t bring my camera to the baths because I didn’t want to constantly worry about it. But I saw plenty of people using cameras.

As previously mentioned, Sunday we went back to Gerbeaud for breakfast with my in-laws. After another extravagant breakfast, we did some sightseeing under an annoying drizzle. We crossed the Chain Bridge and walked around the Buda Castle.

Then we made our way over to Matthias Church to check out the amazing views of the city. At the point the rain was coming down fairly hard and we took a taxi back to the hotel.

After a quick lunch of sandwiches, we went back to the baths, this time taking the in-laws along with us. We enjoyed the baths just as much the second time and my in-laws loved them too.

At this point, I should mention the Budapest metro system, which we took to and from the baths. When you go down into the metro the first thing you notice are the men standing at the entrance, making sure you buy a ticket. After that, you notice how old the system is. I don’t know when they last renovated (probably never) or updated the trains (not for several generations), but it was definitely the most charming metro system I have ever seen. The stations had beautiful tiles and wooden cabinets with wooden ticket booths. We only rode on line 1, so I’m not sure if the other lines are more modern/different, but the trains on line 1 were only two cars long and played a quirky little tune every time we arrived at a new station. I was charmed.

After another afternoon at the baths, we were hungry and went in search of dinner. We went to a place called Spinoza, which was another traditional Hungarian restaurant. The owner was outside and saw us checking out his menu and talked us into eating at his restaurant. He did not disappoint.

Monday, we had just enough time to eat a leisurely breakfast (forgot the name of that restaurant, but it wasn’t anything worth noting) and then went back to the hotel for a quick swim before checkout time.

We left our bags at the hotel and ate again (!) and then it was time to catch our train back to Vienna. We had two full days in Budapest and two half days and it definitely wasn’t enough. I would love to go back when the weather is more conducive to sight seeing and museum going and just being outside. And of course, I want to try some of the other baths!

Addresses:

Koleves Restaurant – Kazinczy utca 41. | Dob utca 26

Gerbeaud Cafe – Vorosmarty ter 7

Central Market Hall – Vamhaz korut 1-3

Ket Szerecsen Restaurant – Nagymezo u. 14

Spinoza Restaurant – Dob utca 15

Szechenyi Baths – Allatkerti korut 11

Corinthia Hotel – Erzsebet krt 43 – 49

Last weekend we took our first getaway to Bad Kleinkirchheim. This little ski town is in the Carinthia region in the southern part of Austria very close to both the Italian and Slovenian borders. It is a little over three hours driving from Vienna. I don’t ski, but I wish I did. Despite this, there were still plenty of other things to do.

We stayed at a wonderful hotel, Hotel Die Post, which is right next to the ski slopes. The hotel was bright and clean and the staff was lovely. The décor was the only thing lacking and I say that only because it wasn’t exactly to my taste (red plaid sofas anyone?), but it added to the charm.

We splurged on an all inclusive package which included breakfast, lunch, snack time and dinner. I was a bit apprehensive about eating “hotel” food for four meals a day. I imagined the sort of terrible industrial buffet that you typically find in hotels. But to my delight, everything was quite delicious and of very high quality. Breakfast was a sort of luxury continental breakfast with something for everyone, three kinds of yogurt, the typical eggs and bacon, a cold cuts and cheese platter, at least a dozen varieties of bread, cereal, fruit, freshly pressed juice, and, my favorite, honey still on the comb, straight from the hive. It was stunning to look at and even better to eat. Lunch was on the lighter side, a soup plus one hot plate option and a few salad bar items. Snack time always included apfelstrudel and at least two or three other sweets. Dinner was very different every night. Usually four or five courses depending on the chef’s mood. It was inventive and interesting and very tasty.

Other than the food, the overall hotel experience was wonderful. There was a nice indoor pool, and even better, a heated outdoor pool. Even though the temperature never got above freezing, I enjoyed plunging into a warm, snow-framed pool with a view of the mountains. There was also a spa and I indulged in a massage one afternoon. Our room was large with a separate sleeping area for Louis, and there was even a staffed playroom just downstairs from the hotel restaurant. The playroom was free of charge and we took advantage of letting Louis play without us for a few hours one day.

Besides the lovely hotel stay, the town itself was small and very ski-oriented. Since two out of the three of us don’t ski, we had to find non-ski, kid-friendly activities. On our first day we took a sleigh ride through part of the valley. Just like in the “Jingle Bells” song, that Louis is still singing now that the holidays are long over, we rode in a one horse open sleigh. The sky was bright blue like I haven’t seen in months, and the sun made the snow sparkle. Everything looked so fresh and beautiful set against the backdrop of the mountains. There are also lots of footpaths that wander through the valley and we walked, very briefly with an uncooperative toddler, on one that passed right behind the hotel.

The surprising part of the trip, and possibly the thing I enjoyed the most was the ski lift. My husband went out one morning to go snowboarding and came back to meet us for lunch. He discovered that you can purchase a “pedestrian” ticket for the ski lift and ride to the top just to enjoy the view, and then take it back down. From the valley, you can’t see the end of the ski lift, but I assumed that it couldn’t be that far out of site. Little did I know.

The lift goes 4km up and takes about 20 minutes to reach the summit. The views became more and more incredible as the lift scaled the mountain. There was one station about midway up where people could get on and off. By the time we got to the top of the ski lift, I couldn’t see the town at all and could only take in the beauty of the mountains.

I’m not exactly a mountain person, before moving to Austria I lived more or less at sea level my entire life, and Vienna is not exactly high elevation. My only other experience with mountains was one week in the Rockies when I was a teenager. But wow, even though these were relatively small mountains (around 3,500 feet or a bit over 1,000 m at the hotel and about 6,700 feet or 2055 m at the top), it was a bit unreal to be at the top. We were able to hike up a little higher than the ski lift station and marvel at the views.

Louis fell asleep on the way up

I think the next time we go on a snow trip, we will stay a bit longer so that I can learn to ski properly and really benefit from the many ski opportunities that Austria has to offer. I’ve cross country skied once, if you can call falling down a million times in two hours skiing. I will also clean my lenses better. If you look closely, you can see big flecks of dust in some of the photos (and I don’t have Photoshop to magic them away). But our snowy weekend getaway to Bad Kleinkirchheim was definitely a fun and memorable first trip in Austria.

The ball “season” in Vienna runs all winter long and there are hundreds of different balls to attend in this beautiful city. My husband’s office hosted a ball at the stunning Hofburg Palace last night. I have never seen so many different chandeliers in one place! It was a black tie event requiring bow ties for the gentlemen and full length gowns for the ladies, unless you wore traditional attire from your home country. We saw a number of men in kilts, women in gorgeous saris and kimonos and one or two guys strutting there stuff in lederhosen. There is something very James Bond about being surrounded by men and women dressed to the nines in a palace. We had a great time watching the professional dancers, trying to waltz ourselves, roaming around the palace, eating and drinking tasty food and people watching. It was definitely a night to remember!