I had hatched the idea of taking longer trip by car several years ago,
yet this year I managed to put it into practice. Within 12 day we covered 2,583
kilometres through four countries, visited three capitals, did not fall into
troubles…
Day 1, Sunday, 20 May 2018
We set off to Bielsko-Biała where my girlfriend’s parents live. A visit
there was our first stop on the way south. The drive would have been a smooth
one, had it not been for being stopped by the police for speeding (ignored the
70 kmph limit somewhere between Częstochowa and Katowice and carried on with
100 kmph on cruise control) – upshot: scored 4 penalty points and the first
fine in my driving career, 100 PLN down the drain, paid with credit card on the
spot (traffic patrol officers had had payment terminals since February 2018).
Nevertheless, I have to boast about economical driving – fuel consumption over
the whole trip – mere 6.11 litres per 100 kilometres (I drove 100 – 110 kmph
most of the time). Had it not been for air-con on, my Megane would have
consumed less than 6 litres.
Day 2, Monday, 21 May 2018
We headed for Vienna early in the morning and pitched up to our hotel,
Ibis Budget Sankt Marx, just after 1 p.m. A long afternoon is far too little to
do the decent sightseeing in Austria’s capital, therefore one day I will
definitely have to return there. My greetings to Bob, who has virtually kept me
company and advised where to go!
Hundertwas-serhaus was the first stop of our Vienna-wide journey. The
concept’s originator claimed he had designed it not to let anybody build
anything uglier in such place. Actually I find the idea quaint, but rather as a
tourist attraction, not as a place I would like to reside in (those who know me
know I am fond of order, not chaos).
From the housing district we headed for Schoenbrunn palace. Our
underground ride was impeded by railway modernisation, forcing us to take part
of the route by bus. We roamed around the scene, dropped in on ticket office to
learn our museum entrance time would come in an hour. We spent that time
strolling around huge gardens behind the palace (this was the first hill to
climb during the holidays).
After eating out a hearty dinner (was not a lunchtime anymore) we made
our way towards Prater, the famous amusement park. We could not do without
buying tickets for the Riesenrad wheel, from top position of which tourists can
enjoy sights of Vienna’s panorama. We timed our visit there to roughly match
with the sunset, yet found ourselves at the top more than half an hour before
sun went down. Nevertheless, the views were memorable (even in camera’s eye).
As it was getting dark and we were already tired out, we took a short
walk around the centre of Vienna, here we sauntered past Graben, but also saw
from outside St. Stephen’s cathedral. Anyway, we could have done with at least
a day of intensive sightseeing in Austria’s capital.
Day 3, Tuesday, 22 May 2018.
After a decent breakfast in the hotel, we set off to Ljubljana,
Slovenia’s capital. That city is far less remarkable than Vienna, with less
than 300,000 inhabitants, is the biggest city in Slovenia anyway. Our lodgings
was mere 3 kilometres from the city centre and was surrounded by terraced
houses whose dwellers grew vegetables in their gardens. The city was small
enough for us to get about it on foot only (buying bus tickets is quite
complicated). Here, the snap from our stroll – castle hill seen in a distance.
There was no excuse not to scramble up the steep castle hill from which
a beautiful panorama of Slovenia’s capital splays out. The weather was
conducive and actually this was the only day of our trip when temperature in
the afternoon oscillated near pleasant +20C.
Day 4, Wednesday, 23 May 2018.
Early in the morning we spontaneously decided to take a stopover in our
130-kilometres trip to our destination, to see Postojna caves. The attraction
is absolutely breath-taking and tough quite expensive (spent over 70 EUR for
tickets, audio-guide and parking), worth visiting. Snaps taken with a camera
without a tripod and proper light enhancement do not render beauty of the
place. If you happen do visit Slovenia, Postojna cave is a must.
To be continued :)
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