Vienna / Berlin -- Valentine

Cheri always wanted to go to Vienna, so to keep our tradition of visiting a European city on or around Valentine's Day we headed for Austria. The other attraction to go to Europe at this time was that we were invited to Berlin for The Berlin Film Festival. Vienna was the main purpose of our trip and with this invitation it was a scramble to find flights but after scouring the internet it's amazing the prices you can find on low cost European airlines. Using miles on United Airlines to Amsterdam we found a flight to Vienna on SkyEurope for one Euro, that's right, one Euro. From Vienna to Berlin on Air Berlin was nine Euro and then back to Amsterdam on Transavia was 29 Euro. Taxes and fuel surcharges add to the price but really for the two of us it was very inexpensive. Using Starwood Points to stay at the highly recommended Le Meridien right in the heart of Vienna made it the ideal hotel to view all the historic sites of this wonderful city.

But it's not all luxury and jet lag can have it's effect. Waiting for connections is very tiring, so any chance you get to take a nap, you take it. Anywhere. Tony found his opportunity at Schipol Airport

It's so easy in most European cities to use the public transportation and from the majority of airports there is a cheap way to get downtown. In Vienna it's the U which took us just two blocks from our hotel and is much less than an expensive taxi ride.

We check in to Le Meridien, which is very similar to an American W, very modern and chic. After a short nap, we needed a walk to clear up the cobwebs in our heads and of course eat dinner. Airline food just does not do it for us. Vienna is wonderful at night and it shows when you walk past the Imperial Palace and The Rathaus. We were looking for a nice relaxing dinner and to be honest the concierge at the hotel was not much help but with our little travel book and inquisitive attitude we found Weibel Wirtshaus. A lovely restaurant down a narrow street behind The Dom. Great Wiener Schnitzel and even better Apfelstrudel.

It's amazing how lucky we have been over the years on these trips in regards to the weather, it's always been cold but most of the time the sun has been out. Making it a little brisk as we tour the city but it has allowed us to sightsee dry and it gives the opportunity to take clear photographs of all the historic buildings and statues.

The only "American" thing we allow ourselves is to have our morning Starbucks ... and you can find them everywhere. Not sure if that's something we should be proud of but their coffee is good and, especially in Europe, their muffins and croissants are so good. So after our latte Cheri is planning our daily city walk.

Our only misfortune at times is when you travel in winter, the cities are always cleaning historic sites to get ready for the summer tourists. This time The Stephansdom was having it's stone work done and the top third was under renovation.

Valentine's Day dinner was at one of the most enjoyable Italian restaurants in Vienna, Da Capo. A local favorite, as we found out and because we did not get reservation (again the concierge had no idea where this was) we had to wait a while. Italian food on Valentine's Day in Austria so no Apfelstrudel here but great inexpensive pizza and/or pasta. Only problem with Austria is that smoking is still allowed in the majority of restaurants and occupy most tables.

We did not go in to Chez Nous as we were on a quest to find Apfelstrudel, but we did pop into the bar next door to get a hot toddy. Now this was a real local bar and after one quick drink we went from one extreme to another ...

... Hotel Sacher. It's legendary service and the magnificent Blue Bar was a perfect spot for Valentine's Day, as it has appealed to lovers of bygone days, so why not us? We walked in as if we owned the place, through the magnificent lobby and sitting area to the bar. The bartender took to us as if we were regulars and even opened up the kitchen for one Apfelstrudel. He told us it was his grandmother's recipe and we could not believe it was the least expensive we had tried so far. Four Euro! Even the drinks were reasonable.

Hotel Sacher is the home of Sacher-Torte, the world's most famous chocolate cake and as we were leaving, the bartender presented us with two lovely boxes of their torte plus all the fancy literature about the hotel.

Back at our hotel, red was the color for this special day or should we say night. At least their bartender gave us good service. Wonder why we always get good service in the bars? Anyway it was something we could not say about the front desk when we asked for water. Cheri made out she was upset. Of course that did not last long but where did that sweater go?

The next morning we were up early to finish off our tour of the city before we took off for Berlin. But when we opened the drapes it was snowing so we hit the snooze button until the sun came out. We missed breakfast again so it was off to Starbucks. We have to warn you though, the prices are the same as in the US but are in Euros!!

Flying in to Tegel it's the only airport without a train station so we have to take a taxi to the Berlin Marriott and it seems as their fares have gone down since our last visit, only 17 Euros. Must be because they have to compete against all the limos in town for the Film Festival. We arrive far too late for any parties so we attempt to visit a club called Insomnia. Well the directions we had were to their offices and no taxi driver knew the actual location (bad sign)? They all know The Kit Kat Club of course so we head to their new location in Mitte. Only to find it's "normal" night, no need for a dress code and as Cheri wore her wonderful Red Dress, we decide to call it a night and head back to the hotel, 35 Euros later for taxi fare!!!!

Well The Marriott Bear was happy.

A complimentary snack and a bottle of wine was brought up to the room and we were ready to go. Except it was just a couple of taxis and we were back in the hotel bar for last call before we knew it. But we could not understand why the barman did not want to close!!

Next morning we had a good view of the city and the new Ferris Wheel across the street. After a nice breakfast in the concierge lounge, we were off to look around the city and see if we could see any movie stars.

Our good friend and concierge Christian was happy to see us and he told us we should go across to The Ritz as he had heard Madonna, Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz were in town but despite the red carpet being out, there were no sightings so we decided to review the schedule of events over in Potsdam Platz.

With it being a nice day we took our stroll with thousands of other Berliners past the Jewish Memorial and thru the Bradenburg Gate, down Unter den Linden to the Berliner Dom. Stopping at all the new Berlin Bears on the way.

It was time for a drink and it was nice to visit Newton again. Except a word of warning, if a dark haired female is serving behind the bar, leave and go back later. In all of our travels and all the bars we have visited we have never experienced such bad service. After ordering a drink each we were totally ignored and could not even get her to take our money for them.

Could not convince Cheri to pose naked with the Newton ladies. Maybe if we could have had a few more drinks you never know what could have happened.

Christian invited us to a reception for all the Marriott managers in Germany, here for the film festival and then recommended Refugium for dinner and it was wonderful. Located by the Opera House in the Deutscher Dom we experienced great service and food at very reasonable prices for Berlin.

So it was back to the hotel to change and here we go again from one extreme to the other. Now it was the time to go to The Kit Kat Club.A fun night and the club is even bigger having now moved to a new location in Mitte. Still the same crowd, basically all sorts from Fetish to really strange and the dress code is strictly monitored. Anything goes in this place and nobody annoys you or really cares. The music is still techno with two dance floors, but now they have many more rooms for all different people. We left at 5:30 and people were still coming and going.

Well "The Bear" had a nice wake up call and thank heavens the concierge room had cornflakes out for breakfast. But we only had 30 minutes before the regular crowd came.

We slept through till noon but it was not a problem as the hotel told us we could stay till our plane left that evening. We wanted to visit Helmut Newton's museum so we took off to the other side of town, only to find it was closed for renovation. Very annoying as no information about the closure was on their website. Oh well we will have to go back in June when it reopens.

But we did get to see The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche, which is a stark reminder of the damage done by the 2nd World War and the bombing raids.

We took our last walk along a sunny Ebertstrasse past the rear of the Brandenburg Gate and around the Reichstag returning to watch the sunset over Berlin in the concierge room with Christian. We were ready for home but we had a late flight to Amsterdam and a night in the Marriott Courtyard at the airport first. The next morning we did a little duty free shopping in Schipol, an easy thing to do at this airport and our United flight departed on time and we were back home via Chicago as scheduled.