Day 230, 19 February 2013, Bratislava (Slovakia) and back to Vienna (Austria) in the evening. In order to go to Krakow (Poland). Surprisingly restful day, nevertheless. We breakfasted at our local fave restaurant then just as the tiniest flakes of snow began to flurry, we headed out sightseeing. Through the Old Town, via St Marten's Cathedral (which has a cracking gilded replica of the Hungarian crown on top of it - weighing 300 kg and standing 1 metre high - no doubt in honour of the 11 kings and 8 queens of Hungary to be crowned there). Even the gilded cushion upon which the crown lays measures 2 metres by 2 metres. Of course nothing looks that big from ground level, some 85 metres beneath! (St Marten's is pictured.) We strolled down to the Danube and browsed hand cut Bohemian crystal in a stunning shop. We're pretty sure we prefer the wild, exuberance and colours of Murano. Nice to be in a position to decide - we know. We viewed the massive castle from the banks of the Danube and the snow got wilder and woollier by the minute. It was a lovely stroll around town and the historic buildings and fountains were very pretty - but it was very cold, snowing hard and wet, wet, wet by the time we headed indoors for an afternoon with a couple of wines and some seat-of-the-pants travel planning for our time in Florida in May. We eventually collected our bags and treated ourselves to a car ride to the train station - buses are for fine and sunny days. The train zipped us back to Vienna in no time at all - bureaucracy at its finest ensured our tickets were checked twice (and stamped officially, twice) in the course of the one hour trip. We are currently sitting patiently in a very snazzy Austrian railway station with some decidedly decrepit and slightly whiffy folks in the immediate vicinity. The perils of warm, modern, public spaces open 24 hours we guess. Off to Krakow on the sleeper at 10.16 pm. We walked down the platform with interest prior to boarding and it turned out to be a train with many destinations - some coaches were being taken off and heading for Berlin and one coach was being taken off en route and going on to Minsk and Moscow. Made sure with triple checked our carriage before settling in for the night, that's for sure. Imagine waking up at the Russian border with no visa and no idea how you got there... Sweet dreams (we hope!)