Hainburg

The prettiest village on the road from Vienna to Bratislava is Hainburg. When taking the bus to the Vienna airport, one does wonder if the bus is going to make it through the Weinertor.

On the way back to Bratislava we stopped to walk through the village. Most of the shops and restaurants were closed for Sunday, but we found an old courtyard that was serving pop and snacks. We ordered what we thought was buttered bread for 1 euro and bread with ham for 3 euro. The buttered bread came with about half a pound of cheese and the bread with ham had an equal amount of ham. I was reminded that Austrians like to eat and that price is not an indication of size. Heavily fortified, we checked out the Weinertor, then walked to the other end of town to see its gate. We followed a street that ran parallel to the wall to get a better look at the castle. This view of the castle gate is behind the local high school. Down the street is the town pranger, a reminder of penal days gone by.

Carnuntum

On the road half-way between Vienna and Bratislava is an old looking arch. It is the remains of the Heidentor (heathen gate), erected between 354 and 361 AD as a triumphal monument for Emperor Constantius II. The gate is part of the Carnuntum, a significant Roman fortification founded in 6 AD by Tiberius.

And, as luck would have it, the day we had planned to tour the Austrian countryside and figure out what the heck that arch was happened to fall during The Big Carnuntum Roman Festival. So, we headed out on the B9 to Petronell-Carnuntum, following the well-marked signs on the highway. After parking in a field, we paid 9 euro to get in.

The size of the archaeological site is impressive and well worth visiting anytime. There are plans to excavate and restore portions of the site to its former glory through 2011. There are plaques in English and German to explain the site plan, the Roman sewage, plumbing, and heating systems, and the types of buildings. Some of the houses have been restored and provide a glimpse into the high standard of living available in Roman times.

For the festival, the grounds were strewn with souvenir stalls and demonstrations of weaving, forgery, tinsmithing, pottery, cooking, etc. There were places for children to make their own sword and shield or clay seal. Quite a few people were dressed in togas or legion costumes.

There were different military demonstrations every hour. We watched an entertaining demonstration of a legion training 2 new recruits in the art of using their shield and spear. The fair was very busy but well organized. The lineups for the water closets were short and the tables and garbage were kept quickly cleared to give everyone a chance to eat.

We then went in search of the arch. We quickly discovered that while you can clearly see the arch from the highway, you can't get to it from there. After driving around Petronell-Carnuntum a few times we remembered that the magic word was "Heidentor" and quickly found that nearly every side street in town had a brown sign pointing towards it. Ah yes, all roads lead to Rome...