Praha

Some of the other in our group tried to buy bus/train tickets at the shops in the hotel. The staff were very unhelfpul, saying that they couldn't sell them the tickets. They did sell the tickets but couldn't. After some questioning they discovered that they do sell the tickets but had run out. Lucky for us we didn't have to go through that.

We waited outside for the bus intending to buy tickets on board, as long as the driver understood us. It was quite cold which was unusual since we had been having great weather. Andrew was wearing jandals, shorts and a singlet but was braving the cold, staring at the clouds trying to scare them away. We managed to buy tickets on the bus and then got the metro into the city.

Four of us only made it down one road before we were into shops looking for jerseys to wear. If only we'd checked the weather before leaving our rooms, we'd have been better prepared.





Wrapped in our new clothes, we walked to the astronomical clock where we started a walking tour.







Our guide took us over the famous Charles Bridge and up to Prague castle.








The Eiffel tower lookalike.








We saw the changing of the guard ceremony outside the castle. There were heaps of people but we got the idea.






We walked through the castle, looked inside the cathedral and finished on the other side of the castle.








From there we had a fantastic view over Prague and could see a sculpture in the distance which was a wall of skulls.




Down the steps and along a bit we found a nice cafe for lunch and then saw this wonderful piece of "art":









We checked out the markets which sold all sorts of food and crafts, including some amazing paintings and prints. We wanted to see a black light show (a show done in bright colours under black lights giving cool effects) but we got stuck trying to buy tickets at the theatre. When we said we wanted tickets for tonight we were told we couldn't have any. We asked why, but couldn't understand the answer. Another ticket agent said that they could sell tickets but when we told them the theatre didn't want to sell them to us, suddenly they decided that they wouldn't sell them to us either.

We had another look at the markets, Charles bridge and further around the streets then had a Bratwurst for dinner and headed home.





Traditional Czech: An old Skoda ready to take a tourist on a sightseeing tour!!

Budapest to Praha

Today was another bus day as we drove from Budapest to Prague, not much to report, except that we stopped at a supermarket near Bratislava for lunch.

On arrival in Prague, we checked into the Top Hotel Praha which was an interesting hotel as it used to be ex-communist housing. But it was a huge hotel with several wings and bars as well as a casino. It was obvious that we were staying in the "cheaper" wing of the hotel as we walked to the bus through the posher part of the hotel. We caught a local bus to Chodov metro station (also a large shopping centre) and then metroed into the city.



Once in the city, Eleni took us on a speedy orientation tour around the city, where we saw the astronomical clock as it struck on the hour and the Charles Bridge. By this time we were all starving, so we headed on to dinner where we had a choice of two options for the main course - goulash and some other thing which we can't remember what its called but had cream and jam in it - weird! But they both tasted good.

Budapest

Budapest! After our great city tour yesterday, we felt reasonably familiar with the city and had a long list of things we wanted to see and do!

Firstly we went to the Art Gallery, just after opening time, to see the "Picasso In Love" exhibition and the Rembrandt exhibition. There were so many more things to see but there's only so much art one can handle in one day.



Following that we went for a walk down the main street Andrássy út which had lots of old and interesting buildings. We stopped at a cafe in Liszt square for lunch.
Here's a photo of us with our Giraffe (of beer). The waiter didn't do a very good job - look at the head on that thing!







Next was the Terror Museum. This was rather intense but very very good.






We wanted to go on a tour of the Opera House which looks impressive from the outside and we imagine it is amazing on the inside. It is modelled on the Vienna Opera House.


Inside and outside of St Stephens Basilica.











For something a little different we went to the Synagogue. We couldn't go in but got a good look at the outside.

We were considering visiting the Parliament Building which you can do tours through, but ran out of time.

After this we meandered back to the square for dinner, then back to the hotel.

Wien to Budapest

Just before we left the city we visited a schnapps factory/museum. It was a very old family business and Mr Fischer welcomed us into his office which was very old fashioned. It has even been used for making movies. He talked about schnapps and liqueurs (schnapps with added sugar is actually a liqueur). He had so many choices (including one with pieces of 23 carat golf leaf in it) and we got to try most of them. Yum!














We set off for Budapest, crossing the border into Hungary where we actually got stamps in our passports. Budapest is a combination of two cities (Buda and Pest) on either side of the river Danube).



Once checked in we boarded the coach again and a local tour guide took us around the city. We started in Pest and looked at Heroes' square with statues of many important historical figures (don't ask me to name them all!)

Past the impressive parliament building then over a bridge and up to Buda castle, Fishermen's Bastion and Mathias Church.














From there we had amazing views over Buda & Pest as the sun was setting.

















Dinner was traditional Hungarian food, complete with "traditional" entertainment.

Wien

We started by going to St Stephens Cathedral followed by a tour of the catacombs underneath the cathedral and the cathedral square. There were some quite recent coffins of important church figures, rooms with body parts in metal containers, and rooms deeper down with only bones left. It was fascinating and made quite lively by our excellent tour guide.







Next we walked to the Hofburg palace, but not before Adrian had his gelato fix! We also saw the statue of Mozart with a treble clef shaped garden in front of him.









The Hofburg is a huge place, with several parts to it. We went through the musuem which featured some royal silver collection, the Sisi museum and the imperial quarters. It included an audio guide which is a great way to understand everything that you see.

Feeling pretty tired after the museum we had a quick visit to an internet cafe then had some gelato (Adrian's second gelato fix of the day). On our leisurely stroll back to the coach we checked out some postcards, but there weren't many that did it for us. Most of them look like they are from the 80's and we reckon we can take better pictures.


That evening most of the group went to a Mozart and Strauss concert. It was clearly aimed at tourists, with a mix of orchestra, opera singing and ballet, but was good nonetheless.
Starving on the way home we lowered ourselves for the second day in a row and grabbed some McDonald's.

Munchen to Wien

We left our fancy hotel and set off for Austria. We stopped for lunch at a rest area near Salzburg which had a great view of the mountains and valleys.






We visited Mauthausen concentration camp after having a brief talk from Martin (our driver) about the Holocaust. Eleni couldn't talk about it because it's too upsetting. Firstly we watched a video which talked about the concentration camp and the treatment that people got. It finished with interviews with some people who survived the camp and soldiers that liberated the camp. There were some photos which made the horror more realistic. It's hard to believe that the guards could treat other humans so badly.













We then went on a guided tour of the camp itself (guided by a portable tape deck) and saw the barracks where the prisoners slept in cramped conditions - imagine 3 to a narrow timber-plank bed, which barely fitted one! We also walked to the steps which led down to the quarry, as this was a "work to death" camp.













Once checked into the hotel in Vienna, we took a drive through the city and around the ring road. From this route you get to see many of the impressive buildings and sites of Vienna. It was great seeing them by night too, beautifully lit.





Dinner was beer soup!, pork schnitzel, potato salad, and strudel for dessertl The beer soup was ok. Not as weird as expected. The schnitzel was good, but it shouldn't be a hard meal to make.

On the way back to the hotel, we were surprised with a visit to Prater amusement park which runs every summer in Vienna. There was go-karting, dodgems, a giant ferris wheel, roller coasters, a tower of terror and much more.

Munchen

Caught the U-Bahn into the city (very handy to the hotel). We were just in time to see the Glockenspiel play at 11am.

We were expecting something much better than the one in Stratford, Taranaki (New Zealand) and it was better, but sounded very out of tune and not that impressive.






From there, most of the group met up for the "Mike's Bike's Tour". They run bike tours in several European cities. We each got our bikes, "da cruisers", and rode to several landmarks. We rode through the Englischer Garten (a huge park) and saw people surfing (a wave is produced in a fast flowing river which you can surf on), then past many naked sunbathers. Sometimes they will leave work at luncthime, take off their suits and sunbath for a while. We got to the Chinesischer Turm beergarden where we (where it was safe to open our eyes again) and enjoy some more German beer and food.









After that we wandered back past loads of shops and headed home.

The road down from the hotel was closed off and a special show was being held there. We saw it later on TV and it had something to do with celebrating a TV series. Anyway, we found cheap dinner at a Vietnamese noodle stall.

Venezia to Munchen

This morning we took the Brenner Pass from Italy to Austria. We were surrounded by snow-capped mountains and it was really beautiful. We went through Innsbruck on the Autobahn and saw the Olympic ski jump up on the hill. We stopped near Innsbruck for lunch at an Autogrill (big chain of road-side restaurants through Italy) and were really surprised to see REAL FOOD!! We loaded our plates with meat and VEGETABLES which we hadn't seen if quite a while.

From there we took some very narrow winding roads to Füssen to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. We took a guided tour through the castle of mad King Ludwig II. The castle was never finished as he mysteriously died before it was completed and construction was immediately stopped. It was a fairy tale castle and so was appropriately used as the model for the Disneyland castles.


We had a nice hotel in Munchen (Munich) tonight. We had been warned that the Germans liked being naked a lot and this was reinforced by our hotel room. There was no door between the room and the bathroom. Even worse, the shower was made of glass. This caused a problem for the single people who were sharing a room with strangers!! We took the coach into city, walked around with Eleni as she explained some history, then had dinner at Hofbrauhaus (beer hall). Great atmosphere and food but SO smokey. We are not used to being around people who smoke everywhere.