Friday, 25 May 2012 – Drive to Prague
Got up and finished packing for the drive to Prague. Not sure, bit I think Lisa might have had a little bit of lukewarm water in the shower this time. Maybe not. We all went across to McDonalds at Checkpoint Charlie to get Lynn a fountain drink, but found it closed until 0800. Went next door to a bakery and found not only good breakfast eats, but fountain drinks. Picked up breakfast and went back to the apartment to eat. Then grabbed our bags and headed out.
We walked to the car and packed up all our gear and then went to the apartment office. Not open! We dropped Lynn off to go to the little market next door to pick up water and snacks for the drive, and drove around the block – several times. In about 10 minutes we had seen signs of life in the office and were able to drop off the key. Picked Lynn up and we started on our way to Prague. It was slow going getting out of Berlin, but not quite as slow as getting in the other day. About an hour out of town we stopped for gas and coffee. Brian and I got some more good coffee and Lynn had some good gas station bread. Even the rest stops in Europe have better bread then most stores in the States! The drive started out flat, but the other side of Dresden, things started to get more texture. As we crossed into the Czech Republic it was getting somewhat mountainous. The countryside was very pretty.
We arrived in Prague around 1230, but took another 20 minutes to get to our apartment due to traffic. We checked in at the hotel that manages the apartment and were given an escort to get to the parking spot and to show us to the apartment. He was obviously some kind of maintenance fellow, wearing his tan overalls and carrying a pair of channel lock pliers. He opened the powered gate for us to enter the parking area and then showed us to the very narrow spot. All of us but Brian got out of the car first, removing our bags as well. Channel Locks Man then showed us into the building to the apartment.
The apartment was very nice, on the second floor with two bedrooms, three beds and a small kitchen. The front bedroom was in the front corner of the building, facing right onto the main street. The bathroom had a corner shower and a water heater in the opposite corner. Brian noticed a thermometer in the water heater, and turned up the thermostat to heat it up for us, as it was dialed all the way down. I mention this for a reason.
We left the apartment and walked down to Charles Square (Karlovo náměstí) and then toward the Old Town before bearing left again to the river, which we followed toward the Charles Bridge. We found a nice place to eat just before getting to the bridge, with a nice view of the bridge and the Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. I had svíčková (SVITCH-ko-va), a beef in sour cream sauce which was cold and the sauce quite sweet. Not the best version of it I have had. Brian had smoked ribs served on a cutting board. They were very tasty. Lynn had spaghetti bolognese and Lisa had some chicken skewers. Cindy had baked trout that was served whole with the head still on it. Although very tasty, she said this put her off a little.
After eating, we decided to split up on the Charles Bridge. Brian and Cindy wanted time to see the Infant of Prague and Lisa wanted to see Prague Castle. We accompanied Lisa, and hiked through the New Town and up the hill to the castle fairly rapidly to give her time to see things. We didn’t see any of the changing of the guard, but it may have been too early in the day for that. We walked into the castle entrance and through to the St. Vitus Cathedral. Lynn and I had forgotten a lot of what we learned two years before on the tours we took,, so we were not much help to her in describing the stuff we were looking at.
Instead of retracing our steps to get back to the Charles Bridge, we walked all the way around the castle and back down the hill to the river before cutting back across to the area of the bridge. For a while we were walking on the wrong side of the road, as the sidewalk gradually got narrower and narrower until it completely evaporated. Once we got past a curve in the road where we could see, we were able to cross to the other side and get back on a sidewalk.
We made it back to the Charles Bridge in plenty of time and met Brian and Cindy right around 1730. We slowly made our way across back to the Old Town side. At that point, Lisa and I went to the Medieval Torture Museum while Brian, Cindy and Lynn walked to Old Town Square. We met again 45 minutes later and all went to the Old Town Square to sit and have a drink and watch the Astronomical Clock perform its hourly show. Lisa took some video of it.
Our beer was good and Cindy’s mojito was also very tasty. Lynn got a “mas” of Pilsner Urquell – a liter of beer, which kept her busy for a good while. It looked really large. Cindy got chilly, so she and Brian went off to find her a light wrap, and we ordered a cheese pizza, since we were getting a little hungry. Before we knew it, the three of us had eaten the whole thing and Brian and Cindy were still not back, so we ordered another pizza just as they were returning.By then the clock was bout to strike again at 2000, so we stayed for that and then settled our bill and moved on to the town square.
There were some kids doing folk dances on a stage in the square, so we watched that for a little while before moving on. We walked out by the Powder Tower, and across to Wenceslas Square. I found a liquor and souvenir shop and bought a bottle of Becherovka to take home. Then we walked up the square toward the National Museum. Brian and I needed to return some used beer to the Czech Republic, so we stopped at a McDonalds to use the bathroom. There was a turnstile that was used to collect the equivalent of 1 Euro to get in. That’s the first time any of us had seen a pay turnstile for a bathroom at McDonalds! Then we headed back toward our apartment. We stopped in a convenience store on the way to buy some bottled water for the drive the next day.
Back in the apartment, Brian checked on the hot water and was nonplussed to observe that the thermometer was no longer present, and the water heater thermostat had been turned down again. Since none of the rest of us had seen any of this before, we can only refer to this as “The Great Thermometer Mystery of Prague.” Not being greatly distressed by any of it (least of all Lisa, who only takes cold showers anyway), we went to bed.
Saturday, 26 May 2012 – Bratislava (said with silly accent)
Got up and packed for the road. Decided to leave Prague first and then find some gas station bread after we had got out of town. The missing thermometer still had not returned. Brian blamed Channel Locks Man, but we never saw him again after he showed us our apartment, and nothing else was missing. Once ready to depart, we started out of the parking area but came to the gate and found no way to open it. We looked all over and could not find a switch or trigger to open it. Had to go back in the building and found the cleaning lady, who had a remote and opened the gate for us. Then we returned the key to the hotel desk and were on our way.
The drive was fairly uneventful and we arrived in Bratislava around noon. We had some difficulty finding our apartment, and drove around for a good while looking for the place. Finally we entered the area from an angle the GPS could navigate us in from. Once there, the lady (Stella, of Stella Apartments) met us and was very helpful in getting us in and settled, although she informed us that we were quite early for check-in. Once we had finished moving our bags in and displaying our passports and filling out the required paperwork, we asked for advice on getting back into town via the trolley system. She pointed us up the hill to the trolley stop and let us know which one to use. We thanked her and went on our way.
We found the trolley stop that had been pointed out to us, but could not get the machine to accept any money to sell us tickets. When the trolley arrived, the driver told us the machine must be full (of coins) and we should get onboard anyway. We took the trolley into the Old Town area and got off and walked into the town. We soon found a nice place to eat lunch. I had some kind of spicy chicken dish with fries and rice, Lynn had some potato dumplings filled with spiced meat (tasted smoked-hammy), Brian had a spicy beef dish wrapped in a potato dumpling and Cindy had a salad. As always, the beer was good.
After lunch, we walked around and saw some of the local sights before walking up the hill to the castle. The walls were quite old, but Bratislava Castle itself had been fairly recently rebuilt, like in the mid-1950s. The views of the city and across the Danube were very impressive. We could see many windmills (like well over 100!) to the southwest of the city.
We slowly made our way back to the Old Town area to a nice little plaza/park and found a place to have some refreshment. More beer and some lemon water, which was not sweet and was indeed very refreshing. Cindy had some mint-ginger tea, and that was also very tasty and refreshing. We spent some time checking out what we had seen, what we still needed to see and also in planning our trip by train to Vienna tomorrow.
We left the park and walked to a few more sights on our map and then found a place for dinner. We elected to try a Mexican place we saw earlier in the day, despite some misgivings about a Mexican joint in Bratislava. It billed itself as a fusion restaurant, and the menu was extensive and a bit confusing. How many different Mexi-vakian or Slov-exican dishes could there be? I had a skirt steak (tough!) and Lynn had a baked potato dish with chili bean topping – Cindy too. Brian had a hamburger (which he really did not like) and Lisa had some fettuccine – probably the wisest choice of any of us.
After dinner, we walked back to the trolley stop and bought tickets (this time without difficulty). We took the trolley back to the stop we thought was ours, and realized we got off one stop too early. It wasn’t far to our stop, so we walked back and checked the schedule to make sure we know when to meet one in the morning to take us to the train station.
Once back in the apartment we discussed the plan for the next day – get up at whatever time necessary to catch the 0845 train to Vienna. Lisa put a load of laundry in the washing machine and after an hour and a half – probably more- it was almost ready to come out. We bumped the timer along to get it finished so we could all go to bed.
Sunday, 27 May 2012 – Vienna
Got up and caught the 0750 trolley to the stop nearest the train station and walked the rest of the way. Once there, we got some breakfast pastries and coffee before the train left. Our train was on schedule and left at 0846. It was not crowded and we were able to sit in an area together. We got to Vienna at about 1000 and took the S-bahn to the U-bahn to get us to St. Stephens Platz. The street was already crowded and there were street performers and trinket stands all over.
We walked around the city for a couple of hours until we had walked past nearly all the landmarks we knew about. Then found a place for lunch. Brian and I had to have the wienerschnitzel (good!), Lisa had a pork schnitzel (also good) and Lynn had bratwurst. Cindy had a fried chicken plate that was also very tasty.
After lunch we walked around and looked at a few more interesting sand picturesque churches and buildings. At that point we decided to find a tour to take to get some more city history and information, and to get us to Schönbrunn Palace. We were just in time to catch the last city/palace tour and had to scamper over to the Opera House to catch the bus. The tour drove more or less around the Ringstraße to describe the city sights, and then took us to the palace. We were even further entertained by another older couple of “Ugly Americans” of the cruise ship variety. The lady was quite vocal with her various moments of disapproval and condemnation.
The palace was spectacular, but not as over the top as Versailles. There were several very interesting rooms, and one called the “Million Room” (or Millions Room) which was being restored, so the room was draped in a large paper printed copy of the actual paneling. Interesting! There was also a fine room wallpapered with a rice wallpaper – now quite faded – but still showing how pretty it must have been in its day. Sadly, no photos were allowed in the palace, so we have no pictures to accompany this account.
We walked around outside after the tour of the palace and saw the gardens and a large gate on the hill behind the palace called the Gloriette, built as a “Monument to Just War,” the war that brings about peace. It was also designed to be a focal point and a lookout point for the garden.
We took the bus back to the Opera House after the tour and made a final attempt at finding the Kaisergruft – the location of the remains of the rulers of Austria. We found it, but it was closed for the day by that time. Too bad we didn’t know what we were looking at earlier in the day when we were about to step inside this church. We started off to finds a dinner spot and after a wandering search, found an Italian restaurant that was in a quiet location and had an acceptable menu. Lynn and Cindy had wine and Brian and I had beer – first a wheat beer and then a lager (the Czech Budweiser). Lynn, Cindy, Brian and Lisa had pizza, I had spaghetti bolognese. We enjoyed our dinner and has a very nice waiter who was of Turkish origin.
After dinner we took the U-bahn to the most convenient train stop (Simmering) and after about 10 minutes, caught the train back to Bratislava. We walked the couple of blocks back to the trolley stop and caught the trolley back to the vicinity of Stella Apartments, remembering this time to get off at the correct stop.
Once back in the apartment, we took out our maps and tour info and started working out our plan for the next day – our drive to Berchtesgaden. Since we would be there mid-day, we had some options for what to do the rest of the day. We discussed a salt mine tour and sommerrodelbahn (mountain luge) rides. Then, off to bed.
Click here to continue as we go to Berchtesgaden, Kehlsteinhaus and Salzburg