Prague and Krakow

                                                         Old Town Square Prague

                                                      Charles Bridge Prague

                                             Municiple House - Museums/Galleries

                                                Charles Bridge - Prague

                                                      Sedlec Ossuary - Kutna Hora Czech Republic

                                                      Polish National Dress

                                                         Rynek Glowny Square - Krakow

Plac Bohaterow Ghetto Square  (heroes square)

Another train trip and onto Prague.

We arrived in Prague late in the day but went off to get our bearings. We found our way to the Old Town and stood and watched the Astronmical Clock do its thing(definitely overrated) with thousands of others. The following day we did two walking tours, one around the Old Town and the other up around the Castle District and both were so interesting. We took ourselves off to Kutna Hora outside Prague by local train (interesting when you don't know where you're going) and visited the Church of Bones(Ossuary) – most unbelievable sight I have ever seen, every decoration in there was made of human skeletons. If any of you are interested in the history behind it I'm sure it will be available on the Net. We then spent the afternoon walking around the Jewish Quarter including their cemetery which has an interesting history also.

 We had seen the Metronome that had replaced the statue of Stalin from a distance and so decided to climb the stairs to it to get a closer look – it was 23 metres high and many others had climbed the stairs also to take a closer look. We walked back across the Charles Bridge with its many statues and many hundreds of people. Luckily it was late in the day otherwise it would have been with thousands of people.

On the last night we thought we would go out for a walk but just as we got out the front of the hotel it began to thunder. The storm went on for about 45mins with thunder,sheet lightning and fork lightning continuously. So that put an end to that..

Krakow – we would've liked to stay longer. Another city with an interesting history. As we walked around I couldn' t help looking at the older generation and thinking what they must have went through and how lucky they were able to survive. We did the tour to Auschwitz and Birkenau and saw some of the buildings that remained from that horrendous time in history. Being part of a tour did not really give us enough time at Birkenau to walk around and reflect more. Still it was easier to organise as a tour to go there from the hostel.

Our happier visit was to Wieliczka Salt Mine. When we went in I thought this is a bit like Sovereign Hill but I was quite wrong , 64 metres underground and statues made from salt was amazing, but then we went into the chapel where the altar, statues, carved pictures and stairs were all made of salt -hard to believe. The mine also had three man made lakes in it.

We had one day left and visited Schindler's Factory, it has been turned into a museum and is very well done as it  shows many different aspects. A place that you could spend hours.

From there it was a 10 hour train journey to Berlin, so that's the next instalment.

Innsbruck, Salzburg & Munich

                                                              Bergisel Ski Jump Innsbruck

                                                       View from our street - Innsbruck

                                                  Looking out over the Alps from Hungerburg

                                                        Mozartplatz Square

                                                  At Festung Hohensalzburg Castle Salzburg

 

                                                      View from walkway to Nonnberg Abbey

                                                         Glockenspiel Munich

Finally I've got around to filling in the gap.         Schloss Neuschwanstein

We arrived in Innsbruck( a bit cooler) from Venice to be surrounded by beautiful mountains with a touch of snow still on them. The river at the back of our hotel was the bluest/green colour we had ever seen and flowing swiftly. As we do in every town, we took ourselves off for a walk in the afternoon and discovered the city. The next morning we did the hop on/hop off bus and visited the very exciting Bergisel Winter Ski Jump – I would love to watch someone actually jump off it, as it is quite scary just looking at it. We looked up at the mountains and I decided we just had to take a trip to the top – can't say Jack thought that was a good idea. He went along  with it and on the last, very steep cable car ride his knuckles were turning white because he was holding on so tight.. I must admit I was feeling a bit nervous as I looked back down the mountain. It was a relief when we got out but worth it, the view was spectacular, we were surrrounded by parts of the Alps . This town must be so beautiful when there is more snow around.

Our next stop was Salzburg-home of Mozart. Everything centred around Mozart and you could choose from any number of concerts to attend, most of these were being held in the churches. Bells rang constantly as we wandered around and called into the churches, we often found people singing so we would sit and listen for awhile- the girls singing the Alleluia from Shrek were just beautiful. We started off listening to international groups at the Mirrabelle gardens and then attended the concert at the Cathedral. The next night we walked up to the Nonnberg Abbey(where the nuns don't speak and Sound of Music fame) to attend another concert. The Sound of Music tour was a bit of a take but had to be done and gave us a chance to see towns out of Salzburg and the church at Mondsee that was used for the Sound..... We made our way up to the fortress up on the hill and then followed the walking trail along the old city wall to the other end of town.
Munich saw us cover Dachau concentration camp, a couple of city walks, including beer gardens and the famous Hofbrauhaus and  the Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen which the Sleeping Beauty Castle was modeled on and some of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed there.

So ends the gap in my blog.

Love
C & J

Vienna and Budapest

Vienna : The sound of bells ringing every 15mins followed us from Italy through to Vienna. In Vienna we used the met train system to get around the town but on the first afternoon we set off on the ring tram which circles the centre of town to get an idea of where we were. Later we took a stroll around the Belvedere Palace gardens. Even though we were tired we went off to a Mozart concert that night at the Musikverein where the musicians dressed in costume- beautiful music. We strolled around the Museum Quartier, Hofburg Palace and also tracked down Beethoven and Strauss' houses.(so they say they are) The highlight was the Schonbrunn Palace where we spent a couple of hours strolling around the grounds, we didn't go in as the palaces are starting to all be the same inside(did peep through the window though). I was happy enough to be in the courtyard where Andre Rieu performed and listening to a band from Lancaster while horse drawn carriages went back and forth across the courtyard.

Budapest Hungary saw us start off with a $30 fine for using the wrong ticket and pathetic directions to our hotel. A lovely African man helped us out and even carried the suitcase up the stairs to put us in the right direction assuring us that he was not scamming us, he also told us that it is quite common in Budapest with the tickets as the staff at the stations work on a commission basis for the number of people they catch.(No mercy shown to us, but I didn't give in easily) He gave us his card in case we had any more problems and went on his way.

Communication problem at the station was that I thought they said catch the 406 tram but they said 4 or 6 tram and then when we got going on the tram we got off and went to a street with a similar name in the other direction. (sometimes the spelling is different) After three lovely people helping us out we managed to get there.

We decided to chill out for the three days and took the hop on/off bus around the major sites, as the temp of Budapest was around 34 -36c. We also went for a cruise on the Danube and then went swimming in one of the many pools of different temps at the Szechenyi Baths.

On our last day we walked down to St.Stephen's Basilica and the House of Terror, which is a museum and once the headquarters of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party,(1944 Hungarian Nazis)and then the communist terror organisations between 1945 and 1956.( Soviet occupation) The museum commemorates the victims of terror and is a momento to remind us of the dreadful acts of dictatorships Listening to the survivors stories was very moving and again I came out drying my eyes. Throughout our travels in Austria and Germany we have had many tour guides point out the damage done by the wars and the rebuilding that has taken place.

Things we have found quite different.:

Mercedes being used as taxis, restaurants underground. Banks down narrow passageways, no cars in the centre of some towns, smoking alive and well, many homeless people asking for money and having to pay to go to the toilet all the time. (all adds up if it's a hot day and you need to drink) Cyclists not wearing helmets.

Jen from Gym: we have seen plenty of your little cars around, they are quite the norm over here.

Hope you are all coping with the chilly weather while we are sweating it out.

Will add pics soon and little blog on Innsbruck, Vienna and Munich

Love

C & J