Monthly Archives: July 2013

Bratislava/Vienna – Day 3 -7-31-13

We got up, had breakfast and took our luggage back to the first hotel. It was too early to check in so they stored our bags and we made sure we had a reservation. Then we walked to the train station and took a train to Vienna. When we got to Vienna we got on the subway to Schônbrunn Palace Marsha did the maze and I took the palace tour. I also took a picture of the garden. As usual all was great and of course no pics allowed in the castle. See pics of outside and garden. We then went to the demonstration on how to make apple strudel. It included a piece of strudel and a drink – see pics. We then got back on the subway and headed to central Vienna ((St Stephen’s Platz). See pic of church. We toured the church and the downtown area. We decided to have dinner in Vienna and chose a restaurant based on food naturally, while we were having dinner I noticed people taking pictures of the building. When we had finished we discovered it was the building where Mozart wrote the Marriage of Figaro. The restaurant was very nice – see pics – Marsha had gazpacho for an appetizer and had mushrooms in a cream sauce with bread dumplings for the main dish. I had pork with the chanterelle mushroom cream sauce and potato noodles. See pics . All good food. We are now on the train to Bratislava – it just left Vienna and it is 8:30pm, we still have to walk from the train station in Bratislava to our hotel and check in. When we get there I will be able to connect to WIFI, upload the pics and send the blog post. Tomorrow we are headed to Budapest.
Forgot to mention the before dinner digestive. See pic. We know it had vodka and all that fruit. It was very tasty!

PS- Bratislava is in Slovakia just across the border from Austria. It should be pretty much east of Vienna.

Bratislava – Day 2 – Tuesday 7-30-13

When we woke up it was much cooler to our delight. We were so hot and tired yesterday we couldn’t bear the thought of another day like that. Our first job was to find a place to stay for the night since the hotel we were in didn’t have a room for today. We set out on foot and while we were walking past the Presidential Palace they were changing the guard. See pics. There was no one there but us! We checked several hotels and found one for tonight. We are not homeless. We stopped for breakfast and then headed to the first hotel to check out and get our luggage and make a reservation for tomorrow. are you confused yet? We then dropped our bags at the hotel we are staying at tonight (too early to check in) and went to see the sights. We walked to the UFO Bridge over the Danube and walked across it. See pics. Then we went up to the observation tower on the bridge. Great view! We then went into the restaurant and had a cold drink. Again a spectacular view. We could see windmills in the distance and they are actually in Austria. We decided to use the facilities when we were leaving the restaurant and it was all windows and on them said “are you enjoying the view”. I have many pics on my camera-too many to post. We then walked into the Old Town for more sightseeing and about 4pm headed to our hotel to check in. Nice hotel and since we couldn’t find a laundromat, we did laundry. See pic. We went to dinner in the Old Town – nothing exciting – Marsha had garlic soup and fries and I had schnitzel and fries. We are now back at the hotel and I can only get WIFI on the lobby so Marsha went to see how we’ll our laundry is drying. It is only 10:15pm.

Bratislava – Monday 7-29-13

It was about a 4 hour train ride to Bratislava. Fortunately our car was air conditioned until the conductor came around checking our tickets and said “the climatizer” is no longer working. We reached our hotel at approx 5:30 but it is still HOT here. We looked like we took showers with our clothes on. The hotel is air conditioned so we just cooled off for a while. There was a snafu with our reservation so we have to find another hotel. We headed into the Old Town and it seemed deserted. We thought everything was closing, but we found a restaurant for dinner. We both had salads – it is just too hot to eat – and then we split a dessert, while we were sitting there a Greek parade passed by – don’t know what the parade was for.

There is also a picture of the square where we had dinner. Walking back to the hotel we saw this table of guys with the giant beer container on their table so we took their picture. Also there is a pic of the “space” bridge. I

Prague-kutná hora 7-28-13 Sunday

Time is flying by. It is hard to keep track of what the date is let alone the day. Apparently this is common because people we talk to who have been traveling for several weeks have the same problem. Today we traveled about an hour outside if Prague to see kutná hora – the town where the bone church is. It is really creepy – you will see why when you look at the pics. Apparently so many people died during the plague they did not have enough graves for all of them – so they gathered the bones and put them in this church. The chandelier is made of every bone in the human body. As I said creepy but in a way beautiful.

We then went to St Katherine’s church. It was really hot here today so we did not walk for miles. Getting heat stroke is not in the itinerary. We then missed the bus to the next church in town so we took a cab. The church we had to see was St. Barbara- guess why we had to see it. My church is very nice!

I have my more pics on my camera. We then walked to the bus station so we could get the train back to Prague. The bus was hot, but the train was a furnace. Everyone looked beat. We were all sweating and there was very little air flow. When we got to Prague we got some cold drinks and sat in the train station to cool off. Then we decided to find the vegetarian restaurant we wanted to eat at last night. Well, we walked around Old town and couldn’t find it. For all we know it may have gone out of business. We opted for an Indian restaurant. Yes, I know -Indian food in Prague! I had chicken in creamy spinach and Marsha had mushroom and pea curry. Of course the food was great and spicy but delicious. We heard the couple at the next table mention Rick Steve’s ate at this restaurant. So I asked them how they knew about this. They told us Rick Steves was here last week filming for his show. The couple lives in Miami and are originally from London. They have also been traveling for several weeks and get cities confused.

We left the restaurant and headed for the hotel. As we turned the final corner walking to our hotel there was a fireworks display over the Old City. Since the hotel is high on a hill we had a great view.
Thanks for all the comments. Again we love hearing from everyone. It is impossible to answer everyone individually since again it is 11pm when I am writing this and we are usually very tired and I don’t always have access to WIFI. I hope you all are enjoying the trip with us. Oops, I almost forgot – get out your maps – tomorrow we are headed to Bratislava.

Prague – Day 2 Saturday 7-27-13

Today we took the subway to Prague Castle. It is a large compound with a palace, several churches, museums and historical houses. After we purchased our tickets we went outside to plan how we would see everything. Just by luck we were just in time to see the changing of the guard.

We spent the entire day there and still did not see everything. In some areas we we not allowed to take pics, but I took a lot of pics with my camera when I was allowed to. It was very hot here today. We thought we were in Florida in July. I still think Prague is a most beautiful city. The castle was great and our appreciation of this place could not be diminished by the heat.
When we were walking down the hill (mountain) from the castle we stumbled upon the Oldest Medieval Bar in Prague. We stopped in for a cold beer- we were hot and thirsty- and ordered a cheese plate appetizer. You can see from the pic how much cheese there was on the plate plus pickles and hot peppers and a loaf of bread. We couldn’t even finish the cheese. We met three young men from Australia who are also touring Europe. It is fun and informative to get their impressions of places we haven’t been yet.

We continued down the hill into the Old City. Our plan was to have dinner at an Indian vegetarian restaurant, but neither of us was very hungry. We were just hot and thirsty. We watched the astronomical clock strike on the hour and headed to the subway. On our way we stopped into a Cuban restaurant/bar for a cold drink. I think water with ice was the most expensive item on the menu. See pic of Marsha drinking again. Also our hotel is not air conditioned. We continued to the subway and I took a pic of one of the escalators so you can see how long they are. We have to take three if these from the Old Town to get to our hotel because our hotel is up in the hills. It is only 11pm but we have another busy day tomorrow.

Forgot to add pic of cheese plate.