Sept 25 Harburg and Rothenburg

This is our last tour day. We bought tickets yesterday and need to be at the train station at 8:30 for departure. By now, we have the metro down pat--just one stop to get there.
We are among the first to board and sit in the front seat with a great view out of the big windshield.
David was hoping this tour would be led by a younger guide, and it was, but we came to regret it. Her name is Ellen, and she is syrupy sweet, but you can tell she does not enjoy this job. She provides limited information--It is almost like we are paying for bus transportation without a guide--well, that is an exaggeration, but not by much. During the first two hours of the tour, she talked loudly in German with the driver, laughing as though she was having the time of her life. David wondered if the two were having an affair. She sure seemed to be flirting with him. And clearly he was much more the focus of her attention than the passengers. If anyone asks a question, she answers very abruptly, curt and unfriendly. Other passengers commented to us that they also found her rude.
We drove north out of Munich on the so-called Romantic Road. This route has been in existance since Roman times, and begins in southern Bavaria, near the Neuschwanstein Castle, and heads north through Munich and across Germany. The name was given to it several years ago to entice tourists. Actually, a drive along this road reveals medieval Germany at its finest. It was once a trade route through Bavaria. Now it's a mostly scenic drive featuring walled medieval cities, towers, half-timbered houses and lots of tourist resources. The entire road is a little over 260 miles long, from Wurzburg in the northern Franken wine growing region to Fussen in the south where Newschwanstein is.
We drive for more than an hour through lovely rolling hills of a rich agricultural region. The round bales of hay are covered with huge plastic bags, and I wonder how sealing it up doesn't make it mildew or mold inside. There is corn in the fields, grapevines, and other crops I do not recognize. We cross the Danube River, much smaller at this point than in Vienna.
Our first stop is at Harburg Castle, a true medieval castle that is a huge fortress. This is the largest castle complex and one of the oldest and best preserved castles of southern Germany. It is first mentioned in history in 1150, so it is nearly 1,000 years old! It truly retains the feeling of medieval times, the imposing exterior walls towering high above the ground and built with stones, not blocks. Michael Jackson called it "the castle of my dreams" and tried unseccessfully to buy it. Inside the walls, it feels like the middle ages with rustic timbers, inner chambers, a chapel, dungeons, a well, its own orchard in the courtyard, animal shelters, and has displays of medieval armor and weapons. It was an important military stronghold. There are many holes and slits in the exterior walls which were used for defence by allowing guns to be fired on approaching enemies while protecting the person inside. Of course, these are narrow and would only allow the soldier to aim the gun in one direction. It was a chilly and damp day today and that added an aura to the adventure. I imagine this castle was a cold place to live!
This entire region was struck by a meteorite thousands of years ago so we are inside a giant caldera called the Swabian Crater. We can see the elevated rim of the crater all around us in the distance. It is very foggy here and the guide says that is not unusual.
After Harburg, we drove further north to Rothenburg. This is an entire medieval city, surrounded by a high wall. It is described as " the most perfectly preserved medieval town in Europe." We had time on our own to explore there, and started with lunch. We stopped at an open-air restaurant, where the waiter directed us to a table already occupied by another couple. We asked if we could join them and they said sure. We had a great visit with them. They are from Long Island and have adopted a child from China. Her family is from Germany. She has been researching geneology very successfully and told us of some of her exciting finds, like a US immigration application document which showed a great grandfather's home town in Germany. They are travelling by car and plan to stay overnight in Rothenburg. We, on the other hand, have only a couple of more hours to see the place, so regretfully excuse ourselves to look around. There are many tourist shops and they brag about their Christmas shop, but we want to see the city more than shop.
We begin with St. Jacob's church, a protestant church whose construction started in 1311. As the largest church of the time, it reflected the city's wealth and organized worship of God. There are huge beautiful stained glass windows and a famous "Holy Blood Altar", which claims a relic  of a drop of Christ's blood.. We walked a few blocks to the edge of the city to climb steps up the wall and walked along the wall for some time. It is a great way to view the city and the surrounding countryside. The town hall in the Market Square center of town has a high tower, which was a watchman's tower. We climbed and climbed and climbed the stairs, which became narrower and narrower, finally ending in just a ladder, from which you emerge through a four-foot opening on your hands and knees onto the catwalk around the huge bell. I hope they don't ring the bell. At this close range, it might break our eardrums! We inch our way around the four sides of the bell. There is only room for a few tourists at a time up here! It is a great photo op, and David takes lots of pictures of the town, the market square below us, and the vistas across the landscape beyond the town. We have to get back down the ladder in reverse, feeling our way for each step as we descend. I felt sore in my gluteal muscles for two days after this adventure. There are other churches and gardens, lots to see. We decide to stop for a drink before we get back on the bus at 4, so visit another outdoor cafe for beer and hot tea.
The return home trip did not take "the scenic route" Romantic Road, instead we drove on the Autobaun. It is true that there is no speed limit for cars. Busses and trucks do have speed limits and there are stretches that even for cars, have speed limit signs. Porches and BMWs zoom past us. The highway itself is like our interstates, three lanes on each side, with truck stop areas and rest stops. There is not much to see, most of the road is lined with trees. The guide suggests we use this time to rest. But now our guide calls a friend on her cell phone and talks and laughs so loudly that there is no way the tourists can rest, even if they wanted to. Very unprofessional! I am relieved when she ends the call after an hour, but then she makes another call!
We are driving through the hops-growing area, but they have been harvested, so all that remains are 12-foot tall poles and wires in the fields. Hops must grow like grapes on a vine? Finally we approach Munich from the north and can see the Olympic tower in the distance, We pass the Audi and BMW production plants and the airport.
Back at the train station, we first decide to go to a nearby beergarden, but no one comes to take our order and we decide to head back to the room. Neither of us is hungry for dinner, and we want to pack and get organized for our 4 am departure to the airport tomorrow.

Sept 24, Sat. Munich City

We have breakfast at the hotel, then walk back to the main train station to find the hop-on/off bus. It departs at 10, and we ride it only part way through the city tour as we arrive at the main city square, called Marienplatz, at about 10:40, and we want to be in the square to see the famous glockenspiel clock, which performs at 11 am, noon, and 5 pm. We walk into the square which is filling with people, and has many patrons at the sidewalk cafes at the sides of the square. This mechanism first rings bells for about three minutes, then has a series of three medieval performances on the face of the clock tower just below the clock. The first is a joust, where two knights on horseback try to unseat each other. Of course the Bavarian knight always wins on the second pass. Below this area follows another performance which is supposed to be aboout surviving the plague. It has various characters dancing and moving. Finally, at the top of the area is a rooster, who slides forward and makes a noise.
I overhear an English speaking guide in the square telling all about this. She says this famous feature in Munich is the second most over-rated tourist sight in Europe.  The bells are so out of tune that the songs are not recognizable, and the rooster crow is pretty lame. But it is tradition. And we can say we have seen it. The guide goes on to explain that she is a free lance guide and will be conducting a three-hour walking tour and people can pay at the end what they think it was worth. We decide to tag along and this is a terrific decision. She is from the UK, so her English is good, and she tells the greatest stories, and has a fun sense of humor. We follow her around for the full three hours, really enjoying learning about the city. She talks about the square, takes us to two of the famous churches,  the open-air market, the beer garden, the opera house, and many other sights, giving us insider details. For example, she points out in the huge Catholic church a number of symbols placed at intervals along the ceiling. One of them is a Menorah. Why a Menorah in a Catholic church? During the war, the church assisted the Jews by hiding inside the church many of the Jewish religious treasures. This was strictly forbidden under penalty of death. But the Catholics saved the treasures and the Jews helped to rebuild the bombed Catholic church.  Some of the things she points out are ones we would not have otherwise noticed, like a small cannon ball stuck into the side of a church. She even covers the Hitler era with an abbreviated history which makes great sense. She talks about the damage to the city from the war and how the city was rebuilt. She is by far the best tour guide we have had so far. We are happy to give her a generous tip.
The tour ends about 2 and we are ready for lunch, so choose a restaurant near the square to rest and eat and people watch. I have yummy pumpkin soup and David has a plate with three kinds of sausages, sourkraut and mashed potatoes. Great food. And of course, he has a beer.
By now it is after 4. We want to go to Rothenberg tomorrow, so need to buy a ticket at the train station. We take the metro there and purchase the tour tickets.
 I read in the guidebook about the huge English garden in Munich. It is larger than Central Park in NY, and larger than Hyde Park in London. We ask the info desk at the station the best metro to take and he says" take the 100 bus which goes directly there." So we catch this bus and soon have arrived. We see a crowd of people and walk over to see what they are looking at. They are standing on a bridge looking down at the water. The fast-running water comes rushing out from under the bridge and meets a concrete barrier under the water. This causes a motion like rapids or similar to the ocean surf and there are about 20 people, men and women, who are taking turns jumping in and surfing on the water! Each turn lasts as long as the person can keep their balance, some not at all and some for up to a minute, shifting their weight and surfing the board back and forth across the rushing water. Soon each one goes down and falls into the water, bobs downstream with their board attached to their ankle, recovers and swims back up to the spot to climb out and gets back in line to do it again. We watched for quite a while before moving further inside the park. Like the other parks I have described, this one is soothing, lots of beautiful flowers, people sunbathing on the grass, a woman throwing a stick for her dog to retrieve out of the water, kids in strollers, a toddler feeding swans. We sit for a while. After all, we walked all morning.
Ready to head back to the room, we decide we are not hungry for dinner after our late lunch. We come back to blog and prepare for tomorrow. The folks outside the hotel are celebrating Oktoberfest in the bar across the street and their revelry is noisy enough to keep us awake. David shuts the window and that helps. We are down for the count.

Sept 23 Oktoberfest

While we were on the tour bus to Neuschwanstein Castle, we met a couple from Goodyear, AZ, Gerri and Russell. We chatted with them off and on during the tour and took photos for each other on the bridge and at other photo ops. They have a time share for a week at Salzburg, but are staying a couple of nights in Munich.  By the time our tour today had ended, we had decided to go together to Oktoberfest tonight at the end of the tour. They want to see it and so do we, and they leave in the morning. While still on the tour bus, I asked the guide to tell us about how to get there and what to expect. She picked up the microphone and gave her answer to the whole bus. She started by saying "It will wear you out!"
The four of us got off the tour bus, tipped our guide, who really was excellent, even if she fretted about people getting back to the coach on time at every stop. We decided it would be less expensive to eat before we got to the Oktoberfest, so stopped at a small restaurant at the train station. After we ate, we tried again to buy metro tickets at the machine, but could not get it to work, even though a German man went through it with us. He finally said the F word and suggested we go to the window. There is a special offer for three day passes, and they can include up to five persons, so we bought one pass for the four of us. Now we are ready to go. We know from last night that the metro trains are jammed with Oktoberfest visitors. The population of munich is 1.3 million. During Oktoberfest, there are over 7 million people in the city. The metro trains double the number of cars to try to manage the load. We warned our friends to be ready for the crowds, went down the escalator and managed to squeeze onto the first train that came though. Oktoberfest is just one stop away, so when the doors open everyone pours out and jams the escalators going up to street level.
When we walk out of the metro exit the Oktoberfest spread out before us. It covers an area of several square blocks, and my best description would be state fair on steroids. There are neon lights flashing everywhere, throngs of people, dozens of rides, kiosks selling souvenirs and food, games of skill, and deafening noise. Of couse, there are huge beer tents, seating 5,000 or more each. But more about that later. There is no admission, just walk off the metro and into the crowd. We keep close tabs on each other so as not to be lost among the crowd. We walk along just watching the people. Everyone is laughing and having fun--obviously drinking a lot. Most are dressed in the traditional costumes. Men have red or blue checked shirts and laderhosen, which can very in length from walking shorts to ankle length. Women's styles are more varied, but all have a white blouse and a full skirted jumper. The bodice of the jumper comes under the breasts. Most of the styles show lots of cleavage. Some jumpers are solid color, but most have embroidery of flowers or some other pattern. These outfits are worn by woman of all ages.
There are lots of police and we see paramedics dealing with people down, whom we assume have passed out. Some of the souvenirs are crazy hats, and lots of folks are wearing them. Simple ones look like felt Bavarian hats, but silly ones have yellow or maybe even blue yarn braids hanging down, or look like a giant beer glass. They also have large cookies (like we see at the mall in the states) with Oktoberfest sayings written on them. These are suspended by a cord which women hang around their necks, so some women may have two or three of these cookies around their neck, and they also wear them during the day on the street in town.
Groups of young men hang out together, shouting or singing. Couples are necking. Everyone is buying food or playing games or just walking around in the crowd. The beer halls (tents) are filled with huge long tables, where you sit at an empty space and be glad to have it. You are afraid to lose your spot if you get up to go to the bathroom. These halls have striped tape (like police tape, but colored) across the entry area about ten feet in front of the door. There are also several guys, like bouncers, whose job it is to keep people out of the hall. So if anyone tries to duck under the tape to get inside, one or two of these guys will come to tell him or even shove him, back on the other side of the tape. We never did figure out the system of getting in. We thought at first that it was just crowd control--when so many leave, that many more get in, but that did not seem to be the case. We stood at a tape, hoping to get inside, just to see what was going on. Finally a woman "bouncer" decides to let Gerri under the tape, not to go inside the building, but to have a place at a table in front of the building. She let the rest of us in when we said we were together.
A young man trying to get in had a strip of lavender fabric which he thought would get him in as a wrist band. He asked me to try to tie the band on, and I tried, but it was too short. While I was trying to do this, the woman let us in, and this young man came under the tape with the four of us and got inside.
We sat at an empty table just outside the hall, against the front wall of the tent and a beer maid came to take our order. Russell ordered 4 beers. These mugs are a full liter, and cost 10 Eoros each. Gerri looks at me and says " I don't drink", and I said "Neither do I"! But I guess this is a place where the maids expect each person to order a beer. Not that I plan to drink it, but it now it sits at the table in front of me for photos. A couple joins us and we learn he is a pilot and she is a flight attendant for Continental airlines. We enjoy talking with them and hearing about how they travel all over the world on a daily basis. He lives on the east coast and she on the west, but they are a couple and commuting across the country is apparently not an issue.
But we still have not been inside a beer hall, so I take the camera and try to get in for photos. The guard at first says no, but when I show the camera and say I just want a picture, he lets me in. I am amazed to get in, and even more amazed at the huge size of the hall. What a mob scene! Many people are dancing on the tables, and everyone is singing the same loud drinking song. I take some photos, but there is so much action that I do not know if any of them will be good--maybe just too blurry.
When I go back to the table outside, it is about 10 pm, we decide we are ready to leave, and walk back to the metro stop. David bought me some kettlecorn on the way. There is a huge crowd at the metro entrance. We hear an announcement in German and suddenly we see these big doors sliding closed which closes off the entrance. The actual station below must be too jammed, so likely a few trains go by to deplete the crowd below, and after a few minutes, the doors open and we go down the escalator and board the train. It is a crush of people and the train takes off. When we get to the hauptbahnhof (central train station) which is our stop, it is so crowded we can hardly push our way off the train. Gerri says "I never dreamed we would have trouble getting OFF the train!" We go up the escalator into the station and say our goodbyes. I give Gerri our card with contact info. Even though there is a metro stop right beside out hotel, David and I decide to walk back. We are ready for a good nights sleep after a long day to the castle and the Oktoberfest.

Sept 23 Incredibly Beautiful Neuschwanstein

Visiting this wonderful castle has long been on my bucket list. We booked this tour before we left the US, so had vouchers to give to Gray Line Tours. But we had some difficulty finding the pick up site. Instructions gave the name of a large department store and we found that easily, but there was much street construstion around the area, and we could not see where the tour buses were. Finally we noticed a slip of paper stapled to the plywood fencing around part of the construction which said where the buses were. Fortunately we were there early, so made it on board in plenty of time, but we were not the only ones who had difficulty finding the spot.
Once on board, things went well. The tour director is a seasoned veteran director and was a wealth of information as we drove through Munich and out of town. She talked about the city, mentioning things like polution abatement efforts and recycling and local history as well as Bavarian history. We have heard before that these folks consider themselves Bavarian first and German second.
The tour inlcudes three stops. First, we visited Oberammergau, famous for the Passion Plays every ten years. This was a stretch break for toilets and shopping. This area is famous for its woodcarvings of all sorts, including cookoo clocks of all sizes and with all sorts of animals and peole dancing and moving, like chopping or sawing wood. 
The second stop was Linderhof Castle, where we admired a lovely grotto and fountain with cascades, We also saw aMoorish Pavillion there. We had a brief tour of the interior of thecastle.and we steadily gained ground. As the Bavarian Alps came into view, the guide pointed out the tallest mountain in Germany, but said it was 9,000 feet.

Sept 22 Travel Day Prague to Munich

Just a note about our return home plans. We are due to arrive in Phoenix at 3:40 pm on Delta Airlines, flight 899 from Minneapolis, September 26. Gerald and  Anne have offered to pick us up.

We ate breakfast, checked out, and took a taxi to the Prague train station, got there early and stood inside at the electronic departure board. Our train was listed, but not a platform yet, so we waited for one to be posted, watching people. Finally platform 3 appeared on the board beside our train and we took our luggage to the train. I checked for the first class car, as sometimes it is in the front and sometimes the rear. This time it is front, so we find the car, board and get to our assigned seats. This was all so much less stressful today than it has been in the past, and we do not even have to change trains. The first class car is comfortable and even has a table between the seats.
We pull out on time and chat for a while with the woman across from us, who is Chek, but employed by a German medical equipment company. We chat about her work, travel in Europe, and the economy. This train is an express, but does make stops, so gradually the car becomes full of people. Part of the car is  divided off for the club car. A waitress comes to take orders for drinks and we are ready for coffee and tea.
A couple boards with a baby who is well behaved, not yet talking, but trying to. A man behind us is from California and talks too much and too loud the entire trip. We are glad we are not the Australian couple who are sitting across from him.
We alternately watch scenery or try to nap. There are more roads and more farm equipment working in the fields than we saw in other countries. The soil looks rich and dark and there is a lot of water-rivers and irrigation canals. David reads a while. As more people board, they are dressed in traditional costumes, with aprons and laderhosen and checkered shirts. They are headed to Munich to celebrate Oktoberfest, but do not wait to begin, as they are drinking beer on the train, laughing and having fun.The train is a few minutes late pulling into the main train station in Munich about 3:30. Now we see many folks in the station in the traditional costumes. There is a festive air about the entire place.

We plan to buy a three day metro transit pass, but even though the machine has English translation, we cannot figure out which type to buy. David suggests we get a taxi, so we take our bags to the cab stand. When we show the driver the card with the hotel address, he says it is close enough to walk and points the way. We walk a couple of blocks--sound familiar?--but do not see the hotel. I check at a different hotel desk and get a map and better directions. They say it is close enough to walk. Finally we arrive, but this has taken some effort to pull the bags what turns out to be several blocks. Maybe the cab driver wanted a fare from a longer ride?? We check in and get settled. There is free wi-fi in the room and breakfast is included. We even have a little balcony, and the temperature is just right to sit outside.
Across the street is an Italian restaurant, so we head over for dinner-good food at reasonable prices. Of course, David has a German beer. We wander around the neighborhood a bit before coming back to the room about 7. As I have said before, a day of train travel is tiring, even though you would think sitting on the train would be easy. We are ready for showers and a good rest. We have a tour booked tomorrow to go to Neuschwanstein Castle and need to meet the tour at 8:30 across the street from the train station. At least we now now it is close enough to walk there.

Sept 21 Prague sunshine

We are tired of struggling with city maps and since today has clearing skies, David looks on line to find a bike rental place here. We do not easily find the shop, but finally arrive and get registered for mountain bikes (as the guide book says they are best for the cobblestones), get instructions to find the bike path along the river, and set out, cautiously threading our way among the crowds between us and the Charles Bridge. When we do get to the path, we find it blocked by construction, and have to detour around a couple of city blocks to reach an unobstructed place. The path follows directly beside the Vltava River. It is relatively flat and easy to ride. We stop often to take pictures, have a drink of water and just enjoy the natural scenery, as there are tall trees on both sides. There are lots of moms with strollers on the path, as well as in-line skaters, walkers, lovers, and of course, other bikers, most of whom seem to be locals speeding by. People are fishing from the shore. Some moms or grandmothers are feeding the ducks and swans, much to the delight of their young charges. There are a variety of water craft on the river, including people who seem to be practicing rowing. There are boats along the bank which are bars or restaurants with patrons enjoying views of the river. Through underpasses, we cross under several  bridges which span the river. It is peaceful and a welcome change from the hectic sightseeing crowds.
We return on the same path and turn the bikes in about 3 pm. We find a sidewalk cafe to rest and have lunch. We have not made a plan for this evening, so go back to the hotel to get information about dinner cruises. We also consider a theater production, but settle on the cruise. So that we are certain about the meeting point, we walk to the nearby address and confirm it as the pick up spot. Back at the room, David naps while I blog.
Later, we walk back to the pickup spot and ride a mini-van with others to the pier on the river
 where we board the boat. The advertised live music is a man playing an accordion. Not the most accomplished musician. The dinner is a buffet. We sit with three people from California, and as usual share travel stories. The cruise, to our surpise, includes going through a lock. We go outside after eating to watch ths skyline and take photos of the bridges and the beautiful castle on the hill. People are smoking so we go back inside. David and I talk about Prague. He asks me what was the best sight here. I think it is the medieval castle. He says his is the St. Vitus Cathedral, and I have to agree it is spectacular. The ship turns a couple of times so we cover the same stretch of river more than one time. Near the end of the cruise, we begin to see fireworks and watch from the outside deck to see  an impressive display. I tell David it is our farewell celebration.
The ship pulls up to dock and we all get off.  Folks begin to board a bus, but the guide asks us, did you come here on this bus with me? We say no. He says, "I am sorry. But you must not have paid for a return ride." How can that possibly be? we wonder. We paid what we thought was a full fare--the advertised price.  But the bus drives off without us. It is 10:15 and we are on the side of the river. We are still in town, but where?  I whisper a prayer for our safety and protection. We cross a street and climb some stairs up to another street level. We think it can't be far to a metro stop and we can figure out how to get to the hotel from there. There are people on the street, so it is not an isolated area.  We walk a few blocks in the direction that seems to be approaching a public area. We emerge on a square, and see the bright sign of a shopping mall. There is one by that same name near our hotel. But can this be the same one? We look around and recognize other landmarks. We are indeed very near the hotel. God is taking care of us! We walked in the correct direction, away from the river, and on a direct course to our hotel. How could we have known we were that close? Thank you, Lord! We get back to the room and deicde to finish packing in the morning.
We will be checking out  early to leave on the 9 am train tomorrow for Munich. It will take six hours, as we are due to arrive at 3. Time for bed!

Sept 20, More Prague

Today was cooler, breezy and cloudy. The bad news is we carried the umbrella around all day. The good news is we did not have to use it. Over the past two days we have done a lot of walking and got the "up close and personal" view of Old Town and the tourist sights. Today, we decided to tackle the public transit system. We have a "Prague Welcome card" which has some discounts for attractions and it included unlimited public transportation. The metro system here is easier than Vienna. It has only three lines, A, B, and C. Of course, there are many trams and buses too. We rode the B line from our hotel, transferred to the A, and then to tram 22.
We rode to the Prague Castle,which the guidebook says is the largest castle complex in the world. By sheer size, it is a bit daunting. We have checked out the grounds when we were on the walking tour a couple of days ago, but today we buy tickets to go inside. The good news was we got a two-for-one senior discount. The bad news is that the castle audio guide system is not working. We save the price of renting the audio guide, but our tour book expects we will have one, so does not give a lot of detail. Our first attempted solution was to hire an English-speaking guide, but the ticket office says the English tour is at 1 pm and we are here at 11. Not wanting to waste two hours, our second idea is to tag onto an existing English speaking tour. We wander around the large courtyard, eavesdropping on tour groups, trying to find one in English. We have a laugh as we pass up a group of teenagers. For sure we could not go undetected with this group. Nor the group of tourists in wheelchairs.  Finally we find  what seems ideal--English speaking guide and gray-haired participants. We follow along for a while, but it seems they are on their way out! So we bite the bullet and say we will do this on our own, and are fortunate enough to find that many of the descriptions are also written in English.  We watch the changing of the guard--two men, one on either side of the huge oversized castle gates, who, like in Britain, stand stationery for an hour and then have a formal ritual changing ceremony. We walk through two castle courtyards and as we  follow the small entryway into the third, find ourselves in front of the enormous Gothic St. Vitis Cathedral. Imposing and impressive. Beautiful tiled roof and spires so tall, we have to crane our necks to look up to the top.
The most impressive sight at the castle is the huge "riding hall", noted for its size and its rib-vaulted ceiling. At the time it was built, it was a tremendous technical feat to have an enclosed room of this size without supporting pillars. We went on through through the castle and I found this more like my image of  castle than the other palaces we have been seeing. For one thing, we were able to tour the dugeons and see implements of torture. There was a place to see where the moat used to be. There were round turrets to climb and look out over the gardens. We toured  the "golden lane", a row of tiny one and two room living quarters which used to be places for the castle guards, bell-ringers and other staff to live.
David said he did not want to do more walking, so we again boarded public transportation, this time to visit the Troja Chateau. This is another beautiful complex, built in the Roman Classicism style of the Alps, with the most beautiful Itialian gardens in Central Eurpope.The grand hall has remarkable frescoes and the building is exceptionally rich in artistic treasures. We arrived late in the afternoon, so had our own private guide who walked us through explaining paintings and furniture.
We planned to see the fountains and light show tonight and the Chateau is quite near, so we decided not to go back to the hotel, but go over to the fountains area for dinner. We again were successful in navigating public transportation, found a small cafe for dinner and bought tickets for the 8 pm fountain show. Krizik's Fountain  is equipped with three thousand nozzles, managed by 50 water pumps, with twelve hundred underwater floodlights of various colors. The show was a combination of music, water, film, lighting and ballet dancers. Spectacular!! What a relaxing and enchanting evening. We stopped for dessert on the way back to the hotel. It is late, and we have been gone since before 10 this morning, but what a great day!

Sept 19 Prague Day 2

Today is another rainy day, but we are enjoying the cooler temperatures. We both are feeling tired from our long day yesterday and decide to have a slower day today. We left the hotel about 10 and used the guide book to find and tour the Jewish Quarter, which is the location of the former Jewish ghetto. The most remarkable sight there is the cemetery, which has 12,000 tombstones, all jumbled and crowded together, dating to the 15th century. Because local laws prohibited Jews from burying their dead outside the ghetto, there are thousands of bodies buried here, stacked up in 10 to 15 layers below ground. The old synagogues have been converted into museums which cover Jewish history as well as customs and culture.  We rented an audio guide.  Because I work at a hospice, I was particularly interested in learning more about how the Jews deal with sickness, death and burial. We found the entire Jewish Quarter a bit difficult to navigate, even with the site map, but visited the cemetery, the Ceremonial Hall and some of the museums. When we exited the last building, we found ourselves a bit disoriented and had to consult our map again to find the place to turn in the audio guide.
It is nearly 2, and still raining. We headed back to the main square, and on the way, David pointed out a restaurant for lunch and we ducked inside. I had goulash in a bread bowl, a local favorite I have been wanting to try. It did not have vegetables or even potatoes, but was chunks of cooked roast beef in a hearty thick broth. Really tasty. David ordered ham wrapped in a pork tenderloin with a blue cheese sauce.  He thought it was excellent and wondered if we could make this dish when we get back home.
With no specific itinerary this afternoon, we slowly made our way back to the hotel, browsing in shops and watching people. We stopped at a corner and I noticed an Asian woman studying her tourist map. I said "All of us tourists keep looking at these maps." Her husband smiled and said "They are our lifeline"
We stopped at the tourist information office and two young women answered some questions. Our friends Stan and Jean were in Prague a few years ago and saw the Krizikova Fountains, which is a water and light show choreographed to music. Our guide book did not list this place, so I asked the info staff. She knew immediately what I meant and found a brochure for me and printed from the internet a schedule. We will plan to go one evening before we leave. She also told me how to use the metro toget to the museum of composer Anton Dvorak. It is not very near our hotel, but if we have time, I would enjoy seeing it.
At the room, David napped while I work on a plan for tomorrow. We have decided to take the castle tour listed in our guide book. I also look up information about a Prauge by night dinner cruise. We might do that too. We just have two more days here. Our train for Munich leaves at 9am on the 22nd.
Our hearty lunch has carried us through the evening. I brought some peanut butter from the states, so have a few crackers and PB.
The concert tonight is only a block away, held in Smetana Hall at the Municipal House. This magnificent hall is considered one of the most impressive of Prague's concert halls, not only because of its stunning Art Nouveau interior, but also because of its superior acoustics. We can take photos of the hall before the concert starts, but cannot take photos during the concert. We hear the Prague Royal Orchestra play Pachelbel's Canon in D, Mozart's Divertimento in D, and all  of  Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with an impressive violin soloist.
We walk around the block on the way home and stop in at the shopping center, where shops are in the process of closing for the night. Then we check out the lobby of the Marriott, where a costumed trio of performers were playing Mozart for a business reception. Finally, it is time to return to the hotel. I get a cup of hot water to take to the room for tea, and David gets some ice for his Coke. I blog until bedtime.

Sept 18 Prague Day 1

Prague day 1

First, I want to mention that I have noticed the emails I am trying to send out are not being sent. Incoming emails seem to be working OK, but we have 20 backed up to go out. David contacted Cox, who says they cannot help because they do not have contracts with these European servers. So please do not think we are ignoring your emails. At some point, they may still get delivered, but just not in a timely manner.

The day dawned cloudy and cool. We are delighted despite rain in the forecast. We plan to spend the day doing a self-guided walking tour in our Frommer’s  guide book. Breakfast at the hotel includes what we have become accustomed to seeing, assorted breads, sliced cheeses, sliced meats, scrambled eggs, yogurts, fruits, juices, coffee and tea.

The Ibis hotel is in an ideal location, very near the old town. The backpack has our rain gear and cameras. I am carrying the town map and the guide book. The walk described follows the ancient coronation route of the Bohemian kings. It is a long walk and mostly uphill, especially the latter part as it goes up to the castle. The streets are cobblestone and the sidewalks too, but the street stones are closer to the size of bricks, while the sidewalks have stones about 4 X 4 inches. The sidewalk and plaza stones are always arranged in patterns. Sometimes stones of the same color are arranged in arching rows, or at times stones of contrasting colors, say black and white or brown and black, are arranged in variations of patterns—maybe a white field of stones with a square of black in the center, or a checkerboard pattern, or many other designs—reminding me of quilting patterns of squares in designs. These stones are not always of a level surface as some have worked their way higher than the next stone. So it is easy to stub a toe.  It is important to have sturdy walking shoes. We have seen a few women trying to negotiate in high heels, but it looks dangerous!

The first stop on our tour is only a block from the hotel. It is the Late-Gothic Powder Tower, so named because it used to store gunpowder to defend the city. It dates from the 15^th century, and is one of the last standing remnants of the Old Town’s original fortification system. Dark and formidable looking, it marks the start of the original coronation route. We next pass the Art-Nouveau Municipal House from the early 20^th century. The Prague Symphony Orchestra performs here and we bought tickets for a concert tomorrow night.

Speaking of concerts, Prague is a city of concerts. Nearly every church, hall, and castle we pass is advertising daily concerts—some at 1pm, most in the evening. There are also ballets and operas being promoted.  It is difficult to choose because of a wide variety of offerings. One is a soprano and organ performance of Ave Maria.  We selected the Prague Royal Orchestra.

Our next stop is a building which demonstrates Czech Cubism style architecture from the early 20^th century. This was a very popular style in Prague, cut short by World War l. There is a Black Madonna Statue on the corner of the building. To our delight, the Estates Theater comes next, which in 1787 was the venue for the world premiere of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, conducted by Mozart himself.

There are crowds of tourists everywhere. The guidebook says the tourists thin out in September, so we wonder how crowded Prague must be in the summer. And once it starts raining and the umbrellas appear, negotiating the crowds is a real challenge, especially as people are stopping abruptly to take photos or admire something in a shop window. The shops are most attractive, as in addition to the usual tee shirt and souvenir shops, there are many shops selling crystal, glass and porcelain—products Czech is famous for. There are also many shops selling marionettes, which apparently are a Czech tradition. One can even buy tickets to marionette theater productions.   We stop in a crystal shop which advertises live demonstrations. For a small fee, we are escorted by an English-speaking woman who takes us to the back of the store where a young man is working with a furnace and making glass animal figures. The woman gives us quite a detailed explanation of the steps in the process while we watch him work. She tells us how the glass is melted and colored, shaped and cooled by a special overnight process. It is very interesting. She says education of the craft takes about three years. Down the street, we come to a shop selling Swarovski crystal. David inquires about prices for the annual Christmas ornaments, which we buy each year for the granddaughters in Dallas, but they are less expensive on line in the US than this shop is asking for them.

The sprinkle has turned to drizzle and David stops to buy an umbrella. The one I brought from home has seen a lot of miles on this trip.

Now our tour takes us to the Old Town Square, the heart of the Old Town. It is one of the most beautifully preserved Gothic and Baroque spaces in Europe. We admire the Tyn Church, a huge statue of Jan Hus, (a Czech Protestant Reformer), St Nicholas Church, (one of two with this name), and the Old Town Hall, with a clock tower on top and a fascinating medieval astronomical clock on the side. Our timing could not have been better if we planned it, as we are arriving just at noon.  At the top of each hour, a brief, eerie, medieval morality play unfolds. Two doors slide open and the 12 apostles glide past, while the 15^th-century symbols of evil—death, vanity, corruption and greed—shake and dance below. The clock then chimes the hour and we got to hear all 12 strikes of the bell.

The Old Town Hall has a high tower so we take the elevator instead of the stairs. Once up there, there is an exterior platform all the way around the building. The views to the square below is beloved by photographers everywhere—one of the signature views of Prague. Not to be outdone, David takes photos from each side. Some photos are of the distant views, the red-roofed landscapes of Old Prague, and up the hill toward the Castle. But my favorites were looking straight down directly into the square below, where the multiple-colored umbrellas created a stunning garden of flowers below.

We follow Karlova Street to the famous Charles Bridge, arguably Prague’s most stunning architectural attraction. The bridge was commissioned by Charles IV and when it was built in the 14^th and 15^th centuries, it was considered one of the wonders of the known world. In addition to the huge and ornate bridge towers at each end, both sides of the bridge are lined with Baroque statues that lend the bridge its unique character. We stopped at most of them, took photos, and marveled at the stark religious imagery. Each statue has a story to tell.

By now, the rain is coming down in earnest.  At the far end of the bridge, the book suggests a stop at an inexpensive café called Bohemia Bagel. As it is nearly 2, we are ready for lunch. I ordered goulash, but they were out. Soup of the day is cabbage, so I took that-it was good and had potatoes too. I also had chicken salad with melted Swiss. It all came on a fancy bagel covered with sunflower kernels. Far too much after the soup, so I brought half home. David had hot pastrami and steak fries. Really good and a large portion. A English radio station is playing in the background.

Lunch over, the rain has stopped for a time and we continue on toward the castle, passing the second St. Nicholas Church, a masterpiece of high Baroque, with marble columns, statues and frescoes that are over the top in almost every way. We follow Nerudova Street in a serious uphill climb. It is lines with stunning Baroque palaces, each with unique exteriors and named with descriptive names like “The Red Lamb” or “House of the Three Violins”.

Finally we come to the Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. Stately and regal atop the hill, it provides beautiful views over the town. It is nearly 4 pm and too late for a tour, but it is free to walk around the Castle Grounds and to enter the cathedral, so we do both. This is one of the most spectacular churches we have ever seen.  It is huge with towering ceilings and more than 20 stained glass windows which must be over 20 feet tall.

We had originally thought we would take public transportation home, but decided to walk instead. We got off course a bit, but made the correction and arrived back at the hotel about 6, in time for a cup of hot tea and some rest. Except for lunch, we have been on our feet all day, nine hours. So we decided we were glad not to have concert tickets for tonight.

Sept 17 Anniversary travel day Vienna to Prague

Sept 17 Anniversary Travel Day Vienna to Prague

We finished packing and worked on the blog, then went to have breakfast. We took the laptop to the lobby to access internet and send emails a post the blogs. The hotel called our taxi who took us to the main train station. This is the nicest station we have seen and we easily determine the platform, use the elevator to get our bags there and wait for the train. David chats with some local women also waiting for the train. He asks if they know which direction the train will come into the station and they do not know. We have first class tickets and the first class cars usually follow the engine. If we knew which way the train was arriving, we could move to the end of the platform closer to the engine so as to save boarding time. Since we do not know, we decide to move to the middle of the platform. At least that way, we will be closer to either end. When the announcement is made in English, she says first class and the dining car are at the end of the train. No worries-we are in the middle, so pull our bags along the platform toward the end of the train.  There are many people boarding and we wait our turn. There are luggage racks along both sides of the car above the seats and some shelves for larger bags at the boarding end of the car. But the first boarders have put their bags there, so those of us at the rear have no space on the shelves. A couple of women try to jointly hoist a large bag onto the rack overhead, but it is obviously too much for them. David and another man rescue them and get the bag on the rack. But they have another large bag for the second woman. The other man says jokingly, “Only the first bag is free” as he and David put the second one overhead. The women apologize and sit down, but there are others still boarding. One of the early boarders comes to take his smaller bags from the shelves and puts them nearer his seat in the upper racks. I take a chance that not all the seats will be occupied and put my larger bag near a single seat. If someone comes for the seat, I will need to move it, but no one does. Finally everyone is boarded and the train pulls out. We move more slowly as we go through Vienna, and there is even another in-town pick up point, but as we pull away from the city, the train picks up speed.

We have reserved seats and are disappointed that they face away from our direction of travel. This does not work well with my motion sickness problem. There are empty seats facing the right way but they are farther down the car, so I get on my knees in a seat so that I can face forward. This works for a while, but eventually I want to sit down, so I lift up the armrest on the seat and sit sideways. That seems to work OK. This is the classiest train we have been on. We even have a female train attendant who is a waitress and brings first a free drink of water, coffee or tea, but later will bring anything from the dining room. She wears a light-blue military type uniform, with a pencil skirt and jacket over a white blouse with a blue kerchief tied around her throat. She has a military type hat which folds open like an envelope to sit on her head. She is back and forth from the dining room often, always with a smile.

A couple in their 80s sit in front of David and the man chats with us. He is a local and heading back to visit the small town where he and his wife were born. They grew up as neighbors and married. He is puzzled that we have visited Russia and Poland, says he has no desire to go there. He gives us information about Prague and says not to use a taxi there. This is what the guide books say too. Taxi drivers are notorious for ripping off tourists.

We are relieved when we arrive in Prague, as even David has found riding backward a bit uncomfortable.  We unload our bags and David waits with them while I walk around the terminal to locate the ATMs and tourist info stations. The metro info kiosks are closed, as it is 5:30, and I begin to worry that I will not find an English speaker to help us, but I do finally find a tourist info kiosk with a most helpful young man who gives me a map, says we can walk to the hotel, even with luggage, and draws the route on the map. We could get there on the metro too, but would need to walk to the station which is almost half way to the hotel. Given our warnings about taxis, walking begins to sound like a good option. David has pre-purchased a Prague welcome card, and the fellow tells me how to find the place to redeem our voucher for it. I pick up the cards and the woman there agrees that we could walk safely to the hotel. By the time I get back to David he has begun to wonder if I was kidnapped, as it has taken me 20 minutes or more to sort all this out. Now it is my turn to stay with the bags while David goes to the ATM for local currency.

Armed with our trusty map, we pull our bags out of the station and turn right. It turns out to be about 6 blocks to the hotel, but we stay on course, there curbs are ramp-shaped at the corners, and the locals do not even give us a second look. In fact there are many people pulling luggage from the metro stop to the train station, so we do not look all that unusual. We spot the hotel and check in. She says we have paid in full, that breakfast is included, and that wi-fi is free in the rooms. David says “I like what you are saying so far.” He locks our passports and extra cash in the safe and we go up to our 4^th floor room. It is small but looks clean and comfortable. We get settled and since it is now 7, decide to find dinner. The hotel clerk says “old town” is to the right, and in fact, the hotel is only a half-block from the square. We walk down to look around, finally select an outdoor place and order. I ask for goulash, expecting a stew, but the meal is served on a plate, with cooked roast beef in chunks in a thick sauce and boiled “dumplings”. It is tasty but not what I expected. David again orders schnitzel and beer. We split a piece of chocolate torte to splurge as an anniversary dessert. On our way to the room, we pick up tour and concert brochures in the lobby. We ask the clerk about the monetary exchange rate and she says 17.98 crowns to the US dollar. So now we have a better idea of what things cost. We talk some about what to do tomorrow. We call and talk to my mom, having tried earlier today, but I was confused about the time a called her at 4 am her local time. OOPS! David watches TV while I blog and at 11, it is time for bed.  

Sept 16 Viena, Prater and Opera

Fri, Sept 16—Vienna: Prater and Opera

I stayed up till 1 am last night writing on the blog, so we slept in this morning, had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, then caught the Metro to the Prater Park. This is a huge 3,000 acre heavily forested park, which, like the wonderful park in Warsaw, used to be the hunting grounds for Emperor Franz Joseph. Fortunately, it has been preserved and current residents find all sorts of activities there. The place is filled with walking paths and a large paved 2 ½ mile car-free street for walking, bicycling, riding scooters, in-line skates and even segways. The park has gardens and meadows, duck ponds, hills, and forest walks. There are clay tennis courts, a swimming pool, riding stables, a nine-hole golf course, snack shops, restaurants, and beer gardens. Fields are filled with soccer players, yoga classes, and picnickers. There is no entrance fee!

At one end of this park is a year-round amusement park with rides of all kinds for little kids and adults. The most prominent feature and one of the highlights is a huge ferris wheel, made world-famous by the movie, “The Third Man”. Instead of seats like a normal ferris wheel, this one has small cabins, which look like small railroad cars. Each car holds several people and you can ride standing up, or there is a bench seating area in the middle of the car. Some cars have a formal dining table and it is possible to have dinner catered and served to you while you ride the ferris wheel. This was our first stop in the park. As we entered the ferris wheel area, there were several display cases which contained miniature scenes with moving figures. It gave history of the area around the park, beginning with the battle of 1623, where soldiers advanced to attack the Turks. Each of these panoramas was unique and complete in detail and we took some time to enjoy them. One showed men building St Stephen’s church and the action figures were sawing lumber, shaping blocks for the masons to lay in place, climbing scaffolding, moving rocks, and performing other construction actions. Impressive display. We moved on to a point where they took our photo with no option to buy, but we liked one pose and did make a purchase. We got in line to board, took lots of photos, then got in the car with others to enjoy the ride. The wheel starts and stops very smoothly and moves slowly, so it did not feel scary, except that we were climbing very high and the changing panorama of the city skyline reminded us of that.

We walked among the other rides and concessions, stopped for a drink and pop corn and decided to try another ride—I debated because it does turn in a circle and I have this problem with motion sickness, but we got on. The seats have two persons sitting together and this two-seat combination is suspended from long chains much like a tree swing might be. There are a dozen of such swings and all are suspended around the edge of a large round platform. This platform slowly rises in the air along a very tall (117 meters) tower. And while it is going up and coming back down, the swings are turning around as the platform rotates around the tower. The wind through my hair felt good, but I was not able to watch the spinning landscape, so had to close my eyes. I did fairly well until we were nearly back down, when they increased the speed of the spinning platform. I was sure ready to get off, and it took quite a while for the gyros in my head to stop spinning.

We walked along the midway and found a concession that rents bicycles. We rode bikes for two hours all through the park. It was cool and serene, relaxing and a great change from the history tours we have been doing and fun to people-watch while we rode. We found the Vienna Golf Course across the street from the park and rode over to look at it and take photos. When we returned the bikes, we decided to eat dinner early at the park, then go back to the hotel to change for the opera. We ate schnitzel and french-fries at a very Viennese beer-garden type restaurant.

Back in our room, we dressed for the opera and David suggested we take a taxi. Our driver is from the Phillipines and we had a conversation with him about politics. We arrived at the opera in plenty of time to look at the glittery rooms of this lovely theater. Called the Vienna Staatsoper, it is truly a world-class theatrical venue, beautifully decorated and with a gigantic round crystal chandelier. The seats have a small screen built into the rail in front of them which is the place you can watch the English language translations of the lyrics.  We wanted our picture taken, and through sign language, David offered to trade picture-taking with an Asian couple. They were as pleased as we were to get a photo as a couple at the famous Vienna Opera. We saw Barber of Seville and it was also world class. We think it is the best opera performance we have ever seen. Terrific voices, orchestra, costumes and a great set. Lots of laughs and sight gags to add to the enjoyment. A magnificent performance!

We rode the metro home. Tomorrow is our 23^rd anniversary and we will spend it travelling on the train to Prague.

Sept 15 More Vienna

Thu, Sept 15, More Vienna

We spent a lot of time yesterday figuring out the many variations of the Vienna public transportation system. First there is the metro, whose symbol is an “S”, that looks more like a bolt of lightning than an S. These trains run mostly below ground, and their train numbers begin with S, like S1 and S2. Next is the underground, whose symbol is a “U”, train numbers U1, U2, etc, which also run below ground, but at a different level than the metro trains. Above ground, there are busses and also trams. There is a special streetcar for tourists called the “ring tram”, which functions like a hop-on/off sightseeing bus following a route of a large ring around the central city area. The tourist map of this complex system is daunting. They do color code the different routes, and use heavy lines on the map to show the metro routes and a thin line to represent the routes of the underground.

To move between different systems, one must go up or down levels. Often there are escalators to move people, but almost as frequently, there are just long flights of stairs. Believe me, we do not need a stairmaster. Navigating this system has kept us moving and often on the stairs. Even with the map, we found ourselves frequently disagreeing about whether we needed to go up a level or down. We finally became more aware of signs with arrows showing the direction  (up or down) to the S level or the U level. Yesterday was a day of trial and error—actually not any errors, but lots of discussion and letting some trains pass us by until we were sure which we needed to take. And of course, as with any system like this, you not only have to figure out which train to take, but which direction to take it in. Anyhow, we learned enough that we will plan to travel by public transportation today with our three-day Vienna Card.

Using our travel guidebook, I developed a proposed agenda for the day and David agreed to it. We ate breakfast at the Marriott, then left before 9 and took the metro to the mid-town station, transferred to the underground to reach the Stadtpark station. Our destination is the Spanish Riding School, the training site of the famous Lipizzaner stallions. They have “morning exercise” from10 to 12 and it is accompanied by lovely classical music. We come up to ground level and begin to look around. I spot what looks like part of a palace and we walk in that direction, as we know the school is a part of the palace complex. We soon have the palace in view and as we near it, there is a sign with a “you are here” map of the grounds. Now we know where to go. We stand in line to get tickets and also to get admitted, as it is not yet 10 am. Once inside, we see a large oval building with a sawdust type floor. There are three levels of seats ringing the oval above the arena. The horses and riders come out one at a time, but soon the arena has about 10 horses, with the riders literally putting them through their paces. Each works independently, so some horses are cantering, some are walking diagonally, some prancing with fancy steps. All of them really strut their stuff. They are all beautiful and so graceful. A monitor walks among the tourists trying to enforce the no photos rule, but we see flashes going off all the time. There is a man with a small rake and scoop picking up after the horses. Some horses go out and others come it. It is so fun to watch them and reminds me of my horsewoman sister, Shirley.

We pull ourselves away to go on a tour of the Hofburg Palace, which was the Hapsburg’s winter home. We get a hand held audio guide and take over two hours to go through three areas. The first is the display of dishware and silverware. There are dozens of rooms with beautiful dishes of many designs. There are ones with dolphins to use on the boat, and ones with game animals to use at the hunting lodge and ones for use at their palace on Korfu—you get the idea. There are hundreds of plates of silver as well as gold, plus all the serving pieces. There are displays of the linens and even the porcelain “personal” pieces like toothbrush boxes and chamber pots. There was a gold centerpiece which was more than 30 feet long. We also learned about the security system so that none of the staff took anything. Lists were made of what was needed and they were checked in and out of the storage sites. We also learned about napkin folding and how important the secrets of folding were. Only a few people of each generation learned how.

The second section of the tour is to educate us about their beloved empress, Elizabeth, who was called Sissy. This too was a lengthy series of rooms which were really a biography of her life with many portraits and photographs. She had hair that reached down to her ankles and it took her staff nearly two hours a day to arrange it in the braided crown which was her usual style. We have learned so much about this woman both in Hungary as well as here in Vienna. She was considered the most  beautiful woman  in the world at the time, was an excellent horsewoman, winning many honors, and was  fatally stabbed when she was visiting a friend in Greece. Three Hollywood movies have been made of her life.

The next part of the tour was to visit the apartments—the actual living quarters of the Emperor and Empress. Much of their furniture was saved and this part of the tour was very complete and interesting.

By now it is nearly 2 and we decide to take a break for lunch. We walk into a nearby park where there is an outdoor restaurant. David orders a beer and a ham plate, which actually has slices of cold ham and lots of horseradish along with bread to make it into sandwiches. I have a grilled ham and cheese and it tastes very good. I was hungry! We are still near the palace and want to see the treasury collection. Again, this is room after room of beautiful robes for the Emperor and his staff—some have been saved since the early 1100s. There are gem-encrusted swords and crowns and all manner of articles made of gems-like an entire arrangement of gem flowers. There is a large rose bush made entirely of gold—it even has gold thorns. There are gem-covered shoes and gloves and other articles of clothing with gems on them. All have amazing detail. Some have so any gems it looks like the designed just kept looking for a place to put just one more. Dazzled til we are dizzy, we decide to go back to the hotel to rest, as we have concert tickets for tonight. As we head back, there is some problem going on with the transit system. We can tell by the signs that some trains are delayed and some have been cancelled. Fortunately, we can take one of four trains to get to the hotel, so our wait is only about 30 minutes.

The temperature was a bit cooler today, none-the-less, I wore my new shorts and was very comfortable today. What a relief!

We wonder about taking a taxi to the concert, but decide we are getting used to the public system. We get out the map and plan our route and execute it without a problem—until we try to find the venue. We have a map and we can see that we are on the right street, but we cannot find the Vienna Imperial Hall. We walk around the block, asking of restaurant staff and others along the street. We know we must be near, but where is it? Finally I step into a hotel lobby and get more specific directions and she even says it is a brick building. We have indeed walked past it, but the entry door faces a side street that is more like an alley. Frustrating! We have wasted time looking for it so have less than an hour for dinner. We first confirm that we know where to go, then stop at a sidewalk café. I have Hungarian goulash and David has a beer and a sausage. Good food, but we are eating it quickly! There is a man at a nearby table who is laughing too loudly, very disruptive and having the time of his life. We are not sure if he has been drinking, but decide to move to a table away from him.

We get to the concert just in time to be seated before it starts. It is a great concert with a 10- member orchestra-a piano, percussion, flute, clarinet and six strings. They are professionals and make lovely music. They are from the Vienna Philharmonic. During three songs, there is a soprano and a tenor from the opera who sing for us and during three songs, a ballet couple dances. The music is familiar classical pieces, like Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmisik”. They play some Strauss waltzes and a polka. During one of the waltzes, the ballet couple comes out and dances a waltz , but it is so graceful and so much more that simply a waltz. All too soon, the program has ended. We can celebrate enjoying a great concert in Vienna! We easily find our way back home, ready to call it a night.

Sept 14 Exploring Vienna

Wed, Sept 14, Vienna Exploring

We walk across the front walk to the next building where the Marriott serves included self-serve breakfast. It has many choices, both hot and cold, with several kinds of fruits and breads. Quite a spread! We discuss plans for the day over our meal. We stop at the desk to buy a three-day Vienna card, which gives us unlimited access to all forms of public transportation, plus discounts on many museums, restaurants and attractions. Vienna has an extensive public transportation system which includes metro trains, a subway system, trams and trollies, plus a special “ring tram”.  We know where the metro stop is from last night’s outing for dinner, so we just confirm where we want to wind up today, which is in the town center, near St Stephen’s church.  We will need to change from the metro to the subway to get there.

It is very warm today and David zips off the bottom of his hiking pants to turn them into shorts. We pack up our gear for the day and head out. There is a beauty salon near the metro and David suggests I stop for a European cut. I agree if he will get one too. We walk in, but there is not an immediate appointment, so we say we will stop later. At the metro station we consult our map to be sure we are going the right direction, catch the metro and get off at the first stop to transfer to the subway. We get off at the second stop, go up to the street level and emerge at the church. Hooray! While we take photos of the church, we are approached by Lily, a super saleswoman, selling concert tickets. She is a walking kiosk of information with a notebook full of a variety of concerts in a variety of venues. We do want to attend a concert, so talk with her about options and make a decision. She uses her cell phone to confirm availability of seat selection, accepts our payment and fills out information on the tickets. She shows us how to walk to the venue from where we are. So, we have booked a two-hour concert of symphony music by the Vienna Philharmonic, choral music and beautifully costumed ballet dancers all in a lovely Viennese concert hall, lit by chandeliers. When we complained to her about the heat, she did an instant positive reframe and said, “But look at what lovely weather you have to visit Vienna.”  She gave us a tip about a lovely city view from a nearby restaurant, where for the price of a cup of coffee, we see the same view we would pay much more for if we paid admission to go to the top of St.Stephen’s church. We take her up on this suggestion and take the elevator to the restaurant, get a table by the window, order a beer for David and tea for me plus a chocolate mousse and strawberry dessert to share.  We have a leisurely chat, only marginally irritated by the loud group next to us.

It is very warm today, and we decide it is finally time to shop for shorts for me. Of course, this is a high traffic tourist area, so the shops are expensive, but David thought about asking Lily for a suggestion and she mentioned a store which might be less expensive. On our way down the shopping street, we stopped in a couple of other stores, but they said they were only selling “winter collections”—no shorts. We finally came to the store Lily recommended and found a pair of winter shorts. I tried them on to get the right size and while I was doing that, David looked for other options. He found a couple of skirts-one was very short, but the other was a bit longer. It was a gathered skirt-not exactly my style, but it fit and felt cool. We picked out a couple of tops and bought the four items. I wore the skirt and one of the tops out of the store. But by the time we got outside, it had clouded over, the temperature had dropped, and it looked like rain.   Never mind, I now have some warm weather clothes to wear.

Our guide book suggests taking the ring tram, which included an audio city tour. This is a different part of the transportation system, so we ask at the metro info desk how to get to the tram. He gives us directions and says one place to connect is near the opera house. We want opera tickets anyway, so decide to go that direction. We struggle a bit below ground about which subway to take, but finally choose what we hope to be the correct one, get off at the first stop, and we are at the opera house. Whew! We take photos of the huge fountain nearby, then get in a short line at the ticket window. The clerk is friendly and very patient as he helps us find seats. We cannot go tomorrow night,  that is the concert we just bought from Lily. The opera tonight is not one we recognize, so we ask for the night after tomorrow, which is Barber of Seville. He has two great seats that are returned tickets for which we must pay cash-E50 each. This is a bargain for such great seats, and we take them. We are pleased to have the concert and opera tickets under our belt.

We find the stop for the ring tram and get on board. We get to pay at a reduced rate because of having the Vienna card. We ride the tram the full circle, listening to the narration. It is much more thorough than the Hop-on/off buses we took in Warsaw. We learned some history and got oriented to some of the main buildings and tourist attractions. Back at the Opera House stop (called Oper) we got off. It is beginning to lightly sprinkle and David suggests heading back to the hotel. It is after 3:00 and I am ready to call it a day. We have seen and done a lot and have tickets for the next two evenings. Figuring out how to get back to the hotel takes some doing, but we get it sorted out. As we leave the metro, we pass the salon and stop in. They say they can take us if we agree to back-to-back appointments, so we say OK. It is a fun experience in a classy salon-a scalp massage with the shampoo, cut and style. They serve us coffee and tea and delicious chocolate candy they call bon-bons, but they are not what I think bon-bons are. David settles the bill and we walk back to the hotel, catching a lucky break in the rain.

We spend some time in the room. I take things we will wear to the concert down to the ironing room to press. David works on updating our expenses on Quicken. He is trying to keep up with our expenditures each day. We decide to walk to a nearby sandwich shop for a quick dinner. They are closing and will serve us if we will take it out. So we wrap it up and take it back to the hotel. We do not want to eat in the room, so choose a table at the hotel. David gets tea for me. We finish our carry-out and go up to the room. David watches TV while I work on the blog, then time for bed.

Sept 13 Travel Day Budapest to Vienna

Sept 13 Travel Day Budapest to Vienna

As has become our custom on travel days, we have some down time in the morning to blog, pack, and organize for the day’s journey. We had breakfast at the hotel, then back to the room.  Our train leaves at 2:30, but we left the room about noon to get some lunch and be at the train station early. The hotel is fine about us leaving our bags in the lobby and we walk down the block and around the corner to find a restaurant. There is a small sidewalk café called Stephen’s Pizza. We look at the menu and order Calzones. David of course, has a beer. He is enjoying the local beers here. Stephen himself delivers the food  and agrees to have his picture taken. I enjoy my food, but David does not finish his meal. We pass a barber shop and I suggest David get his haircut, but he is too anxious to get to the train station, so we get our bags from the hotel and pull them the half block to the station. We are becoming more experienced at finding the departure boards and figuring out where to go. We double check each other’s understanding to be sure we are at  the right spot. David does not see the platform sign so I point it out to him. While we wait for the train, David buys water and snacks for the trip. He wants some small change to use a golf ball markers when he gets home, as he likes to give these to his buddies as souvenirs. 

The train arrives and we board, but it is very crowded and we cannot sit together. At the next stop, some folks get off and we are able to find a double seat. David spent a lot of time on the internet before we left home making the train reservations with Eurail. We got reservations for some trains, but not others, as Eurail said no reservation needed, but in actual practice, it appears we could have had reservations. We think maybe Eurail does not do as good a job with the Western European trains as it does the for Eastern Europe.  It is very hot on the train—much warmer than outside. We try to figure out air conditioning, but either the train does not have any or it is broken. We have one transfer today at Goyer and are anxious to be prepared for it. We only have a few minutes between trains. At the stop, we quickly exit the train and go to the departure board. It says our train will leave platform 1. There are no elevators here, so we bump the bags down each step and up the other set of stairs. The train parked here is not our train! A man signals to David to check inside the station, and when he does, he findsourtrain is leaving a different platform. So we have to again get bags down and back up the stairs. It is hot and we are sweating and struggling with the bags, feeling pressured for time. David comes back to help me up the last set of steps. I am regretting packing all these warm weather clothes which I have not needed. I could have easily had a lighter bag! We scramble on the train with only a couple of minutes to spare. It pulls out right away. Whew! We are trying to cool down, and appreciate that this train has air conditioning.  We remark at the wide variation among trains and their accommodations. Some have very comfy seats, some are not very comfortable. Some trains have AC, some do not. There are toilets at the end of each car, usually not very clean, and be sure to bring your own paper. Most trains have a dining car. Paying for first class tickets does not guarantee a reserved seat. The train quality and comfort has continuously improved as we have travelled east. (Poland is still a very poor country trying to recover.) So much to learn about all this travel!

Our train arrived on time at the end of the line. We took a taxi to the Vienna Marriott, and once again enjoyed the customer service of a five star hotel. We check in and go to the room to settle in. We ask at the desk about nearby restaurants.     The clerk suggests two and we choose the more casual one. It is about 6 blocks from the hotel. We walk there, enjoying the evening. It is a beer garden type with large outside tables for multiple guests. There is an extensive menu. Of course, David orders a local beer and  schnitzel. I have hot tea and a salad with sliced chicken. It is far too large for me to eat, but it is very tasty. The waiter is a young man, very friendly, with good English. Many of the people who work in the tourism industry speak multiple languages and effortlessly switch from one to the other as they encounter each guest.  We have a leisurely meal and share our table with a group of locals who regularly enjoy this restaurant. They are friendly too and speak English. We are ready to call it a day and walk back to the hotel to sleep in the big luxurious beds.

Sept 12

Sept 12 Budapest Sightseeing

We are up early and have breakfast at the hotel. We wait in the lobby for our taxi pickup at 8:30 to take us to the tour office for our “Royal Tour”. There is just one other woman who is on the tour with us. She is from Canada. We chat while waiting to leave. She says she and her husband have considered coming to AZ for a few months, so we tell her about our rental and give her our card. This woman grew up with Hungarian grandparents and so learned the language. She says she wants to remember how to speak it as a tribute to her grandfather. Our guide and driver appear and we head out for about an hour’s drive to Godollo  to see the “Sissy” Palace—one of the Hapsburgs summer residences. Empress Elizabeth is called “Sissy” and is beloved by the people. There is a sort of cult following—she was assassinated. Reminds us of JFK. Her statues are everywhere and the gift shops have every conceivable object with her likeness—from key rings to paperweights. Sissy was an active woman who excelled at horsewomanship and won many awards. She kept her elaborate dresses to wear again, even though that was not the custom.Our guide is so full of knowledge. She runs through the royal history at amazing speed and we wish we had a Family tree chart to refer to.

This is the second-largest baroque chateau in the world. The large complex  has not  been well maintained, but the central portion has been restored. The guide takes us on a tour of the interior. Much of the original furnishings have been stolen, but the preservation group is trying to find it—shopping at antique stores and auctions all over Europe. A large table was recently found in Vienna and returned. A call has gone out to locals to donate back any of the items they may have in their possession. Our guide says she has donated some dresses that came into possession of her family.

Following the tour, we had lunch at an outdoor café. We changes tables because of a smoker. We asked our waiter to give us directions to the tourist info center, walked across a park and found it. We wanted the route and fare info to visit a village outside of town called Szentendre. This is where we learned about free fare for folks over 65. We found the train and enjoyed the ride to this picturesque village.At the end of the line, we enjoyed a walk through the baroque section of town. We are so late in theday, the info center is closed, but we sit having ice cream along the bank of the river before finding our way back to the train.

Back in Budapest, we decide to have dinner in an elegant restaurant overlooking the city. We climb several levels of stairs up the  hillside, found our destination, and  had a lovely meal to end our time in Budapest.

Sept 11

Sept 11 Budapest sightseeing

We did not realize just how weary we were and we slept in til after 8! Breakfast is included at this hotel, so we dress and go to eat. Breakfast is buffet style, with sliced cheeses and sliced meats,  scrambled eggs, small boiled sausages, 3 kinds of juice and a machine that dispenses several types of coffees, like lattees and cappuccinos. It also serves hot water. There is plain and flavored yogurt, crussoints and sweet breads and bread to make toast. There are jellies and also a spread called hazelnut spread which tastes surprisingly like chocolate.  Napkins are the same texture as our paper napkins at home, but only a single sheet—like one quarter of ours. As we eat, we make a plan for the day. We know we want a city tour, so decide to ask at the desk about tours. The clerk is very helpful. We decide to buy tickets for the hop-on/off tour bus to get an overview of the city, and we also buy tickets for a Hungarian folk show tonight which is followed by a dinner cruise on the Danube. We buy one more tour, called a Royal tour for the next day. What this helpful clerk fails to tell us is that all public transportation is free for seniors over 65! It takes us 24 hours to find this out—but I get ahead of myself.

We get directions from the hotel to find the nearby stop for the hop on/off bus and board. It is already hot here at 11 am. We ride the entire two-hour circuit to get a layout of the city, get some history and take photos. We stayed on the bus for another half cycle to get off on the Buda side (the upper side) to eat a late lunch in a restaurant near the castle, with views overlooking the river and the city. Their display cases were filled with luscious desserts, but this time we passed them by. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and got back on the hop on bus, thinking it would take us back near our hotel, but we had read the schedule wrong and when it got back to the city center,  that was the end of the tours for the day. Even though we have tickets for the downtown folklore show tonight, we need to get back to the hotel to change and get the tickets. We have ordered a taxi to pick us up at the hotel. We have not yet figured out how to use the metro. We discussed whether to try to walk back, but with our limited time, rejected that idea. I see the sign for the Astoria hotel, so we walk over there and ask the desk to call a taxi for us. We do not want to hail a cab from the street as the guidebook says the drivers here are notorious for ripping people off. Only trust drivers called by your hotel. The consierge is most willing to help us out and soon we are in a taxi and on our way. Freshened up, we wait in the hotel lobby for our taxi. He comes early, and is not quite sure of the destination for the show, even though we give him the brochure with the address and a map. He heads downtown and finally stops at the end of a block, pointing the way for us to go. David waits with the taxi while I walk down the sidewalk. I confirm with an outdoor restaurant waiter and give David a wave to pay the cab. We are at the right place. He pays the driver, who was irritated at having to wait.

We enter the ornate building, but theater doors do not open until 7:30, so we watch people and see the dressed up patrons and also musicians carrying instruments arriving on bicycles and scooters. The doors open and they say second floor. We do not realize that this means climbing four huge flights of stairs—this is a palace after all. Whew! We find our seats and admire the hall. The curtains open and we are wonderfully entertained for over two hours by fabulous gypsy violin music, with hammered piano. There is a variety of types of songs, some are just the orchestra and some have energetic gypsy dancers performing. David is especially moved by one of the violin pieces called “The Lark”. What a great musician this man is! After the show, we wait as a group in the lobby and walk about 5 minutes to the pier to board the ship for the Danube dinner cruise. We enjoy a buffet dinner while we cruise a ways up  the river, then turn and come back. The city lights and those on the bridges are magical. The skies are clear and we have a great view. Beautiful weather, a lovely evening, and average buffet food. The ship staff call a taxi for us and we enjoy visiting with the driver as we return to the hotel. It is after midnight.

Sept 10-Travel Day to Budapest

Sept 10, travel day to Budapest

David did not sleep well, dreaming about trains. We pack and check out, but ask for the hotel to call for an English-speaking taxi driver to take us to the train station and assist us to get on the right train. We do not need to leave until 11, and decide to try to mail some souvenirs home. The hotel clerk checks to see if the Post Office is open on Saturdays, and it is until 2 pm. She shows us the Post Office on the map, where a tiny letter is the symbol, and we head out. We think we may need tape for the package, but the grocery store does not carry it and the book shop is not open yet. We walk across the main square and find the post office. I say to the clerk “box”. She points to direct me around to another area of the building. The clerk does not speak English, but through gestures, we communicate. She finds a box about the right size, then uses scissors to cut it down to size. We put the things inside and she tapes and tapes it shut from every direction. Then she has me address the package and fill out a tracking slip. She looks something up in a manual. She asks us a question we do not understand. She and another clerk try to figure out how to communicate. She looks through a dictionary, but cannot find anything to help. Finally she points to a calendar, and we understand she is asking by which method to ship and how long delivery will take. She says “avion” and I understand that as air mail. Then she says “normal?” and we nod. Now that method is decided, she calculates cost, and we pay her about $40 US, hoping for the best that the package will be delivered home. The women have been very helpful, and we think they may have enjoyed this as much as we did. They smiled when we asked to take their photo.

We feel pleased about our success and stop on the square for breakfast. This has been a lovely cool morning for our walk. The square is just waking up, flower stalls setting up their bouquets and vendors opening their kiosks. We enjoy an outdoor breakfast, before heading back to the hotel where I have about an hour to blog and David reads a travel book about Budapest. The driver comes early to get instructions from the hotel clerk. They both look over our train tickets and see our plan. The driver helps us take our bags downstairs and loads the taxi. He drives to a parking lot beside a large shopping mall. We are puzzled as we see nothing that looks like a train or a station. The driver parks and steps to a display board, which lists trains and platforms. At his direction we get unload bags and follow him to a lift which takes us down a level to the train platform beneath the parking lot. We would have never figured this out on our own.

The board has said we need platform 2. When we have walked out on the platform, the driver again  checks to be sure this is the correct one. There is even a sign along the building which shows platform 2. I sit down next to a German woman who speaks to me. She has been at a conference on Iranian history. Her travel will go beyond our stop, but she offers to help us get off at the right place. The driver waits with us until the train comes and helps us get our luggage on board. The train is very crowded—we assume it is college students returning to school. We have paid for first class seats, but sit with the German woman in crowded second class. It is so crowded that David and I cannot find seats together. David moves ahead and sits with three college students from London who are travelling around Europe together before classes begin next week. They tell him some lively travel experiences. He is a bit envious of these carefree young men, who have each other’s backs and are prepared to just roll with whatever comes along. They are headed to Istanbul. This train is very jerky-much worse that any we have ridden on. When the conductor comes by for tickets, he does not speak English, but is trying to tell David there is a problem and he wants more money. David purchased these tickets over the internet from Eurail and assumes he has paid all that is needed. A second conductor, a woman who speaks English, comes to explain that there is an additional “intercity” fee of about $7 US that is due. David is frustrated and says he thinks he paid in full. She shows that the tickets do not show the additional fee. She says that if it is not paid, we will have to get off the train at the next stop, and looks at him imploringly, “Just pay it”, she suggests. He reluctantly complies. I am not sitting with David, and when the male conductor comes to me, he brings up the same issue, of course in a language I cannot understand, and when I am not getting it, he speaks louder as though more volume will help me understand. The female conductor comes behind him to say David paid for both of us. The man seems disappointed as though he has lost an argument. The German woman warns us our stop is coming up.  We get off and have about 30 minutes to make our connection.

We jump off the train, and look at the announcement board but cannot find our train. You must first look at the departure time as they are listed in that order, but our time was not there. David went downstairs to try to find the information. Meantime, I become aware that a woman on the train is yelling at me in Hungarian and making a hand motion for me to walk around to the other side of the board. We have been looking at arrivals. I walk around the board to the departure side and find our train and the platform number at about the same time as David comes upstairs with the same information. I give the lady on the train a thumbs up and she gives me a big smile. Assured we are now in the right place to catch the train, we sit down to wait. I open my bag of snacks and find some sliced cheese and bread. I ask him “Do you want cheese with stale bread or crackers?” A woman sitting next to him laughs and says “stale bread!” so we chat with her and discover she and her travelling partner are from Tempe! Small world! They are on their way to Prague, but missed their earlier train and have waited here for three hours. So now we will travel on the same train.

The train comes and we board. We have reservations on this one, so have much more comfortable seats and are in a compartment to ourselves—though there are other seats in the compartment. We stretch out and relax, pleased to have made the right connection—but there is another coming up! The upholstery on the trains is all the same and it is very ugly. It has bright yellow and red three and four inch squiggles and dots and looks like organisms you would see under a microscope—all on a lime green background. About 5:30, we go to the dining car and order perogies and share chocolate cake for dessert.

At 6:50, it is time for the final change of trains to Budapest. All goes well, as for the first time, I hear an announcement in English! (This will not necessarily continue to happen. The safety signs on the trains are written in four languages-Polish, German, French, and Russian—but not English. We have spoken with several people who say they took Russian all through grade school, but only started learning English in high school or college.) There are even elevators at this station to go down and back up at the correct  platform. We have time to spare even though this is just a 7 minute layover! We board successfully and now that we are finally on our last train to Budapest, David can relax. He falls asleep and snores! Two conductors come by to check tickets as we are now on a new train. Thankfully, they have no issues. I get out the computer, using it on battery to write on the blog. I am not on the internet, but can write my report in Word, then copy and paste it into the blog when Wi-fi is available. When I finish, David plays chess on the computer. I am about half sick from motion sickness from typing while the train is moving. I decide I will recover better if I can nap, so I recline the seat and close my eyes. It is now dark and there is nothing to see out the window except occasional lights. I do sleep for a while and feel better. I am trying to keep track of stops. Of course, it is as important to know where to get off as it is where to get on! One way to check is by time, as we know arrival time—IF the train is on time. I ask a man if he speaks English. He says, “a little.” I ask if there is a time change between Krakow and Budapest and he says “no”. I ask if he is getting off in Budapest and he says he is getting off in five minutes. He shows me a written schedule of stops. This is the first time I have seen one. The train is on time and we have about 30 minutes to go. Later, David and I gather bags and move to an exit door. We pass doors in two cars that are bright red. We are not sure what this means, but worry that maybe we cannot exit there. We stop in the next car, which is a dining car. There are three train employees at the other end of the car. They have collected the trash and the bags are near the door where we have stopped. I confirm with them that the next stop is Budapest. They talk among themselves and David wonders if they are talking about us.

We finally pull into Budapest Keleti station at 10:30 pm. We pull our bags off the train and move with the crowd toward the exit at the front of the station. Our hotel, Baros, is supposed to be across the street from the station, but across which street? We do not see the hotel sign. There is a McDonalds and a Burger King on the corner, and we consider asking there, but David decides to search on his own. I wait with the bags while he walks around the station and down the block. Meanwhile, many folks walk past me, having gotten off the metro which has a stop beside the train station. David comes back unsuccessful and walks in the other direction, quickly spotting the small, vertical hotel sign. We pull our bags down the block, past street construction, and walk about half a block. We are under the hotel sign, but do not see an entrance. David asks at an outdoor restaurant, and is told, “Go to the blue door.” So we backtrack a few feet and see a blue door with a small sign, Baros hotel, on the door jamb. A woman and her twin daughters walk up and she says “Reception is on the 5^th floor.” We thank her and follow as she walks down a hallway to an elevator. The girls are probably 9 or 10 and all dressed up in long white dresses-very pretty.  They do not speak English, so we do not discover why they are dressed up. We check in at reception and thankfully our reservation is in order—it is close to midnight.

The clerk says we owe a tourist tax even though David has prepaid our room on line. This sounds like the train! We did not stop at the station to get local currency and she says we can pay the tax later. She gives us a room key and says our room is one floor below. It is late and we are tired. David thinks going downstairs means a room in the basement! She explains we are on the 5^th floor and the room is on the 4^th floor. There is an elevator to take the bags down, but when we do not have luggage, they want us to use the stairs. David misunderstands and begins to carry bags down the steps. I correct him and we get the bags on the elevator, down one floor and into the room. This is a very small room with two twin beds and barely room to walk around them. The room has a TV, closet and a good sized bathroom. Not the Marriott, but comfortable. We quickly get ready for bed and crash!