Vienna, Austria

Or, as they say in German, Wien (with the "w" sounding like a "v" and then a long "e" sound).

When we arrived in Vienna, we immediately made our reservations to leave. After our first train experience, we were never going to risk traveling long distance without reservations. 

We figured out the subway system, much quicker this time. I believe Vienna has 6 subway lines, where Prague had only 3. We were moving up in the world of transportation!

We rode to Schoenbrunn Palace, home of the Habsburgs, the family who ruled Austria for hundreds of years until about the time of World War I. Marie Antoinette was a Habsburg, before she was sent to France to get married and beheaded.

The castle is huge, and the layout of it, with this giant courtyard, reminded me of Versailles in Paris.

We took a tour of it, but pictures aren't permitted, so I only have a few shots of the outside. The inside is even more impressive than the outside...so much original furniture, original paintings, fully restored rooms.

Jason got a Viennese classic for dinner...

 

 

We also chose to go to the top of a viewing tower that evening...

...and got the eagle eye view of Vienna.

And we could even see the Alps!

We had to walk through a park on our way back to the subway from the tower and were intrigued by this sign...

 

 

It was odd because it was in English and sad because if that sign is there, it must mean that someone at least got injured because of a golfer. I guess the lesson here is...don't golf in a park!

 

The other sign that made us laugh in Vienna was this one...

 

 

These signs were all over the city because people in Vienna take their dogs everywhere. Roughly translated, it means, "Men and women finally have to learn: take a bag for my poop". Except it's better in German because it rhymes.I especially enjoy the illustration at the bottom of the sign. Because if you're not sure what to do with the bag and your dog's poop...it's got you covered. Pun intended.

 

Dogs even ride escalators and subways in Vienna. I had to laugh as I watched it struggle to find its footing on the escalator.

 

 

The next day we toured St. Stephen's Cathedral.

I love the ceilings!

We toured the catacombs under St. Stephen's. We saw bones that prisoners had been forced to pick clean and stack like firewood. We saw where victims of the Black Plague had been buried...the only burial place inside the city walls at the time. We saw containers that held priests' intestines. We saw where they bury high ranking clergy members to this day. We had a great tour guide, which we had heard can make all the difference. Once again, no pictures were allowed.

St. Stephen's is particularly known for its very unique roof tiles.

If you walk around to the side of the church, you can see this one the roof. Pretty cool, right? 

We walked just around the corner and found Mozart's house.

I got a yummy smoothie. 

We also went to something called the Naschmarkt in Vienna...basically a big open air food and flea market. We picked up some fresh fruit and veggies to munch on as we walked, but I didn't think to take any pictures.

We ended our time in Vienna with finding a geocache near our hotel, and found these cement ping-pong tables. Very different from a typical park in the States.

And remember, for all those dog owners out there...

 

 

I just couldn't resist putting this in again.

 

Next up, Munich!

Prague, Czech Republic

Otherwise known as Praha, in Czech.

Prague turned out to be my (& Jason's) favorite city. How do you not love a city that looks like this? From the pictures I've included below, I think you'll see just why we loved it so much.

After conquering our jet lag with 15 hours of sleep, (impressive, I know), we boarded a train to Prague.

This train was made up of compartments. 6 seats to a compartment, each compartment closed off by a sliding glass door and a hallway about 2 feet wide runs the length of the train past all the compartments.

We had been advised to make reservations for any long distance trains; we were so thankful we took that advice!

When you make a reservation on a train, you're assigned to a specific car and specific seats in a specific compartment on that car.

We didn't know that. 

This train was filled beyond capacity. The people who had reservations found their seats. Those without reservations filled in the empty seats. And then the rest of us, who weren't exactly on the ball with either making reservations or not knowing how the system worked, were stuck in the aisle, crawling over each other, squeezing past each other, trying desperately to find empty seats. 

Did I mention everyone had their luggage with them? 

Ours were the smallest bags on the train (or so it seemed). We learned that a lot of people on trains don't travel light. They bring huge, hard-sided suitcases that in themselves can take up the entire aisle.

Jason eventually figured out what our reservations meant and so we traveled nearly the entire length of the train in this crawling, squeezing manner, because we had boarded the last car and our reservations were for one of the very first cars, and then kicked two people out of our seats who had taken up residence.

It was quite the ordeal. 

Once we got into the Prague train station, we made train reservations to leave in a couple of days (we now knew the value of reservations!), got some Czech currency (crowns) and figured out how to take the subway to our hotel. It was in Prague that we first learned how to take the subway, read the maps and stand on an escalator. 

In most European subway stations, but especially in Prague, you stand on the right hand side of the escalator and leave the left side open for people who want to scurry past you. Also, the escalators in Prague were some of the steepest and longest I've ever seen. We were a long, long way underground! 

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the area our hotel was in, but the neighborhood we stayed in was probably one of the reasons I liked Prague so much. We got off the subway to find ourselves in a non-touristy part of town. There were locals hanging out at bars along the street, sitting at cafes on the sidewalk, shopping in the mall and grocery store that was right next to our hotel. It was such a fun and refreshing atmosphere, especially coming from Berlin. 

We really only had one day to spend in the city, and we made the most of it. 

We went to the Vysehrad, which is a big compound of ancient Czech buildings, including a church and cemetery where some of the more famous Czech people are buried. 

We also got a stellar view of  the city.

We visited the Old Town Square, saw LOTS of tourists and left pretty quickly to find Charles Bridge, which was equally packed with tourists. I guess that's what happens when you visit a popular tourist destination in the summer, on a weekend! 

This is the Old Town Square....

  And this is the beginning of the Charles Bridge...

 And this is one of many groups of statutes on the bridge...

After crossing the bridge, we hiked up a hill to Prague Castle. A BIG hill. A big STEEP hill. 

And we got this view...

 Gorgeous city, right? I would not have guessed that this city was under Communist rule for decades. It's so completely different from Berlin! 

This is the church that's part of the Prague Castle compound...

And this is one of the gargoyle guys that was guarding the top of the church. 

Cute, right? 

Then we climbed yet another hill, but thankfully, it was much shorter and not as steep, and got this view of Prague Castle and the church in the above pictures.

It doesn't get better than that!

Except, it does get better when you can cap off the evening with some chocolate chip cookies purchased at the Tesco (grocery store) located conveniently next door to the hotel.

Berlin, Germany

It's going on 7pm here in Wisconsin, but my body is trying to tell me it's really more like 1 or 2 in the morning.Ah, the joys of jet lag. But, as the saying goes, "west is best and east is least". So, I'm happy to be once again in the west and having an easier adjustment than when we flew east! 

This is a picture of a very jet lagged me in the Alexanderplatz in Berlin...

Berlin was my least favorite city on the trip, probably in part due to the jet lag, but also because of the architecture. Berlin was, of course, a very divided and torn city for decades. And it shows. 

Most, if not all, of the cities we were in on this trip have beautiful city centers and historical architecture. Berlin does have some historical areas and buildings, the Brandenburg Gate, for example, and Museum Island. 

But the city itself is not attractive. There is tons of graffiti everywhere, the buildings are grungy and plain.

The city has visible scars. And maybe for some, that's the appeal of the city. But in my jet lagged state, I couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll give it a second chance someday. 

Here is a picture of a section of the Berlin Wall. The sections have been recently painted and it's kind of an outdoor art museum now.

By far, this was my favorite part of Berlin. Our hotel was just 3 blocks away from this section of the wall, so we were in a prime location. 

The Spree River runs through the city, and even divided the city into different sections during the Cold War. This is us standing on a bridge spanning the river, just a block from our hotel.

And this is a picture of a famous tower in Berlin, originally used for broadcasting purposes, I think. Now it's a tourist attraction.

Next up, Prague, Czech Republic, which turned out to be our favorite city!