Prague Day 2: The one where it was a much better day and I ate tons of food!

Day 2 of the Prague trip: 

Well, it is wonderful what a full night's sleep and a great complimentary breakfast will do for you! I started out early this morning with the idea of seeing a few sights before the noon-ish food tour I had scheduled. Since I had been out and about yesterday I had a rough idea of where I was going. I headed for old town. 

The one thing that I have learned by traveling is if you are going to a well-known "tourist" area (Prague, Madrid, Vienna, etc) then the great time to see some sights before the crowds show up is to go early in the morning. Especially if what you are wanting to visit is a building or landmark where opening hours are not relative. It is so lovely to walk through a town square without mobs of tourists taking pictures, etc. It is quiet and calm and you often see things that with a mob of people you might not get to see. 

Old town at about 8:30 in the morning was like that. I visited the astronomical clock and the old town hall tower. 

After that, I strolled down the main drag to head towards the Charles Bridge. This is the famous bridge that was first built in the 14th and 15th centuries. There are Baroque statues along the bridge (which date to the 17th century). I had heard that this was the one place that was mobbed with tourists and venders as the day went on so I was determined to see this before that happened. So glad I did!! Not only were there very few people on the bridge, it really does have fabulous views!

After the walk across the bridge, I stopped for a quick coffee at a place called Bohemia Bagel (which by the way has Fabulous Free Fast wifi. Just so you know!

I then headed back towards old town and stopped at the Old Town Hall. It was now open and I wanted to take the elevator to the top for "some of the best views of the city" (thanks, TripAdvisor!).  The cost waas 110 KC (about $4.95 USD) and well worth it. Not only did I get some of the best views of the city  (see below) but I met and shared the elevator up and down with some lovely folks from Austria. See "best views of Prague pictures  below!"

After a tour above the city, I walked back to the hotel to rest for my food tour. Now normally I would blog about this all in one but this food tour was so fabulous and so long, it deserves it's own post! Stay tuned for the food tour blog: Possibly the best food tour I have taken (thanks to Carrie!).

Austria: the pastry tour!!!

So I decided to do a pastry heavy blog post because of the amazing pastries that I encountered on my trip to Austria. Seriously, this was some fabulous stuff!!

Famous Sacher Torte at Hotel Sacher Cafe

Cafe Sacher sidewalk cafe

Fruit filled pancakes (similar to crepes)

Cafe Museum

The best apple strudel and melange coffee at Cafe Museum

My grocery store dinner!

Apple strudel and melange coffee

Bratwurst street food!

Wiener Schnitzel

Apple strudel and melange at Aida cafe

From the hotel bakery

Apple strudel and melange in Salzburg

Honestly, this is the place to go for sweets. At least in my opinion. Seriously, did I mention the apple strudel????

Austria: day 6: The last day of vacation!

Today was my last day of vacation in the lovely Austria. I didn’t have an exact plan on what I wanted to do but since the weather turned out to be so nice my thoughts were that I would take the subway out to the Schonbrunn Palace, which was the summer palace of the royals. The gardens were supposed to be just beautiful and it was the perfect day for it.

The Schonbrunn palace is the large yellow colored palace that you probably have seen in travel magazines or online at some point in your life. It is rather famous and one of the most popular attractions in Vienna. I had already toured the Hofburg and wasn’t really planning on fighting the crowds to see the inside of Schonbrunn. I was going to get some outside time and wanted to do that early before the sun was at it’s hottest.

Shopping for my summer home!

Once I got there it was already really busy and it was only 9 am and that was when they opened up! I bypassed the crowds and headed for the right side of the palace that was where the carriage house museum was. I love me some royal carriages! Since everyone and their mother, brother and uncle were heading to the main area it was the perfect time to visit the carriage house museum. Turns out that there was only me and another 2 couples so we had the place to ourselves. Before the school kids showed up. Because everyone hates them!

This was for the royal kids. Yeah, really!

No need for the "my other car is…" bumper sticker!

The mourning carriage

They allowed photos to be taken here and really there were some stunning carriages including some for the children of royalty as well as the mourning carriage that took Empress Sisi through Vienna after her assassination. I think that the ticket was E6 and well worth it!

After that I just walked around the grounds of the palace. It was just a little too early in the year for the flowers in the gardens to be fully in bloom but still it was lovely. Very sunny and windy but the grounds of the palace were stunning and huge! You could really spend a whole day there.

After that I jumped back on the UBahn and headed towards someplace that was on my radar for apple strudel. Called Café Museum it is located near the museum quarter and near the Karlsplatz UBahn station stop. The coffee and strudel was everything that it was supposed to be. And more. But I am planning a pastry blog post so we’ll talk more about that later!

I though that on my last day I would just stroll around the center shopping area, both window and people watching! It was a lovely day and the sun was shining and I really enjoyed walking around. Didn’t really buy much (some coffee for Ed) but it was still a nice way to end the day.

I had planned to go to a place for dinner that was mentioned in my guidebook. Called Brezl Gwolb, it is listed as a 16^th century restaurant that serves classic Viennese food. It was a little difficult to find but after I located it was worth the search. I had something called “roast joint” which looked and tasted like a type of pot roast with potatoes and a glass of wine. I also had desert, which was a fruit filled pancake type similar to crepes. Amazing! When I mentioned to the waitress that I found her restaurant in my guidebook, she was very excited about that. She then took me downstairs to the cellar area where they had another seating area altogether. It was dark and crowded but so very old world and if I had known I would have asked to be seated there (although it was too early in the night for that, I don’t think they use that space until later in the evening). Great food and really great service, highly recommend it.

Brezl Gwolb

Brezl Gwolb

Last stop was the park across the street from my hotel. I didn’t want to spend too much time there but I wanted to just relax in the early evening. They appeared to be setting up for some type of festival they were having the next day (Friday, the 9^th) so there were tents going up all around me. I found a quite stop near a duck pond and relaxed a bit before I had to go back and pack for the very early morning flight home (leaving the hotel at about 4 am!). 

Duck pond

Austrian ducks: they speak German!

As the vacation comes to an end I can only hope that you get to visit Austria one day. I found the city to be busy and bustling but also clean and welcoming. It is extremely easy to get around, either by walking or public transportation. And take the wine tour. Remember, take the wine tour!!!

Austria: an Ugly American post:

So I thought that I would make a quick post about the “Ugly American” stereotype and my thoughts on one incident I had in Austria. No pics on this one, folks!

We all know about the Ugly American stereotype, no need for me to go into it here. If you don’t know about it then Google is your new best friend! For me, I honestly can say that up until this trip I hadn’t really encountered much of it. I mean I saw the random 50ish male with a fanny pack as well as the loud groups of college students getting drunk (looking at you, Amsterdam!). But nothing really blatant. Until this trip.

I was walking around Vienna in the main “touristy” center of town, just checking things out and seeing the sites. Window-shopping so to speak. I went into one of the many little shops mainly to get out of the direct sunlight that was blazing down on me. I was looking around, generally minding my own business. Then I heard/ saw this exchange:

A young (16 to 19 year old) obvious American girl was walking through the shop with either her mom and grandma or perhaps mom and aunt. Mom was about my age and grandma/aunt was a little older. No distinguishable accent so I couldn’t say if they were from a specific area of the U.S. (i.e. the South or Wisconsin). Young idiot girl (her new name, BTW) was wearing short cutoff shorts (and they were short!) and slurping her obligatory Starbucks venti frappuccino and complaining to her mom that she didn’t want any of “these souvenirs” because they all said Wien on them and not Vienna. Young idiot girl (had she been paying attention) would have known that Wien was the German word for Vienna and actually the CORRECT name. Yeah, young idiot girl.

To be closely followed by older idiot mother and older idiot grandma/aunt. Who proceeded to badger the salesclerk (who was doing them a favor by speaking English) by asking how much this item cost in “real, American money”. Because apparently Euros are now not “real”.

I kind of hid in the corner while this was all going on. In of course the loudest voices possible because they are Ugly Americans. I so wanted to go up to the salesclerk after they left the shop and explain that we are not all like that. But I didn’t have the heart. I just kind of left, shaking my head as I went along.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am as patriotic as the next person. I am a proud American and all that we stand for. I only speak English (although I can understand to read a few words of Spanish). But I at least try to learn a few words of the local language (hello, good morning, thank you, do you speak English) to try and not appear to be a complete idiot. And I always try to respect the country that I am visiting. I never want to be labeled an Ugly American. This was probably this young idiot girl’s graduation gift from mom/grandma/aunt and all she was doing was complaining. Stupid Ugly Americans…..

Austria day 5: The hills are alive with the sound of….rain???

Today’s festivities include a day trip via train to Salzburg. That’s right, the city where the Sound of Music takes place and was partially filmed. I was so excited to travel here and check out the old portion of the city and also excited to take a trip via train travel!

First up: the train travel. I took the U-Bahn from the Stubentor station (about 3 blocks from my hotel) to the WestBahn station to pick up the regional train. There are a couple of trains that travel from Vienna to Salzburg but from my research the easiest one is the WestBahn train that makes the journey every hour from Vienna and makes stops along the way. It costs E23.90 and you simply pay the conductor on the train. I was amazed at how easy it was and also how clean and efficient the station and the trains were. Take note, USA. This is how regional train travel should be!

https://westbahn.at

My train heading to Salzburg!

And it's in English!

The trip took almost exactly 2.5 hours and you come into the main station in Salzburg. Since I really had no idea where I was going I stopped into the tourist center in the station. Picked up a map and a Salzburg travel guide and found out that there is a bus that will take you into the old part of the city. Or you can just walk. I chose the walk option. Turns out it was simple and about a mile walk.

Once in the old part of the city, it was lovely. I did spring for the “touristy” horse and carriage ride, only because I hadn’t done that in Vienna. Although expensive, it was a nice way to get your bearings in the city. I then walked around, taking pictures and generally just being a tourist. Take note, the city center (the old part) is very small and really can be done in a few hours. There are churches and some museums to visit but I didn’t do any of that. I checked out the Mozart statue and of course the horse fountain that was in the Sound of Music.

Taking a carriage ride

Main church in town

Mozart: he's the dude here

The weather was not being cooperative having started as gloomy and progressed towards drizzly and then rainy throughout the day. I decided that if I was going to go up to the fortress then I should do it before the downpour started! I took the tram ride up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress and was able to enjoy some amazing views of the city! Well worth the trip up! Apparently you can walk up the mountain but that was not for this girl! It is straight up about a mile up a very steep mountain and as far as I’m concerned the E11 that they charged for the ride was well worth it!

The horse fountain in the Sound of Music

The selfies are getting better!

After getting me medieval fortress on, I came back down the mountain and thought lunch would be a good idea. It was beginning to rain quite heavily now and just as an FYI when there are cobblestones and rain hits them, it gets quite slick. Yeah, time for a break! I found a restaurant and had lunch. Nothing to write home about and I guess that they cater to tourists quite often. But it was a hot meal and a place to rest while it was raining.

The view from the fortress: amazing!

The fortress

They didn't throw me in the tower so I must have been well behaved!

Another stop on the Salzburg trail was a place called Christmas in Salzburg. I had done some research and knew that this place sold handmade Christmas ornaments that were hand painted on eggs. Very delicate and supposed to be a must see. So after asking about 4 people where this shop was I found it and spent way too much money there. But I figured that this was a truly special memento of the trip and was able to justify it that way. Also, I did buy some for gifts!

Pretty much by that time it was raining hard and since I had a mile walk back to the train station I headed out and battled the rain to get back. I probably should have taken the bus but I’m stubborn and it just seemed like no big deal to walk. It wasn’t a big deal but that would be where another person would come in handy. One to hold the umbrella and one to hold the shopping bag of purchases! No worries, a little water never hurt anyone!

Again another great, relaxing train ride home and back to hotel with my purchases and wet jean legs! I am told that Salzburg gets quite a bit of rain throughout the year, so my experience should be rather typical. All in all I enjoyed Salzburg but perhaps was a little underwhelmed, I think that I thought it would be larger than it was. It was beautiful and I had a good time, but the rain did dampen my spirits a bit.