Prague trip: The one with the final comments!

So! Another successful trip is over and I thought one more blog post about Prague would be in order. I enjoy traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday and it is always exciting to see new places and chat with folks in another country.

My overall thought on Prague is that it is a lovely old city with some fabulous landmarks and buildings. Although it was different than my expectations (damn those pre conceived notions!!). If you look on a map you can see that the Czech Republic is very close to Austria. So although I acknowledge that they are two different countries I thought there would be some similarities. Not really.

My impression of Austria (Vienna and Salzburg) is that it is an elegant, refined city with culture and music. Perhaps using the word “highbrow” wouldn’t be out of order. I found Prague to be lovely but perhaps a bit more “grittier” and more “working class”. This is in no way a negative thing. Just a comparison. To be honest I found Prague more like Moscow than Vienna. To my (very) untrained ear the language was similar to Russian than to German.

With all this being said I actually found the people in Prague to be friendlier. Although there was a slight language barrier (most people understood some English but not everyone spoke English) it appeared that the Czech people were more “down to earth”.  As far as the city itself being “grittier” I only attribute that to both having had most of its buildings survive WWII and also the communist influence.

If I were to visit Prague again I think a day trip outside the city would be a great addition to the trip. I didn’t have enough time this vacation to do that but there is some great little towns 2-4 hour train ride away that might provide a more rounded experience.

Last thoughts? I would definitely visit Prague/ Czech Republic again. I perhaps might not visit in November, as it was very chilly. Although based on the crowds that I experienced the summer months would be too crowded. I might suggest either October or perhaps April (to avoid crowds and also the cold weather). All in all a wonderful trip (minus the blisters)! Remember that these are just my opinions and your mileage may vary!!!

Next up? A trip to Italy in March with some friends! Rome and Venice here I come (and there may be a stop in Istanbul as well!!).

Happy Travels!!

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 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.

Next stop: Austria!!

Well in a few days time I will be off to Austria! My next solo trip takes me to the land of apple strudel, Mozart and “the hills are alive with the sound of music”! I will be in Vienna as my home base but am planning on a side day trip to Salzburg as well as a day trip for a wine tour in the Wachau Valley. It should be a fun trip and the weather is supposed to be in the mid 50’s to low 60’s so that sounds about perfect for me!

Stay tuned for full trip report when I get back. Oh, and stay tuned as we are already planning the next potential trip! (Looks like a possibility to go to Beijing and Shanghai in early September and then an Italy trip somewhere around early March if all goes well!)

 Happy travels!