August 19-20: Nashville-Atlanta-Munich: We had a comfortable flight, considering the length, and arrived in Munich at about 8:15 a.m. Our hotel is very nice and centrally located. Very modern European, and we can't figure out any of the gadgets. The shower comes in one temperature: scalding. The phone is controlled by the TV remote. There is an espresso machine into which the espresso capsules disappear, but to where we do not know. The toilet has water-saving big and small flush buttons, depending on whether you desire a big or small flush of water. We'll master these things, but probably not until right before check-out on Sunday.
We napped for a few hours and began walking and exploring the old walled section of this 800-year-old city. Two thirds of the old section was destroyed in WW II, but they have done a beautiful job of restoring and preserving.
Munich is a very lively city, and everyone seems to be having fun all the time. There are concerts on every other corner, beer gardens by the dozen, mimes and jugglers strolling the streets and shoppers everywhere. There seems to be a good mix of tourists and locals here, and the retail shops seem to divide the load. Food has been good, but kind of expensive for the dollar-spenders.
We probably walked more than 10 miles today, just strolling around and seeing the city.
August 21, 2009: Castles and the Alps: Didn't sleep very well due to time change, but did get some rest. We had to be up by 7 in order to get ready and make it to our tour bus. Our hotel is right next to the main train station, which makes transportation easy.
We headed from mostly flat Munich into the mountains nearby. A wacky, lonely and egotistical King Ludwig II built three castles as tributes to himself in the mid-1800s, and we visited two of them - Neuschwanstein and Linderhoff. Both were in beautiful settings in the Alps. Ludwig shied away from visitors, and enjoyed his castles in privacy. He ate alone, rarely entertained and pretty much didn't like people. He had planned to have the castles torn down after he died, but his family donated them to Bavaria, the state over which he was king.
The day was fun but tiring. We were out for about 11 hours, and we had two good climbs to the castles, especially at Neuschwanstein, where the climb is more than a half hour. Our guide, Ana, was very fluent in English and did a great job of conveying the history of both Munich and Bavaria. She also tried to analyze Ludwig, a tough assignment even for German historians. The guy lived a strange life and then died mysteriously along with his doctor when the king was only 40. Intense privacy, building a dreamland, dying with his doctor alongside - Michael Jackson all over again.
Our tour also included a stop in the charming town of Oberammergau, where a world publicized passion play occurs every 10 years. It has been staged by residents of the town for centuries.
It was a beautiful day, though rain threatened at one point. High was about 85 and sun most of the way. We were tired when we finished the tour, and split a wiener-schnitzel dinner near the train station before heading back to the hotel.
August 22, 2009: Munich/Dacau: A visit to the concentration camp at Dachau promises to be somber enough, but the weather is providing the perfect backdrop. Grey and overcast, rainy.
We walked to the train station for breakfast this morning, and had some great bacon and eggs. The station may be the ugliest building in Munich, but the shops, bakeries and restaurants inside are fine.
The drizzle continued during the 15-mile bus trip to Dachau. It is a pretty little town that will never live down its legacy as the home of the first and longest-running Nazi concentration camp. The camp is nestled in heavy woods, and the most striking thing to me upon entering is how enormous this camp was.
At one point, 68,000 people were shoved into 34 barracks buildings. A couple of those buildings still stand, and you can see the triple bunks where prisoners stayed. Processing rooms, the infamous ovens, execution areas, guard towers and other landmarks still stand. Everyone there was very quiet for obvious reasons. I kept thinking, "What would it be like to have suffered here?" "What would it be like to have been a guard here and face the choices they faced?" "What could bring humans to treat other humans this way?" There are no answers, but the visit sure drives home the reality of what happened.
The bus ride back to happy-go-lucky Munich was a decompression experience. People barely spoke when first entering the bus, but conversations picked up and topics changed as we toured some university sections of Munich on the way back in. I doubt that anyone left that bus without a piece of this afternoon permanently embedded in their mind, but clearly everyone wanted to escape to other discussions.
We met our friend Jona and her brother Tomas around 7, and headed to the old part of Munich for dinner. Jona, who stayed with us in Nashville while she was in high school, is in the process of moving to Konstanz, Germany to work for a fashion designer. Her brother is in college studying mechanical engineering. Their father was recently elected mayor of Nashville's sister city of Magdeburg.
We ate at a place called Ayinger's, located right near the famous Hofbrau Haus, but not as touristy. It was very good, and we really enjoyed seeing Jona again. The four of us walked back to the hotel, and the Kochs had to drive a couple of hours from there back to Jona's new place in Konstanz, near the Swiss border.
The Munich streets, especially in the old town section, are full of all kinds of crazies and party people, and it is fun to just wander and watch. Saturday night seemed to draw a lot of bachelorette theme parties. We also saw a group in which every member had a dog. They were led by a lady dressed in black and carrying an ax. We were told that she represented the old Munich city guards, but we aren't sure what the dogs were doing there. There were also several groups of young guys on drinking missions. Three of them, roving together, each had an ammo belt lined up with Jaegermeister bottles. Some groups were just standing on the street singing.
August 23, 2009: Munich-Nuremburg: We had a very relaxing morning, eating breakfast in the train station and then walking around Munich some more. Sharon had beer and I had some coffee on the old town square before we headed back to the Sofitel to check out.
Our train for Nuremburg left at about 3, and it was very comfortable. Also very expensive. We sat in first class, and the seats were nicer than first class in a jumbo jet. The train was very clean, and it traveled at about 120 miles an hour, making it from Munich to Nuremburg in about an hour. The Nuremburg train station was built in 1903, but was recently renovated and is as modern and attractive as a brand new airport – except no security and no waits.
It was a 15-minute cab ride to our ship, and check-in was easy. There are 140 passengers on this cruise. Our stateroom is right at water level –about a foot above it at the window. It is more spacious than a cabin on a large cruise ship, and has a queen-sized bed.
The original plan was to stay overnight in Nuremburg, tour the city in the morning, and then begin sailing. But low water tables have the crew scrambling to get up the Danube before it falls any further, sending our boat trip into a bus trip. So we sailed around 5 p.m., and began navigating through the many locks that link Nuremburg’s canal with the Danube River.
Sharon and I went to the first night’s dinner, with me selecting roast duck and her having sautéed fish. We sat with a retired couple of about our age from New Jersey. He had had been in the NJ State Police and she was a nurse.
We gave the tiny, postage stamp-sized dance floor a try to the music of Otto, whose dialect distorts the words of otherwise recognizable songs. I think he is from Hungary – not sure. Otto has a piano-like synthesizer machine that produces sounds imitating about any instrument imaginable, none of them sounding all that great. But we had fun, and Otto tried to please.
August 24, 2009: Nuremburg and Regensburg: We both slept rather fitfully, maybe because the ship clanked through some locks during the night. The bed was comfortable, though.
The low water again changed our plans a little, as we finally boarded busses outside of Nuremburg and rode a little over an hour into the city. A local tour guide joined our bus, one of three serving our group, and he began with a short history of Nazi Germany and Nuremburg’s role in it. A combination of historic, demographic and sociological factors made Nuremburg an important and somewhat frequent gathering place for Hitler speeches during the war. Bottom line: anti-Semitism thrived there.
We visited a huge theater-type building resembling a large football stadium with stands, which was intended to be used for Hitler addresses. Called the Congress Hall, it sits beside a large man-made lake, which was intended to mirror the building and make it appear even larger than it is. It wasn’t finished before the demise of Naziism.
Next door to that structure is a Nazi army parade grounds and speaking rostrum at Luitpoldarena, used by Hitler to address more than 100,000 troops and citizens at a time. Spotlights and other techniques were used there to heighten the excitement when the Fuhrer spoke.
We also rode by the courthouse where Room 600 still exists in the layout it had when 22 Nazi leaders were tried in Nuremburg. A dozen were executed afterwards, three were acquitted and the rest were imprisoned for life.
The Nuremburg Castle, on a steep hill overlooking downtown, is a very interesting place. We spent about 45 minutes there, learning about its history since medieval times. The tour ended with some free time on Nuremburg square and we went to a famous sausage restaurant to try their products.
Our ship had been heading farther up the Danube while we were touring, still scurrying to stay ahead of falling water tables on the Danube. It took us an hour and a half by bus to get to where our boat was supposed to be, but it hadn’t arrived when we did. The captain called to say he had been delayed due to low-water maneuvers, and the Europe came to get us about 20 minutes later. Sharon and I climbed up to a highway bridge to watch and photograph its arrival.
Our cruise director told us rather solemnly that tonight’s sailing would decide if our cruise was going to make it to Budapest later in the week, or end near Regensburg, the home of the Pope. He said that if we docked at 1 a.m., that was a good sign that we had made it through the low water perils. He didn’t mention what would happen if we didn’t.
August 25, 2009: Regensburg, Germany: We were relieved to awake at the port we needed to reach overnight. We were told that ships slightly behind us had been blocked by the dropping water levels in the Danube and were having to move their passengers to bus tours.
We were up at 7, had breakfast in the ship’s dining room and were on our bus at 8:15. We actually are docked about 75 miles east of where we were supposed to be at this point in the trip. The extra distance kept us ahead of the draught-caused sagging water levels. So instead of getting up and walking into Regensburg from the dock there this morning, we boarded busses and drove about an hour and a half to get there.
The good news is the drive is beautiful – through some very scenic areas of Bavaria. As I mentioned earlier, Regensburg is the hometown of Pope Benedict. We saw his former house near the Autobahn, saw his old church, etc. The Pope has a great hometown. It is one of the cleanest, nicest cities anywhere. Many of the buildings date back to medieval times, and have been perfectly kept. The streets are litter-free, and lined with nice shops, cafes and other businesses.
Many parts of a Viking cruise is a learning experience. We learned Bavarian history during the bus trip to the city, and heard all about Mozart’s life on the way back. (We are headed to Vienna soon – Mozart country.) There were several local guides waiting for us in Regensburg, and we were divided into small groups and did a 90-minute walking tour of the city.
Viking gives each passenger a headphone so you can hear what the guide is saying even if you wander off to look at something or want to stop in a shop. This works pretty well.
Sharon decided to stay in town and wait for the late afternoon bus, while I opted to go back to the ship. There was a late lunch on board featuring salad, leg of lamb, nice desserts. I checked e-mails and read for a while until Sharon came back.
The ship has various educational and cultural offerings each day. Today’s was a Bavarian party at 5:30 p.m. featuring Bavarian music, sausages, beer, rye bread and other Bavarian specialties. Yesterday’s event was a talk by a professor about the European Union. You can opt in or out of any of the events.
The passengers tend overall to be older than we are, but many are not. There are a couple of children onboard, and some kids who look to be high school age. There also are some families traveling together with an array of ages represented. One common factor is that they all seem very friendly and interesting. We met a dentist from Montana at the Bavarian party, and we had a very interesting conversation with him and his wife. I also spent much of the day with Ed Dillon, the very personable retired Air Force general.
We had dinner with new friends Ed, Steve and Wendy (from theLos Angeles area), and then went to the lounge to dance for about an hour. We were asleep by about 11.
August 26, 2009: Passau, Germany: We finally have gotten to where the water is deep enough for safe travel, and our tour is back on schedule. This means that we can walk into the towns we are visiting instead of having to be bussed back to where we were supposed to be. So after breakfast, our group walked into the very pretty town of Passau, located in Bavaria near the Austrian border.
Today marks the end of a week we have spent in Bavaria, a state located in the southeast corner of Germany. Bavarians are very proud of their heritage, and they speak and act a bit differently than other Germans. In fact, Bavarians with a strong dialect are sometimes mistaken for English-speakers by fellow Germans.
I have been very impressed with Bavaria and Germany in general. It is my second trip to Germany, and Sharon’s fourth. The people are very friendly, the towns are charming and the pride is evident: I have never seen a cleaner country. Litter is non-existent in the towns and rare in the cities. Yards and homes are kept immaculately.
Passau is at the junction of three rivers, and this makes for a very attractive setting. It is also very hilly, so the city rises above the rivers. The center of town features St. Steven’s Cathedral, a very impressive structure – sparkling white and quite imposing. The inside features the world’s largest pipe organ – five of them linked together, to be more exact.
We enjoyed a very leisurely day here. We did an hour and a half walking tour with Georgina, a local guide with a PhD. And she had an excellent way of presenting city history. She also helped us with shopping and restaurant recommendations. After her tour, we walked around with Ed, Steve and Wendy, had some coffee, beer, desserts, and then went back to the cathedral for a pipe organ concert.
The concert was okay – one of those things you are glad you did, but weren’t wowed by.
We had a late lunch back on the ship and I spent much of the afternoon reading and trying to get the internet to work. Seems a medieval castle high on a hill above the ship was blocking our signal. We were without access most of the day. But I somehow survived this.
We had an enjoyable, but slowly served dinner of roast beef and potatoes, and then went to the lounge for dancing. The floor was very crowded for the first time since we started the voyage. The dancers were mostly couples gyrating to 1970s tunes. So we waited for the crowd to clear and got Otto to play a waltz, a tango and some other dances to which we could practice our ballroom moves.
We were asleep by 11:30.
August 27, 2009: Melk and Vienna, Austria: We had a very full and enjoyable day. Arriving in Melk at dawn, I got up and checked e-mails, uploaded photos and guzzled coffee. Sharon was up by 7:30 and we had an earlier-than-usual breakfast before taking a Viking bus up to the top of the town, where a huge Benedictine abbey sits.
Built in the 1500s and rebuilt in the early 1700s, the size and beauty of this place is hard to convey. It still functions as a Catholic school with more than 900 students and 30 monks. But it ceased being a boarding school in 2001. But the facility has more than 500 rooms and 1,300 windows, as well as a huge library and a very large church.
The whole complex sits atop a mountain overlooking Melk, the Danube, nearby farms and great views in every direction. The place is a big tourist draw, with more than 1 million visitors a year.
After an hour and a half tour of the abbey by an excellent local guide, we climbed down to the city, where Steven and Wendy joined us at a café for food and drink. Steven and Sharon have been using these midday stops to sample local beers and Wendy and I try coffee and a dessert – even before lunch. After our break at the sidewalk café, we hoofed it back to the ship.
Dinner was earlier than usual because many passengers, including we, had bought tickets for a Mozart and Strauss concert in an historic symphony building in Vienna. The concert was excellent, featuring not only great musicians, but two excellent opera singers and two dancers. The dancers could have been better, but the others were terrific.
One downside to the concert was that the old symphony hall, which actually was used by Strauss, did not have adequate air conditioning. It was sweltering in the room by evening’s end.
Our bus took us back to the ship and by that time it was almost 11 – time for bed after a long day.
August 28, 2009: Vienna, Austria: We had a super day in Vienna, starting with an early breakfast and a bus ride into the middle of the city. A local guide walked us around, showing us landmark buildings, shops and churches. We heard some of the history of the city and saw many of the serious-looking old buildings that populate downtown Vienna.The majestic stone faces of many of the buildings give the impression that they house government institutions even when they don’t . To me, there is a seriousness to Vienna in general that we didn’t sense in places like Munich. The people seem a bit sterner.
This is not to say that there aren’t some very great things about Vienna. Its dedication to art and music is evident everywhere. Statues of Mozart and Strauss seem to outnumber those to the politicians of yore. Museums, symphony halls and galleries are all over town. They told us last night that every child in Vienna attends an opera before he or she is 12.
Like the Germans, the Austrians like their beer. And grilled sausage. And pastries/cakes. After we did our two and a half hour walking tour, Sharon, Ed, Wendy and I went to a Viennese cake bakery/café and sampled their goods. The place was incredible.
Many from our ship headed back to the Europe for lunch and some rest, but Sharon and I decided to stay in Vienna and explore some more. We walked all over the place and found some interesting little alleys and shops, as well as a huge and attractive city park. We had a late lunch at a biergarten (beer garden) which was right next to the symphony hall where we saw the concert last night.
The lunch at the beer garden next to that park was one of our favorite meals of our trip. I had a sausage – they called it bratwurst, but to me it was more like kielbasa. Sharon had pork wiener-schnitzel. Those and the side dishes were excellent.
We wandered some more until we were ready to drop and finally rode the subway back to our ship at about 4 p.m. The day was very interesting and the weather was spectacular – 87 and sunny.
Back on ship, we immediately took a nap and then bounced back up to see us depart for Budapest. That is expected to be an all-night trip, with arrival tomorrow morning around 7.
August 29, 2009: Budapest, Hungary: We sailed through the night, heading from Austria into Hungary, passing Slovakia and approaching Budapest around 7 a.m. Sharon and I were up on the top deck, as were many other passengers, to watch as we entered the city by river. What a great way to see it!
You can tell as soon as you approach Budapest that it is a different and special place. The area where the city is has been inhabited since the time of Christ, and has been a city since the 9th Century. The architecture is far more diverse than what we saw yesterday in Vienna, (which was pretty impressive)and the city’s sharp rise from the Danube to steep hills on the west, or Buda, side of the river, put all the buildings on display at once.
The east side, called Pest, has some equally impressive buildings, including the Hungarian Parliament Building, but it is more flat and less dramatic. Most of Budapest’s 2 million people live on the Pest side. We learned all this from our cruise director Rene’ amid the click, click, click of passengers’ cameras. The city sights were coming at us faster than we could record them
This was a spectacular way to end a very fine cruise. We will stay onboard through tomorrow morning, but our arrival in Budapest marked the end of the trip. It was cloudy and very breezy upon arrival, and the temperature was about 75.
After we made it past the main part of downtown by river to be sure photographers and spectators caught it all, our captain turned the ship around and moored on the Buda side, and we all headed down to breakfast. Sharon and I had Eggs Benedict to celebrate our arrival.
Very soon after breakfast, we were herded to our busses for our last guided tour of the trip. This one was a four-hour, mostly driven tour of both sides of the city. Our guide, Ivo, was very well-spoken and knowledgeable. She said speaking English was unusual for a 56-year-old Hungarian like her because children were taught when she was young that English was the language of evil forces from the West and that the only language to learn besides Hungarian was Russian. She said she learned English on her own, mostly from books.
Ivo’s dislike of the Soviets and what they did with Hungary was evident throughout our tour. She took us by the KGB headquarters in Budapest, now a museum where she said you could learn about all of the horrible torture techniques used against Hungarians to get information. She showed us many buildings that had been sand-blasted, restored and cleaned since the late 198s when Hungary was freed of Soviet rule, and she spoke with disdain of the decay that flourished when they were in charge.
We went to a main square where many of the 3,000 Hungarian deaths occurred during a revolt against Russia in the late 1950s.
The tour also included much discussion of the torment suffered by Hungarians under the Nazis. She said about one-third of the people executed in Nazi death camps had Hungarian passports or papers. All of those deaths occurred after the Nazis occupied Hungary in 1943, she said.
One of our morning stops was the highest point in Budapest, where you could look down on the Danube and all of the magnificent buildings on both sides of the river.
We visited a very old section of the city atop a hill, including a stop at the beautiful but steamy St. Stephen’s Basilica. Seems like every city in Europe on this trip so far calls its largest church St. Stephen’s or St. Steven’s. That area was very attractive and also very congested with tourists. It featured centuries-old buildings that are now hotels, shops and restaurants.
The bus got back to the boat at about 1 and we enjoyed a goulash lunch. The ship usually features a well-prepared meal that is native to wherever you are visiting that day. They didn’t disappoint with this one. Stuffed bell peppers also were offered.
Sharon and I were tired after the tour, piled on top of all the walking we did yesterday, so we took a nap until late afternoon. It was raining when we awoke, so we did housekeeping work – Sharon paying our tabs and preparing tip envelopes for the help, while I updated blog and photo postings.
We had our final dinner together with Ed, Wendy and Steve. Another couple - Bill and Marie from Texas - big Longhorn fans - also have been joining us the last couple of evenings. We have really enjoyed getting to know that little group. Hopefully we will see them again sometime, as we have the eight people we met on our last Viking cruise three years ago. There is a second reunion planned with the earlier group in Tennessee next month and one in France next year.
Ed invited us all to his place in Colorado Springs, and w plan to follow up.
We went to the lounge after dinner, and listened to a very talented string quartet. The cruise has included a couple of these onboard concerts by local musicians. The first one was in Germany by a guy who played many instruments and got the passengers involved in several skits. He was half musician, half comedian. This group was more serious, although there was some horseplay by a couple of Hungarian dancers who came out for a while.
We said out final goodbyes to Ed and several other passengers who leave for the U.S. early tomorrow. Sharon and I did a couple of dances and headed for bed.
August 30, 2009: Budapest: Depart-the-ship day. Sharon had a cup of coffee with Ed, who had an early departure time, and I started packing. We met Steve and Wendy for breakfast in the ship's dining room and said our goodbyes, promising to do a reunion soon.
We had a cab pick us up at the ship around 9 a.m. and take us to the Hotel Palazzo Zichy, which is quite an interesting place. More on that later. Our room wasn't ready so, we dropped our luggage there and headed for the subway station to try to get to the town of Szentendre. Our friend Nikole, ho lives in Nashville, grew up in Budapest and recommended a visit to the quaint Szentendre.
The subway is entered by a very, very steep and high escalator, which I didn't enjoy in the least.
We took the subway to the other side of the Danube and then switched to a local train. Eighteen stops and starts later, we were in Szentendre. We would not have succeeded in getting through all this without the help of a very nice guy traveling with his wife and young son. Sharon asked him for some help, and he proceeded to walk us through the ticket purchases, rode next to us on the train and showed us where to go when we arrived in Szentendre. We have found the people here to be very warm and helpful in general.
Szentendre is a very cute town and they were having some type of Sunday festival today. Children were everywhere, enjoying games, clowns and sweets of all sorts. We stopped at a well-known ice cream place on the main street, and then walked around town, stopping in shops and exploring the streets.
The only downside to the place is the same problem that plagues downtown Budapest - an unbelievably bad graffiti problem. It is a shame to see historic and beautiful buildings defaced that way. Otherwise, buildings were well-kept and gardens were numerous.
We headed back to Budapest around 1:30, and had a late lunch at a sidewalk cafe. I had paprika chicken and Sharon had roast duck. Both were good - not outstanding, but good. The weather was perfect for sitting outside - about 80 and sunny.
The hotel room was ready when we returned by cab. The hotel was built in the 1700s as a palace, and was opened earlier this year as a hotel. The place is really magnificent, with great stone trim, old stone walls in some interior places and a very historic look on the outside. The lobby and hotel rooms, however, are ultra-modern and very European.
Our room was huge, located on a corner of the building overlooking a park from one window and an old church from the other. The room has a table with booths on either side, a king sized bed, a super nice bathroom and an ample desk. Lots of shelf and closet space. I found the place through TripAdvisor, which deservedly had it ranked as its second-best hotel in Budapest. The price was good, too. Its site is http://www.hotel-palazzo-zichy.hu/ if you want to check it out.
We took a nap, and then Sharon explored the neighborhood for a while. She came back to the room, and we went off to dinner together, selecting a nearby place called Kaltenberg, which was among places recommended by our desk clerk.
The food and atmosphere there were both terrific. It is in the basement of a building built in the 1800s and which once housed a munitions factory. The basement ceiling is made of pretty brick that was vaulted throughout the restaurant area. There are old wood booths, and several rooms for diners. Live music by an accordian player and violinist played while we ate.
I had Hunagrian style pork loin and Sharon had a Hungarian version of chicken livers. She rated the meal her best on the trip, and mine was excellent, too. The musicians came to our table to play while we ate. Sharon got them there by telling them it was her birthday, even though that event was more than a month ago. By the end of their serendade, the accordian player had even played a beautiful Bach fugue for us.
Service was slow by American standards, but probably not by Hungarian ones. I think some language barriers, not service, were to blame for the late check arrival.
We walked back to the hotel, declaring the day a success.
August 31, 2009: Budapest: Last day in Budapest. Needed to make it count.
We got up around 8 and had the breakfast buffet that came with the room. It was good at the fruit, bread and beverage end, but a bit lacking in the hot foods department. The bacon, sausage and eggs just didn’t look very good, so we were forced to eat healthier stuff. It ended up being good and we enjoyed it.
Sharon wanted to catch the huge public baths in Budapest, which are much nicer and cleaner than that description makes them sound. So she headed over to them via subway while I explored the neighborhoods near the hotel. As for the baths: The water there comes from hot underground springs, and it is replaced in numerous pools each day. The water is different temperatures in the various pools. Sharon said later that she really enjoyed it and was glad she got to see it.
I walked for about 90 minutes, going to the bridge over the Danube and back. I bought a shirt along the way. I went back to the hotel around 11:15 to pack and meet the 12:00 check-out deadline.
I had the bags packed and hauled downstairs at 11:55, when Sharon arrived from the baths with wet hair. So she got the desk’s permission to go back upstairs for 20 more minutes to dry her hair.
We then took off on a marathon walk that covered about 10 miles and ate up the day past 5:15. We had lunch at a very nice sidewalk café, where I had goulash and “gypsy pork chop”and Sharon had goulash and beets. Hungarian fare.
We then headed for the central market, a huge place reminiscent of the Farmer’s Market in my hometown of Cleveland, only much larger. We didn’t buy much aside from some candy for our friend Fred, a beer for Sharon and a Diet Coke for me. But we saw much of the historic building and shot several photos.
Back to walking, and we strolled through several touristy sections on the Pest side of the Danube. Sharon was pretty weary and at one point eyed getting Thai massage. But we kept on going. We needed up buying some toys and Christmas ornaments by our hotel, and then going there to get our luggage and have some refreshments.
A cab picked us up to take us to the train station at 7, which ended up giving us way more time than needed. The train station is an absolute dump – very surprising for such a great tourist destination. We stopped for drinks at a little German-style restaurant in the station, and the waiter couldn’t have been more surly. His 10 percent tip was included in the bill, so I guess he figured he could be a jerk without retribution. Bad send-off from such a wonderful and otherwise friendly city. The train station could be a beautiful historic building with some effort.
The haul from the station restaurant to the train couldn’t have been mathematically longer for a couple with a lot of luggage. Our car was the very last one before the engine at the farthest end of the depot. But we got onboard with 20 minutes to spare. Our tiny sleeper cabin was okay, no more – two bunk beds, lots of luggage space and a sink. No bar car, so that was our home for the next 10 hours as we headed to Prague. The a.c. was off and it was sweltering when we got on. We had to wait for the train to start for things to cool down.
Our logic in riding the train was: a.) it would be fun and our first overnight train ride together. b.) it was cheaper than an airline ticket and c.) it was even more economical because we wouldn’t need a hotel room for the night.
Sharon commandeered some ice and wine into the car, so she was satisfied, and I had my computer sans internet , but I could still write. That’s how we spent a short evening before hitting the bunks.
The ride was mostly comfortable, though there were many stops. Sharon got up at 2:15 a.m. craving lotion for her face and I had a hard time getting back to sleep after that search. I watched the stars out of the train window until daylight came.
September 1, 2009: Prague: We had a very long walk from our train car to the station, where we asked a cabbie to take us to our hotel. We think we were swindled by the guy because he charged us about $40 to go about 15 minutes away. We weren’t familiar with the exchange rate yet, so we didn’t know the difference until later.
Our hotel, the tiny 300-year-old Savic in the heart of the Old Town section, let us check in at 7:30 a.m., which was a welcome break. The hotel is beautiful. Our room has a crystal chandelier, a four-poster bed, an enormous bathtub (which makes Sharon happy) and very nice mahogany furniture.
I had a good buffet breakfast on the ground floor of the hotel, and I made Sharon a sandwich. She was sleeping when I got to the room, but she ate the baguette-style sandwich. Then we both napped for a few hours before going exploring.
Prague is said to be a Disney-like place, only real instead of created. We agree. Dark and dingy as late as post-Soviet 1990, the city has done a superb job of renovating, painting and rejuvenating itself. There are buildings that are hundreds of years old that look sparkling new. The Old Town section is a rainbow of colors. Where Budapest is part of the way there, and still battling graffiti warfare, Prague has made it back to its days of splendor.
With that enchanted atmosphere comes a sea of tourists. They are everywhere, especially in the daytime when tour busses are dumping load after load of them into the historic sections. We sat on the square and had coffee, and heard tours being led in Japanese, Spanish, Czech and English – all within 15 minutes.
We made the uphill trek to the palace building, which overlooks the city and its dividing Vlatava River. The walk up the hill took about 40 minutes, and was a challenge. But the palace, its stoic guards standing at attention and the nearby churches and buildings made it worthwhile. The view from up there was terrific.
We walked around the city for several hours and then took another nap. We had purchased tickets for a show featuring Broadway musical songs, and wanted to be fresh when we went to that. We had dinner on the town square and then proceeded to the concert hall within St. Michael Seminary, an out-of-the-way structure built in 1767.
While we had envisioned something akin to a Broadway show, we ended up in a private second-floor concert room, where we were entertained by three people – a singer, a pianist and a sax player. The room reminded me of a smaller version of the concert hall where we went in Vienna, only this one had air conditioning. There were about 25 people in the crowd. We and a couple from South Africa were on the front row.
The entertainers were good, but the show wasn’t the extravaganza we expected. It was interesting to hear Hello Dolly, Cabaret, I Could Have Danced All Night and other Broadway favorites sung by a soprano with a strong Czech accent.
We capped off the evening by strolling around the city some more, finding a jazz trio playing in a courtyard before we headed back to our hotel
September 2, 2009: Prague: We had breakfast and decided, with just about a half hour to spare, to dash to the subway station several blocks away, catch a train to the main bus station and then get on the bus for the scenic and historic town of Cesky Krumlov.
Our plan had just one flaw – we had no clue where we were going or what we were doing. One thing we have learned the hard way about Eastern Europe is that signs and printed materials in English are very rare. The one exception is menus.
So we made it to the subway station and went to the token machine to get our tickets. We couldn’t find a name anywhere on the machine that matched the station we needed. There were words with a lot of c’s, z;s, and k’s, all strung together without vowels. So we flagged down a teenager, an almost certain way of getting some translation help. MTV, along with Czech schools, have brought about a generation of English speakers.
The young person bought our ticket for us and we were on our way. But there were more snafus as we overshot the bus station stop and then couldn’t find the bus station even when we were right next to it. Long story short, we missed the bus to Cesky Krumlov and there were no more leaving today. We decided not to let this practice run go to waste, so we bought a bus ticket for 9:15 tomorrow.
We then went exploring in Prague for a short while and went back to the hotel to rest. The running and subway experience had taken its toll. We soon ventured back out, checking out areas of the city we hadn’t seen yet, including the Jewish section. We had a light late lunch and finally grabbed some park bench seats near the main town square to people-watch and enjoy the beautiful day. It was sunny and in the 70s for the umpteenth straight day on our trip.
I went to the room at one point and brought back wine for Sharon and Diet Coke for me to drink on the park bench. Sharon often keeps wine in small plastic bottles, such as empty soft drink containers, to avoid carrying whole wine bottles in her luggage after they are opened. I brought one ofthese to her from the dresser in our hotel room, and she informed me that the stuff in the Coke bottle tasted a bit like vinegar when she tried it the other night and that she was saving it only for "a desperate situation." I told her that she was drinking on a park bench, so it doesn't get much more desperate than that. She prceeded to drink it.
Late in the day, we began looking for a restaurant for dinner. It should be noted that when it comes to prices, Prague is more in line with London, Paris and other expensive places in Western Europe. While we saw decent deals in Budapest, they were not very evident here. We did, however, find a good little sidewalk café restaurant with better prices than most.
I decided on a shish kebab made with chicken, pork and Czech sausage. Sharon had venison goulash with dumplings. We both liked our meals.
We walked a little while longer and then stopped at a market near the Old Town square for a 1-liter bottle of Coke and a 1.5-liter bottle of water. The cost? $10. See what I mean?
We carefully guarded the precious liquid and went back to the hotel for the night.
September 3, 2009: Prague & Cesky Krumlov, CzechRepublic: We have been very pleased with both the amenities and the location of the Savic Hotel. Very small, but well-run and perfectly situated. Their breakfast buffets each morning include various kinds of fresh bread, assorted cheeses and cold cuts. We made use of those items in preparing a lunch for our train trip to Cesky Krumlov today.
Our mistakes the day before in trying to put this trip together paid off today. We made the right moves on the subway system, caught our bus on time and were on our way to Cesky Krumlov as planned. The town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and has been around since the 13th Century.
Cesky Krumlov is not an easy place to get to. The only reliable way, aside from hiring a private car or going on a tour bus, is to take public transportation for three and a half hours. The upside to this was we got a chance to see the Czech countryside, which is similar to Middle Tennessee's. Corn appears to be the chief crop, and we saw several large companies, including Bobcat, along the way.
The bus made about four stops after we got on. There were a few other Americans on there with us, but most of the passengers were young people hopscotching between small towns.
The sandwiches were a welcome addition to the trip around noon, when we still had an hour and a half to go.
The station in the desination town was deplorable. They still charged for use of the toilet, as is the case in most places in Europe (except Germany, where they often don't). But the place was a mess. Luckily, we didn't have to use the station for long and we went ahead and walked into town - about a quarter mile downhill.
Cesky Krumlov is a beautiful place, split by the Vltava River that also runs through Prague. It has a medieval castle, some old churches, a synagogue and some very well-kept shops and homes. You can see why UNESCO put it among its treasured historic sites worldwide.
Though we had eaten a sandwich on the bus, we decided around 3 p.m. to split a lunch. We chose a great little hotel with an outdoor patio, located right next to the Vltava. Though it rained on the way to the city and rained on the way home, the weather was perfect during our visit - sunny and about 75.
We kept hearing reports during our river cruise that the Czech Republic had great pig knuckles, and that we should try them. I had tried the Gerst Haus version in Nashville several times and found them okay - good ham-like meat inside if you can sift through all the fat. We decided to see what the Czech version was like.
This pig knuckle was huge - about the size of a bowling ball. It had lots of meat and was very tasty. It came with pickles, tomatoes, peppers and bread. We were surprisingly pleased with our lunch, which was not as expensive as the prices we had seen in Prague.
We walked through town a bit more and then headed back to the bus station for our 4:10 departure. This ride was more fatiguing than the first. We must have stopped 12 times along the way to drop off or pick up passengers. We finally reached Prague at about 7:30. But the station where we were dropped was not the one where we started - the one we had practiced for.
We had to wait in a long line and Sharon finally secured the tickets we needed for the subway back to the neighborhood where our hotel was. By the time we got back to the room, we were both cvery tired and decided to go to bed early. No dinner. Tomorrow is departue day - Prague to Nashville, so the sleep was needed.
September 4, 2009: Prague-Nashville: Nine hours in the air to New York. Five-hour layover at JFK, arguably the country's worst-run airport. Two and a half hours to Nashville. That was our day. How was yours?
Some quick highlights: We were taken to the airport by the hotel handyman, whose name sounds like "Millah." (Kind of like a Belle Meade pronunciation of Miller.) He was very nice throughout our stay, although he might want to try a shower or some deodorant sometime. The trip from town to the airport was very quick, considering it was at 8:15 a.m. on a weekday. It took us through some very nice Prague neighborhoods.
Sharon and I had aisle/window seats in an older Czech Airlines Airbus, and the leg room was nonexistent. But Sharon asked the flight attendant to fnd me something with more room, and he did, putting me in an exit row with about eight feet between me and the bulkhead wall. And then Sharon had two seats across which to stretch her legs for the whole trip.
As mentioned above, JFK airport is always a mess, and it came through again on Friday. Long, hot lines. Mega-jets unloading into understaffed immigration and customs cues. One security line for an entire Delta terminal, etc. Horrible experience. One I know our first-time foreign visitors will always remember.
The highlight of the trip was our flight over Norway. It was clear and I could see the surf hitting the Norwegian coast and many of the islands to the west of that Scandinavian country.
We finally got home, after our cab skipped over our street and had to back-track, at 10:30.
