Since it was still cold and rainy, we decided to head for Vienna early. We would rather spend more time there. The train ride was about four and a half hours. We arrived at the hotel around 2:40 pm. The hotel is at the centre of the major attractions. It was the most beautiful hotel room since the beginning of our trip. The building is old and the rooms have high ceilings with decorative plaster motifs. We wish we could stay in this hotel longer.

We headed to Stephensplatz which is our favourite spot. We found out there was a concert at the St. Stephen Cathedral that evening. We could not go to Vienna without going to a concert, so we bought tickets.

We were hungry and there was a Chinese restaurant near the hotel. We decided to check it out. The price was comparable to what we pay in Halifax, so we decide to eat there. Surprisingly, the food was good.

The concert was a real treat for us. It was a selection from a variety of Baroque era composers and featured a string quartet with a trumpeter. The acoustics in this church is just speculator, not to mention the backdrop. It was  a special way to conclude our trip.

Good thing we went up the mountain yesterday, as it poured rain today. It is the first serious rainy day for this whole trip. I suppose we are blessed. We made good use of the day by first of all going to the Swarovski Park. It is the headquarters of Swarovski Crystal in a town about 14 km from Innsbruck. We walked to the train station in pouring rain to catch the shuttle bus. We were wet before we even got to the bus.

The place is a showcase for Swarovski. It features all kinds of crystal creations and artwork. It is beyond trying to describe the exhibits. It is just simply amazing.

Once back in Innsbruck, we caught a bus to the nearby town of Hall. Since we do not speak German, it was very confusing to know when to get off the bus. The bus driver did not speak any English and another passenger tried to help. Even though they were helpful, we could not understand them. Finally, we found the right stop. Had it not been raining, we might have enjoyed this town more. We did visit the Mint Museum where they used to mint coins for Austria. We found that the word “Dollar” actually came from a German which they called “Tollar” (I think that’s right).

After we got back to the hotel, it was still raining hard. We did not have energy to walk anymore. We just packed up our stuff and got ready for the next day. At least our room was much cooler today.

We left early for Innsbruck. The train station at Salzburg was under construction. We had to carry the luggage for a long distance to the platform. James figured out where was the best position to wait in order to have the least distance to lift the luggage onto the train.

We sat in the first class cabin next to the premium class. For some unknown reason, we were the only two in the whole car. James looked at the next car. It was packed with passengers and luggage. It was strange that no one even noticed this nearly empty car. We had no complaints that we could have the whole car for ourselves for the two hour ride.

We arrived at Innsbruck at noon. It was HOT! The hotel was not in a convenient location. We were told at the tourist info that it was not a long walk to the hotel, so we decided to do that. Big mistake! We found it was a good 20 minutes walk with the luggage. A taxi would have been a much better idea, especially in the heat. After we checked in, we discovered our room had no air conditioning on the top floor. It was unbearable for a 35C day with sun blazing down the roof and into the windows. Either the Frommers travel book was wrong (it said the hotel had air conditioning), or the hotel was just too cheap and removed the air conditioning, the room was like an oven. We opened up all the windows to let some fresh air in, if which there was very little. We then washed some laundry and hung it by the window and took a walk outside.

Innsbruck is not a big city. We went for the funicular ride to the mountain. It is the closest ride we can find without taking a bus ride. The sun was so hot that it took the fun away from the ride. We went up half way to the top of the mountain. James went further up by cable car. The scene was just gorgeous. It was cooler at the top. James saw some tourists packed with hiking gear and walking down from the top of the hill. They probably would not get down until dusk.

The heat took the joy out of the sightseeing in Innsbruck. We walked back to the hotel and had dinner and rested.

Buildings in Innsbruck

View of Innsbruck from the top

Innsbruck Town Centre

We could only use our Salzburg card  until noon. James went to the Untersbergbahn

Grödig. The mountain is 25 minutes bus ride from Salzburg. Kathy did not want to go up any more cable cars to mountains, so James went alone.

I took the bus and went to a small town of Grodig to take the cable car. I had no idea when I was supposed to get off the bus. I asked a young man beside me. He could speak very good English. He told me to get off the bus three stops after him. He also told the bus driver to inform me when I arrived at the cable car station. I found people here very helpful. The town of Grodig is just beautiful. There are high mountains on one side and all the fields in the valley. The weather was perfect, blue sky with little cloud. I told the young man how picturesque this town was. He looked at me and shook his head. “I live all my life here. I don’t find it beautiful,” he said. I suppose if one looks at those mountains and fields all his life, he would not find it special.

I went up to the peak of Untersberg by cable car. I saw young and old folks carrying walking sticks and all kinds of hiking gear. When I got to the top, I then understood why. The hiking path was loose gravel and rocks. There were no guardrails. It was a high difficulty hike. I was struggling up the hill. An old lady (and I do mean old) briskly passed me with a walking stick. She spoke to me in German and waved her walking stick. I though she meant I should have those.

After forty five minutes of climbing, I finally gave up and turned back. The view was spectacular!

In the mean time, Kathy went shopping. We met up at the hotel and went for a “Lakes and Mountains” tour. It was only a four-hour excursion. We went up an Austrian mountain road. It was very scenic. We then went for a lake cruise on Wolfgangsee. It was a hot day. I would love to just swim in the lake. The cruise lasted for forty five minutes. This is a vacation area where people own or rent cottages, go camping, boating, swimming, etc. It is a very busy area. We then boarded the bus again and went back to downtown Salzburg.

We planned to walk in the park. It was just too hot for us to enjoy. We decided to just have dinner and went back to the hotel.

On the top of Gordig

Spectacular view from the top of Gordig

Cruising in Wolfgangsee

Since we purchased the Salzburg Card, it included a number of museums visits, Funicular and Elevator (Monchsberg Augzug) rides. We tried to visit as many museums as possible. There are a few worth mentioning:

Mozart’s Birthplace – the museum is near our hotel. We saw hair locks which were supposed to belong to Mozart.

Mozart Museum (in the house where he lived) – this is more interesting. The museum is across the river and very informative. It talked about Mozart’s life and his relationship between his family members. We stayed more than an hour there.

Salzburg Cathedral – we had to enter through the back door because there was a rehearsal of some play. We were late getting in. Mozart was baptised there. The Cathedral is huge and just magnificent! We were told by the caretaker that the church was closed at 6 pm. It was already 6:15 when we left.

Monchsberg Augzug – An elevator which brought us to the top of the hill. The scenery was great! There is a museum of modern art there. I just do not understand how someone can display a bunch of cucumbers in a room and call it art.

We were exhausted when we came back to the hotel. It was very hot again today. There were not as many tourists, though still pretty crowded especially in the shopping areas.

Town square from museum

Salzberger dom, Mozart baptisted in this church

We got up early to catch the train to Salzburg. When we arrived at the train station, a man in the OBB (the Austrian train company) uniform tried to say to us that we were in the wrong platform for Salzburg. He could not speak English. He tried to say in German that we should be in another platform. We finally got the message. The train left right on the second which it was supposed to.  The train ride was comfortable.

We arrived at Salzburg around 11 am. We bought a Salzburg card which includes the use of all public transit and free admission to numerous museums. We used the card for the bus ride to the hotel. The Hotel Elefant is a small family-run hotel with thirty rooms. It is in the centre of the old section of Salzburg. The building is over seven hundred years old. Our room is small but comfortable. The shower is very small. The front desk was helpful. The manager directed me to a phone store to buy a SIM card for my phone. We misplaced the key for one of the hand luggage. We had to go to a locksmith and have the locks cut. The manger helped us to find the locksmith. After all these annoying errands, we finally had a chance to walk around the city.

Salzburg is the birthplace of Mozart. It is a big tourist spot. The streets were all crowded when we arrived. There were tour groups after tour groups. The narrow streets were shoulder to shoulder of humanity. We bought tickets for dinner and a concert in the Fortress. The Fortress is a big castle on the top of a hill which overlooks the city. We went up the hill via funicular. It was a steep and short ride. The Fortress is now a museum and is large and imposing. From the top of this hill you have a panoramic view of Salzburg, its surrounding countryside and the mountains. It was pretty cool today after that thunderstorm/rain we had on Sunday. Actually, it was a refreshing change. After much searching (signage was poor) we finally found the “museum” area. There were so many steps, Kathy finally gave up. We found a place to rest for a while until it was time to go for the dinner portion of our evening. The restaurant overlooked the mountains and we had a table right beside the fortress wall, so the view was amazing! Dinner was good too.

Unfortunately for Kathy, the concert was way in the top tower, most of which we had climbed earlier and then come back down for the dinner. We figured the concert had better be worth the climb again! It was a tough trek back up for her, but the concert was very good. It was a string quartet and they played mostly Mozart compositions. After, we had to descend all those steps to get back to the funicular for the last ride down the hill. The view after dark was beautiful with all the lights. Once back down, we looked back up at the fortress and it was all lit up with spotlights. Absolutely beautiful and magical! The town is pretty quiet after dinner hour and pleasant. Perhaps there’s more “night life” on the other side of the river in the newer section of town. We’re glad to be staying where we are.  

Fortress at night

Salzberg view from the top

Last night we had a severe thunderstorm and lots of rain. It really cooled things down from 37C yesterday to about 18C today. What a drastic change from the heat wave we’ve had! We slept in till about 8:30 and had a leisurely breakfast. Both of us were too tired and sore (probably from all that walking in Prague) to go out, so today being Sunday we decided to take a good Sabbath rest. We’ve now caught up on our blog. Kathy was glad to have time to sort through everything, iron yesterday’s laundry, and repack.

Our second suitcase, the larger Air Canada one, was also in bad shape. When we looked inside at the plastic lining it was all breaking into pieces. We don’t recommend AC luggage! So, with Kathy’s expert packing skills, she managed to fit everything into our new suitcase purchased in Poland along with a small collapsible duffel bag we had brought from home. Hopefully, it will make things a little easier travelling on the train tomorrow.

We head to Salzburg for three nights in the morning. We are really looking forward to that. At breakfast today, we found another couple and their daughter, from our tour group, are also going via train to Salzburg for three days. What are the chances of that! We exchanged hotel info and hope to meet up there.

Enjoyed lovely dinner at the hotel this evening and are now signing off to get an early night’s rest.

Today we left the beautiful city of Prague behind and began our journey back to Vienna. Kathy was really exhausted today after our wanderings around Prague in the heat yesterday, so she found the ride really long. Actually, it should have only taken us about five hours driving time, but we got into a traffic jam due to road construction. Seems they also have a season called “construction” as we do back home! Today there was no way around it as in Poland, so it set us back about an hour and a half.

We stopped in the little Czech town of Tabor where the Protestant reformer Jan Huss was from. I don’t think many tourists stop here because the only place you could find postcards, or any little souvenirs, was at the tourist information office. The biggest excitement taking place was a wedding procession. Seems like a pretty sleepy little medieval town.

Most of the scenery along the way was pretty farmland, lakes, and forests. We arrived in Vienna around 3:30, so had some time to do some laundry before going to our farewell dinner.

As we left our room and shut the door, we checked it as we always do and found it wouldn’t lock properly. In fact, we could yank it open without too much effort. Yikes! We’re supposed to be on the bus in 10 minutes. Kathy rushed downstairs to find Ewa while James called reception. They said they would send a technician but they were really busy. We found out just how efficient Ewa can be when she had taken care of the issue in two minutes and the technician had arrived at the room just as James was leaving. Whew! You never want to be the ones holding up the rest of the tour group especially on the final night.

Our farewell dinner was at a local Austrian restaurant in the city centre. We were served potato and vegetable soup which was really tasty. The Wiener Schnitzel was also really good and so was the Sachertorte for dessert. A big improvement over last night’s dinner.

We opted not to attend the Strauss/Mozart concert as we had been to one three years ago, so we bid farewell to Ewa and most of the group and returned to the hotel. It was a little sad to say goodbye to new friends, but we were also relieved to know we were on our own again. Tomorrow we can sleep in and do as we please.

We had a full day in Prague. We joined the group to go to the Prague Castle. We were here three years ago. We went into the St. Vitus Church. It was packed with tourists. We saw tour guides carrying various poles with stuffed animals, mini soccer ball, plastic flowers, etc. at the end so their groups could identify their guide. We queued up for a while before we could enter the church. It is a magnificent building. We left the group and purchased tickets for other parts of the castle and ended up staying three hours (the rest of the group only had one hour).

We toured the castle until noon. It was a very hot day. We walked down the steep hill that leads to the town square in the Mala Strana (Lesser town). It was a long walk on uneven cobblestones and crowded with tourists. We saw St. Nicholas church (there is one on the other side of the river too). Finally, we came to the infamous Charles Bridge where Tom Cruise jumps off in the movie Mission Impossible. Ewa told us that this is where the pickpockets are plentiful. Fortunately, we were not targeted. It is a pedestrian only bridge and lined with various artists selling their work.

We ended up at the Old Town Square. We were exhausted, dehydrated, and sore so we sat down at a pizzeria for a snack and drink. We found this place really took advantage of tourists. We overheard the people at the table next to us arguing about the bill with the waiter. When we received our bill, we understood why. They tagged on a cover charge, a 10% service charge and another 20% tax on top of the food and drink charged. The waiter showed me on the menu where they stated those charges. They were written in Czech with size 8 fonts. We’ve had many lunches and dinners in Prague before. It was the first time ever there were service charges, taxes and cover charges on top of the bill. What a bunch of crooks! I told Ewa about this. She told the group that Czech waiters are famous for their attitudes. In their mind, there are plenty of tourists who will come. They just don’t care. This is their Czech logic again. Later Ewa told us that after Tom Cruise filmed Mission Impossible, he promised he would never come back to Prague again. The service and hospitality industry was just not up to his expectations I guess. I suppose the scenery makes up for the inadequacy of some people in the service industry. As in most of the former Eastern Bloc countries, the younger generations seem to be more interested in embracing the market economy, learning English, and are generally more friendly and helpful.

We used the last transit pass for the subway and went back to the hotel. It was a full day of walking – wish we knew how many kilometres we clocked! Later, we went to the highlight dinner. It was not much of a highlight. The room was boiling hot with no AC. We opened up two big windows but it was still hot. The beef was so tough that it was good exercise for the jaws. Not many people ate it. On the bus, Ewa told us not to hesitate to complain about it in the evaluation form.

Finally, we went back to the hotel and packed for the next day. Despite the unpleasant experiences today, we still love this city and would come back again in a heartbeat. There’s just something about it that appeals to both of us.

Organ in St. Vitus Church

Lesser Town view from Castle

We went from Berlin to Prague through Dresden today.

Dresden is a beautiful place. It was heavily bombed and literally destroyed at the end of the Second World War. The British RAF bombed the city with incendiary bombs on one evening of February of 1945. The city was on fire within minutes. The US bombed the city again the next day. About 150000 were killed during the raid. The city was a refuge centre for those who were fleeing the raids of other cities. That is the reason for such a high casualties.

A Protestant Church, Church of Our Beloved Lady (formerly a Catholic Church) was totally destroyed by the heat of the bombing. All that was left was burnt out shells of the building. After the fires subsided, the church wall cracked and crumbled to the ground. The pieces of the wall were labelled and later rebuilt from scratch with those pieces of wall. Now the church building can be seen with grey stones with white patches or stones on its wall. The darker stones are the old preserved ones and the whiter stones are new patches.

Outside the church is a large town square with a statue of Martin Luther in the middle. Kathy bought a few post cards of Dresden after the bombing and later realized one showed the toppled statue of Luther in front of the rubble of the church. Inside of the church is just grand. We could not stay long because the coach was waiting.

Most of the historical buildings were built with local sandstone. The minerals in the stone oxidized and turned black, giving many buildings and carvings looking as if they had been burned. Quite ironic indeed.

Dresden has its charm. We would rather have stayed in Dresden than Zagreb for two evenings. It has more beautiful buildings and historical significance.

There are lots of windmills along the way in Germany. It took two and a half hour drive from Dresden to Prague. Ewa told us what to expect in Prague. She especially warned us about the Roma pickpockets there. She also talked about the “Czech logic”. It is a particular way of how the Czechs think.

We did not go for the “Prague at Night” optional tour since we had done that three years ago. Instead, we went to the Cloud 9 at the penthouse of the hotel. We could see the city from the top of the hotel. It was enjoyable.

A building in Dresden

Prague at night