PRAGUE – CZECH REPUBLIC– Classical destinations

Today, I band-aid-ed up my foot (or rather Graham did it for me) and we are off again on a 6 hour Ultimate Tour of Prague.

This tour consists of a walking tour of the old town a boat ride, a traditional lunch and a Tram ride up to Prague Castle.

But first we investigated transport options and found we are a under 10 minute easy walk to 2 different metro stations.

The metro is cheap and easy to negotiate as there are only 3 lines and we only need to go one or two stations.

The Metro closest to us has the tallest and longest escalator I have ever seen! and we have been to many tube and metro stations in our travels.

It feels like its 500m long and I had to take a photo (you wouldn’t want to faint on this ride as you would die).

Anyway back to our tour…

we started in Wenceslas square,

then we toured the old town and the wonderful Astrological clock 

Above: figures on the astronomical clock.

Wise man 1 “ I think its that way”

Wise man 2 “wait until I check the guidebook – no that's Starbucks you are pointing to”

We then headed to the river for a cruise. They played some classical music as we floated down the river and I wanted Simon Callow from ‘Classical Destinations’ to magically appear to tell me all about the music of Prague.

It is such a beautiful city.

We then walked through the Jewish quarter (although there aren’t many Jews left since the war)

Had lunch – lots of dumplings.

Then we walked over the Charles Bridge which was packed with thousands of people and lots of tour groups.

Then we took a Tram up to the castle and looked at St Vitus Cathedral,

 

And took some beautiful pics of the city before heading back on the Metro.

Speaking as a OH&S rep - they need to do some risk assessments on their footpaths – so many holes and loose cobbles, not that I’ve fallen over – yet…

We also have met lots of Aussies, and typically someone who knows someone we know.

September 25th 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Until next time, Kim

PRAGUE – CZECH REPUBLIC– ‘Good King Wenceslas looked out’….

Quote – Traditional Christmas Carol NOT sung in Prague

Today we left Berlin and took a 4 hour train trip to Prague.

Very pretty views from the train as the track followed a river edged with little villages.

Beautiful blue skied and sunny Saturday.

At times we passed high rock faces where you could see rock climbers that looked the size of ants.

We arrived in Prague and got some of the local currency.

But how much is 2000 Czech koruna?(Koruna=Crown) $20? $200?

Anyway – we managed to get totally ripped off by a Taxi driver who charged us the equivalent of 55 euro to travel 1.5km!!

As travellers we try to budget for unexpected thievery …

The Hotel is lovely, we have 2 big rooms and plenty of room to hang my wet washing. (and an electric jug – not something you always expect in Europe – we just need to get some milk and we can make a nice cup of tea, what's Czech for milk?)

Although they claim to be 10 minute walk from Wenceslas Square, we found it a LONG walk to the old town and an even longer walk back again

– resulting in a lot of whinging and a few tears –

plus blisters from the shoes that I have been wearing for the last 5 weeks – figures…

Below is Wenceslas looking down upon Wenceslas square. He was a duke (and Saint) not a king.

Until next time, Kim

BERLIN–GERMANY– ‘Psychiatric help 5 cents’

Quote – Charles Schultz & Lucy van Pelt from the Peanuts cartoon and her psychiatry booth

The views expressed in this blog are the personal views of the author

and readers are encouraged to form their own opinions,

think their own thoughts and are welcome to disagree with my views.

(and if more world leaders used that as a mantra then the world would be a less messy place) 

Today we went on a 4 hour guided walking tour of the city.

ABOVE: The contrast of the Brandenburg Gate and the new Potsdam Platz

We started the tour near the Museum Island – there are 5 museums on an island formed by the river.

ABOVE: The Holocaust Memorial to the Jews.

This was also the site of the Palace of the Kaisers. When the East German Regime took over this part of the city they blew the Palace up. They then replaced this with another Palace. Apparently a very ugly building for one of the East German bigwigs which in turn was demolished after the wall came down. (Once they sorted out the asbestos issue). Here's the punch line – they are now going to rebuild the original Palace on this site at great expense…..Hmmm I think this is a little silly, but its none of my business and I am not a Berlin tax payer.

But, it has raised questions in my mind about why. Are they trying to wipe out their history – They have built so many new buildings, or have buildings built to look old, are they trying to prove something? Is covering the past healing them?

Because I find Berlin a very sad place for the following reasons….

• The Wall and the tragedy of making people prisoners in their own city.
• The once ‘I’m better than you’ attitude of the East vs West.
• WWII and the crazy man who thought he would make Germany the capital of the world at all costs. He brainwashed his people and destroyed his country – he did not love Germany, he only cared for the love of power and the love of self.

• The Cold War and the stand off at Checkpoint Charlie. The Soviets and the USA who both thought (and think) they are right, and were prepared to defend and prove they were right by destroying the world.

Its seems like a city with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and they are trying to heal by wiping out the physical remains of the past?

ANYWAY – enough of my morose reflections.

 

Berlin is a very interesting place and good to visit as I now appreciate how lucky we are to live in a free country like Australia.

Here I am below with an enormous Steiff Bear! ( It really has the Steiff stud in its ear – I checked)

23rd Sept 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Until next time, Kim

BERLIN – GERMANY – A city of contrasts

Today we set off to explore, and as we like to do, we took the hop on hop off bus around town to get our bearings.

There were thousands of Police, along our route and on the railways bridges.

Not for our benefit as the Pope is here today too – on his first official visit to Berlin.

He could have come on the hop on hop off bus with us as he would have got a seniors discount but he seemed to prefer the hop on hop off pope-mobile.

 

The first thing I noticed is that Berlin is huge. Its like 6 cities all meshed together, each with their own personality.

Some parts are thriving whilst others are struggling.

My second impression was that some areas reminded me of Canberra, and I couldn’t put my finger on why this was.

But I think it may be due to the number of buildings of 1950’s – 1960’s architecture that look like government buildings.

Concrete prefab! That's what it is… and its grubby..

But not all of it as we drove through Potsdamer Platz, built since the wall came down, and its sparkly, modern and new.

A lot of these buildings built post war (because there was very little pre war city left) are now coming to the end of their lives and are being pulled down and replaced.

Graham is fascinated by Berlin, but it has changed so much since he was here 10 years ago that he is feeling disorientated.

 

Until next time, Kim

BERLIN–GERMANY– More trains

We took a morning train (ICE = Inter City Express = fast train) from Brussels to Cologne in Germany.

Then changed trains for one to Berlin.

So It’s been another long day on a train, at least the ICE is a bit classy.

They even bring drinks and food to your seat like a plane (but you have to pay for this).

We are staying at the Ibis Ostbahnhof (East Railway station).

When booking accommodation – sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

Its a bit of a dilapidated area – Empty derelict buildings, lots of graffiti, however I guess its a thousand times better than it was while the wall was still standing. (Graffiti is everywhere in Berlin – They love it!)

The wall actually ran very close to where the hotel is, so the site of the hotel would have been in the West Berlin, the park and road we cross to get to the Ostbahnhof may have been, ‘no mans land’ and the station was in the East Berlin.

Here is the view from our hotel window – a bit different from the view in Windsor.

Until next time, Kim

IN TRANSIT – EUROSTAR - Worse things happen at sea…

We dropped Mum and Dad at Heathrow early this morning.

I hope they had good luck getting their seats on the trip home.

We raced off to catch the Eurostar,

BUT we got caught in London traffic and MISSED our train…

In hindsight,

we should have left earlier,

we should have gone a different way,

we should have taken the car back to somewhere else, etc, etc.

why didn’t the path of enlightenment help us….

I stressed out,,,  but only for about five minutes as there was nothing we could do about it,

I relaxed once we had decided we had really missed it and stopped rushing.

Our, train left at 10:57 and we were in the ticket office at 11:16.

Too late to exchange tickets so we had to repurchase them.

So our nice first class seats went off to Brussels empty and we are here in the next train

(the 12:57) in second class seats, and paid double too  -  Poo.

We haven’t missed anything for a long time – oh well the adventures of travel.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE, IT GETS WORSE.

the train broke down

At Ashford, before we had even got to the channel.

So another Eurostar heading into London stopped, they all got off and onto our original train, and we got onto theirs!

(Can you imagine the chaos, people, luggage), because there was an electrical problem with the front engine but the one at the back was okay, or something technical like that.

Now in the tunnel, we will be much later than we expected into Brussels, but at least we have booked a hotel.

Something has to go right today.

BRUSSELS – BELGIUM – Mussels in Brussels

Bonjour!

We finally arrived in Brussels, later than expected of course.

 

We have been to Brussels before and we love it, as it is a beautiful place and  lot more laid back than other European cities.

They also have a great sense of humour – after all this is the birthplace of the cartoons Tin Tin, Asterix and the national emblem is a little boy having a wee wee.

This evening caught the very efficient light rail up to the Grand Place.

We had dinner – mussels of course which is the national dish and always served with Frites ( = fries/chips). we ate whilst listening to a children's choir singing (in French of course as that is the language spoken in Belgium).

Then visited our little friend Mannequin Pis.

Last time we were here we visited the museum where they keep his costumes.

Yes, the little peeing statue has a variety of clothes that he wears on special occasions such as football jerseys and police uniforms.

ABOVE: Here are some of the thousands of Mannequin Pis souvenirs, and also here he is advertising outside a waffle shop.

 

Until next time, Kim