Vienna and Prague

Perched on the 11^th floor of the Corinthia Hotel with a magnificent view encompassing historical Prague watching the sun set on the old castle and the river is a really memorable sight. At the same time the night before when we were well into our fifth hour sitting patiently in our car amongst thousands of others waiting for the “traffic jam from hell” to start moving on the freeway (?) just 20 kms away from our destination due to an accident. A great contrast that does give some  idea of what makes up the Czech Republic. 

Just waiting, no information and then suddenly five hours later it just cleared like magic!

  

Dr Who would be at home on the Prague Metro!

There is a real feeling of old world history in both Prague and Vienna; castles, palaces, church spires; they are planned cities with wide boulevards that allow trams, cars & pedestrians to co-exist easily. And traffic-free cobbled streets (not malls) where the four, five & six storey buildings of the nineteenth century fit together beautifully. We have enjoyed both cities for their ease of getting around (both walking & public transport), their spaciousness and lovely public parks and their cosmopolitan culture. Vienna was more ordered and spotlessly clean with a statue on every corner. Both have an ingrained café culture with great beer and coffee where you can just sit and watch all day if you like. Together with amazing art galleries too!  We saw a wonderful exhibition of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele paintings at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, just the day before we drove to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic where Schiele painted many of his works.

Just part of the huge Hapsburg Palace in Vienna

It is Vienna after all! Sachertorte anyone?

The museum quarter, Vienna - a great use of old and new to create public spaces

 Perhaps the thing we find most irritating in Europe is that so many people smoke in open air cafes and in the streets and occasionally we find ourselves retreating inside to eat to get away from them.  Tony just found something on the net that said Germany is loathe to encourage smoking bans because Hitler did this and they don’t want to upset people!  Very sensitive but having lived in smokefree WA for so long, it is an affront to the senses to have to sit next to a table of smokers when you are eating or enjoying a coffee outside on the pavement.  We saw a cigarette machine outside a block of flats tonight in Dresden so smokers don't have to worry about getting to the shop even! Rant over!

This is where you can satisfy your desire for a dirndl, Vienna

 

 It was interesting to cross from Austria into the Czech Republic by road and encounter a string of casinos within 50 metres of the border. We saw very few farmhouses in the Czech countryside, maybe a hangover from the collective farm days when most people lived in towns, although public ownership has dropped from 95% in 1990 to less than 20% now. It is very beautiful at this time of year, green trees and meadows, summer flowers on the roadsides and golden wheat, sweetcorn and sunflowers just about to be harvested.

We went to a wonderful museum in Prague that detailed the history and collections of the former aristocratic Lobkowicx  family that got their castles and belongings back after the fall of communism, the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic under President Vaclav Havel. Family members told the stories of the paintings and the treasured items on the audio guides (which we have found very useful on our travels and are often free) which really made the experience so much part of a story, highlighting their sense of belonging and included original composition manuscripts by Beethoven and other composers of that period.

Eating out is so cheap compared to home; we’ve had a number of meals recently that have cost less than 30% of what they would in Perth and the servings are pretty generous. We have struggled to spend a lot except on visiting places of interest, public transport is not expensive and we haven’t been driving long distances recently. Air BnB's continue to be excellent and we have managed to stick to our budget of close to $100 a night.

It has been relieving to not be in the presence of lots of armed police or soldiers as we were in France and parts of Italy. The acts of terrorism in France and Germany in recent weeks have been a sobering reminder that we are in a part of the world where we need to be careful. 

 

We have been in 11 countries so far in 10 or so weeks and the new car that we leased has clocked up over 9000 kms!  We have encountered only one or two border guards and the rest of Europe has been like one continuous countryside but with signs in a new language and different foods and traditions every few days.  Crops are similar, apart from the acres of dried poppies we saw near Cesky Krumlov (Czech Republic)  which end up as poppy seeds to go with all the local sunflower seeds in the supermarkets.

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

 

Now we are in Germany - more later!

The cities of middle Europe

Our road trip has arrived in an area where many of our ancestors lived – a great melting pot of Huns, Mongols, Slavs, Saxons, Vikings, Turks and lots of others that make us what we are. Touring the Budapest History Museum and learning that the Romans built a town here called Aquincum before all those mentioned above, gives you a real perspective on the scope of history in this great city and Europe as a whole. There was also an excellent exhibition about the relationships between Budapest and Krakow in the middle ages.  Shifting alliances and allegiances that mirror most of Europe up until the 18^th century and even later.  King-doms passed around a select group of families with sons and marrying daughters of close relations and allies to seal the deals.

Budapest looking towards the Parliament Building

St Martins Church, beautiful coloured tiles on the roof.

Just another lion for my collection! On the bridge over the Danube

Two towns had been built on either side of the mighty Danube River since medieval times - Buda and Pest, now they are one large metropolis, with a wonderful green space in St Margaret’s Island  spanning two of the bridges over the River  a respite from the traffic and concrete.

Recent history also involves the Hungarians being pushed around by the Nazis and the Soviets; no wonder they seem a bit wary of outsiders. They’re pretty hospitable and helpful but it takes a bit to get a smile sometimes. British diplomats rate Hungarian as the hardest language to learn, harder than Japanese and hearing it spoken it is understandable. Thankfully English is widely used and signage is bi-lingual everywhere. 

Public transport is excellent with buses, light rail and metro's running regularly and in sync - as well as electric car hire and the hire bikes that we have seen across Europe for use by tourists and locals alike.

Our stay in Budapest was enhanced with great accommodation at the aptly named Aquincum Hotel, next to the river; cheers Clare. On entering Budapest, Sat Nav got a little confused and took us 20 or more kms out of our way but eventually we found our hotel and saw some of the suburbs as we passed through them - twice! 

Aquincum was the roman name for the town along the Danube and we spent a morning at the Roman ruins and museum at Aquincum, just a couple of stops on the train away from the hotel.  They have some excellent artefacts and extensive walls and building layouts, some rescued from a highway construction project across the site in the 70’s. Well worth a visit.

Aqincum roman remains

Our last visit just outside Budapest was Memento Park where statues rescued from the soviet era are on display, including an impressive pair of boots on a large plinth, all that was left of a huge statue of Stalin that was pulled down and broken into pieces by the Hungarian protesters.  They showed old training movies for spies with techniques for setting up dead letter drops and ‘encouraging’ people to confess and spill the beans on others.  Some of it seems like movie tone news and not quite real but it was very real for the Hungarians and others who lived under Soviet Rule not so many years ago.

A heroic worker looking for a place to stay! Memento Park

Stalin's boots!  They look a bit small in the photo and are on a giant plinth - all that remains of the original!

Next stop was Bratislava, another country, another currency and a different language/spellings too!  All within only a couple of hundred kms from Budapest and even closer to Vienna, our next stop.

Old Bratislava - tourists groups from the river boats that run up and down the major european rivers providing a lifeblood for many towns.

Tile features on the roofs, well kep buildings and even some art deco here and there.

 Bratislava is a quiet town with some old areas that we wandered round for an hour or two and then, one of the highlights of our trip so far was finding Danubiana about 15kms out of town along the Danube.  It is a modern art gallery set on an island in the Danube which has an amazing collection of paintings and sculptures including Picasso (who has been following us across Europe!), Joan Miro and many others.  Very well worth spending two or three hours there.  Slovakia is well known for hiking in the mountains and mountain biking too.

Danubiana

Entitled Sperm by Andrey Markoc, 2016

In Vienna now, you will have to wait for the next instalment!

Exploring Croatia

Sailing into Dubrovnik on a warm windless morning on the ferry from Bari in Southern Italy, our first view was a truly wonderful sight. Hidden behind some hills the old city had us guessing its whereabouts until we had disembarked and driven off the ferry. Cruise boats filled the harbour and the old city was full of tourists. Tourist-related industry is everywhere. The Croatians are certainly excellent business people, always on the look-out for opportunities. Dubrovnik is unique, withstanding the Ottomans to remain as an independent city-state and at one time rivalling Venice as a trading port and existing on a tiny finger of land with mountains to the east and the Adriatic to the west. 

The Old City, Dubrovnik viewed from the Cable Car

Old city Dubrovnik, the marble city with just a few of the many tourists!

Well worth walking around the old city walls to get an understanding of this place and how much was damaged in the 1990's war.

A popular swimming spot at Zaton near our BnB

So many inlets, islands and small settlements all along the coast. View from the BnB up that dreaded driveway!

It is such a photogenic city with its old fort and perfect little harbour with the fortress overlooking it which Napoleon had built on Mt Srd. While we were there the weather varied from humid & sticky one day to wild, wet & thundery the next. Our Airbnb was north of Dubrovnik on the coast up a precarious and very steep concrete driveway that when I drove up it reminded me of a kid’s toy our son Sam had, that toppled backwards when you wound it up. It didn’t quite happen although after the rain there was very little grip in the tyres!

We’re heading into the old Eastern block, for those with a 20^th century history bent, from Yugoslavia into Hungary and Czechoslovakia so after Dubrovnik it was up the coast to Split before going inland to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. The hills immediately east of the coastal road are steep and rocky but give a real contrast to the light aqua blue of the Adriatic. It’s easy to see why so many holiday-makers come here, car number-plates from all over the EU almost out-number the Croats and the auto-route is very busy around the Slovenian exit as the Austrians, French & Italians make their way home. Split was a bit disappointing because it was inundated by music festival attendees thereby making parking and getting anywhere very difficult and after the magic of Dubrovnik it was a bigger impersonal city whose history and great location was almost submerged by the tourist trade.

Split from Podstrana

View from a high speed car! Split to Zagreb! Los of tunnels

How about this for a green wall? we stumbled over this magnificent building which walls the old cemetery in Zagreb - amazing

However another great Airbnb saved us from total disappointment, in a little seaside town east of Split called Podstrana, where a lovely family welcomed us into their home and shared their garden produce with us. Croatians don’t go overboard with greetings and ceremony but they are friendly and always willing to assist and are never rude to visitors.  Most young people speak excellent English.

Tonight we are in Zagreb, a city neither of us knew much of and which we only decided to visit in order to break the journey.  Arriving on a Sunday is a relief as traffic is minimal and sedate and the trams that seem to be on every main street are at least not too obtrusive. It seems a very liveable city with hills all around and plenty of green spaces. Lots of cafe life and a relaxed atmosphere.  That said, the workman rang the bell at 8am this morning to advise us to move our car as they were digging up this quiet little dead end road we are staying on and wouldn't be able to leave!  Now we are heading to some of the great European capitals – Budapest, Vienna, Prague & Berlin and also leaving the somewhat unknown quantity of Airbnb’s for hotel rooms.

Over the mountains to Italy

We left France on Monday after five and a half weeks and made our way through the mountains to Italy.  The scenery from Puget Rostang through Guillaume to Barcelonnet, Cunio and beyond was amazing, somewhat like New Zealand's South Island, changing around each corner with pretty villages, lots of cyclists and many windy roads and hair pin bends bringing us up to La Col de la Cayole and back down the other side into Italy.  It is a popular area for walkers too, with many parked at the Col, gearing up to explore the trails in the national park.  We drove through mountain meadows of summer flowers and had to stop to capture the views many times.

This valley leading into Guillaume has very red rocks, compared to the grey shale like rocks in the rest of the valleys we drove through

After Cunio, we hit the Autostrade with some trepidation but it wasn't too bad as long as you keep your speed up to 130kmh and don't look in the rear-view mirror!  We drove through a myriad of tunnels (great engineers) before we reached La Spezia, our jumping off point for the Cinqueterra where we caught the train which runs regularly up and down the coast along with all the other tourists!  The sea is blue and clear and Europeans will always find somewhere to swim and sunbathe even if it is on a very small and crowded quayside!

Growing up hearing about the seven wonders of the world seeing the Tower in Pisa for the first time was a bit underwhelming in size, however the exquisite external carving and the amazing lean and its setting in the lovely Piazza dei Miracoli along with the cathedral and lots of green space made it pretty special.

The tree is there to compare the lean! Leaning Tower of Pisa

How's this for a doorbell? Lucca

We drove up into the Tuscan countryside to Lucca where the change was immediate - affluent and relatively undamaged in wars this small town is off the normal beaten track so we had time and space to wander, bike ride and check out the sights in a leisurely fashion. The religious influence everywhere is quite over-powering, the basilica are many in number and colossal in their size and are packed with paintings and icons.

Florence of course was next and as we had chosen to stay outside the city near Sieci, to the east, we just bit off small chunks each day and then retreated back by train to our rural retreat in the  forest. There were hoards of tourists, both group travellers and loners like us everywhere in Firenze and that meant queues, something we are not into anymore. So we wandered around and visited a couple of Chiesa that didn't require queuing - Santa Maria Novela near the Railway Station is well worth a visit and only 5 euros to get in. The Uffizi Gallery took all afternoon to see everything and their time based entry system means it doesn't feel packed out.  We went at 1.30pm (with a reserved ticket) and got in straight away.

Palazzo Vecchi, from the roof cafe of the Uffici Gallery

In the past six weeks' of touring we have managed to stay in 16 Airbnb's and have been very impressed with the high standard of accommodation and the friendliness of all the hosts. By not booking until a few days before arriving somewhere we are probably narrowing down the field somewhat but so far it has gone well. As we are driving, finding a carpark is essential, so often we will opt for an out-of-town stay and always an apartment so we have some privacy. The only let-down is often there is no kettle and Sally must have a cuppa!