Munich: Germany

Munich has been a city that has kept us incredibly busy.  Even though it was pretty much destroyed during WWII (only 4 original buildings remain), so much to see in so little time.  The busabout team, in conjunction with one of the local hostels, offer free walking tours of the city so off we went last Wednesday morning, navigating our way through the streets.  Our guide “Ozzie”, of Canadian heritage but now calling Munich home, was a character to say the least.  Cocky and highly opinionated, ‘camp’ comes to mind in describing him.  Throughout the tour he told us that he was a bit of celebrity about town JB and I raised our eyebrows in a moment of “yeah right!” but we enjoyed it.  We also spent a day at the Munich Olympic Stadium, site of where Peter Norman collected a silver medal for the 200m back in ‘72 (If you haven’t seen the movie Salute, suggest you pick yourself up a copy of the DVD) and on Friday we ventured a couple hours out of Munich to a small Bavarian town called Fussen, where Neuschwanstein Castle (of King Ludwig) sits proudly amongst the landscape.  Again our guide was a bit of a kak, but I don’t want to go on.  A few pics.

Shot of the stadium where Peter Norman set Aussie record

 

Original summer retreat of King Ludwig

Until he built Neuschwanstein Castle...

Our group on the bridge with Neuschwanstein Castle in b/ground

More impressive shot of Neuschwanstein

Tourists everywhere at Neuschwanstein...

Taking photos with their F off cameras...

and generally, just getting in the way.

No-one smiles in this street...

Parliament building

Englischer Garten where JB and I enjoyed a little picnic in the sun

City Hall with glockenspiel show each midday

Yesterday we had beutiful weather so headed down to Vitkualien Market and picked up some olives, cheese and fresh bread and then headed to Englischer Garten and sunned ourselves over a picnic.  In a couple of days we conclude our Busabout adventure in Paris, so until next time, au revoir.

Vienna2: Austria

Now, the mention of a “concierge” and “the opera” seems to have suggested that we’re rolling in the dosh, throwing money away willy nilly on a grand European holiday.  Well, please let the record be corrected!  What we have done is research, research and research!  Last minute hotels offer much more for the average Yapping Dog who likes to wake up to buffet breakfast, enjoy a long hot shower (woof!) and arrive back each day to clean fresh bed linen.  As for the opera, well it was actually the State Opera House which offer tickets for plays and ballet for as low as €8 if you’re willing to turn up an hour before the show and take what’s left.  To our good fortune, our seats we’re pretty good.  So lavish, this trip is not, but great fun it is. 

We’re leaving Vienna soon, although have had the most fantastic time here.  We spent a day at Schonbrunn Palace, went to the top of St Stephens (67m, 340 steps) and to the bottom of St Stephens in the catacombs, learned all about the musical greats of Vienna at Haus De Musik, learned how to make authentic apple strudel and repeatedly got into the original “Wiener Schnitzel”.  We spent an afternoon at the Vienna Library & Museum which was originally built as a Royal Palace that was never used.  Some pics.

Inside the State Opera House

 

The ballet

Schonbrunn Palace

Maria Theresias' Georgiette Platform

Back of Schonbrunn Palace

JB trying to hide (I got out of the maze before him...)

Here he comes - but I still won!!!

From hero to zero (time to fix the teeth!)

Yapping Dog in wig

Inside Library building

Ephesos exhibition at musuem

 

Ceiling frescoes inside library building

Weather has been brilliant – only one day of rain, the people v friendly (Morgen!), the sites amazing and musical history phenomenal.  Off to Munich next!

Vienna: Austria

We arrived in Vienna, via Cesky Krumlov, a couple of days ago and one of the first realisations we had was how similar VIenna feels to Melbourne.  Trams, clean streets and rather green.  We participated in a walking guided tour of the main historical sites yesterday which was lovely.  Ze guide “Valter” appeared to be a raving German queen but was full of laughs and entertaining.  The weather is a little on the damp side today so JB has found a movie theatre that features english movies which we plan on checking out.  Our concierge at the hotel is rather resourceful attending to our every request.  JB has taken to calling him the Magician.  Based on what we’ve seen the city is again very pretty with a rich history so we’ll be exploring further over the next days.  Tonight we’re hoing to get into the opera – an apparent “must do” when in Vienna.  Also hoping to do a day trip out to a castle called Melk.  Some pics so far:

State Library and balcony from where Hitler made his famous 1938 speech

St Stephans Cathedral in Stephansplatz

Inside St Stephans Cathedral

Ethereal shot inside St Stephans

Call it a day...Viennese sunset

Until next time…adios

Prague2: Czech Republic

Boy, did we walk some kilometers in Prague!  The weather was so lovely that we just wandered the streets each day.  In terms of sight-seeing we further explored Prague Castle; the Petrin Wall and Lookout, The Lennon Wall (lots of walls in Europe!), Vitkov National Monument, Olsany Cemetary, Jewish Cemetary (where Kafka is buried), Bruncvik Bistro (where Louis Moran was “hit”), Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord…  A few pics:

The Lennon WallSoldiers marching at Prague Castle

Awww...the happy couple in Petrin Gardens...

Could it be ... the original Yapping Dog???

Vitkov Monument

So that was Prague.  Next stop Vienna…

Prague: Czech Republic

Another pretty city is Prague but dare I say it – it’s overrun with tourists.  Yesterday JB & I “czeched out” (geddit?) Charles Bridge which was choc-o-block with tourists from everywhere you could imagine.  Lovely, but too busy for simple folk like us.  So we headed into the city and picked up a bargain pair of new “graham hughes” for JB who had been suffering for several days in his sole-less Fila’s. 

Today we meandered our way over to Prague Castle which is another impressive piece of architecture.  We visited St Vitus Cathedral and then wandered down through Mala Strano through beautiful gardens and over cobblestone pathways (dodging dog-turds which are everywhere!) and into the city. 

We’ve seen more dogs in Prague than any other city – this explains the dog-turds I guess – and makes us appreciate how clean Melbourne parks are.  Anyway, a few pics from last days in Berlin and these past days in Prague.

One of the last remaining sections of the original Berlin Wall

Memorial commemorating all those persecuted under Hitlers regime

Entrance gate to Saschenhausen Contentration Camp. Translation: "Work sets you free"

 

Confuscious say...

Midget in front of The Reichstag Dome

The Reichstag

Prague: Philharmonic building

Ahoy! Spot the dodgy sailor...

Prague's financial crisis hits the street!

JB's "Alby Mangel"

St Vitus Cathedral (Krull)

St Vitus Cathedral...holy...

View down stairs to Mala Strano

Prague's "Barack Hussein Obama"

...and the other guy...

Prague's public transport system

The river at dusk...

Prague’s weather has been glorious for us.  We’ve slowed our pace a little which sounds bizarre because we are on holiday.  Tomorrow we’ll probably head to the Jewish Quarter of Prague; a place which features relics dating back to the 15th century.  Until next time…

Berlin2: Germany

There’s something quite voyeuristic about visiting a former concentration camp; feels a bit weird taking photos of a place that is reknown for cruelty, humiliation and deaths of the most sufferable kind.  JB and I enrolled in a tour-guided session of Saschenhausen Contentration Camp about 40 minutes out of Berlin and whilst it was a completely depressing place to visit we both have a much greater understanding of their existance.  It poured rain for a majority of the visit which was apt considering the bleak nature of the camp.  

We spent our last days in Berlin doing more touristy stuff; guided walking tour; The Reichstag; Tiergarten and a walk down the Spree.  All lovely.  We worked out the public holiday was the anniversay Reunification Day – quite important in Berlin history so we joined in some of the associated festivities.  The weather drizzled a little, but all great.

Tonight we have our first night in Prague.  We’re stuffed, and have been looking forward to our week(hopefully a rest day or two) here.  Our accommodation is an apartment with a kitchen so we’re looking forward to cooking some food rather than eating out.  We’re a little over our allocated budget as well so we’re hoping that shopping in Czech Koruny (Krowns) will allow us to make up a little.  1 Aussie Dollar will buy us about 16 Koruny rather than half a Euro.

Internet acces in Prague is cheap but the computer I’m sitting at right now doesn’t have an SD card faciltiy so I’ll have to post photo’s next time.  We’ll try a different cafe.

Berlin: Germany

Both JB and I had heard from many different people about what a great city Berlin is, but neither of us really knew what to expect.  We caught Busabout at 8am from Amsterdam, and expected to arrive in Berlin at about 5pm although it was the eve of a public holiday so traffic was rubbish, and we didn’t get in until about 7.30pm i.e after dark which always adds a degree of difficulty when navigating unfamiliar territory.  JB and I had again pre-booked accommodation about 4-5kms out of town in a place called Pankow, so we just made our way to the underground train station and jumped on the next service to Pankow thinking we’d manage from there.  We found the apparent street that the accommodation was supposed to be in, and although it looked very dark and very residential we trucked on.  Then we got the end of the street and no hotel.  So we accosted some locals who didn’t know of any hotels in the area, and after I’d asked the third person who couldn’t speak English JB and I looked at each other and thought ‘what the hell do we do now?’  It was about 10pm, the streets were practically empty, there wasn’t an internet cafe in sight and we couldn’t find our hotel, who were expecting us at 7pm.  I don’t believe in God but I swear some kind of divine intervention occurred because there we were standing on a street corner, laden with luggage and without a clue of what to do when a couple in their 30’s (husband and very pregnant wife) with grocery shopping in their hands looked at us and said “Do you need help?” in perfect English.  We explained our situation.  They both said it seemed odd to have a hotel in Pankow, so we asked if they knew of a closeby internet cafe and they offered to take us to their home and let us use theirs.  Now, if you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking that going to a complete strangers home at night in a foreign country is mad, but we had no idea what to do, and just had to trust this couple.  At their lovely, lovely apartment the husband went off and called our hotel and confirmed everything was okay, and then directed us to the same street name, but in the next suburb.  We found two other streets with the identical name within a 5km radius.  Welcome to Deutschland.  In the 10-15mins we spent with this friendly couple they told us they had also travelled.  The wife had spent time in Cambodia and India and the husband had bought a car in Sydney and driven up to Darwin, then sold the car with a one thousand dollar profit!  They were 17 & 18 when the Berlin wall came down and it was this that gave them freedom to leave their country and expose themselves to other cultures.  We didn’t even exchange names but if it hadn’t been for them directing us we would never have worked out the suburb difference.  Never.  So thanks to good samaritans who help out the travellers.  

Yesterday we spent the day orientating ourselves around Berlin city.  Our hotel has given us unlimited free public transport so we’re getting about.  Whilst Berlin is fantastic, it’s probably been the most difficult country in terms of English speaking so far.  (No doubt it’ll be worse in the Czech Republic.) We’re still not sure what yesterdays public holiday was for, but Alexander Platz (one of the main city squares) was celebrating with beer and bratwursts yesterday – we had no choice but to join in of course!  We met a fellow English speaker in “Doc”, who is from Illinois, USA.  He kept both JB and I entertained with stories of being in the USA military, his family, football, and he and JB hit it off, talking movies.  Doc’s sister also joined us and more laughs followed.

We’re off to do a guided walking tour later this arvo.  A few pics.

Museum overlooking Lustgarten

Dicky Knee

 

War memorial: 'Mother with dead son'

Hitlers renown 'book burning square'

Berliner Dom

So weather is much nicer here than in Amsterdam, food is interesting with meat served even for breakfast and we’re having a ball.  JB is LOVING the Bratwursts…

Amsterdam: Holland (The Netherlands)

When the guide on Busabout mentioned on the drive into Amsterdam that it rains approximately 270 days each year, we didn’t really give it a second thought.  There was a bit of drizzle on the way in, but it will clear, right?  Nup, no such thing. 

Our short stay in Amsterdam was not without hiccups.  The accommodation that we had pre-booked was offensive to say the least, so we checked out after one night and found the only place to stay within our budget was in a place called Osdorp, about 5-6kms from the city centre.  Fortunately it turned out to be lovely.  Considering it was blowing a gale outside were pleased to find comfortable and warm accommodation.  No water restrictions meant lovely long hot showers.  Because of the accommodation muck-up, it really only gave us one full day to spend out and about.  Amsterdam has some lovely buildings and great eateries (at Rembrandt Corner we ate possibly the best hamburgers of our lives) but also a really seedy and gritty feel about it.  A lot of the younger passengers on our bus loved it because they could smoke all the drugs they could find, but it wasn’t really our cup of tea.  We visited the Rijksmuseum and tried to get into Van Gogh Museum but it was closed on the one afternoon we turned up.  We spent a few hours at NEMO which is similar to Scienceworks, and kept dry. 

Amsterdam is littered with bikes.  People just tie them up to canalway railings and leave them there to rust.  It’s scrap metal heaven.  A few pics.

Smorgys (Amsterdam style)

Dam Square

Bikes, bikes, bikes...

 

We did the mandatory tourist walk through the red light district but didn’t really see much of interest there.  Just chicks in windows.  The bus guide did mention that the Amsterdam council was trying to close down a lot of the red light district due to one guy named ‘Fat Tony’ who has apparently been using his girls to launder money about the place.  JB and I did share a grin at the mention of ‘Fat Tony’…