Prague – charming, colourful and beautiful!

For the last couple of days we have been parked up on a small 4 star campsite - camping Sokol Praha on the edge of Prague city (N50.08908 E14.58374  E).  Poor old Sonny (the motorhome) has been treading water since arriving as it has been torrential rain on and off for the last 24 hours and temperatures are struggling to get above 8°C!  The campsite has about 30 wooden chalets and plots for 35 motorhomes/caravans, but it is very quiet with only 7 of us on here - 5 Germans, 1 Canadian (in a motorhome they hired in Denmark) and us.  Although the swimming pool and restaurant are closed, the underfloor modern heated shower and toilet blocks more than make up for it!

Sonny, keeping his head above water in our boggy pitch!

Leaving Kutná Hora the satnav decided to navigate us cross-country through lots of narrow, wiggly roads and pretty villages.  It was only 46 miles to Prague so we didn’t mind as we weren’t in any hurry. 

Having sat out the rain on the campsite, it was nice to wake up to sunshine yesterday.  An early start was needed, so we took the 8.45am free campsite shuttle bus to the train station and 3 stops later we were in the centre of Prague.  We were last here in December 2009 with our daughter visiting the Christmas markets, so we were looking forward to seeing it again.

Getting of the train we headed to Wenceslas Square in the heart of the new town.  I guess they call it the new town as it has lots of modern buildings here. But the 750m long, 60m wide boulevard was actually laid out  as a horse market in 1348 by Charles IV - so not so new!

At the top of the boulevard is the National Museum and in front a statue of St Wenceslas (‘good King Wenceslas’) on his horse, who is the patron saint of the Czech Republic.  Near St Wenceslas are 2 plaques to commemorate those killed during the communist era and one dedicated to Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in protest at the Soviet invasion.

Heading towards the old town it became apparent that the world and his wife were in Prague – tourist groups of every nation everywhere… ahhhhhh!
I struggled choosing which photos to put on and which ones to leave off, so beware there are a lot of them!!

Knight's of the Cross Square, next to Charles Bridge

View from Charles Bridge

Lots of musicians and street vendors on the bridge

I loved this Italian Embassy building but surprise! surprise! every time I went to take a picture a Japanese tourist would jump in front of the door to take a selfie or pose for a picture!

The old town hall with the medieval astronomical clock, currently going through restoration.  It gives an animated hourly show that lasts about 45 seconds and not that thrilling, but it doesn't stop the hordes of people gathering to watch - including us!

There are some lovely ornate buildings around the old square.

The 9th Century Prague Castle sits proudly on the hill. with its changing of the guard taking place everyday at 12noon.  It's a formal handover carried out with a fanfare and banner exchange by the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic.

Chsnging of the guard

Familiar site of statues clobbering each other

Time to stop for lunch!  Delicious Goulash soup in a bread bun, followed by chocolate crepes and washed down with a nice glass of vino!

The Loreta  - lovely Baroque church

Petřin look out tower, reminiscent of a small Eiffel Tower.  A 63-metre high steel tower that you can walk to the top of by going up a 299 step spiral stairway around the outside - my worst nightmare given my fear of heights!  Mel did it last time he was here so was happy to give it a miss this time.

A little paddle steamer making its way under Charles Bridge

A walk around the old Jewish quarter, dating back to the 13^th century, when Jewish people were ordered to vacate their homes and settle in one cramped area.  A lot of the buildings were flattened between 1893-1913 but fortunately most of the significant historical buildings were saved from destruction and remain a testimony to the history of the Jews in Prague

Everywhere you walk in Prague you will see someone eating Trdelnik.  It is a Czech cinnamon pastry sold by street vendors all over Prague.  This one claims to be the best, not sure if it is as we didn't try any!

Lovely old chocolate shop - even had Russian Dolls made out of the stuff!

Last stop before the train - a Glühwein by the Halloween market.

Unfortunately, leaving Prague we jumped on the wrong train,15 minutes later we managed to get off crossed the line and jumped on the next train back to Prague.  We explained our situation to the ticket inspector, who luckily let us off paying for another ticket. So, back in Prague, about 40 minutes later we started again!  Note to self:  Make sure you read the signs properly at train stations before getting on the train!

It doesn’t matter what street you walk up, alleyway you go down or road you cross, the architecture cannot fail to stop you in your tracks.  Despite the amount of tourists it attracts, Prague remains our all-time favourite city to visit.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!

Sally x

Into The Czech Republic - Country #18

We are currently at a place called Kutna Hora, in the Czech Republic.  Our 18th country since leaving the UK last December.

Czech Republic - Country #18 since leaving the UK

We left Vienna 3 days ago and travelled to a place called Eggenburg, near to the Austrian/Czech Republic Border.  It was just a stopover before heading to Telc in the Czech Republic, which was another 60 miles away. We parked up on an Aire at the bottom of the town (N48.64556 E15.81694).  It was €4 a night, plus €1 for water and another €1 to get 8 hours of electricity.  It was all done on honesty (we have learnt that Austria is a very trusting country), you just put your money in an envelope and put it through the letter box of the building next to the Aire.  There was a ‘welcome pack’ as well, all in English and maps and information about the town.

Sonny, the motorhome hidden among the autumn trees

We were surprised how pretty this little town was and had a lovely walk around the 2km town walls.

From Eggenburg, it was a short distance to the Austria/Czech Republic border. As both countries are in the Schengen, there was nothing to let us know we had crossed the border – no remains of old border control buildings, no ‘Czech Republic’ signs, just this crude plaque of Jesus and lots of Flags!

Like the previous 6 countries we had been in, we chose not to buy a vignette.  That meant no driving on the motorways otherwise we would incur a hefty fine.  So, crossing over from Austria where we'd had top-class roads, we were all of a sudden subjected to some horrendously potholed roads pretty much all the way to Telc - our stop for the night.  The town of Telc is lovely, and is known for its Italian Renaissance architecture and colourful houses, and is part of UNESCO World Heritage - yes, another one!

We wild camped the night at at the bottom of the town near a dried up river - (N49.18058 E15.45797).

Leaving Telc we were surprised that the roads were very quiet, given that it was a Saturday. We stopped off to get some food, only to find out that all the shops were closed.  It was the same thing as we drove through all the towns and villages on the way.  A quick check of the internet and we found out that it’s a public holiday – Independent Czechoslovak State Day.  It is the National Day of the Czech Republic and commemorates the date in 1918 when Czechoslovakia was created.  Interestingly, it is not a public holiday in Slovakia. Fortunately, we had stocked up the day before with food and had enough for a few days so we weren’t going to starve – much to Mel’s relief!  

Plenty of pumpkins in this town we went through - must be Halloween soon me thinks!

68 miles later and we were in Kutná Hora and found our parking place for the night (N49.94740 E15.27867).  We headed in to the town, once a wealthy silver-mining town. The sun was out but you can tell from what I am wearing it was cold - I had 3 layers underneath my coat!

St Barbara Cathedral

Some scary looking gargoyles on the Gothic cathedral

Very old medieval frescoes on the wall 

We weren't expecting to find any tourist groups here this time of year, but guess who we found in town - yes a large group of Japanese tourists posing for photos!

Time for a Glühwein stop to warm us up!

Interesting frescoes on the outside of this house

Tomorrow we are off to Prague.  We last visited the place nearly 8 years ago, so we are looking forward to getting reacquainted with the beautiful old city again.

Sally x

Oh Vienna!

An early start was needed today, as there was a lot we wanted to see in Vienna.  We caught the 9am bus to the edge of the city, then took the underground in to the centre. 

First stop was the Kunsthistoriches Museum – all the internet guides says it ‘ranks among the finest museums in Europe, if not the world, and should not be missed, so who were we to argue.  A huge marble grand staircase takes you up to the first floor, where the young Gustav Klint worked on a series of paintings here and it is stunning.

From the top you can overlook the very ornate restaurant.

We started in the Egyptian section, then into the Greek and Roman areas.  The collections in each of the rooms were huge but we didn’t spend a vast amount of time looking around the Greeks and Romans, as we had seen a lot of similar artefacts before from our time in the Greek and Italian museums in the summer.  The only trouble with the rooms, there wasn't any signage to the way you went round and the map wasn't much help.

Which way now Mel?

We then headed into the Kunstkammer Vienna, which houses centuries of collections by the Habsburg dynasty of goldsmith work, precious vessels and goblets, sculptures, bronzes, clocks, coins and paintings galore.

This piece of art by Benvenuto Cellini is made out of gold, enamel, ebony and ivory and is marked up as a salt and pepper pot – wow it's beautiful and nothing like the salt and pepper pot we own!

There are umpteen photos we took of the lovely collection but I won't bore you by putting them all on, plus some of the rooms are quite dark so they didn't come out too well.  A lot of the collection, once purchased by the Habsburg clan over the centuries were stored in vaults and only when people visited and they wanted to brag about their wealth and superiority would they bring it out on display.  There is so much of it in this museum, it must have been one huge vault.  All the rooms have ornate ceilings but this painted one was a favourite.

A whole floor in the museum is dedicated to paintings, with a special collection of about 40 paintings by Rubens, celebrated as the greatest painter of the Flemish Baroque.  His paintings may be that of a genius but unfortunately hold no appeal for me and Mel, so we skipped through this quite quickly and onto the other galleries.

A painting by Johannes Vermeer, where it has been speculated (controversially) that he used a camera obscura to help him achieve his photo-realistic effects.  Mmm I guess we will never know.

Vermeer Painting

Mel’s favourite was this one by Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

I like this one called ‘beware of luxury’ by Jan Steen - a lot going on here.

The architecture of the building alone is enough to captivate you, let alone the collection it houses.  I would recommend anyone who comes to Vienna to take time to visit the museum.  We spent 2 ½ hours in here but could easily have spent longer.

Vienna was the seat of a great empire, from Romans to Habsbergs and walking around the city, it enabled us to soaked up the Baroque Architecture, statues and grand buildings.  It is incredible that it was bombed 52 times during WW2 and all the buildings so intact, although thousands of houses destroyed and lives lost.  Apologies but there are a lot of photos to follow, as I struggled to pair them down and some of the Baroque photos taken are a little bizarre!

Rathaus

Closest we could get to the Parliament Building as a 'support Kurdistan' protest was going on outside it and the police had it all cordoned off.  Is he punching that horse?

Parliament Building

Hofburg Palace

There was a big Military display in Vienna and Mel was quick to spot this one – Black Hawk down!

Lot of flags flying outside the Hofburg

St Stephen's Cathedral

The Vienna Market has around 120 market stalls and restaurants and the smells and culinary delights of the cheeses, meats, fish, fruit stalls, etc are delicious.  We had never seen red olives before though!

Beluga Kaviar - how much?!

The big wheel used in the film ‘The Third Man’ and James Bond ‘Living Daylights’

Even the cheap clothing shop H&M gets a posh building here in Vienna!

How cute are these signs on the traffic light crossings – they were a mix of same sex and men and women – it was nice to see no discrimination here!

Coffee and Sacher Cake at Demel – nice treat to the end of the day!

Vienna is a fabulous city with so much architecture and history to soak up that it is impossible to see it all in one day.  So, we will definitely have to schedule a revisit soon.

Sally x