Czech Republic - Prague (2 nights)travelled with Rachel
April 1st & 2nd 2006
Caught a bus in the early hours of the morning to London Stanstead Airport. We checked in with Czech Airlines - our back packs just weighed in under the 20kg limit so all was good! Arrived in Prague, changed our money to Czech crowns and caught bus 119 into town to 'The Old Prague hostel' where we stayed. It had a cosy feel.
Prague was just beautiful! Lovely architecture, markets, beer and food (Czech tradition - Goulash). The people were lovely and the cobblestone streets and buildings lit up at night were amazing.
Prague is centered around the Vltava river - which separates the old town (Stare' Mesto) from the new town (Nove' Mesto). We went for a run around both towns, over the charles bridge, viewing churches, cathedrals, parks, the castle and markets.
We ate traditional Czech cuisine, drank beers, cocktails, shopped and mingled amoung the markets.
Czech Republic - Cesky Krumlov - 1 night
April 3rd 2006
This town is labeled miniature Prague and is said to be one of the most picturesque towns in Europe. It is a gorgeous 18th century town, but very quiet when we were there. Almost like a ghost town! But we had a good time and dined with the locals for a massive meal.
It took 3.5 hours by bus from Prague, which went by quite fast. We stayed at the 'Pension Danny'. It was lovely and quite cheap. We even got breaky brought into our room. Not bad for backpacking!
Major Tourist attraction was the Castle and the whole town is encircled by the Vltava River.
Austria - Vienna (2 nights) - 4th & 5th April 2006
Arrived to Vienna by Train. Lovely scenery along the way. Stayed at one of Europe's famous hostel's - Wombat's! It was really good. Had everything you need. The transport system in Vienna made it easy to get around and like many European countries, transport on the trains and trams is by an honesty system with no one checking your tickets - unlike London where you are herded like cattle through every gate and ticket inspectors are out in force!
Vienna was amazing - Packed with amazing architecture, museums, castles, monuments and great shopping.
Went to the Naschmarkt - which is a market full of lovely fresh food stalls, clothes and a flea market open 7 days. The fresh food was amazing - so much antipasto, seafood, nuts, fruit, etc. Yum! We came here both days, trying different foods, eating antipasto platters and drinking wine. It was great that Rach and I shared the same love of food and wine. We also went to Cafe Sperl - supposedly Vienna best cafes. We thought is was posh and over priced. Also the word cappucino on the menu was not like a cappucino back home? It was ordinary and cold! But oh well - we tried it.
Tourist Sights Visited:
- Rathaus (Town Hall)
- Stephansdom (St. Stephens Cathedral & Gothic Cathedral)
- The Habsburg summer palace 'Schloss Schonbrunn' & Hofburg Imperial Palace - here we watched Apple strudel being made and of course sampled it, walked through the palace gardens and mazes and had an audiovisual tour of the many rooms of the palace and the history of 'Sissy'.
- Went to a contemporary art museum "Kunsthaus Wien" - major work displayed from Hundertswasser (similar work to Gaudi)
* Rachel left the tour for Switzerland and for the rest of my trip I traveled alone - But met so many great people!
Austria - Salzburg (2 nights) - 6th & 7th of April
This was one of my favourite parts of the trip - What an amazing place!
Stayed at the Yoho Hostel - Met Bec and Bel here - Awesome people. Still catching up now - actually heading to Pamplona for the running of the Bulls with them in July! Lots of fun to be had.
Salzburg is so beautiful - Mozart's home town and they were celebrating his 350th Birthday! Celebrations were happening all over town.
Salzburg is made up of the old and the new town divided by the Salzach river and surrounded by hills and a huge fortress up on the hill that can be viewed from anywhere. The hills still had snow on them - The views were amazing to walk around - you could go for hours - so peaceful!
Tourist Sights Visited:
- Mirabell Gardens & Mirabell Palace - "Schloss Mirabell"
- Mozart's Wohnhaus (residence) & Mozart's Geburtshaus -(birth place)
- Went to the Mozart Museum - Dance some old fashioned dances - A little embarrassing but as they say - 'when in Rome'!
- Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress) - Had a tour of the fortress - Awesome! Such history and great views from the top.
- Schloss Hellbrun (Hellbrun Palace)
* The Sound of Music Tour - This will stay with me forever. I absolutely loved every part of this tour. Got to see parts of the Lake Districts and it was so beautiful. As they say - The hills really 
were alive! We also sang - as you do, the songs from the movie as we bussed around.
After this tour I went to Salzburg's largest beer hall. You get a massive mug from the side wall (half or full litre), paid a lady for a ticket and then a man was sitting at a keg just pouring and sliding it back to you once filled. It was packed, and smokey and there was a huge food hall outside of it so you virtually could stay there all night. The funniest part was this beer hall was attached to a church!!! Hallelujah I say!
Met Lucy and Stewart here - Great people from London. We drank together, and 2 locals joined us, one worked at the beer hall - Very dodgy (see photo) but gave us a free litre of beer each! - No complaints! So after 1.5 litres I was quite happy.
The funniest part was when returning to the hostel we had a few more and then I had to catch the overnight train to Berlin - I slept well!
Germany - Berlin (3 nights) - 8th, 9th & 10th April
Wow! What an amazing place, so much history - but now so new! 3 days just wasn't enough in this town but I loved every minute here. A very funky town - with many bars (I had a few cocktails and beers at a few!), cheap eats and 170 museums.
Tours & Sights:
- Did an unreal 4 hour walking tour, seeing all the major tourist sights, starting at Unter den Linden (famous street during the dividing of Berlin) at the Bradenburger Tor (Brandenburger Gate ). This was the gate that divided East Berlin from the West. Went to the Berliner Dom, Bebel Platz (sight of the first book burning arranged by the Nazi's), Postdamer Platz (was occupied by the wall and its death strip before reunification), Tiergarten
Park, the famous 'Berlin Wall', 'Check point Charlie' and the 'Topography of terror'. Finishing at Alexander platz (town square - aka 'Alex') near the famous, unsightly 'Fernsehturm' (TV tower). - Also did a day tour of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp - 35km north of Berlin! It was really sad to see and here stories firsthand! - This was opened in 1936 by the Nazi's and about 100,ooo died here!
- Tour of the Reigstag (the home of German Parliament again after the reunification in 1990). It was open to the public, symbolising there is no secrets - nothing to hide!
Belgium - Brussels (2 nights) -11th & 12th April
Loved Belgium - Brussels was a lively place with great restaurants, seafood, chocolate and beer. The sight seeing wasn't as exciting. I toured the town seeing churches, famous buildings and monuments. Walking through the town at night was a buzz. Here I had Mussels in Brussels - Yum! I also sampled many Belgium beers with to Icelandic travels I met. Awesome people. They saw me eating in an Indian restaurant alone and asked if I would join them for a drink. We had a great night. 
The Grand Place (central square) had amazing buildings. This was lit up at night and attracted many crowds throughout the day. A real focal point! I saw the Atomium (on most post cards - space age left over from the 1958 world fair), and found the famous 'Manneken Pis Fountain' - what a let down - so small and of no real significance!
Belgium - Bruges (2 nights) -13th & 14th April
Stayed at the Bauhaus Hostel -First impressions - Dirty and a dive, after getting past the unvacuumed floors and late check it it was an awesome experience. Great bar at the hostel where locals come to drink. I met some great people from all over. Different music was played from Thurs - Sun. I was there for Reggae Night - Go Bob Marley! - even the DJ had dreddies!!! (Downfall -went to bed at 3am but was still kept awake til 6.30am by all the drunks on the street)
Bruges is a small, gorgeous town. Here I did a canal tour, climbed the Belfort (Bell tower), browsed the streets and shops, drank many on Belgian's beer and ate the lovely chocolate pralines - Lucky for my waistline that I was only in Belgium for 4 days!
Also went to the north beach and a town just out of Bruges called Damme, where I enjoyed so
me more Hoegarten Beer - Addicted now!
Returned home to London on the Eurostar - It was a great way to travel. Some how I think I was in the first class seats. Ended up with Champagne, wine and great food and service the whole way home. It was the perfect ending. x
