Vienna to Prague

Today we went to Schonbrunn Palace

and although interesting it was similar to places we have already seen. We had our first “it’s a small world” experience today when we sat down for lunch at the café at Schonbrunn and noticed that we were seated at the next table to another Clinical Psychologist from Dunedin!! (Barbara Chisholm for those who might know her). Initially we thought “no, it can’t be, it is probably just her doppelganger” but eventually we all decided the co-incidence in similarity between us all was too great and said “hi”. Had a catch-up with Barbara (who was in Vienna doing grandchild-minding for her son and daughter-in-law) before we filled in the remainder of our day walking through the extensive gardens associated with the Palace. The crowds were again noticeable in the Palace itself (although it appeared that there were staggered entry times so it wasn’t too crowded at any one time) and the standard guided tours were doing their usual routine which was quite annoying as tour leaders spoke to groups while you were trying to listen to audio guides standing right next to them. Even by pacing your entry into adjacent rooms (to get ahead or behind a group) wasn’t always successful as you would encounter another one either ahead or one coming in behind.

We negotiated the underground train system in Vienna very easily (helped again by a good level of organisation) and found our way to and from the Palace and hotel without difficulty. We then made our way to Wien Meidling station to catch our train to Prague and as I write this we are about to cross the border into the Czech Republic. We could easily have stayed another night or two in Vienna but we are sure that Prague will be just as nice. However, we are looking forward to having three whole nights in ONE place (even if that does mean a 4.30 am start on Wednesday morning when we fly back to Munich and later in the day on to Istanbul).

Not a lot of photos from today as we could not take photos inside the Palace but have included a couple we took outside. (further up the page)

The rest of the day (last 5 hours) was on the train so not much to show from that either although the change in style of housing was interesting as we left Austria and moved across the Czech Republic. The triangular, peaked-roof architecture gave way to square boxes, which were often minimally maintained. Graffiti is endemic - and quite incomprehensible of course. Not sure what they are but every town in the Czech Republic seems to have at least one VERY tall chimney, probably to do with power generation I imagine.

(this is nearly midnight Sunday now) We arrived in Prague (Praha) a few minutes early and were met by a pleasant (minimal English-speaking) taxi driver (pre-booked) who drove us to our hotel. We have struck gold here as the place is very close to Charles Bridge, we have a great view of the river and Prague Castle (even in the dark) and it has most of the bells and whistles of a decent hotel. It also happens to be the building that Mozart stayed in when he lived in Prague for a while back in 1760 something.