Trip Report: July 5, 2014 Central Europe ABD (Austria, Germany & The Czech Republic)

[sayhello]

Wow! Very cool photos. I really love the Powder Tower. And that "bone church" is both amazing and bizarre!

Sayhello

 

[Calfan]

Today was the marathon Prague sightseeing day I mentioned in a previous post. First up: the Jewish quarter. Our guidebook had recommended getting to the Jewish cemetery right when it opened to avoid the crowds, but we weren’t able to drag ourselves out of bed. After just making the 10:30am cutoff for breakfast at the hotel, we got to the Jewish quarter sometime before 11:30. You can buy a ticket that gets you into all of the sites at the Jewish quarter or just buy tickets for the particular sites you are interested in. We bought the ticket that gave us access to everything. Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed inside the synagogues. At the Spanish Synagogue, though, after seeing at least ten other people taking pictures of the spectacular Moorish interior, I decided I wasn’t going to be the only rules-follower to end up with no photos of the Spanish Synagogue and started snapping away (without flash). In the Jewish quarter, we saw the Old New Synagogue, the holocaust memorial in the Pinkas Synagogue whose walls hold the longest epitaph in the world, which lists the names of those who died in the Nazi concentration camps, the museum (in another former synagogue), the cemetery, the Spanish Synagogue and the Jewish Town Hall with a clock whose hands run counterclockwise. It is interesting to note that while the Nazis removed the Jews from the Jewish quarter during WWII, they left the synagogues intact. Valuables from the occupied countries were gathered in this area, and the largest collection of Jewish items in Europe was created here. While the cemetery was visually very interesting, due to the lack of signage, we weren’t really able to identity the specific graves mentioned in our guidebook. It was also pretty crowded, since we hadn't heeded the guidebook's advice, but you are forced along a one-way path through the cemetery, so the crowds weren't that much of an issue.

After touring the Jewish quarter, we stopped for lunch at Bakeshop Praha, which had been recommended in our guide book. My quiche and soup lunch was very good, and they have lots of yummy pastries at the Bakeshop.

Then we set off for Prague Castle. As I mentioned in a previous post, by the time we had walked from the Jewish quarter across the river (on a bridge further upriver from the Charles Bridge) and up the hill to the castle complex, it was close to 3pm, and the castle closes at 5pm. So we opted to buy Circuit B tickets, which gave us access to St. Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St. George’s Basilica and Golden Lane. As previously mentioned, St. Vitus is pretty spectacular, and photos are allowed inside. No photos in the Old Royal Palace (and unlike at the Spanish Synagogue, there was a docent at the Old Royal Palace policing the no photo policy). The Old Royal Palace is where the defenestration occurred that triggered the 30 Years War. (Prague has quite a history of defenestrations, or throwing folks out of windows.) In the Golden Lane, which is a lane of colorful cottages, there is an armory exhibit that is quite interesting, as well as a couple of examples of torture chambers. There are also exhibits and shops housed in the individual cottages. You will have a little while (20 minutes or so) on the ABD to explore Golden Lane, but we were glad we had the chance to take in the armory exhibit at a more leisurely pace. We also strolled some of the gardens at the castle, which is where we bumped into James, our guide from Kutna Hora, who was leading a free tour of Prague Castle.

We definitely needed a break after Prague Castle and found a great little restaurant in the shade at the bottom of the steps we took down. A Bailey’s latte was just the ticket for me! My husband had an Irish Coffee, and the kids had milkshakes. After this recharge, we made our way to the funicular that would take us to the top of Petrin Hill. Just a note for future travelers that the ticket machines at the funicular station accept only coins. The station agent does not sell tickets. We made the mistake of buying 30-minute tickets which did not give us nearly enough time to get to the top and do some exploring before the tickets for the ride back down expired. So we ended up walking down, which was actually a very pleasant and scenic walk, given that it was now dusk. I’d recommend the 90-minute ticket at a minimum, or the all-day ticket which will allow you unlimited rides on the funicular plus the Prague metro and trams. From the top funicular stop at Petrin Hill, we made our way to Petrin Tower, which is like a mini Eiffel Tower. You can either take the stairs to the top or pay something like 60 CZK extra per person to ride the elevator. My husband opted out of the tower altogether, and the kids and I decided to take the elevator, since we had already done so much walking that day. The views from the top of the tower are really spectacular. Note that the tower does not accept credit cards. Luckily, we had just enough CZK left from the currency we had brought with us from home to pay the entrance fee for the kids and me. On our way down Petrin Hill from the tower, we saw the infamous mirror maze that instigated our later evening trip back to Petrin Hill (see previous post). We would have done the maze after the tower, but we were out of CZK, and the maze accepted only cash.

Once at the bottom, we decided to find the Piss Sculpture I had read about in our guidebook, which is in the courtyard in front of the Kafka Museum. We found it after a few missteps (called “exploring”), and it was pretty funny. The guide book had not disclosed that it is animatronic!

After a dinner break, we wandered back over the Charles Bridge into Old Town Square and then back to our hotel to call it a night. We had been out and about for over 12 hours (!), but it was a fabulous day in Prague.

 

[Calfan]

The Old New Synagogue

The Franz Kafka sculpture, which is near the entrance to the Spanish Synagogue

The interior of the Spanish Synagogue

The outside of the Spanish Synagogue

More interesting Prague art by Bakeshop Praha

The clock (right) that runs backward

St. Vitus Cathedral

The interior of St. Vitus

To be continued...

 

[Calfan]

St. George's Basilica

The chicken armor was my favorite

How about a nice, comfortable seat?

Views from the top of Petrin Tower

Petrin Tower

The animatronic Piss Sculpture

Awesome Czech pastry called a trdelnik

The Charles Bridge at night

The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn

Wenceslas Square by night

 

[tufbuf]

Wonderful photos!! Is the Petrin Tower walkable from Prague center?

 

[sayhello]

Love your pictures! That chicken armor is hilarious! Looking forward to more report!

Sayhello

 

[calypso726]

Following along! So glad to see your trip report! Great pictures too!!!!

 

[tufbuf]

Could you also clarify the tickets you were mentioning at the Petrin Tower? Are you referring to the tram tickets which an be used at the funicular as well? Then there is extra fee for using the elevator to get to the top? Thanks!

 

[Calfan]

Wonderful photos!! Is the Petrin Tower walkable from Prague center?

It is walkable, but it would be a healthy walk, especially if you walk up Petrin Hill to the tower instead of taking the funicular. We walked multiple times from our hotel or the Powder Gate area to the base of the funicular. This is a longer walk, but scenic (as is pretty much every walk in the older part of Prague). On our second attempt to get my daughter to the mirror maze (we didn't have success until the third attempt!), we walked to the base of the funicular in the afternoon and were unpleasantly surprised by a long line. The two times we took the funicular in the evening, there was no line at all. We weren't up for what looked like an hour-plus wait for the funicular. We could have walked up the hill (the path has switchbacks to make it less steep), but it was quite hot, and we just weren't up for the uphill walk in the heat. Thus, the need for a third attempt at the mirror maze. There is also a tram stop very near the base of the funicular. We ended up taking this for attempt number three.

 

[Calfan]

Could you also clarify the tickets you were mentioning at the Petrin Tower? Are you referring to the tram tickets which an be used at the funicular as well? Then there is extra fee for using the elevator to get to the top? Thanks!

Yes, you can buy an all-day Prague transportation ticket that you can use for unlimited rides on the metro and tram, and this ticket is also good for the funicular. Or, for a cheaper price, you can just by funicular tickets, but these have a duration of validity of either 30 minutes or 90 minutes, and you need to time stamp them when you get on the funicular. So if you are planning to also take the funicular back down Petrin Hill instead of walking, you need to make sure you get back on the funicular within the appropriate time period. The charge to ride the elevator to the top of Petrin Tower is an additional charge.

 

[Calfan]

Following along! So glad to see your trip report! Great pictures too!!!!

Thanks, calypso!

 

[Calfan]

Today we took the train from Prague to Karlstejn to tour Karlstejn Castle, which is a gothic castle founded in 1348. It was built by Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV as a place for safekeeping of the royal treasures, especially Charles's collection of holy relics and the coronation jewels of the Roman Empire. I had purchased online tickets in advance for Tour 2 of the castle, which includes The Chapel of the Holy Cross, as well as the Church of Our Lady, Chapel of St. Catharine, former Sacristy, suspension wooden bridge, museum of lapidary, castle's picture gallery and library with exposition of the last reconstruction of the castle. Advance tickets or reservations are required for Tour 2, which is just under 2 hours.

We walked from our hotel to the main train station in Prague, and a very helpful station agent helped us purchase roundtrip tickets after I showed him our ticket for the Karlstejn Castle tour. It was a 40-minute train ride from Prague to Karlstejn. From the train station in Karlstejn, it is about a 20 or 30 minute walk up to the castle through the village of Karlstejn, pretty much all of it uphill. It turned out to be quite hot the day we went, so the walk up to the castle was a little painful in the heat, but the village is quaint and interesting to walk through. There is also a kind of “wow” moment when you can first see the castle as you are walking up through the village.

There were 20 or so of us on our tour. Our tour guide was very good, and her English was quite good. We were amused by a sign we saw in the courtyard while we were waiting for our tour to begin that said “No Translating.” Turned out the sign was there for a reason. There were about half a dozen Italians on our tour, only one of whom seemed to speak English fluently, and her translations for the rest of her group were a bit disruptive. The tour guide handled it well, but she kept having to wait for the Italian translator to finish before continuing with her tour information. We still enjoyed the tour a lot, especially the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which sparkles with gold and jewels. When we planned the trip to Karlstejn, we thought we would end up also doing Tour 1, which includes the Courtier's Hall, Hall of Knights with chapel of St. Nicolas, Chapter Deanery, Royal Bedroom, Audience and Banquet Halls, Hall of Ancestors, Treasury and Jewels Hall and former castle prison, but after the end of Tour 2, we were pretty satisfied with what we had seen. We have done a number of castle tours in our travels and felt we could live without seeing the other parts of Karlstejn Castle.

Instead, we headed back down to the village to have lunch and browse some of the shops before heading back to the train station.

Once we got back to Prague, we decided to head back to the souvenir shop off of Wenceslas square we had found on our first day to make our purchases. Then it was back to the hotel to freshen up a bit before dinner. For dinner, we ate at U Supa near the Powder Gate which we pretty much picked at random. We ate outdoors (which is quite typical for Prague, as it stays warm in the evenings during the summer), and I had boar goulash which was quite good. After dinner, we wandered the Old Town Square area again before calling it a night.

 

[Calfan]

First glimpse of Karlstejn Castle

Looking back down toward the village from the castle

There are no photos allowed in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, so we bought this postcard

My boar goulash

Prague by night

View from the observation deck at the Sheraton

 

[Calfan]

Today marked the official start of our Central Europe ABD (albeit not until much later in the day)! First up on our to do list (after sleeping in, which had become our norm) was to change hotels from the Sheraton to the Marriott, which was pretty much a non-event. We took a cab from one hotel to the other and arrived at the Marriott around noon. We were amazed by the mass of humanity in the Marriott lobby when we arrived. There was luggage piled everywhere and desks for Tauck River Cruises, Viking River Cruises and at least one other tour group in the lobby, in addition to the ABD desk. We spotted the ABD desk right away, but unfortunately, we had arrived during the guides’ lunch break, so they were not there to greet us. However, the Marriott had all of our information and was able to check us in. For both of our ABDs, we have opted to get two rooms for the four of us. It is really nice to have the extra space, and many European hotels cannot accommodate four people. As a note, the Marriott is the only hotel where we had connecting rooms, although I think we had requested this when we made our reservations. Really not a big deal. As I recall, I don’t think any of our rooms on our Scotland ABD were connecting rooms either. One of our rooms at the Marriott was ready when we checked in, so we were able to see our luggage deposited into one of our rooms before heading off for more Prague sightseeing prior to the welcome reception. We left a note at the guides’ desk asking them to text us to let us know what time to be back for the welcome reception. This is one of my minor complaints with the information ABD sends about the trip prior to departure. It would be really nice if they printed the start time of the welcome reception so it is not a guessing game. Luckily, Jennae and Betti did find the note I had left, and Jennae texted that the welcome reception started at 5pm.

Our first goal that day was to do the mirror maze that we had seen earlier in the week that my daughter had an unshakable bee in her bonnet about doing. So we walked from the Marriott to the base of the funicular on Petrin Hill only to find a really long line at the funicular. None of us (except my daughter) was willing to wait an hour or more in that line. We were contemplating walking up the hill when I decided to try to find out how late the maze was open to see if it would be feasible to come back after the welcome dinner or on Sunday night. When the second hit on Google came up with a Trip Advisor review captioned “Worst Mirror Maze Ever,” we decided we weren’t walking up the hill in the heat. Plus, it turned out the maze was open until 10pm, so plenty of time to come back either Sat. or Sun. evening.

Instead, we decided to go to the Loreta, which was the last remaining “don’t miss” item from our guidebook that we had not yet seen. The Loreta is a Baroque historic monument and place of pilgrimage. The treasury houses the Prague Sun, a monstrance (vessel in which the host is exposed for the adoration of the faithful) that contains 6,222 diamonds. It was a bit of a hike up to the Loreta, and we got there just in time to hear the 2pm carillon of the bells (hourly on the hour). We enjoyed our visit, but the Loreta was probably my least favorite of the sites we visited in and around Prague. So if you are pressed for time in Prague, in my opinion, you can eliminate the Loreta from your must-see list. One nice surprise is that, as we were finishing up in the treasury, we started to hear organ music and went back into the chapel where we were treated to a live organ concert, which was very cool.

When we exited the Loreta, we realized we were actually pretty far up the back side of Petrin Hill and decided to see if we could hit the mirror maze before heading back for the ABD welcome reception. It soon became clear we were not going to make it in time so we decided to head back down (did I mention that the “worst mirror maze ever” had become the bane of our existence? Actually, I should probably clarify why we didn’t just tell my daughter to get over the mirror maze and move on. My daughter is a child who almost never asks for anything. This is in marked contrast to my son who always has an extensive birthday and Christmas list in progress at any given time. So on the rare occasions my daughter asks for something, we try to make it happen if it is within the realm of reasonableness.) Making it back to the hotel in time to have a few minutes to freshen up before the welcome reception required a pretty quick pace. This was quite challenging on the Charles Bridge which was noticeably more crowded than it had been earlier in the week. For the first time, we noticed quite a few tour groups on the bridge. So if you are doing the bridge on your own before the ABD starts, I recommend doing it on a weekday. Similarly, we had noticed that the Old Town was much more crowded on Friday night than it had been earlier in the week. Lots of boisterous activity spilling out of the pubs and cafes.

We did make it back to the hotel in time to get into our second room and make ourselves presentable for the welcome reception. This was held on the mezzanine level above the lobby. It was fun to meet Jennae (who I had heard a lot about since she has been with ABD since it started) and Betti for the first time. At the reception, the guides introduced themselves and previewed the trip a bit, and then they had each family introduce themselves and share what they were most looking forward to on the trip. The ice caves were a recurring theme, but the answers were varied. We also received our first pin of the day.

Our welcome dinner was held in the hotel restaurant. The tables in the back of the restaurant had been reserved for our group, but we weren’t in a private room. While some of the junior adventurers sat together, most of the families sat on their own, since most of the tables were set up as four-tops. My only other experience with a welcome dinner was on our Scotland ABD, which was in a private room, and I prefer that format. It made the dinner more of an ABD event, and with tables of 8 or 10, you had the opportunity to get to know some of your fellow adventurers. Because most families sat within their family units in the Marriott restaurant, there wasn’t a lot of “getting to know you” at the welcome dinner. My husband and I ended up sitting by ourselves after both of our kids decided to sit with other junior adventurers. But then Jennae came to sit with us, which gave us a great opportunity to get to know her a bit. Dinner was a buffet, and it was good, but I wouldn’t say great. I will note that almost all of the meals covered by ABD on the trip included two adult beverages (beer or wine).

The dinner wrapped up before 8pm, so we decided at long last to fulfill my daughter’s burning desire to do the mirror maze on Petrin Hill. There is a metro station not far from the Marriott, so we opted for the metro since we had already done so much walking that day and didn’t want to be out too late since we knew our sleeping in days were over. The metro was easy to figure out. We purchased the 24-hour tickets that were also good for the funicular. We hopped on a tram (which our 24-hour metro tickets also covered) after exiting the metro at what I think is the station you would take to Prague castle, and the tram dropped us off pretty much at the funicular. No line at this time of the evening, so we got right on to the funicular and went directly to the mirror maze. I can confirm that it might just be the worst mirror maze ever, just as the TripAdvisor review had proclaimed. It took my daughter and me probably about 45 seconds to get through the maze, so we backtracked and did it a second time just because. At the end of the maze is a room that has all the different mirrors that distort your proportions, so we also spent a few minutes in there. However, despite the subpar mirror maze, it was a beautiful evening in Prague so the outing ended up being one of those fun, silly family outings that we will remember for a long time.

 

[Calfan]

The Powder Gate from a different angle

The outside of the Loreta

The courtyard inside the cloister

The cloister

The Prague Sun

The German embassy, which got our vote for most attractive

The U.S. embassy

To be continued...

 

[Calfan]

The welcome reception

The welcome dinner

The metro station near the Marriott

Back at the top of Petrin Hill

My husband's artsy shot

Happy daughter in the worst mirror maze ever

The funicular

Long escalators in the metro

 

[sayhello]

I'm so glad you managed to do the mirror maze for your daughter! Have you done other mirror mazes (was she aware it was the worst one ever? ) I've actually never heard of a mirror maze. Now I'm curious!

I don't think I've ever had a Welcome dinner where we didn't have a private room, or an area where no-one else was. In Greece, we had it in the restaurant where they do breakfast, and we were the only ones in the whole place.

Sayhello

 

[carpenta]

We had the welcome dinner in the restaurant ion our Germany trip this past June. It does take something away from the dinner. It is hard to hear the group's talking. But at our hotel there was a big conference at the time and probably the private rooms were taken.

 

[Calfan]

I'm so glad you managed to do the mirror maze for your daughter! Have you done other mirror mazes (was she aware it was the worst one ever? ) I've actually never heard of a mirror maze. Now I'm curious!

I don't think I've ever had a Welcome dinner where we didn't have a private room, or an area where no-one else was. In Greece, we had it in the restaurant where they do breakfast, and we were the only ones in the whole place.

Sayhello

I may have done a mirror maze at a carnival years ago, but this was the first for my daughter. She did admit that it was very short but said she still enjoyed it, so I'm glad we finally got to do it.

We had the welcome dinner in the restaurant ion our Germany trip this past June. It does take something away from the dinner. It is hard to hear the group's talking. But at our hotel there was a big conference at the time and probably the private rooms were taken.

That could have been the same issue at the Marriott in Prague since there were definitely other tour groups there as well (Tauck River Cruises, Viking River Cruises, etc.)

 

[disneyphx]

Love that dinner photo and instant JA table!