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

[sayhello]

There were many shops selling Bohemian glass in Prague. It wasn't something we wanted to try to bring back with us, so we only window shopped when it came to the glass. Besides glass, we saw lots of wooden toys and souvenirs. Lots of nesting dolls. We bought some painted egg ornaments. We actually thought the shopping in Salzburg and Vienna when it comes to souvenirs was pretty disappointing. We were expecting shops with inlaid wood music boxes and cuckoo clocks, but really didn't find any. We did buy some things at the gift shop at the Spanish Riding School, but that was really the extent of our shopping in Vienna.

That's good to know. Note to self: buy souvenirs in Prague!

Sayhello

 

[Calfan]

Inside St. Peter's Abbey

The pool at the Intercontinental

 

[mgsquared]

We actually thought the shopping in Salzburg and Vienna when it comes to souvenirs was pretty disappointing. We were expecting shops with inlaid wood music boxes and cuckoo clocks, but really didn't find any. We did buy some things at the gift shop at the Spanish Riding School, but that was really the extent of our shopping in Vienna.

Yeah those things aren't as common in those places. More German and Hungarian than Austrian. There are some shops that make old fashioned signs that are quite popular. The most traditional souvenirs will be food though!
There is a gourmet gingerbread store near Stephansdom that sells gingerbread made with honey from the Vienna Forest. Other souvenirs that are really traditional are the classic Sachertorte, Austrian pumpkin seed oil (THE perfect gift for a foodie), recipes, and coffee from the traditional coffeehouses.
Some gift shops have nice oven mitts/dishtowels that are embroidered in a traditional style and quite a nice keepsake.
The one kitschy souvenir I take with me sometimes is the "no kangaroos in Austria" shirt. Anyone from Austria who has travelled around loves this shirt!

I cannot believe the sound of music gazebo is in my favorite castle growing up!! I never caught on to that! I watched the movie for the first time when I was 18. I was going to the US for college and all my American friends were saying I was going to get asked about it and I should watch it. No local I knew had ever seen it or heard of it!

I'm so amused at all these DIS folks coming to my neck of the woods.

 

[Calfan]

Yeah those things aren't as common in those places. More German and Hungarian than Austrian. There are some shops that make old fashioned signs that are quite popular. The most traditional souvenirs will be food though!
There is a gourmet gingerbread store near Stephansdom that sells gingerbread made with honey from the Vienna Forest. Other souvenirs that are really traditional are the classic Sachertorte, Austrian pumpkin seed oil (THE perfect gift for a foodie), recipes, and coffee from the traditional coffeehouses.
Some gift shops have nice oven mitts/dishtowels that are embroidered in a traditional style and quite a nice keepsake.
The one kitschy souvenir I take with me sometimes is the "no kangaroos in Austria" shirt. Anyone from Austria who has travelled around loves this shirt!

I cannot believe the sound of music gazebo is in my favorite castle growing up!! I never caught on to that! I watched the movie for the first time when I was 18. I was going to the US for college and all my American friends were saying I was going to get asked about it and I should watch it. No local I knew had ever seen it or heard of it!

I'm so amused at all these DIS folks coming to my neck of the woods.

We did not see the shops with the old-fashioned signs, but I would have been interested in those. We ate so much on this trip that the idea of bringing food items home just didn't appeal. But if we were buying gifts for others, those would have been great ideas. We did buy some gingerbread in Cesky Krumlov. I'm not sure how that compares to the gingerbread made with honey from the Vienna forest. We did see the t-shirts and thought they were funny.

I'm not sure when the gazebo was moved to Schloss Hellbrunn. It was moved from Schloss Leopoldskron when the number of tourists coming to see it became too much of a nuisance for the non-profit Salzburg Global Seminar that owns the property now.

 

[Calfan]

Today was another day I had been looking forward to since we would be visiting the Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden salt mine. Since the salt mine is actually in Berchtesdgaden, it was a very short drive down the mountain from the Intercontinental to get there in the morning. We actually arrived before the mine opened but were the first ones in the door at 9am. It is a bit cool in the mine, but everyone wears coveralls with long sleeves, so I was fine in a t-shirt and jeans underneath. The coveralls made us look like race car drivers! The salt mine is another place where no photos are allowed. But, kind of like a Disneyland ride, photos are taken after boarding the ride-on train that takes you into the mine and also coming down one of the slides, and these are available for purchase in the gift shop after the tour. And, once again, the guides managed to sneak in a few photos.

The train ride is around five minutes long and takes you through a pretty narrow tunnel into the mine. Luckily, no one in our group was claustrophobic. The train ride reminded me of a Disneyland ride. The tour also involves descending into the mine by means of two wooden slides that are lots of fun. It is kind of hard to describe the slides, but you will get a better idea from the pictures. (We took a funicular at the end of the tour to get back to the surface of the mine.) The tour provides a lot of information about salt itself, as well as the mining and production of the salt from the mine, which has been in operation for over 500 years. We also saw examples of the equipment used in the mining. It was quite interesting, but I have to admit that my favorite parts of the tour were the train, the slides and rafting over the salt lake, which is part of the process of "wet mining," where fresh water is fed into the mountain, which removes the salt from the composite rock. Brine is created, which is a concentrate salt solution with 26.5% salt content. We rafted across one of these small brine lakes, which is so dense that you can’t see through it at all, and the solution reflects the ceiling of the cave. It is really quite beautiful. After the tour, we had a bit of time to browse in the gift shop that sells various salt items and souvenirs.

From the salt mine, we headed to a bakery in Berchtesgaden for pretzel making. This was a fun activity, but I have to give the nod to scone making in Scotland as the more fun of the two. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that I happen to like scones a lot more than pretzels, but also because we started from scratch with the scone making, mixing up the dough before making the scones. With the pretzels, the dough was already prepared when we arrived (I assume because it needs to rise and it wouldn’t be practical from a time standpoint to have adventurers make the dough and then wait around for it to be ready to make into pretzels). We had to roll the dough into long, thin tubes and then shape the tubes into pretzels. One added bonus of the pretzel making activity is that the owner of the bakery gave a tour of the bakery and provided some interesting information about how the pretzels and other baked goods are produced. This bakery supplies many of the restaurants and hotels in the area. While we waited for the pretzels to bake, there was an opportunity to purchase other items from the bakery, have a coffee etc.

Once everyone had their bag of pretzels, we were off to Mondsee to view the church used in the wedding scene in The Sound of Music, followed by lunch outside on the patio of a restaurant on Mondsee (Moon) Lake, which was a very scenic spot for lunch. Lunch was family style, and the amount of food brought out was amazing: salad, pizza, schnitzel and pasta, followed by dessert. There was a park across the street from the restaurant that had a very cool playground that we had to drag the junior adventurers (including the teens and 20-somethings) away from when it was time to depart for the drive to Vienna.

The drive to Vienna was about three hours and, once again, we stopped at one of the amazing Austrian rest stops at about the halfway point (not Rosenberger this time, though). It was close to 7pm by the time we arrived at the Ritz Carlton Vienna. Dinner was on our own, and the guides provided a few recommendations. Since lunch had been on the late side and had been supplemented by pretzels and other goodies from the bakery in Berchtesdgaden, we weren’t starving when we arrived at the hotel. So we walked from the Ritz about ten minutes to an area of Vienna that is a pedestrian mall with shops and restaurants. We wandered around until we got hungry and then found Vappianos, one of the restaurants recommended by the guides, which was quite good. It is Italian, featuring fresh pasta that is cooked to order while you wait. The down side is having to wait in line while pasta is made for everyone in front of you, but the plus side is how fresh and tasty the pasta is once you get it. After dinner, we walked back to the Ritz and called it a night so we would be fresh for our visit to Schonrunn Palace the next morning.

 

[Calfan]

Team Donald!

The train that is like a Disneyland ride

Coming down one of the slides

Another slide shot

Informational exhibits in the mine

The salt lake

The postcard shows the raft

Funky light show while we rafted across the lake

Love this sign, which is actually at the entrance to the mine. It means "good luck" as in "we hope you make it back."

Pretzel dough awaiting our arrival

The ovens

Unfortunately, we didn't get to keep the mouse ears!

The bakery

The bakery owner during the tour

More photos to come….

 

[Calfan]

This is how it looks when the professionals do it!

The finished product. Sorry for the blurry shot.

From the coach on the way to Mondsee

Mondsee Cathedral, where the wedding scene in The Sound of Music was filmed

The town of Mondsee. Unfortunately, we didn't have any time to explore.

Mondsee Lake and our lunch view

The playground

The Vienna Opera House

A cool reflection shot

The pedestrian mall area

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Night shot of Vienna from the roof lounge at the Ritz

 

[sayhello]

Wow! The altar in Mondsee Cathedral is amazing!! Really something else.

Those pretzels look great, too, but I'm glad to know the scone making is even better! (I love both pretzels *and* scones, but scones a lot more! )

I must admit I skipped over most of the descriptions of the Salt mines. I want it to be a bit of a surprise. But I did glance at the pictures. Cool!

Sayhello

 

[Cousin Orville]

How did you like the Ritz and its location?

The Mondsee Cathedral looks amazing with the pink ribbed vaults. I don't remember that from the movie. Great photos.

 

[Calfan]

How did you like the Ritz and its location?

The Mondsee Cathedral looks amazing with the pink ribbed vaults. I don't remember that from the movie. Great photos.

The Ritz is great. Really comfortable beds and awesome showers. It is very close to a metro station, and it is easily walkable to sites like the Hoffberg Palace. Also a nice pool in the spa that plays music underwater. My only real complaint is that there was no free wifi in the room (lobby only), but I think ABD is really to blame for not paying for it. I noted on my post trip survey that at the price point of these trips, ABD needs to step up and make sure free wifi in the room is included at all hotels where it is available.

 

[carpenta]

My only real complaint is that there was no free wifi in the room (lobby only), but I think ABD is really to blame for not paying for it. I noted on my post trip survey that at the price point of these trips, ABD needs to step up and make sure free wifi in the room is included at all hotels where it is available.

I agree 100%. Having traveled with competitors in family travel ABD should step up their game and provide the "necessity" of wifi. As listed before items such as whisper units and better dining choices would add to the attraction of booking a future trip. Also did the group travel to the Prada amusement park when in Vienna? We did at night and the kids had a grand time. The pictures are amazing and again thanks for the report.

 

[hilarys]

Another positive vote for the Ritz. Such comfortable beds which were very appreciated at this point in the trip. The location was very good for walking to many tourist areas and restaurants.


I am so glad you used the train picture from the Salt Mines! I love how everyone looks so happy and my kids look absolutely miserable like we are sending them off to hard labor. I think they need to use this picture in the brochure. You can be sure I am going to torment my kids with this picture for a good long while.

Hilary

 

[Calfan]

Also did the group travel to the Prada amusement park when in Vienna? We did at night and the kids had a grand time.

The group did not go to the Prater, and I think this would be a really nice enhancement to the trip. I'm not sure it is feasible for the ABD to go in the evening, since we had dinner events on both of our full days in Vienna (at the zoo on Day 7 and our farewell dinner on Day 8). But I think it would be a great add to one of the free afternoons in Vienna. I haven't written Day 7's report yet, but you will see when I post it that I actually thought there was too much free time in Vienna on Days 7 and 8, and an outing to the Prater could easily be added on one of those afternoons. In hindsight, we should have gone as a family on one of those days, but we had weather issues (stay tuned).

 

[Calfan]

I am so glad you used the train picture from the Salt Mines! I love how everyone looks so happy and my kids look absolutely miserable like we are sending them off to hard labor. I think they need to use this picture in the brochure. You can be sure I am going to torment my kids with this picture for a good long while.

Hilary

Hilarious. I just love that photo!

 

[mgsquared]

I agree 100%. Having traveled with competitors in family travel ABD should step up their game and provide the "necessity" of wifi. As listed before items such as whisper units and better dining choices would add to the attraction of booking a future trip. Also did the group travel to the Prada amusement park when in Vienna? We did at night and the kids had a grand time. The pictures are amazing and again thanks for the report.

Seriously. There are SUCH great restaurants near the Ritz and the guides recommended a chain that is all over Europe and NYC? Vapianos is decent food but it's a chain. It's like Chilli'd or Applebees.

I was just in the Prater the other day and thinking "the ABD Disney peeps would like this!" There are some pretty intense rides. Don't know how they would measure up to a place like six flags though...

 

[Calfan]

Seriously. There are SUCH great restaurants near the Ritz and the guides recommended a chain that is all over Europe and NYC? Vapianos is decent food but it's a chain. It's like Chilli'd or Applebees.

Too funny. I had no idea Vapianos is a chain. I don't think we have them in California (or if we do, I have never seen one), nor have I encountered one in our other European travels or in New York. The guides did also recommend a couple of other places with more traditional cuisine (whose names I can't remember). I happen to have a son who is a picky eater but loves Italian food, so he lobbied hard for Vapianos. To be honest, the rest of us were also ready for a break from the more traditional dishes. I usually don't eat nearly as much red meat as I did on this trip.

 

[Miss SD]

Vapiano was a nice change of pace during the Germany ABD. I grew up eating the heavy traditional dishes, but Vapiano served food that was closer to what my family eats at home. We needed that after days of wurst and wiener schnitzel.

 

[Calfan]

Before I get into the specifics of Day 7 of the ABD, I wanted to provide my overall thoughts on Vienna and how this ABD covers it. First off, I really enjoyed all of the ABD activities in Vienna (with the possible exception of the waltz lessons on Day 8, which wasn’t one of my favorites). But I didn’t enjoy Vienna as a city as much as I thought I would when anticipating this ABD. I think there are several reasons that contributed to this, and only one I would really pin on ABD.

First, in hindsight, I should have done more research on Vienna prior to this trip. I was so focused on Prague, since we spent almost five full days there before the ABD started, that I might have overlooked Vienna. On the other hand, I wasn’t expecting quite as much free time as we actually had in Vienna. We had almost five hours of free time on each of our two full days in Vienna, and this wasn’t clear to me from reading the itinerary before the trip. Had I realized we would have as much free time as we did, I would have purchased a Vienna guide book like I did for Prague and flagged some “must dos” for our free time. (This was very different from our first ABD where we did have some free time but not so much in any one location that I felt like I needed to have done prior research to figure out how best to use our time.) For Day 8, I blame some of my misconception on ABD, since both the online itinerary and the booklet for the trip indicated there would be a walking tour of Vienna included on this day, and that did not happen on our trip. I actually would have really liked a guided walking tour of Vienna, so I am disappointed this was eliminated. I am all for “on your own” time during any group tour, but I actually thought the amount of free time in Vienna on this ABD was excessive, and I would have preferred that ABD schedule some additional activities (like maybe the Prater, as per previous posts).

Second, we fell so much in love with Prague on this trip that I think any big European city (with the possible exception of Paris), would have paled a bit in comparison, and I think this happened to us with Vienna.

Third, bad weather negatively impacted our enjoyment of Vienna, whereas the rain at Hohenwerfen Castle and in Salzburg didn’t really affect our enjoyment of the activities. We had rain on and off most of the day on Day 7, and it rained pretty heavily during our afternoon free time on that day. We ventured out after lunch when it appeared the rain was tailing off, but that was short-lived, and we eventually gave up. Part of the issue is that we aren’t big museum people. In hindsight, we should have stuck with indoor activities and visited some of the museums in the Hoffberg Palace or elsewhere, instead of trying to walk around and take in the sights on foot.

So there were many contributing factors, but the bottom line is that weren’t quite as enthralled with Vienna as I had expected to be. With all of that out of the way, I will turn to what we actually did on Day 7, because as I said, I did really enjoy the ABD activities in Vienna. I just wish there were more.

We started the day at Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Habsburgs. The adults received an excellent guided tour of about 20 of the rooms in the palace while the junior adventurers (and some wanna be JAs) visited the children’s museum and got to play dress-up. Our guide was another Sabine, and I thought her tour was great. Enough detail to be interesting and informative, but not overload. And per the previous posts on this topic, we used whisper devices in the palace, which was essential given how many other people and tours were going through the palace at the same time. For some reason, I find Maria Theresa and the fact that she was Marie Antoinette’s mother fascinating, which added to my enjoyment of this tour. Photos were not allowed on the tour, so unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the inside of the palace to share.

Following the tour, we met back up with the JAs and headed over to another part of the palace for the Original Vienna Strudelshow, which was a strudel-making demonstration. Happily, we got to enjoy the demonstration while sampling the delicious strudel with either tea or coffee. The demonstration was interesting and entertaining. I just hope my husband (who does the baking in our household) was taking good notes!

Next up was a marionette show in the marionette theater, also at Schonbrunn Palace. Sadly, this was another instance where photos were not permitted (during the show), but it was very impressive. Some of the marionettes had more strings than I could count, and the puppeteers were able to do just amazing things with the marionettes in terms of movements and expression. After the show, we got to peak backstage and then had the opportunity to try our hand with some marionettes.

The activities wrapped up around noon or so, and then we had free time for the rest of the day until our dinner that evening. We had lunch at a brew pub close to the hotel and then ventured out for some sightseeing, but, as mentioned above, we cut that short after an hour or so due to the rain. I’ll let the (soggy) pictures tell the story of what we saw in our rainy wanderings.

Luckily, the rain let up a bit in the evening for our group dinner in the Emperor’s Pavilion at the Vienna Zoo, back at Schonbrunn Palace. Before dinner, we had a private after-hours tour of the zoo, which was a treat. The only down side was that some of the animals had taken cover from the rain and were either in their night houses or were hard to see. But we did see some animals, including some unusual ones, and dinner in the Pavilion was really neat, although the food wasn’t quite as good as the setting. I would have liked more private tour time in the zoo before dinner, but this was a great activity and a great wrap-up to the day.

 

[Calfan]

Schonbrunn Palace

The JAs playing dress-up in the children's museum

Waiting for us upon our arrival. Yum!

Backstage at the marionette theater

Some of the marionettes on display

Rainy shot of the Opera House from the coach. I neglected to mention in my report for Day 7 that we did a short coach tour of the "ring" on the way back to the hotel.

The brew pub where we had lunch

Rainy sightseeing shots

To be continued...

 

[Calfan]

The Hoffberg Palace

Zoo critters

Tapir on the right

Anteater

Red panda

The Emperor's Pavilion, where we had dinner

We had a few minutes after dinner to check out the animal exhibits surrounding the Pavilion.