Prague

 

It's going to be another hot day, up to 34C this afternoon. Luckily our tours are in the morning, Temperatures in the high 20s, and as long as you're in the shade it's fine. Only 5 of us opted to do the "Castle Hike" tour. The rest of the group are taking the bus up to the castle, then walking down. We are walking both ways.

We started out from the hotel going from the new town to the old town at the Powder Tower. Then through streets of the old town to the Old Town square with the Astronomical clock. Tourists gather every hour to watch it. Right now some of the statues are being repaired. It's interesting to see, but not to try and take a video of. (that doesn't stop most people!) We made our way through the streets towards the Charles Bridge. There are so many beautiful buildings that I took far too many pictures! We then joined the throngs to cross the Charles bridge. It really is a lovely setting, and because it's pedestrian only, nice to walk across. Great views of the castle from the bridge. Once on the other side we started to slowly walk up towards the castle. The streets have many small stores, restaurants and boutique hotels. We stopped for a break at a cafe, and I had a lovely iced cappuccino in their shaded courtyard. Afterwards we continued up the street, stopping at a puppet store, then a chocolate shop. Then finally up the slope to the Castle and the Cathedral. Both very impressive buildings, and the view from the ramparts is wonderful! The other 4 people wanted to stay up at the castle and tour the inside, so the rest of the tour was a private tour. We walked down the stairs with the view over the river, city and gardens. Then over to Wenceslas Square, the commercial heart of Prague. From there the main shopping streets lead off, and we popped in to a couple of stores to have a look and cool down.

Back at the hotel I meet up with Ian (he did the other tour), and we picked up a sandwich and beer to share in our room and have a little down time before the afternoon program.

Sorry, way too many pictures today, but it's all so beautiful!





































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prague - Terezin

Image
  Our last day of the tour. It's going to be even hotter today, up to 34C!. Luckily we had signed up for the optional tour to Terezin. I've been interested in this Nazi Concentration camp since reading the Winds of War and War & Remembrance many years ago. And last year I actually met someone who was in this camp as a baby. The story of Terezin during WW2 is quite bizarre. The Nazis promoted it as a "Paradise Ghetto" and charged Jews large sums of money to be transferred there instead of one of the camps like Auschwitz. There were no gas chambers at Terezin, but still many Jews and other political prisoners died there of disease and starvation. And almost all were eventually shipped off to their death in one of the other camps. But the really bizarre thing is the fact that Hitler ordered a "beautification" for a Red Cross visit to show that the Nazi Camps were treating people well. There was even a film made. Terezin is about 1 hour out of Prague through...
Read more

Wiessenkirchen to Grein Austria

Image
 When we woke up this morning we were entering the Wachau Valley, one of the prettiest parts of the cruise. We watched castles, small villages and vineyards slip by as we ate breakfast. Around 8am we arrived in Wiessenkirchen a very picturesque small village. All 3 tours today were leaving the ship here and joining the ship this afternoon in another village up river. There were 15 of us who had opted to take the bike ride to Melk. Although it's another hot day, predicted to reach 34C again, the morning ride is lovely! The bike path is mainly level, winding through small villages, sometimes by the side of the road or the railway and other times by itself. We have frequent stops for sightseeing or hydration. The pace is nice and easy so we can look around and enjoy the scenery. Being a Sunday there are quite a few bike riders out. We ride for 3 hours, about 30km in all. Then we drop off the bikes and a bus takes us up to Melk Abby. We had about 30 minutes, enough time to take some pi...
Read more

Budapest

Image
  A fairly good sleep last night, but I woke up early because I went to bed early. We had a nice relaxed breakfast at our hotel, then headed out for a walk along the Danube to the Parliament buildings. It's a beautiful morning, already quite warm with a breeze along the river. There are so many beautiful buildings here. We are walking along the Pest side, so we have a great view of all the buildings on the Buda side! On this side the Parliament buildings are very impressive, huge and very ornate. There is also a shoe memorial on the river to commemorate the people, mostly Jews killed in 1944/45 by the Arrow Brigade, a far right Nazi party. We then wandered through streets and made our way to St Stephan's Basilica, then through some more pedestrian streets back to the river, and finally back to our hotel for a bit of a rest. Instead of a "proper" lunch today, we had a Funnel Cake. A Budapest variation of an ice-cream cone. Then later in the afternoon, we took the metro...
Read more