One small step to Vienna

Today, we head out to Vienna. But before that, we had to go to the station to make a reservation for our seats. This would be the first for us, so we weren’t sure what to do. Luckily, there was another train station near our hotel within walking distance that allowed reservations to be made. We made it there and that was that. The day started out wet. Lucky for us that it was the day we would leave. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have a good time walking around in the rain.

We took a taxi from the hotel, which this time we made sure we wouldn’t get swindled. The taxi was a special service by the hotel, so the price was priced correctly. We got to the station, then to our train where we got into one of the rooms in the train. There, we met an old Czech man, who had some odor issue. Whenever he left the room to go to the bathroom, Sheilla took the opportunity and sprayed her perfume. I wondered till now if he had noticed. I held my laughter inside. At any rate, he was actually a nice gentleman. He talked a lot, and sometimes a little more than I hoped for. Because I hoped to used the time during the train ride to write my blog, but he decided to chat about Prague, his hometown, America, the train ride, his family, his work, his music which he played from his laptop to us, and more with very very broken English. Nonetheless, he was friendly and just liked to make friends. After he got out of the train at his stop, Sheilla and I watched a movie, Amelie on my laptop until we have arrived in Vienna.

In Vienna, we had to take a taxi from Südbahnhof station to Westbahnhof station. It was already dark, so we hardly could take any pictures. Once at Westbahnhof station, we went to the lounge area where we were allowed to be in, since we were 1st class passenger for the overnight train. We had dinner from Mr. Lee fast food restaurant in the station. It was so good that we took an extra plate to go.

Prague, a true European city

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We started the morning with brunch at Ebel Coffee House. It was a charming little café that serves the usual menu as any other typical café. There was nothing too out of the ordinary in the inside either. Yet, it was simply charming, and we liked it.





From there, we headed out on the same route as the previous night towards Old Town Square to take the same pictures, but this time in daylight.







We headed to a different street branch to take us to Charles Bridge. We managed our way towards the river, which had quite a captivating view of the Prague Castle and the surrounding.



We walked to the Charles Bridge, which was entirely made only for pedestrian. Therefore, no motored vehicles were allowed. Along the way, there were statues that decorated the sides of the bridge. Some of these statues had gold decorations.









At the other end of the bridge, we saw more old buildings, but we guessed that it was less of a “city” than the Old Town Prague. On this side, we saw more residential buildings and little local shops. You won’t find Guess, H&M, or Zara stores on this side.





We passed thru several buildings of old, where the paint had started to wear out even though it may be obvious that they re-paint every now and then. There were a lot of streets, big and small. They were all made of cobble stones and the like, towered with old buildings which then brought out the real old European town feeling. At least that was how I felt.





After some walking up a hill, we came to the main gate to the Prague Castle, which sits atop a hill. From this hilltop, you could see Prague in much greater view. It was so magnificent.







The gate of the castle was guarded by two guards, who like the British guards do not move at all. Sheilla posed in front of them, but I guessed they didn’t flinch.



We entered the castle and came to an open area which leads to the church.





Around the church, we found some more open area where we happened to catch some guards marching.





There weren’t that much more to see, as if most buildings were closed. We made it to the other side of the castle and decided to descend back towards Old Town. By this time, we started to feel hungry.



After walking around, we found a restaurant that looked chic and romantic. Most of all, we were attracted with the menu where it said “Czech Cuisine”. Hmmm, what could that be? We had to find out, so we decided to eat here. The food turned out very very well prepared, and it was served in big portion. Most important of all, it was delicious. I had the pork skewer, and Sheilla had the Goulash soup.










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We were soooooo full afterwards. We were glad that we had to walk back home, so that it could give the food time to be digested. At any rate, it was a wonderful day. We couldn’t complain much, other than the seemingly colder weather compared to Germany. Tomorrow, we will be on our way to Vienna, then Venice!

Swindled in Prague!!

We got swindled! We arrived at Holešovice, a train station on the northern part of Prague. We took a taxi there to our hotel. We were suspicious on how the Argo meter was accumulating. Moreover, we weren’t knowledgeable on how many crownes was equivalent to a Euro. The taxi charged us, 951 crownes, which we found later at the hotel was around 40 €. The hotel said it was suppose to have cost 1/3 of that. I guess we learned our lesson. Always ask!

We checked in, settled down and freshened up for a bit. After deciding what kind of food we’d want for dinner, which we picked to be Tex-Mex, we headed out into Prague’s Old Town.








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The Old Town was really old-looking. The streets were all made with stones of various kinds, one kind per street. We walked through the big and small streets, thru a few alleys before we found the restaurant. It was called Red Hot & Blues, not too far from our hotel. It was delicious anyway, even though we found the price to be just the same as the US or other expensive places. But we were treated with a live music, a single-man band with sound similar to John Mayer, passionate in blues and jazz. His collection consisted of some oldies, one such example was a song called “Layla”.









After dinner, we headed out, almost without plan to wherever we thought might be a good destination. We saw the upper parts of a cathedral that was near where we were, so we decided to head in that direction. We passed little shops and café along the way before we came to a huge open plaza called Old Town Square.







We were surrounded with beautiful buildings of churches, cathedrals, museums, a fountain and much more. The cathedral that we used to guide us to the Old Town Square was called Tyn Church.





Across from Tyn Church is the Astronomical Clock tower.





After taking a number of pictures, we chose a street that branched away from the square. We window-shopped along the maze of streets before we found a souvenir shop, where we stopped to purchase items. After I looked at the map to find out our position, we headed back towards our hotel. Tomorrow, we’re going to see as much as we can, for the first time without a tour guide! Good luck to us!