Vienna

After Stuttgart our holiday was focussed on Eastern Europe, but Vienna was on the way and Eve had never been there before. We allowed it a day.

We had a choice of routes and we elected to go via Munich. That way we did not travel the line to Nűrnberg a second time, and there was a convenient wait between trains to allow for lunch. What we did not factor in was the extreme busyness of Munich's main station or the fact that the eating places required us to wrestle our luggage up stairs.

From Munich to Vienna we travelled on a 'Rail Jet' extra-fast train, although I noted that it was not powered by a jet engine. It was a very popular train, and even the first class seats were nearly all reserved. But we did locate places adjacent to the restaurant car.

Not only did we see a lot of very scenic Austrian countryside as we dashed along at up to 230 km per hour, but we enjoyed excellent company. Diane Putz is an engineer who designs building facades. She is also a 'mental coach' to, amongst others, the Austrian national tennis squad. She believes that she is still the youngest female in Europe to obtain a glider pilot's license. She was only 14. Doesn't it make you feel you haven't done enough with your life? Overachiever she may be, but she was certainly very down to earth to talk to. She and Eve got on particularly well. We are still in touch.

It was in the taxi from the station that Eve discovered that she had lost her handbag. We hunted, of course, in all possible and even impossible corners of our luggage when we arrived at our Airbnb room. Thank goodness for the Internet. We were able to report the lost property to both Deutsche Bahn and to OBB, the Austrian railway operator, in English. And the credit cards had to be cancelled. Fortunately the handbag was found, with all contents intact. For a modest fee OBB parcelled it up and mailed it to NZ.

I was going to skip the palaces, but somewhere I read about a visitor who spent 3 full days in the gardens of the Schloss Schönbrunn. If the gardens are that good, Eve has to see them, so we devoted a morning to them. It was easy to get to the palace, and admission to the gardens is free, so it was a cheap outing. And honestly, a morning was quite enough.

The formal gardens from the palace.

I prefer my waterfalls without statuary, but apparently the Hapsburgs had a different view.

But they also liked roses.

We spent the afternoon in the Mitte (city centre). There are grand buildings all around and we dutifully ticked some off. We were at the famous Spanish Riding School at about afternoon tea time. Commentators are agreed that Vienna is the city for coffee and cake. And, lo and behold, there was a cafe on the spot with a big illustrated cake menu. The coffee and cake were nice, but they weren't cheap and they weren't, in our view, special. We have since been advised that we should have gone to a 'coffee house' instead.

An interesting pattern on this cathedral roof.

Pull over here!  Or is it a specialist woollens shop?

The cafe at the Spanish Riding School

Laden with calories.

Nearly everywhere we went tourists are offered rides in horse-drawn carriages.  In Vienna the horses' ears are clothed.  Is it to keep them warm?  Is it to muffle traffic noise?  Are they showing off the colours of their favourite football team?  If you know why, please leave a comment and let us know.

On leaving we tried out Uber, the taxi company that claims it is not a taxi company. You use your 'phone or tablet to identify your destination and request a car. Once the request has been accepted by a driver you can watch the car approaching on a map. The fare advised in advance is only an estimate, and the actual charge to our credit card was rather more than the estimate, but it is certainly easy to use app.

Stuttgart

The first stage of our journey was by bus. We still travelled on our Eurail pass but the 'train' from Prague to Nűrnberg was a bus operated by the German rail company, Deutsche Bahn. It was a very comfortable double decker with WiFi service all the way. It was the first sector on our itinerary that had to be booked in advance. There were no advantages in having a pass for first class travel.

It left Prague's main station forecourt on time and arrived in Nűrnberg very late, but it wasn't Deutsche Bahn's fault. Not long after we crossed the border into Germany we ran into a traffic jam on the autobahn. A few hundred metres ahead we could see a police vehicle, and beyond that was clear road. Using my camera on maximum zoom I could see nothing to explain the hold up. There was no twisted wreckage. There was no lake of blood.

Halt!

Half an hour went by. Nothing kept on happening up ahead. Motorists stepped out of their cars. Some of them started playing games; others walked towards the head of the queue. As more time went by additional emergency vehicles threaded their way through the stationary traffic, but nothing happened to get us going again until we had been motionless for an hour and a half. Eventually the police van moved slowly ahead while the rubberneckers hastened back to their abandoned vehicles. Around the first bend, just out of sight of where our bus had been stopped, was a motorway exit through which all traffic was now directed. What we could see of the forbidden autobahn carriageway ahead was innocent of any evidence of disaster. In the event we did see something of the original problem. By chance, the minor road chosen for the diversion was close enough to the autobahn for us to see the vehicles that had crashed, quite a few kilometres ahead of the halted traffic.

We comprehensively missed the train we had planned to catch in Nűrnberg, but there was another a couple of hours later. So we had time to find and consume a sandwich before we boarded an inter-city express that ran on rails and boasted first class carriages.

Through the magic of mobile phone technology we were able to inform our friends in Stuttgart of the delay and, later, of the revised ETA in Stuttgart.

Julian is a friend from my long-ago schooldays. He and his wife, Seraina, have lived in Stuttgart for a long time, but this was the first time I had visited their home. The flat is in a quiet street, with a balcony at the back enjoying a garden, maintained by the ground floor residents, that nicely balances mature trees, flowers, a tiny pond with a wee fountain and a small lawn. The balcony is at just the right height to provide a good view of the birds that forage amongst the trees and a charming red squirrel.

A morsel of the view from the balcony.

That evening the weather broke. After weeks of energy-sapping heat there was a thunderstorm. It was wonderful. There was a fair bit of thunder, and just enough rain to cool the world down to a more benign temperature.  

We were there to see Julian and Seraina, of course, not as tourists, but Julian did guide us round some of the city centre and took us to the Botanic Gardens.

Julian and Seraina Clarke.

Prague

From Dresden we ventured into true adventure. In England and Germany we could make ourselves understood, but between us we spoke not a word of Czech. It was also the first city in which we had used Airbnb to book accommodation. If you are not yet aware of it, this web site links people with a room or a flat to rent out with travellers who desire a place to stay. Both parties give feedback so that those who come later have some intelligence to base their decisions on. Like the Ulmon maps app, this was a tip from Mike Theilmann. And like the app, it was a winner.

In fact, we had an armchair ride into Prague. Our host, Martin Boura, had given us clear directions from the station to the flat as soon as we booked. On the day we arrived he also told us (by txt) exactly where to buy the necessary tram ticket. The name of the next stop was always displayed in the tram, so we didn't need to try and follow progress on paper or electronic map. We arrived at the door just a minute before Martin so 'check in' was very smooth. Hooray, we're here!

Prague had been recommended to us by several folk and they speak sooth. We had a very pleasant few days. Travel is very easy on the frequent trams and a modern Metro. Prices are reasonable or cheap. The beer is both cheap and excellent, and since the warm weather continued this was a blessing.

Although plenty of communist-era blocky high-rise buildings can be seen outside the centre, the old city is pleasing to the eye. The old buildings are painted in pastel shades. We saw the famous ultra-modern 'dancing house' from our first tram, but never went back to take a photograph. The image below was downloaded from the Internet. It doesn't, to my mind, 'go' with the rest of the centre, but it certainly cannot be accused of being unimaginative.

The little flat did not contain a washing machine so host Martin directed us to a laundrette. It was sufficiently popular with tourists that signs were in English and the attendants spoke enough to make the transaction simple. Otherwise we stayed in the tourist zone, where English is the universal language.

The places we visited were from the guidebook's top attractions; Wenceslas Square, the astronomical clock and Charles Bridge (packed with hawkers, almost outnumbering the tourists) in the Old Town; Vyšehrad to the South. We considered an excursion to the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora, but there was too much to see for the time available and something had to go.

A street in Prague Old Town

Not only is this busker playing plastic buckets as drums, he's playing them very well!  Wenceslas Square, I think.

The famous astronomical clock.

A detail from the clock.

Buildings near Wenceslas Square

One of the best 'living statues' we've ever seen.

The crowds on Charles Bridge

Church of St Peter and St Paul at Vyšehrad.  A bit more colourful than British equivalents.

The roofs of Prague, from Vyšehrad.

Most of the important cities of the middle ages grew up on navigable rivers. It was therefore a big surprise to find that the Vitava River has a weir across it in the city.

Part of the river flows under the houses.

We didn't go inside the Castle, but the Royal Garden was a quiet delight. The garden was patrolled by a guard in camo gear and toting a very large gun. This was a bit disconcerting. He did move around, but it was a slow, almost stealthy, saunter not a march.

The gardens are well labelled in Czech and English.  I was interested to note a Weymouth Pine, but it is a N American tree, not from Weymouth, Dorset.

We attempted to visit the Letná Beer Garden as recommended by Lonely Planet. We found a beer garden, but I don't think it was Letná. Never mind. It served nice beer and we had a long, pleasant conversation with a young German.

Wikitravel put us on to a Czech phrase that every visitor should memorise, “Denni menu, prosim.” Use this in cafes and restaurants at lunch time. Without this prompting the waiter will not provide the special lunch menu, at least not to tourists. Either the day's special will be fixed, or the menu will be in Czech. Each time we tried out this scheme the waiter translated for us, but I wouldn't hesitate to take pot luck and just point to a random item. At one cafe the fixed menu was goulash with dumplings (and delicious). The other two 'denni menus' were both 3 courses; soup, choice of main and a piece of fruit for dessert. All the meals were tasty and satisfying. The cost was around Kč100 or $6 each. A main dish from the tourist menu would have been from Kč250 to over Kč300.

The nearest major shopping area to our studio was Andel. In one of the malls we found a giant Tesco supermarket. Prompted largely by the desire to see how cheap alcohol was, we ventured inside to buy something for dinner. One of the cheapest red wines was labelled as from Australia. How the winemaker made anything on the sale is a mystery to us.

Dresden

I confess that the principal reason I knew anything about Dresden was the notorious air raid near the end of WWII. But some Internet work suggested that it would be a nice place to visit. The boat trips on the River Elbe sounded most attractive.

Our Eurail pass was first class, and there was no pressure for seats in the premium coaches. Our first use of the pass was a very comfortable trundle through the East German countryside. We saw our first 'sun farms' as we called them. Entire fields with solar panels soaking up Sol's energy.

The hostel/hotel we had booked into was a hot and rather longer walk from the station than I had estimated. There was not much shade, but at least the magic map made sure that we did not get lost. And a lavishly decorated container on the roadside made sure we did not miss it.

Germany's hot dry summer meant that the river was very low and the boat trip we had earmarked did not have enough depth for the vessel. So we caught the hop-on hop-off bus instead.

Because of the wartime damage I had expected Dresden to be a very modern-looking city, but in fact it nicely blends new construction with restored original buildings.

After going round the bus circuit we promenaded the city centre streets. Which worked up a thirst. Unsurprisingly, cold beer was at hand to cure our distress.

The river was deep enough to permit smaller tourist boats to operate.

Leipzig

I had booked the train to Leipzig well in advance and thought I'd scored a very good deal on the fare. At the time of booking, 2^nd class seats with no reservation seemed fine. Somewhere on the train there may have been unreserved seats, but we didn't find them. Luckily, there were places only reserved for part of the journey and, by changing seats at nearly every station, Eve managed to sit the whole way and I only had to stand for the last leg of the journey. Not only did she ride comfortably, but Eve managed always to be next to passengers who spoke fluent English and enjoyed rollicking conversations.

We went to Leipzig to take part in the Golden Oldies Hockey Festival. The International Harlequins are listed as a Canadian team because the current manager lives in Calgary, but the players and supporters come from all around the globe. We were very warm in Berlin, and definitely HOT in Leipzig. Temperatures climbed into the 30s every day, and on the last games day it peaked at 38^oC. I can't run fast nowadays in any conditions, but many other players were also reduced to walking so it didn't matter.

The team was lodged at a smart hotel near the station. The room was very comfortable, the staff were very pleasant and the hotel has the splendid habit of issuing every guest with a pass for the city buses and trams so it was easy to get around the entire city.

Pedestrian crossing lights

The hotel did charge for WiFi Internet access, but only if you wanted the full-speed version. “Crippled” access was free. Since broadband is unknown in our part of the Motueka Valley, the free service was hugely superior to what we get at home.

Golden Oldies hockey is all about having fun, rather than overrunning the opposition, and it was a very sociable week. The official programme involves parties at the beginning, middle and end of the festival. In between we tracked down a series of pleasant restaurants. With temperatures as high as they were it was essential for good health to keep our liquid intake up. We can confirm that Leipzig's brewers maintain high standards. ☺

At the mid-week picnic day we met a third generation Golden Oldie. Her father and grandfather are/were regular attendees at the festivals an she was delighted that she was now old enough to qualify.

International Harlequins at the picnic day

All the walking in Berlin had given Eve blisters. She had unwisely 'popped' them and in Leipzig they displayed signs of infection. The International Harlequins squad includes a professor of nursing, who deemed that a consultation with a doctor was necessary. The hotel summoned a taxi and we were amazed that the driver not only came into the lobby to find us, but shook our hands and conversed with us the whole way in excellent English. When he discovered that we were from New Zealand he mentioned that his niece and her friend were planning to visit NZ later in the year as willing workers on organic farms (wwoofers). We immediately invited them to wwoof with us and they did make email contact, but sadly their trip was curtailed and we never met them.

Ultimately we needed two visits to the hospital. The Teutonic efficiency that makes the trains run on time has not invaded the medical system, and we spent a lot of time sitting and waiting. However, we managed to see doctors who spoke excellent English and who delivered effective treatment.

Eve's sore feet rather curtailed our exploration of Leipzig, but the tram passes enabled us to get around a bit. Alas, there was no way for her to dance with her normal verve at the parties.

A shopping mall near the hotel was displaying this map of Europe constructed from Lego pieces.  It is decorated with models of famous landmarks like Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower.

After Leipzig we would be travelling on a Eurail Pass. This had to be validated at the station before we could use it. I made a second trip to the travel office to reserve seats for some of our planned journeys. I was particularly pleased with this latter expedition because I managed the entire conversation in German.

Near the end of the week we managed a trip to the Wildpark. This is essentially a large tract of pleasant forest with walking/biking trails and a few enclosures for European animals and birds. We saw captive wild pigs, deer, wisents (European bison) and owls. Truly wild birds that we saw included herons, great tits, nuthatches, assorted waterfowl and a raven.

Heron

Wild piglets

This raven made the most extraordinary noises

A wisent

To help her feet recover Eve did not come to Friday's hockey. However, she did manage to hobble to a shop recommended by another lady in the squad and buy some bras. Both the garments and the service were top quality and Eve's account of the instructions given by the shop assistant (“She was so small she didn't look as though she needed a bra herself”) was hilarious.

Berlin

Prior research paid big dividends in Berlin. The first bonus was an app recommended by my cousin, Mike Theilmann. Ulmon CityMaps2Go is amazing. You download the maps for the cities you will visit while you have an Internet connection and then use them in the street without the hassle of finding a local SIM card or bothering about WiFi. So long as your device has a GPS function the map will show your position with a blue dot. We could have used Eve's phone (mine is so old it has no GPS), but decided that the bigger screen of a tablet would make life easier. What we came to call “the magic map” is brilliant We recommend this app unreservedly.

The second thing we did right was to get a Berlin Welcome Card. It's a reasonable price and it immediately removes all city travel hassles. We made sure that we had the right version for the Potsdam zone and we were set up for buses, trams, S-Bahn suburban trains and the underground U-Bahn. It can be purchased from the information office at the airport so you don't even have to stress about having small change for bus fares when you arrive.

The Hotel Adam was booked using booking.com. It was remarkably cheap for a hotel in Berlin at 40 euros per night for the two of us, including breakfast, but had a very high review rating. Do you smell a rat? Well, you are wrong. First, it is conveniently located West of the city centre in Charlottenburg with excellent access to all kinds of public transport. Secondly, the breakfast buffet is superb. Good coffee and all the bread, cold meat, cheese, etc. that you can eat.

On top of that, bus 109 takes you from Tegel Airport to the door. We used our new Berlin Welcome cards and followed our progress on the magic map so there was no chance of getting off at the wrong stop. The hotel is not easy to spot from the street. There is a sign, but you have to go through a little door into a courtyard to find the 'real' entrance.

We devoted a day to the unhappy history of partitioned Germany and the communist rule in the East. There is a Stasi Museum, which chronicles in what used to be their HQ the activities of the hated secret police, and a DDR Museum that describes the controlled lives in East Germany. Did you know that many East Germans holidayed in the nude? It was illegal and therefore a way of protesting. Most depressing is the Berlin Wall 'Museum', where a fragment of the old dividing line still stands. There are copious explanations of how it was built and developed and a memorial to the 120-odd people (including children) who were killed trying to escape to the West.

To cheer ourselves up, we devoted most of the next day to 'Green Berlin'. From a particular U-Bahn station you can ride a bus through the Grunewald (Greenwood) to Pfauerninsel (Peacock Island). The bus was a double-decker and we enjoyed the journey from the top deck. At the end of the route there is a ferry to take you the 80 metres or so across to the island, which used to be a holiday home for the local royalty. The gardens were well past their best, but the woods are a pleasant ramble and there is a wildflower meadow that was a picture. Roughly in the centre of the island is a large lawn with a cafe. We lunched on wild pork sausages in a bun. We ate quite a few sausages while we were in Germany and these were the best ones. The buildings on the island are sometimes quite eccentric. What the Prince probably thought of as a bach is a wooden building with odd bits tacked on to make it look (he thought) like a ruined castle.

A few of the wildflowers

At various points around the island there are concrete models of huge acorns.  Very odd.

Several buildings on the island are occupied.  One resident is enthusiastic about witch dolls.

A holiday home for royalty.  Do you think the 'ruins' are romantic?  Neither do we.

Potsdam started with a long walk from the station to the Park Sanssouci. The route took us past a cafe just at the time a coffee would be welcome. As we sat in the sunshine sipping our drinks a violinist was busking a little way down the street. He was playing Eine Kleine Nachtmusik extremely well. There are a couple of palaces in the park, but neither of us is keen on palaces so we skipped those and enjoyed the very extensive grounds, ending up at the Botanic Gardens. There our tired feet found a bus stop, and we could decipher enough of the information to discover the welcome news that there would soon be a bus back to the station.

Eve admiring some of the flowers in Park Sanssouci.

The Chinese House - a garish addition to the lovely gardens.

Waterlilies and a frog in the Botanic Gardens

In between times we managed to see Unter den Linden, the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie. We ate some good meals, especially the ones featuring chanterelle mushrooms and Vietnamese summer rolls. Good coffee is all around you in Berlin, but if you want a real treat we recommend Einstein Kaffee.

England

We couldn't go all the way to Europe and not see some of our English relatives, could we?

The journey got off to a dreary start, with a long wait in Auckland for a flight that was then delayed, making it an even longer wait. However, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur in good enough time to make our connection and arrived at Heathrow roughly on time.

My brother Nigel generously acted as a personal chauffeur service. He not only met us at the airport and drove us to his house in Shaftesbury where we were most comfortably accommodated, but taxied us to:

1. my 90-year-old uncle Norman in Bournemouth. Unfortunately Auntie Chick was in hospital;
2. Somerset, taking the scenic route to (a) Marks & Spencer for replenishment of vital underwear supplies and (b) on to meet our friend Viv Winterburn.

Then, scorning our request for a lift to the station, he drove us all the way to Tamworth so that we could spend a night with Eve's brother Geoff and his wife, Stephanie.

So we talked almost incessantly for 4 days, catching up with special people.

Geoff and Stephanie continued the transport generosity and drove us to Birmingham Airport for our flight to Berlin.

Eve, Uncle Norman Heritage, Bill

Brother Nigel Heritage

Oops.  I forgot to take a photo of Geoff and Stephanie.