Vienna, Austria / Prague with the Knowlans

Our neighbors the Knowlans arrived Monday night around 6:30pm.  Our kids were ecstatic to see their friends.  Elise and Lydia led a quick tour of the house and we all stayed up a bit catching up.

Carissa unfortunately had to work on Tuesday and the girls had school.  I put Haaken in for the whole day (usually he has a half day) and then took the Knowlan's to Amberg for the day.  We wandered up the main street in the center of town, and then circled back to the main square along the wall of the old city.  After a German lunch of goulash and schnitzel, we got back in the car and drove up the hill that looks over the town to the baroque Franciscan monestery Mariahilfberg.  It was a perfect day, high 50s and sunny, so we had a drink on the balcony overlooking the city at the hilltop restaurant and then explored the nearby church.

Amberg Cathedral

 Drinks over looking Amberg

 Hilltop Church and Monastery

Wednesday Maya and Holly went to school with the girls and David and Maria went to Flossenberg concentration camp, while I packed up our stuff for our weekend trip.  After work we picked up Carissa and all drove to Vienna.

Thursday we got up and took the metro in to the center of Vienna.  We started with a walk through the Old Town, starting at the Opera house and then walking down Kartnerstrasse to St. Stephen's Cathedral.  After exploring the cathedral we bought some fried potatoes off the street for a snack and stopped at beautiful baroque St. Peter's Church, the oldest in Vienna.  We then strolled down Kohlmarkt, bought a treat at a fancy candy shop and ended our walk at the Hofsburg Palace.

 Outside the Opera House

 Streets of Vienna

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Confectionary on Kohlmarkt

Hofburg Palace Guards

At this point it was probably about 1pm.  We thought about touring the palace but decided that we shouldn't make the kids wait much longer.  Carissa had read about the Naschmarkt which looked to be a short walk away so headed that direction for some food.  The walk was quite a bit longer than we thought, but we made it and found something to eat.  After the break we walked the length of the market, which is filled will all kinds different ethnic food vendors and then took the metro back to the center of the city.  

On the way to the Naschmarkt

 Naschmarkt

We followed the market up with a tram ride around the city, which according to our guide book made a loop (with one transfer).  We switched trains, and I took a catnap.  When I woke up we appeared to be a ways from the center of the city in a residential area.  Carissa asked a fellow passenger and they informed us that the route had changed since the book was written (2009).  We reached the end of the line and sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do.  I asked the driver if he spoke English, and he curtly replied that he didn't without looking at me.  In broken German I tried to ask him if the train stopped back where we started and he spit out of rapid fire German at me, again without looking, clearly annoyed.  In the end we determined  by using the tram map posted inside that as long as the tram starts up again we'd get back to a stop close to where we started.  It did and we made it back to our original starting point and then took the metro back to the apartment.

That night Carissa, Maria, Elise and Maya went out on the town to the Opera.  They were able to get standing room only tickets for 3 euro each.  They stayed for 3 acts and then went across the street to the famous Hotel Sacher for their Sachertorte (chocolate cake with apricot filling).  Meanwhile David and I had a few brews and watched the Austrian Hockey league playoff semifinals (game went to overtime - a few Minnesotans on each team and the coach for one was Pierre Page the old North Stars coach) while Lydia, Holly and Haaken watched movies.

Girl's Night at the Opera

 

Hotel Sacher

The next day we packed up and drove the cars over to the Hofburg Palace, which we toured.  It has a nice museum that displayed a lot of the royal families possessions, especially their china and silverware which they used frequently for receptions and official gatherings.  We also got to see the Imperial Apartments which were furnished with original furniture used by Franz Joseph I and Elisabeth, who were the last rulers of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, which dissolved at the end of World War I.

Royal China

Following the palace we ate lunch at a fun little German chain restaurant called Vapiano.  They serve Italian pasta made to order.  Afterwards we got in our cars and drove to Prague.

Austria had been rainy the two days we were there and we drove through snow on our way to Prague.  Once we got there the sky cleared up but it was cold and windy.  Our Harley themed apartment was right on Wenceslas Square which was a fun location.  Our apartment, while very big, was not great.  It was so bad in fact, I wrote the following review on Booking.com (where it had scored an 8 out of 10) when we got home:

Pros:  Great location, very large apartment.

Cons:  Beds and pillows were horrible. Some of the sheets were ripped and the comforters weren't clean. Unknown substances splattered on many of the walls, dishes in the kitchen were dirty. Overall the place had very poor cleanliness and we were rather disgusted by it so didn't spend much time in the room.

Thankfully it was cheap and we were busy.  That night we walked all over looking for a restaurant in our guidebook, but gave up and ate in an Irish pub of all places.  We still were able to order some traditional Czech food though.  Of course on the way home we walked right by the one we'd been trying to find.

Saturday we got up and started walking toward the Old Town Square.  Along the way we ran into an outdoor market and browsed.  At the Old Town Square we checked out the astronomical clock and walked through Tyn Church before heading over to the Charles Bridge.

Wenceslas Square

Market browsing

 Old Town Hall

Crepes on the Old Town Square

We'd been pushing the kids pretty hard the past couple days so we had the kids take a nap that afternoon.  That night we took a little tram ride up to the castle and then back to the center of town where we saw the Charles Bridge at night and ate off the street in the Old Town Square.

 Night view from Charles Bridge

Sunday morning we'd planned on visiting the Jewish Quarter but one of our cars got stuck in the crazy parking ramp we'd put the cars in and it took a couple hours for them to get it out.  Once we finally got it out we decided the kids would probably appreciate a little bit of time to play at home before the Knowlan's left for Rome the next day.