038 Austria Part 1

Austria: Vienna
Once again, so many pictures. At this stage we have just reached 2000 photo's (including a few videos) after deleting dud ones!

Frank kept singing the Ultravox song 'Vienna' until we left and then magically stopped. He did have a bruised arm but he still kept singing!

Hofburg Palace. While we didn't go on a tour we did go to see the Dancing Spanish White horses. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about this as while some of the horses were undoubtedly enjoying themselves, many were not.

 

This was so cute. There was a ramp for the ducks.

Vienna Rathaus (Town Hall)

These were cocktails. We were not brave enough to ask the price.

We've been surprised by just how many cities do have trams. The public transport system was great. We used Bus, Subway & Tram - all cheap and efficient.

We had a wonderful hour in Stadtpark. The weather was perfect. We had a laze on the grass. The park was full of statues in honour of musicians. Frank shows his skill at playing an invisible violin.

The Danube. You cannot believe how much effort we had to go to to just get to the actual river. There are lots of 'tributaries/canals'

 Schronbrunn Palace from the top of the hill we climbed. 

 Artistic, hey :)

 

 We really enjoyed the Naschmarkit that had trash and treasure one side and the most amazing Deli's the other. We had lunch here, pointed at something someone else was eating and were rewarded by the most delicious anti-pasta platter I've ever had.

 

And finally we went to a concert where we had front row seats. 48 musicians and 4 opera singers. Just 90 mins but it was enough.

and of course the final thing that was played was the Vienna waltz - perfect.

037 Czech Republic: Budejovice, Cesky Krumlov

Czech Republic: Budejovice, Cesky Krumlov

We returned via Kiev. We'd been a bit concerned that maybe the Russia/Ukraine conflict would have an effect on our flight, but we were fine (as we expected but you never know). Our car was perfectly safe. So we have behind us the two events that news had led us to believe were risky.

We'd had an early morning flight and there was a 2 hour difference so we had the whole of the afternoon ahead of us and drove to Ceske Budejovice. While they accommodate tourists, it isn't  a tourist town (if you know what I mean)

Budejovice:
At some stage I will do a blog with just the towers Frank has climbed. I think I did the first three and a few major ones but if you can climb the church/cathedral tower then Frank is off. He's taken some amazing Arial shots.

This is the view from our bedroom window. It is one of the least expensive hotels we have stayed in, is our biggest room and the second best hotel. Our car was parked via an elevator!

View of the square from the tower. It was over 35C each day. The fountain had no shade yet was still popular with the locals, mainly early evening. It doesn't go dark until nearly 10pm and even then it isn't really that dark.

We took a day trip to Hluvoka State Castle. No photos allowed inside. It was really a private home for most of its life, rather than a defensive castle. It had beautiful extensive gardens. The interiors were covered in elaborate wood carving. Not opulent but certainly tasteful.

 

On the way into Austria we stopped at Cesky Krumlov. This place was awesome (and I don't use the word lightly). The castle/monastery was enormous. We didn't bother going inside as we'd been told it wasn't impressive and we'd already 'done' a great number

The covered walkway to the garden, so they wouldn't get wet or sunburnt!

I've never seen a place make such good use of its river. There were white water sections. There were easily over 100 kayaks. 

We'd heard some pretty bad things about the treatment of bears but these were in a very large enclosure, spotlessly clean, couple of 'caves' and plenty to interest the bears. They looked very healthy. We never  inquired if they had to dance.

This furniture was so funny. There was more inside. These are chairs. Now Frank could have chosen any one of 12 chairs to sit on for the photo and he chose this one!

And that was Czech Republic

 

Very inexpensive. Very friendly. A surprising amount of English spoken. Tourist friendly but not yet really discovered by the hoards of tourists. Very western, except for the food - which we found stodgy.

 

We heard some bad things about the police but never witnessed anything. We bought our toll pass within the first 10 mins of being in the country, stuck strictly to the speed limits (annoying many a local) and stuck to the zero alcohol before driving - so we never tempted any of the on-the-spot fines which is where the trouble seems to originate.

 

The only thing we really didn't like is the smoking - a huge percentage of the population smoke and they can smoke anywhere, even indoors in restaurants - so we had quite a few spoiled meals.

 



Overall a great place to visit.

036 Russia: St. Petersburg Metro

Russia: St. Petersburg Subway/ Underground / Metro

While the stations were not quite as fantastic as Moscow, they were still magnificent and the efficiency of the service was extraordinary.

These are the jokes folks: Subway/Metro! The blue M is the sign for the St. Petersburg Metro and I can tell you they are VERY hard to spot. Add to that the entry is often no where near the exit.

Spotlessly clean.

035 Russia: St. Petersburg

Russia: St. Petersburg
Palaces & gold. Peterhof, Hermitage & Catherine's Palace
Unbelievable. We are probably 2cm smaller for all the walking we did. All the 'stuff' we saw is that which was not lost in the revolution. If this is only a small sample of what they managed to hoard then you start to understand why there was a revolution.

This is only a small sample of our photographs. We took more on St. Petersburg than Moscow- which I wouldn't have thought possible. Add to that all the palaces where no photographs were allowed and you can begin to imagine how much there is to see in Russia. We were totally enthralled. One of the most memorable was the Amber room, in Catherine the Greats palace - breathtaking.

The fast train from Moscow-St. Petersburg; more like an aeroplane experience than a train ride.

The Peter and Paul fortress.

 St. Isaac's Cathedral. Once again we didn't need to cover our heads.

 Peter the Greats summer palace at Peterhof. The fountain was just amazing, gold everywhere you looked.

 

 

Hermitage. There are plenty of interesting facts about how long it would take you if you stood for a certain amount of time in front of each exhibit - ranging from 5 - 7 years!! We took 5 hours and saw about 80% of the place.
There was some amazing artefacts. Add to that the sumptuousness of the actually palace, the ceilings, the walls and the spectacular parquetry floors and you went into sensory overload.

 

the floors (which we were actually allowed to walk on) were exquisite (eventually you just run out of superlatives :))

 

 

 

I found this of interest as in the western world we rarely see busts of black people. Russia has loads of them.

Something that was quite surprising: all these famous paintings and little security. If you were brave (or stupid?) you could actually touch them - we saw one guy do just that and no alarms went off. In the Louvre you would be queuing for hours and then see the Mona Lisa behind bullet proof glass.

endless opulence.

 

I loved this. It is an individual sleigh for one of the children. The artwork was ... well yes, exquisite.

Russia is not a place to advertise. In fact if we hadn't been told exactly where this show was we would never have found the place, even when we were standing right outside. Traditional singing and dancing.
We got into the habit of just trying interesting looking doors as so much was hidden behind the most uninteresting doors (just like our apartment :))

Some things are just there to amuse :)
The park had an Alice in Wonderland theme

Church of the spilled blood - it's new. I think it was finished in 1996 yet unless someone told you, you would think it old. Inside was all mosaics. Shows that we still have the skills to create masterpieces.

If you have ever been to the Hermitage you will totally understand this photo. I've done 5 (yes five) hours in the place and I'm see sick.
It is magnificent but there is only so much you can absorb in a day.

 

And that was Russia.

FANTASTIC. A few cultural differences for us to navigate but nothing insurmountable. While there was limited English, we made our needs understood.

The Metro was cheap, clean, safe and efficient.

We were a bit slow to understand that if you ask for the English menu you get the a-la-carte menu which can be expensive. We pointed to the specials board, crossed our fingers and were rewarded with very inexpensive 3 course meals.

I think I'm most proud of the fact we navigated the local bus and train service that the Russian country people use.