Loosing ourselves to more Europe
November 30, 2017.
Last counted I spent about 6 months in Europe in last five years between work travel and vacation travel. But looks like I was still not done. So planned another trip to another part of Europe. We spent a week in Greece and then couple more weeks in central Europe — Spending 3 to 4 days each in Athens, Santorini, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and ending with Prague. This was a rainbow of experiences from ancient city to modern city; extravagance of the post medieval time royals to the epicenter of the World War II horrors; from sea & beaches to the mountains & valleys; from relatively affordable to insanely expensive towns and from very cold to nice cool to almost unbearable heat.
But the beauty, character and passion of Europe was always there. Also was there was nice big collection of beer in the beer capitals of the world and fine affordable wine of yet new grape varieties! Almost all days there was something to treasure and create a life memory.
Many characters of Athens
This is the city we landed in and we stayed in the center of the city in the vicinity of the Acropolis. Of course the highlight of the city is the Acropolis hill with so many ruins on it reminding one of the once vibrant culture existing long before most cities of the world were cultured enough. My lasting memory is probably no different from anyone else visiting — the temple of Athena “Parthenon” at the top of the hill — even after its massive destruction in various conflicts it just draws you in. Once you understand the thinking behind it, the architecture and the belief with which it was constructed (do visit the Acropolis museum) — you cannot just look at it as an impressive ruin. Just like Rome it makes you think and wonder of the times that were.
The still functioning Amphitheatre “Herod Atticus Odeon” is another dominating structure on the hill. Believed to be constructed in the roman time around 160AD is still quite complete and holds live performances even today. Other ancient structures in the city are no less in their significance to an enthusiast but not in the same league — Ancient Agora, Roman Agora and Hadrian’s library just to mention a few.
Athens outside of the history is a wonderful city to spend time in. The flea market is nice — nothing much to buy — but the fruit vendors, the coffee shops and the waffles & pancakes were some of the best one can find. The real fun part of course is the Plaka district with so many amazing restaurants and lovely shops — just the atmosphere itself was energizing. We had some wonderful dinners but the favorite for us was a vegan place called Avocado — highly rated and rightly so.
We also took a day trip to Delphi — one of the many day trips one can take to see more ancient culture and ruins. Delphi is fascinating due to the misty stories of the Oracle of Apollo. It is a longish drive and has lot of bus tours to it from Athens. I was told and I think rightly so to either drive yourself or rent a private car — as you can work out the timing of visiting the site (avoiding crowd, which takes away from the stillness of the place). Often recommended to stay overnight in Delphi but I am not sure. For me the highlight was the small town of Leivadia, onwards we stopped over at a local bakery with some really fresh bread & wares and returning we bought wonderful feta cheese which we finished while roaming around in the town. It had a beautiful city center walk.
Picture perfect Santorini
Took a flight from Athens to this beautiful island — one of the decisions we made was to not do island hopping using boats and just visit Santorini or Thira as it is called locally. This crescent shaped landmass is around a volcano in its center — underwater Caldera (crater). We stayed on the foothills of Oia — smaller of the 2 famous towns, other being Fira. Oia is the picture perfect village — even more perfect in real life then all the pictures circulating. It is like a movie set with all the whitewashed buildings, blue domes of the churches & old style windmills. Overlooking the Caldera it is just a site you cannot get enough of.
The sunset here draws the crowd but is just ok — nothing different from any other good sunset place. But we were also lucky as the nice little house we stayed in had the perfect sunset view with pool chairs around a nice little swimming pool. We booked this place through Airbnb just like all the other apartments it was amazing as promised.
We used the bus to get around the island as the roads were just crazy for self driving; visited Imerovigli and Fira — partly walking on the trail along the shore and partly by bus. Fira is much busier & central with more shops & activity. but I would recommend to stay in Oia any day. The highlight for us was the day long sailing tour in the Caldera — luxurious yacht with few people; nice Thira local wine; and plenty of swimming in the blue beautiful Mediterranean water. Nothing can be better…
The one thing to warn about is the almost “to the breakpoint” state of the airport. Too many people, too many flights and no infrastructure. On top of it all our Air Berlin flight (no doubt the airline is in trouble now) time was changed to 1 am in the morning — meaning lot of coordination with hosts in Thira and hosts in Vienna where we were headed next. The good part — due to this change we had an extra day and we decided to go to the beach town of Kamari. This was a great decision as we just relaxed on the beach, with good food & wine and kids had fun. We decided to skip wine tour on the island or visit to Akrotiri (prehistoric ruins) — the other things people do on the island and something worth considering.
Vienna, the town of classical music & ballet
Gain of a day in Thira meant a loss of day in Vienna. Just 2 full days including our anniversary day is what we had here. In hindsight, I think it was a good thing. Vienna is much talked about online and city one cannot get enough of. But my emotional state post facto is that Vienna is more modern, with more new construction which makes it a bit dry and character gets a bit lost. It does not quite fit into the “get lost walking around” mold of European cities like Rome, Paris or Prague.
Firstly, we arrived at a ghastly post mid night hour and our Airbnb host was really helpful and arranged for a key. The apartment itself was very good with lot of space (again unlike other European cities — but this one is a good thing) and very well stocked. And it was in the middle of the city — 10 mins walking distance to the St Stephen’s cathedral. First day in the city was a Sunday so we were able to experience the Sunday prayers at the cathedral with a performance on the magnificent pipe organ, quite unique. The church itself was beautiful architecturally, a grand example of gothic style. Worth walking around it and taking lots of pictures. The old town area around the Church is wonderful to spend lot of leisurely time — food, coffee, shops and other historic buildings. St. Peter’s church is another interesting building. Hofburg palace complex is also in the vicinity. This is the one I felt was way too modern — it is royalty and all but to me it seemed a bit over sold from all perspectives. Same can be said about the Spanish riding school also. As we were there the horses from the show that day were being sent to their second home outside the city with open fields — some horse they were. The show itself had lot of mixed reviews and we decided to skip it mostly as the kids were not excited after watching some online clips.
Afternoon we spent at the Prater — open fair area in Vienna. This was wonderful for the kids with rides and food and open picnic kind of space. Good break I guess from lot history and architecture.
Next day morning we visited the Schönbrunn Palace. This is in a huge open area with big gardens and a zoo of its own. We took the palace tour which was interesting as it gives you a very good view of the royal history of Vienna and then we took a hop on train around the beautiful garden area. All good but again not something you should not miss. Then we rushed to get back in time for a tour of the famous Staatsoper, Vienna State Opera. We wanted to attend a show here but the show was a 3.5 hour long opera in French — decided to skip as we do not know French and we are not into opera. Instead we witnessed a Mozart styled show at probably the second best theatre in the city the Wiener Musikverein. Both the theatres are amazing to walk around and one can make out the amount of interest, passion, energy and love Austrians have for their ballet, opera and classical music. These theatres and a show are indeed must do’s in Vienna.
Next day morning we took the train to Salzburg. But an unfortunate incidence happened at the Vienna station. When we boarded the train we had 2 policeman walk through the coach. They just walked past all others but stopped for us and asked for our passports. Now firstly, it is a shame that the world has come to this. But then after checking the documents they continued to be rude — clearly a very racist attitude. Maybe selective attention but looks like there is more to this then one off in Austria/Vienna.
Sleepy Salzburg
This is a nice little quaint city with a beautiful Salzburg river running through the center of the city. Old town, or Altstadt, walking area with birthplace of Mozart, Mozart Gerburtshaus; nice churches, St. Peter the Franciscan church; with picturesque backdrop of the fort, Festung Hohensalzburg (Salzburg Fortress) on the mountain are the main attractions. Mirabell Garden on the other side of the river is certainly worth visiting. Sound of Music tour is the other popular attraction but we gave it a pass as not much into it.
Number of nice places to eat and drink beer. But the experience to remember was the old Augustiner Braustubl (Augustine Beer Garden) — This along with the other beer gardens in Salzburg, has an amazing lively atmosphere. There are food vendors, tons and tons of people and the beer is brewed by the monks! This is a must if you are looking for culture. Besides this there were also farmers stalls in day time in the old town — the cheese, strawberries and other fruits were as tasteful as it can get — we bought a few small packs of stuff and then sat on the grass next to the river, enjoying the picture perfect evening with backdrop of the fort.
Another interesting experience for the kids was being dressed in the traditional royal maiden dresses and getting their pictures clicked in both b&w and Eastman colors — really cute.
Besides Salzburg is a good starting point for a ton of mountain visits, valleys & lakes — basically the Alps experience just like Switzerland. We hired a taxi on one of days, driven by a Pakistan origin man — who was really helpful and we had a wonderful stop and go drive in the region. We spent time at St Gilgen and took a cable car up the Zwölferhorn mountain for some amazing views of the lake and towns in the valley. Later in the afternoon we reached Halstatt — it is called one of the most beautiful village in Europe for a reason. Just walking around the town and soaking in the scenery of this on the hill sleepy village next to a lake is a “cannot really be described” experience, which should not be missed by anyone in the area. We passed on the salt mine visit here, to do it the next day in another place. But this village history and it’s riches were built around the natural salt in the mountain — and there are many a stories about it.
Another day trip — we took a bus to Berchtesgaden in Germany primarily for the Eagle’s nest — the seat of Hitler’s power during WWII. This cannot be missed, even by those who are not history buffs. We started at Dokumentation Obersalzberg, a museum that gives an overview of Hitler’s life, vision, why the Nazi moment picked up, what was it’s message, what was it’s impact and eventual outcome. Most of the exhibits were in German with some English translations — but we took an English audio guide and that was quite helpful — it was fascinating for the kids and us alike even though some pictures were not appropriate for very young kids. Private buses run from the Dokumentation Center up to the Eagle’s Nest. These buses are the only way to get to the Eagle’s Nest; you are not permitted to drive if you have a car. The command post for Hitler’s elite was around the documentation center and Eagle’s nest was a gift to Hitler as a relaxation area. There is an very cold tunnel leading to a elevator to Eagle’s nest. The elevator itself is preserved from the time. The tunnel is said to have been used for storing wine bottles — living in luxury. This historical building is now used as a restaurant. The best part of visiting the Eagle’s Nest is getting a bird’s eye view over Germany and Austria. It is best to visit the Eagle’s Nest when the skies are clear and it was for our trip. Amazing views all around including that of the Königssee, king’s lake. Nestled in between several gorgeous Alpine mountains, the emerald green lake is the cleanest and deepest lake in Bavaria region. One can easily spend an entire day there also but we skipped it.
After the Eagle’s nest we visited the salt mine of this region, another unique experience for the kids. Very well conducted tour explaining how salt is made and there were some interesting exhibitions, best being the boat ride across a salty lake and a lug ride down the slope in a cave.
Vibrant and energetic Munich
Next stop was the Bavarian capital city of Munich. Again we stayed in apartment near the main city centre and used this to really experience the city in full. Bavarian local transport is very tourist friendly with fine tuned day passes for family which one can use to go anywhere in the Bavaria. The day we reached we took a bus to English garden and walked around — being a weekend it was full of people in beer gardens — large space, with live music, lot of food and of course lot of beer. One can only imagine the scenes during Octoberfest. After a brief stop, we strayed on to the portion of the garden which had a fast flowing river — where to our surprise we saw a bunch of people surfing and several folks just floating downriver. The current was fast and looked dangerous but apparently the river was not deep. It was quite an unusual and exciting sight for us.
We spent the evening walking around the Residenz (palace) area — famous for Hitler’s arrest and speech later. We wandered on to beautiful Marienplatz (square), with grand architecture of the municipal building and the vibrant energy of the people around. There were a number of street musicians some attracting more crowd then others. We stumbled on to a open air free annual classical concert being organized outside the Munich state concert hall. It was full of people with their beer, food baskets and sitting mats — quite enjoyed the experience.
Next day we took train to southern Bavaria on the foothills of Alps — the beautiful town of Garmish and the painted village Mittenwald; mountains all around and the beautiful scenery made for a very good day outing. In Mittenwald, Kids had fun at the violin museum while just walked around the quite streets. We finished with a good lunch & coffee at a small local restaurant. Lot of blog sites suggest to spend couple of days in this area and they are probably right. There are a number of hiking trails and internet is full of wonderful pictures of waterfalls and gorges. We missed those and also the Olympic village in Garmish.
What we did not miss was the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. This was the following day with a train to Fussen and well planned day in advance. It is advisable to get the palace visit tickets booked in advance as Neuschwanstein can get quite crowded. This castle is one of Germany’s or probably Europe’s most photographed icons — and Disney castle is modelled on it. Thousands of visitors flock here everyday to see this fairytale castle. Don’t miss the view from the Mary’s Bridge. This is the spot to take those iconic photographs you always see of Neuschwanstein. One can also cross the bridge and head up the hiking trails for views down to the castle. Approaching the castle itself looks less impressive — but it all changes when the inside tour begins. The opulence on display is breathtaking and unimaginable — the bedroom , the throne hall and the ball room are magnificent designed with lot of care & thought and executed with lot of money. Picture taking was not allowed but one can find some on the internet. King Ludwig II had some taste, though history will remember him for all the wrong reasons as the Mad King.
Our last day in Munich, morning we visited the infamous Dacau concentration camp. This should not be missed also — the whole camp is very well set up to give a good sense of the going from bad to worse state of people in these camps during the war — how people slept, how they worked, how they were treated and how many lives were ended. A must visit I would say for all to be reminded of evils of extreme views.
We spent afternoon and rest of the day in the old city just walking around and enjoying a) the Viktualienmarkt (open market) with tons of local produce contrasting with the high end grocery stores in the same area; b) Hofbräuhaus (marque beer house) has a character one can never forget — this is also suppose to be the place Hitler held number of political meetings; and c) St Peters Church. We gave the museums a miss as the open city was just itself very charming. Instead spent time in the charming shopping lanes around Marienplatz.
Romance with Prague
Onto the last stop of the trip. We took a train from Munich which was to be a direct train — but due to so some repair on the tracks we had to have a break journey with bus between two train segments. But it was kind of a good thing as gave us a good view of the czech countryside. We reached the apartment late afternoon and had to climb up 3 floors — located really nicely but an old apartment building (apparently with roman ruins in the basement) with no elevator. The hosts were really nice folk and the apartment itself was soooo cute — on the top floor with slanting roofs and most tastefully decorated & partitioned to create various living spaces.
We were planning day trips to small towns of Cesky Krimlov and/or Kutna Hora. But primarily the charm of Prague and also a bit of tiredness of so much travel gave us second thoughts. Then our host suggested that visiting these is lot of travel and not a whole lot more than Prague — so we just dropped the idea and spent the over 3 days we had in Prague itself.
Day one was walking around the famous old town with the clock tower — lots of people and lots of energy in a beautiful historic backdrop is all one needs to fall in love with Prague. Just like Paris and Rome every corner of the old town, Mala Strana across the river and even the modern town had something going on. Many wonderful buildings; lot of energy; and a number of bridges across the Prague river makes the city very charming. Just the walk along the river was mesmerizing with blue sky and the backdrop of the Prague castle, incredibly romantic. By the time we reached Charles Bridge it was dark — which gave us a chance to experience the bridge at night time.
Next day we again just strolled around the Old town visiting churches, spending time in Josefoy or the Jewish quarters with all its synagogues — especially the old-new synagogue. So many incredible buildings — Grand astronomical clock tower, National Theatre, Municipal House and the Dancing House. John Lennon wall is another quite popular spot — not very sure why it is so famous but the pictures came out really good. We spent lot of time in the Charles Bridge area eating, strolling and just sitting around.
Following day it was raining crazy and became really really cold. We decided to visit the Prague castle as we could spend time inside the buildings. Not sure it was the best idea — as this was quite impressive compound and maybe would have been enjoyed more on a clear day. St. Vitus Cathedral is an impressive church — the architecture grand and the royal entrance side with all the gold decorations was quite a view. We took the ticket for circuit B which covered things we wanted to see — St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, St. George’s Basilica, Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower. The golden lane was quite fascinating with the small quarters for various artisans — possibly started with goldsmiths living here. We took the steps to the town to get out of the castle — which themselves were worth visiting. Rest of the evening we stayed in Mala Strana area as the rain had stopped and the weather was now perfect to walk around the charming lanes.
Our last day on this trip was spent leisurely with morning half spent hiking up the Petrin Hill — with Eifflel tower modeled Observatory Tower. Nice views of the whole town from the upper floors of the tower. Evening we spent in Wenceslas Square area — visiting many of the branded showrooms — eating falafel, candies from Captain Candy stores and Trdlo on the streets. The Trdlo shop we went to is open 24 hours and is claimed to be the best one in town according to Google ratings. I also bought some Prague wine made from red Frankovka grapes from the Moravia wine region; and some amazing dark chocolates to take home from one of the many designer chocolate stores.
Another thing to mention, we had a large Tesco store near by and would be the source of good grocery allowing us to cook at the apartment half the time. Same pattern we followed in most of the cities. Being vegetarians and long periods of no home cooked Indian food can be painful on long trips. But we also made Thai and Italian. We had a afternoon 3 pm flight the next day, besides packing we went back to the old town region for the last soak in and had some more Trdlo.
