12 days, 4 friends, 3 countries, 1 fantastic adventure!
May 24th, 2005, 11:51 AM
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12 days, 4 friends, 3 countries, 1 fantastic adventure!
Hello everyone,
I just got back last Wednesday from a fabulous (albeit short) trip to Munich, Prague, Vienna and Salzburg with 3 of my girlfriends (sort of a stagette/pre-wedding adventure, as I am getting married in September - these girls are my bridesmaids). First of all, I must say this travel board never ceases to amaze me with the information it's posters provide, which for this trip proved invaluable on more than one occasion.
So, where to start? We arrived in Munich on Saturday, May 8 after 2 very nice and uneventful flights (Edmonton-Montreal, Montreal-Munich). We flew Air Canada for the first leg and Lufthansa for the second. Both are really great airlines. We were feeling excited (1st trip to Europe for the other 3, 3rd trip for me) and ambitious and so we decided to head straight for our hostel (Wombat's City Hostel) and take a quick nap before heading out to experience a bit of Munich. I realize most people on this board tend to stay in hotels rather than hostels, but I will comment on all 3 hostels as well as the 1 hotel we stayed in, for those of you who do stay in hostels. Wombat's in Munich was super nice, clean and we did get a private room so it was kind of like being in a hotel. 24€ per person. Very central location, near the train station.
It was raining, but that day we managed to check out a bit of the area around our hostel, including the Marienplatz and visited the Residenz before heading to the Hofbrauhaus for some big steins of beer and bratwurst.
The next day (Sunday) we did a day trip to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, which were really fun. Spectacular scenery - got lots of great pictures and took tours of both castles.
As we had basically included Munich only because of these castles (and the cheap flight we got) we did not stay long there, catching the Monday morning 6:00am train to Prague. Got to our Hostel in Prague (Sir Toby's, which was fabulous! Great breakfast) around 1:30 and then went exploring in our neighbourhood (Holesovice) which was an interesting, if somewhat gritty place. The next day was devoted to the Prague Castle (took a City Walks tour but ended up ditching the group because it was so crowded and the group so big that we couldn't even hear our guide). The day after that we went on a much better, much smaller tour of the Jewish Quarter - very interesting. Then we got a little distracted on our final day with all the shopping there is to do in Prague - I put a major dent in the credit card that day!
So that brings us to Friday: we took a train to Vienna and got to our one and only hotel of the trip, the Hotel Pension Franz. Cute (but very dark) little hotel with good breakfast that is included in the room price. 119€ for a quad room with bath is really not bad, especially for Vienna. Vienna was my favorite city of the entire trip (I can hear the gasps already - I know Prague is a big favorite around here, and we did like Prague, but Vienna had a slight edge, just something about the atmosphere we liked better). Friday night we met up with some friends we knew who were there at the same time. Spent most of Saturday and Sunday just wandering around - went to Stephensdom, walked around the Volksgarten. Saturday night we went to Madama Butterfly at the Volksoper. An interesting experience, but the director took some serious artistic liberties with the plot (i.e. she didn't commit suicide, she was stabbed by a group of people in plain street clothes that appeared suddenly on stage - not sure of the significance of this...maybe if we'd been able to read the subtitles it would have been better?). Then Sunday was the World Hockey Championship finals, and, good little Canadians that we are, we went to the Beer Gardens next to the arena to show our support and attempt to out-cheer the Czech fans. We lost the game, but felt very patriotic and had a great time.
Continuing with the last part of the trip in the next post....
I just got back last Wednesday from a fabulous (albeit short) trip to Munich, Prague, Vienna and Salzburg with 3 of my girlfriends (sort of a stagette/pre-wedding adventure, as I am getting married in September - these girls are my bridesmaids). First of all, I must say this travel board never ceases to amaze me with the information it's posters provide, which for this trip proved invaluable on more than one occasion.
So, where to start? We arrived in Munich on Saturday, May 8 after 2 very nice and uneventful flights (Edmonton-Montreal, Montreal-Munich). We flew Air Canada for the first leg and Lufthansa for the second. Both are really great airlines. We were feeling excited (1st trip to Europe for the other 3, 3rd trip for me) and ambitious and so we decided to head straight for our hostel (Wombat's City Hostel) and take a quick nap before heading out to experience a bit of Munich. I realize most people on this board tend to stay in hotels rather than hostels, but I will comment on all 3 hostels as well as the 1 hotel we stayed in, for those of you who do stay in hostels. Wombat's in Munich was super nice, clean and we did get a private room so it was kind of like being in a hotel. 24€ per person. Very central location, near the train station.
It was raining, but that day we managed to check out a bit of the area around our hostel, including the Marienplatz and visited the Residenz before heading to the Hofbrauhaus for some big steins of beer and bratwurst.
The next day (Sunday) we did a day trip to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, which were really fun. Spectacular scenery - got lots of great pictures and took tours of both castles.
As we had basically included Munich only because of these castles (and the cheap flight we got) we did not stay long there, catching the Monday morning 6:00am train to Prague. Got to our Hostel in Prague (Sir Toby's, which was fabulous! Great breakfast) around 1:30 and then went exploring in our neighbourhood (Holesovice) which was an interesting, if somewhat gritty place. The next day was devoted to the Prague Castle (took a City Walks tour but ended up ditching the group because it was so crowded and the group so big that we couldn't even hear our guide). The day after that we went on a much better, much smaller tour of the Jewish Quarter - very interesting. Then we got a little distracted on our final day with all the shopping there is to do in Prague - I put a major dent in the credit card that day!
So that brings us to Friday: we took a train to Vienna and got to our one and only hotel of the trip, the Hotel Pension Franz. Cute (but very dark) little hotel with good breakfast that is included in the room price. 119€ for a quad room with bath is really not bad, especially for Vienna. Vienna was my favorite city of the entire trip (I can hear the gasps already - I know Prague is a big favorite around here, and we did like Prague, but Vienna had a slight edge, just something about the atmosphere we liked better). Friday night we met up with some friends we knew who were there at the same time. Spent most of Saturday and Sunday just wandering around - went to Stephensdom, walked around the Volksgarten. Saturday night we went to Madama Butterfly at the Volksoper. An interesting experience, but the director took some serious artistic liberties with the plot (i.e. she didn't commit suicide, she was stabbed by a group of people in plain street clothes that appeared suddenly on stage - not sure of the significance of this...maybe if we'd been able to read the subtitles it would have been better?). Then Sunday was the World Hockey Championship finals, and, good little Canadians that we are, we went to the Beer Gardens next to the arena to show our support and attempt to out-cheer the Czech fans. We lost the game, but felt very patriotic and had a great time.
Continuing with the last part of the trip in the next post....
May 24th, 2005, 12:21 PM
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Forgot to mention that we took a dinner cruise in Prague - it was great! nice views and decent food. I would recommend it as a nice way to spend an evening...
Back to the rest of our trip:
Monday was our car rental day, as we planned to rent a car in Vienna and drive to Salzburg, stopping at Mauthausen concentration camp and Hallstatt along the way (two completely opposite types of stops, and it was perfect to balance the day like that). I loved driving in Austria, even in Vienna and Salzburg - I've never driven in a foreign country before and it was an adventure for all of us!!
Found Mauthausen with little difficulty. Very glad I read posts about getting there on this board, because renting a car was definitely the way to go - I'm not even sure how we would have gotten to the camp if we'd taken trains/buses. Visiting that camp was one of the most intense experiences I have ever had. Even rounding the bend when the camp came into view, I felt like someone had punched me in the gut - I couldn't speak and everyone in the car was silent immediately as well. It was the strangest feeling. We got audioguides, which were very helpful and interesting, and spent about 3 hours in the camp. Even though we went in a group, we broke off from each other and so the visit was very solitary and sombre. I got fairly emotional seeing the gas chamber and ovens. Nonetheless, it was an extremely important experience that all of us are glad we had. Funny how despite all the exposure we've had in movies and books to the horrors of the Holocaust, they are nothing compared to seeing a place where those horrors took place up close.
After leaving the camp we had lunch in the town of Mauthausen and then continued on toward Salzburg, detouring to visit Hallstatt briefly (only an hour or so) in the afternoon. Even though most of the day was spent driving that day, it was one of my favourite days - driving in a foreign place, seeing the countryside and being able to stop wherever - a great experience! We got into Salzburg around 9 and got to our hostel (JGH Salzburg) and basically fell into bed.
The next (and last) day of our trip was our only time in Salzburg - we went on the Sound of Music tour (Bob's Special Tours - another Fodors travel talk recommendation!) and then spent the afternoon wandering around, visited Mozart's house (the 2nd one, not the one he was born in) and checked out the fortress grounds (didn't go in). Then had dinner at a nice little cafe (Cafe Republic I think it was called?) and then went back to our hostel and had a bottle of wine and some girl talk and then went to bed. In the morning we took the SMS Mietwagen/Lufthansa shuttle back to Munich Airport for our flight home (the shuttle was yet another Fodors board recommendation!) and were we ever glad we took the shuttle - €39 each and no worries about trains, S-bahns etc. Dropped us off at just the right spot.
So that's it, folks! I hope you enjoyed my report, and thanks again for all the great advice. We had a magical time and are already thinking about where this newly formed "travel club" should go next!!
Back to the rest of our trip:
Monday was our car rental day, as we planned to rent a car in Vienna and drive to Salzburg, stopping at Mauthausen concentration camp and Hallstatt along the way (two completely opposite types of stops, and it was perfect to balance the day like that). I loved driving in Austria, even in Vienna and Salzburg - I've never driven in a foreign country before and it was an adventure for all of us!!
Found Mauthausen with little difficulty. Very glad I read posts about getting there on this board, because renting a car was definitely the way to go - I'm not even sure how we would have gotten to the camp if we'd taken trains/buses. Visiting that camp was one of the most intense experiences I have ever had. Even rounding the bend when the camp came into view, I felt like someone had punched me in the gut - I couldn't speak and everyone in the car was silent immediately as well. It was the strangest feeling. We got audioguides, which were very helpful and interesting, and spent about 3 hours in the camp. Even though we went in a group, we broke off from each other and so the visit was very solitary and sombre. I got fairly emotional seeing the gas chamber and ovens. Nonetheless, it was an extremely important experience that all of us are glad we had. Funny how despite all the exposure we've had in movies and books to the horrors of the Holocaust, they are nothing compared to seeing a place where those horrors took place up close.
After leaving the camp we had lunch in the town of Mauthausen and then continued on toward Salzburg, detouring to visit Hallstatt briefly (only an hour or so) in the afternoon. Even though most of the day was spent driving that day, it was one of my favourite days - driving in a foreign place, seeing the countryside and being able to stop wherever - a great experience! We got into Salzburg around 9 and got to our hostel (JGH Salzburg) and basically fell into bed.
The next (and last) day of our trip was our only time in Salzburg - we went on the Sound of Music tour (Bob's Special Tours - another Fodors travel talk recommendation!) and then spent the afternoon wandering around, visited Mozart's house (the 2nd one, not the one he was born in) and checked out the fortress grounds (didn't go in). Then had dinner at a nice little cafe (Cafe Republic I think it was called?) and then went back to our hostel and had a bottle of wine and some girl talk and then went to bed. In the morning we took the SMS Mietwagen/Lufthansa shuttle back to Munich Airport for our flight home (the shuttle was yet another Fodors board recommendation!) and were we ever glad we took the shuttle - €39 each and no worries about trains, S-bahns etc. Dropped us off at just the right spot.
So that's it, folks! I hope you enjoyed my report, and thanks again for all the great advice. We had a magical time and are already thinking about where this newly formed "travel club" should go next!!
May 24th, 2005, 01:49 PM
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wow, what a great way to spend sometime with your girls before your wedding!! Sounds like you had a wonderful time! Thanks for sharing...I enjoyed reading!
and congrats on your upcoming wedding!!
So with a kinda stagette/pre wedding adventure in Austria...wheres the honeymoon gonna be!?!?!?
and congrats on your upcoming wedding!!
So with a kinda stagette/pre wedding adventure in Austria...wheres the honeymoon gonna be!?!?!?
