Eurotrip: Austria, Czech Rep.,Poland, Slovakia, Hungary
Jan 23rd, 2014, 01:07 AM
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Eurotrip: Austria, Czech Rep.,Poland, Slovakia, Hungary
In the Easter holidays in 2013 we decided to go on a road trip in Europe, and picked out some countries.
We flew from Norway (were we come from) with Austrian Airlines down to Vienna in Austria, where we picked up a rental car at the airport!
We drove through Czech Republic, and took a short visit in Brno before we drove to Poland and to the final destination for that day: Krakow.
We had pre-booked a room at a hostel here for two nights.
In Krakow we went on a guided tour at Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. But we also saw the town and the market square where there was a Easter market.
After Krakow the next destination we wanted to visit was in Slovakia. But the maps on the GPS turned out to not help us very much as we drove across the border. So we were just driving on instinct, looking at a print screen we fortunately had taken while we looked at the map the night before. There was not to much to go by, but we found it!
First stop was Orava castle where we were on a guided tour
Next stop was Spis castle, which turned out to be closed when we arrived.
After this we had to try to get towards Budapest… The GPS was virtually useless. But we managed to zoome out and see a few place names.
After driving for a while we suddenly saw a familiar place name on a sign, and then just ran for it. However, the time flew bye, it was to be dark soon and we were on our way up in the mountains of Slovakia.
Accidentally we found a 4-star hotel, hotel Galileo, in Donovaley – a typical mountain hotel, and they had free rooms.
The next day we drove around for a while on Slovak roads in poring rain and dense fog. Nor could the GPS help us today, but with a little sense of place and a few print screen of the map with the itinerary you can get quite far. We had done a little research for hotels the night before and found one that had decent location (down the Danube) and free parking.
The hotel we ended up at was the four-star Hotel Victoria in Budapest.
The time we had in Budapest, we spent on the “hop on hop off” bus and we took the “cable car” up to Castle Hill.
After Budapest we left Hungary behind us and entered Slovakia again.
Now it was time for the city Bratislava and Devin Hotel, a four star hotel right on the Danube.
In Bratislava we went up to see Bratislava Castle (which was closed that day). We also ate an overly expensive (and bad) dinner.
Along came the day that the rental car had to be returned, and we went back to Vienna. After delivering the rental car we took a taxi in to Vienna, Inner Stadt and the hotel for our last night: Pension Aviano – My Secret Home, which regards itself as a four star hotel.
In Vienna we did visit Madame Tussaud’s, Schönbrunn Palace, ‘Vienna market’, “Schatzkammer”, globe-museum and an art history museum with armor and weapons of various kinds.
For the entire text: http://wearetravelingtogether.wordpress.com/eurotrip/
We can also be found on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vireisersammen
We flew from Norway (were we come from) with Austrian Airlines down to Vienna in Austria, where we picked up a rental car at the airport!
We drove through Czech Republic, and took a short visit in Brno before we drove to Poland and to the final destination for that day: Krakow.
We had pre-booked a room at a hostel here for two nights.
In Krakow we went on a guided tour at Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. But we also saw the town and the market square where there was a Easter market.
After Krakow the next destination we wanted to visit was in Slovakia. But the maps on the GPS turned out to not help us very much as we drove across the border. So we were just driving on instinct, looking at a print screen we fortunately had taken while we looked at the map the night before. There was not to much to go by, but we found it!
First stop was Orava castle where we were on a guided tour
Next stop was Spis castle, which turned out to be closed when we arrived.
After this we had to try to get towards Budapest… The GPS was virtually useless. But we managed to zoome out and see a few place names.
After driving for a while we suddenly saw a familiar place name on a sign, and then just ran for it. However, the time flew bye, it was to be dark soon and we were on our way up in the mountains of Slovakia.
Accidentally we found a 4-star hotel, hotel Galileo, in Donovaley – a typical mountain hotel, and they had free rooms.
The next day we drove around for a while on Slovak roads in poring rain and dense fog. Nor could the GPS help us today, but with a little sense of place and a few print screen of the map with the itinerary you can get quite far. We had done a little research for hotels the night before and found one that had decent location (down the Danube) and free parking.
The hotel we ended up at was the four-star Hotel Victoria in Budapest.
The time we had in Budapest, we spent on the “hop on hop off” bus and we took the “cable car” up to Castle Hill.
After Budapest we left Hungary behind us and entered Slovakia again.
Now it was time for the city Bratislava and Devin Hotel, a four star hotel right on the Danube.
In Bratislava we went up to see Bratislava Castle (which was closed that day). We also ate an overly expensive (and bad) dinner.
Along came the day that the rental car had to be returned, and we went back to Vienna. After delivering the rental car we took a taxi in to Vienna, Inner Stadt and the hotel for our last night: Pension Aviano – My Secret Home, which regards itself as a four star hotel.
In Vienna we did visit Madame Tussaud’s, Schönbrunn Palace, ‘Vienna market’, “Schatzkammer”, globe-museum and an art history museum with armor and weapons of various kinds.
For the entire text: http://wearetravelingtogether.wordpress.com/eurotrip/
We can also be found on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vireisersammen
Jan 23rd, 2014, 08:59 AM
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It appears that you enjoyed your trip. For most people I think that it would be considered too rushed. You drove through some wonderful areas with different cultural expressions, and yet little appears in your report or photographs. Imagine someone going to visit Scandinavia and not visit a stave church in Norway, or the skansen or the Viking museum in Oslo, or the skansen or the Vasa museum in Stockholm. I understand that your time was limited, and I hope that this was just an exploratory trip to that part of Central Europe.
This is not meant as criticism as I did a similar 10 week trip when I was your age traveling through Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Italy, Switzerland, France and Belgium.
This is not meant as criticism as I did a similar 10 week trip when I was your age traveling through Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Italy, Switzerland, France and Belgium.
Jan 23rd, 2014, 10:40 AM
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I see what you mean. But this trip was more about the cities, and the other stuff was taken more like a bonus. But it's so much to see, and we hope to see more of the countries another time 
But this time we got to see what matters to us.
But this time we got to see what matters to us.
Jan 23rd, 2014, 10:49 PM
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But that's part of the fun - to get lost!
In these countries it wasn't a big deal, but we got maps when we recently were in Australia - and the GPS we used blacked out (we have such luck
).
In these countries it wasn't a big deal, but we got maps when we recently were in Australia - and the GPS we used blacked out (we have such luck
).
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