Prague, Bratislava, Vienna and Budapest - Cake, beer, more cake
Jun 15th, 2018, 04:52 PM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 212
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Prague, Bratislava, Vienna and Budapest - Cake, beer, more cake
We got up at 4 am to prepare for the 4:30 am shuttle pick up. Unfortunately the shuttle did not show up. I ended-up cancelling the shuttle and taking Lyft. A bit of early morning stress, but it all worked out fine. The shuttle company even refunded our money.
The flight was fine and we arrived in Prague about 9 am. We spent the day stumbling around trying to stay awake. We had four nights in Prague, and we stayed at the Residence 7 Angels. The hotel was in a great location, but I would recommend not staying on the ground floor. Our room was dark and I found it a little creepy. The other rooms looked much better. I hope I am not going to get some fiery disapproval, but I am going to honest here…. We did not enjoy our stay in Prague very much. It is just too crowded. The parts of town with the popular sights were insanely packed. We were there at the end of May. I am sure it is better on the off season, but even if you cut the number of tourists in half it would still be way too much. We got up early so we did not have to wait in line very long for the popular sites, but it was still elbow to elbow by about 10 am. The beer was good though : )
Before we left on our trip, I scheduled a private tour to Kutna Hora, which turned out to be great. The guide, Micah from Explore Prague, met us at the hotel. We walked to the train station and then took a bus to the ossuary (bone church), in Kutna Hora. What a bizarre place. The church is decorated with the bones from thousands of bodies. The monks were just trying to free up some space in the cemetery and decided to be creative. It seems so weird to us, but I imagine our funerary practices (embalming, open casket viewings) would seem pretty weird to them. It is all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? We also went on a tour of a medieval silver mine. Before we went into the mine, the guides there made a real point of how narrow the passages would be on the tour. I almost wimped-out, but in the end decided to go in. I am so glad I did. It was really amazing. I also really liked St. Barbara’s cathedral in Kutna Hora. It was lovely. Micah was a great guide, and I would definitely recommend him for a day trip to Kutna Hora. It is a pretty full day, but lots of fun.
From Prague we went by train to Vienna. The train trip was very nice. I am not sure why train travel is so relaxing. We kicked back and read our books and watched the scenery go by. Our hotel in Vienna, Aviano Hotel, was perfect. It was in a great location, quiet and charming. The people at the desk were friendly and gave us good restaurant recommendations. Vienna was lovely. You can imagine it being the seat of power in Austria-Hungary. There are so many grand buildings and squares. We had three days there, and I wish we could have stayed a couple more at least. St. Stephans was impressive and we enjoyed the tour of the catacombs. The tour guide was pretty dramatic, which was a good fit for the setting. He seemed to be really enjoying himself when he got to Hapsburg tombs. Lots of hand gestures and dramatic pauses. The Kunsthistoriches museum….I don’t know where to start. The building itself is a work of art. One of the staircases has paintings by Klimt along the wall. The museum has a room full of paintings by Bruegel, DH’s favorite. The collection of Egyptian sarcophaguses (sarcophagi?) was amazing. We spend quite a bit of time there. We also went to the Palace museums. The treasury was impressive in a crazy conspicuous consumption kind of way. I did not really have any interest in the Sisi museum, but it was more interesting than I expected.
One of my favorite things about Vienna was the cake. I am not going to lie, I drank a lot of coffee and ate a LOT of cake and it was heavenly. My favorite places were Aida and Oberlaa. I actually overdid it on the cake on our last day there and did not want any more after that. It was too bad since I know Budapest has good cake too. Next time I will pace myself.
We spend one night in Bratislava to visit with a friend of ours. She showed us around the castle and the old town. The old town was charming. It was so nice to just relax and wander around. We had a couple of great meals and some excellent beer, but I do not remember the name of the restaurants. We stayed in the Aviano hotel. It was pretty spiffy. I was kind of shocked at how nice it was since it was about half the price of the hotel in Vienna. I wish we would have stayed two nights in Bratislava instead of one.
From there we took the train to Budapest. We had a bit of a snafu getting to our hotel there (Casati Hotel). The ATM in the train station was broken, so I could not get local currency and buy a ticket for the tram. I did not want to pay for a taxi when I knew the tram would take us right there. Sometimes I get a little stubborn about stuff like that. I eventually got things sorted out and we made it there. Casati Hotel is wonderful. It is right by the Opera and our room was big and comfortable. The staff are friendly and happy to recommend restaurants. We ate at Mezna and Vakvaju which were both good. We had the best meal of the trip at Aszu.
Our first day in Budapest, we went to the House of Terror. We spent quite a bit of time there. `I was especially struck by a video they show in the basement. Several women who were prisoners confront one of the their former guards. It puts faces to the history and makes it painfully real.
The day we went to the castle it rained and we did not bring our umbrellas. Why pack umbrellas and then leave them in the hotel room? I don’t know. I was cold and wet and starting to get snivelly when we decided to stop for lunch and see if we could wait out the worst of the rain. We stopped in an Italian restaurant. What a great idea! I had a bowl of soup and focaccia bread right out of the oven. DH had pasta. We sat outside in a covered area and watched the rain. It was a leisurely lunch finished up with an espresso for me. The afternoon went from being miserable to being one of the nicest afternoons on the trip. By the time we finished, the weather was fine. We went on the fisherman’s bastion and Hospital in the Rock, both of which we enjoyed. When we were ready to head back, we took the funicular down. There was a group of German tourists in the funicular with us. I don’t speak German, but I am pretty confident that when we got to the bottom of the funicular one of the ladies said that it was a very touristy thing to do, but lots of fun. Exactly.
We enjoyed our visit to the Great Synagogue. The guide there was excellent. He was very passionate and brought the history of the place to life. Like our visit to the Jewish museum in Prague, it was a somber, moving experience.
On our last afternoon, we went to City Park. DH parked himself on a bench and I wandered around. It was so so hot. I have a picture of him on a park bench and all around him are people laying down with their shoes off. I finished our last day off with a final stroll past the glorius Parliament Building.
Summary: Great trip!! We thoroughly enjoyed Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.
The flight was fine and we arrived in Prague about 9 am. We spent the day stumbling around trying to stay awake. We had four nights in Prague, and we stayed at the Residence 7 Angels. The hotel was in a great location, but I would recommend not staying on the ground floor. Our room was dark and I found it a little creepy. The other rooms looked much better. I hope I am not going to get some fiery disapproval, but I am going to honest here…. We did not enjoy our stay in Prague very much. It is just too crowded. The parts of town with the popular sights were insanely packed. We were there at the end of May. I am sure it is better on the off season, but even if you cut the number of tourists in half it would still be way too much. We got up early so we did not have to wait in line very long for the popular sites, but it was still elbow to elbow by about 10 am. The beer was good though : )
Before we left on our trip, I scheduled a private tour to Kutna Hora, which turned out to be great. The guide, Micah from Explore Prague, met us at the hotel. We walked to the train station and then took a bus to the ossuary (bone church), in Kutna Hora. What a bizarre place. The church is decorated with the bones from thousands of bodies. The monks were just trying to free up some space in the cemetery and decided to be creative. It seems so weird to us, but I imagine our funerary practices (embalming, open casket viewings) would seem pretty weird to them. It is all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? We also went on a tour of a medieval silver mine. Before we went into the mine, the guides there made a real point of how narrow the passages would be on the tour. I almost wimped-out, but in the end decided to go in. I am so glad I did. It was really amazing. I also really liked St. Barbara’s cathedral in Kutna Hora. It was lovely. Micah was a great guide, and I would definitely recommend him for a day trip to Kutna Hora. It is a pretty full day, but lots of fun.
From Prague we went by train to Vienna. The train trip was very nice. I am not sure why train travel is so relaxing. We kicked back and read our books and watched the scenery go by. Our hotel in Vienna, Aviano Hotel, was perfect. It was in a great location, quiet and charming. The people at the desk were friendly and gave us good restaurant recommendations. Vienna was lovely. You can imagine it being the seat of power in Austria-Hungary. There are so many grand buildings and squares. We had three days there, and I wish we could have stayed a couple more at least. St. Stephans was impressive and we enjoyed the tour of the catacombs. The tour guide was pretty dramatic, which was a good fit for the setting. He seemed to be really enjoying himself when he got to Hapsburg tombs. Lots of hand gestures and dramatic pauses. The Kunsthistoriches museum….I don’t know where to start. The building itself is a work of art. One of the staircases has paintings by Klimt along the wall. The museum has a room full of paintings by Bruegel, DH’s favorite. The collection of Egyptian sarcophaguses (sarcophagi?) was amazing. We spend quite a bit of time there. We also went to the Palace museums. The treasury was impressive in a crazy conspicuous consumption kind of way. I did not really have any interest in the Sisi museum, but it was more interesting than I expected.
One of my favorite things about Vienna was the cake. I am not going to lie, I drank a lot of coffee and ate a LOT of cake and it was heavenly. My favorite places were Aida and Oberlaa. I actually overdid it on the cake on our last day there and did not want any more after that. It was too bad since I know Budapest has good cake too. Next time I will pace myself.
We spend one night in Bratislava to visit with a friend of ours. She showed us around the castle and the old town. The old town was charming. It was so nice to just relax and wander around. We had a couple of great meals and some excellent beer, but I do not remember the name of the restaurants. We stayed in the Aviano hotel. It was pretty spiffy. I was kind of shocked at how nice it was since it was about half the price of the hotel in Vienna. I wish we would have stayed two nights in Bratislava instead of one.
From there we took the train to Budapest. We had a bit of a snafu getting to our hotel there (Casati Hotel). The ATM in the train station was broken, so I could not get local currency and buy a ticket for the tram. I did not want to pay for a taxi when I knew the tram would take us right there. Sometimes I get a little stubborn about stuff like that. I eventually got things sorted out and we made it there. Casati Hotel is wonderful. It is right by the Opera and our room was big and comfortable. The staff are friendly and happy to recommend restaurants. We ate at Mezna and Vakvaju which were both good. We had the best meal of the trip at Aszu.
Our first day in Budapest, we went to the House of Terror. We spent quite a bit of time there. `I was especially struck by a video they show in the basement. Several women who were prisoners confront one of the their former guards. It puts faces to the history and makes it painfully real.
The day we went to the castle it rained and we did not bring our umbrellas. Why pack umbrellas and then leave them in the hotel room? I don’t know. I was cold and wet and starting to get snivelly when we decided to stop for lunch and see if we could wait out the worst of the rain. We stopped in an Italian restaurant. What a great idea! I had a bowl of soup and focaccia bread right out of the oven. DH had pasta. We sat outside in a covered area and watched the rain. It was a leisurely lunch finished up with an espresso for me. The afternoon went from being miserable to being one of the nicest afternoons on the trip. By the time we finished, the weather was fine. We went on the fisherman’s bastion and Hospital in the Rock, both of which we enjoyed. When we were ready to head back, we took the funicular down. There was a group of German tourists in the funicular with us. I don’t speak German, but I am pretty confident that when we got to the bottom of the funicular one of the ladies said that it was a very touristy thing to do, but lots of fun. Exactly.
We enjoyed our visit to the Great Synagogue. The guide there was excellent. He was very passionate and brought the history of the place to life. Like our visit to the Jewish museum in Prague, it was a somber, moving experience.
On our last afternoon, we went to City Park. DH parked himself on a bench and I wandered around. It was so so hot. I have a picture of him on a park bench and all around him are people laying down with their shoes off. I finished our last day off with a final stroll past the glorius Parliament Building.
Summary: Great trip!! We thoroughly enjoyed Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.
Jun 27th, 2018, 07:16 PM
#2
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 4,462
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I enjoyed reading your report! I have been to Prague twice, and love it! Our first visit was in October 2003, and at that time of year, it wasn’t unbearably crowded. We returned in August 2009, and while it was more crowded, we didn’t find it unbearable.
I especially enjoyed your report on Vienna,Bratislava, and Budapest. I haven’ Been there yet, but would like to do a trip that includes those three cities. How many nights did you spend in Vienna and Budapest?
I especially enjoyed your report on Vienna,Bratislava, and Budapest. I haven’ Been there yet, but would like to do a trip that includes those three cities. How many nights did you spend in Vienna and Budapest?
Jun 28th, 2018, 04:38 AM
#4
Thanks for the report! I visited Prague in August 2004 and thought it was too crowded then. Vienna and Budapest, however, are cities I have been happy to revisit. Especially Budapest, although both have been getting more crowded, even in the supposed off season.
Jun 28th, 2018, 05:21 AM
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 212
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I am happy to see a few posts here. It is always nice to feel like someone is reading your trip report : )
KarenWoo, we spent only one night in Bratislava and 3 in Vienna. I would have liked to add one more night to Bratislava and at least one more to Vienna. That's fine, though. I think that it is not such a bad thing to leave a place wishing you could stay longer and looking forward to coming back.
KarenWoo, we spent only one night in Bratislava and 3 in Vienna. I would have liked to add one more night to Bratislava and at least one more to Vienna. That's fine, though. I think that it is not such a bad thing to leave a place wishing you could stay longer and looking forward to coming back.
