1 hour since the bags have been at the door.
20 minutes until my parents come to pick us up.
3 hours until we're at the airport.
5 hours, 14 minutes until it's time for drugs.
5 hours, 44 minutes until the plane takes off.
Oh, and of course, here is the obligatory picture to prove I can pack light.
Tomorrow, it will be three weeks until we leave for our trip! Yay!
Amazingly, I haven't already gotten every single minute of every single day planned out. EDP has been reading our travel books - a little bit every day and we've got a pretty good idea of what we'll do but with only two cities, we can be a little bit more laid back with our itinerary.
What have we decided we're going? Well, I think I've already mentioned a few things but here's what we've got in mind...
Prague
The main attraction in Prague is Prague Castle. It's one of the oldest castles in Europe and is HUGE. We're planning an entire day to take it in since there's more than just the castle to see. There are a number of churches, royal gardens and the palace that will be wandered around. We'll also visit Charles Bridge while we're in this area. The bridge is one of Prague's most famous monuments, due to its amazing views.
The Jewish Quarter and the Old Town are planned for another day. The Jewish Quarter features a few museums and a cemetery that come highly recommended. Close to the Jewish Quarter is Old Town. The main attraction here is the Old Town Square, with it's astronomical clock. This is also where Wenceslas Square is. It's a good thing we aren't going at Christmas time because I would definitely be singing Good King Wenceslas in the square if it was.
Beyond that, we also have tickets to see an opera at the Prague National Theatre (click the link, the pictures are stunning). We're seeing the Bartered Bride, composed by Smetana, a Czech composer. We have box seats for the performance, which sounds very fancy!
We also have a day trip planned out to Karlovy Vary, one of the most famous hot springs in the Czech Republic. Currently, the plan is to hike some of the trails in the area followed by booking a couple of spa treatments, including a dip in one of the famous hot springs.
Vienna
Originally, we had planned on taking an overnight train into Vienna. The price we found online was very reasonable and we'd save a night on a hotel. Then, when I tried to book the tickets, we discovered you have to buy a ticket for the train AND a ticket for the sleeper car. That made the price less reasonable. So we decided to take an earlier train and stay an extra night in Vienna. Unfortunately, our hotel was fully booked up so we booked a night at a nearby hotel and will have to move after our first night. A bit of an inconvenience but we'll manage :P
Once we're in Vienna, EDP's friend, Wayne, will be meeting up with us. Wayne is currently living in Germany so he's going to make the short trip to Austria and hang out with us for a bit. Yay!
Vienna will be a bit busier for us than Prague. There's a bit more going on there. Our cultural event will be seeing the Vienna Boys Choir and we'll be day tripping to Durnstein and the Melk Abbey. The plan is to rent a car and visit Durnstein, a little walled town where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned. It also features the ruins of Kuenringer Castle, which is claimed to have inspired the Brothers Grimm. There is also an Abbey not too far away that we might try to fit in and I'm pretty sure EDP told me about another little town but I can't remember what it was.
Back in Vienna, we're going to be taking a day with Shonbrunn Palace, it's gardens and it's zoo. Shonbrunn is a major tourist attraction and it's where the court went during the summer. The complex is enormous, which is why we'll be taking an entire day for it.
Another day will include a visit to the Imperial Palace, where we'll go to the Treasury to see the imperial crowns of the Holy Roman and Austrian Empires. This is the only part of the palace we're definitely planning on seeing but we'll check out anything else that catches our eye.
We're also considering a museum or two but will probably wait for Wayne to let us know if there's anything he wants to see before we make too many more decisions.
I think that pretty much covers everything we've figured out so far. I'm pretty excited the trip is so close now. Time to start packing, I think!!
You thought we were going to Chile, didn't you? Well, we were planning a trip to Chile in the fall but we've decided to postpone it for now and head over to Europe instead. So where are we going?
Prague and Vienna.
Yeah, I know, right? It's going to be awesome.
We've pulled this trip together rather quickly. Less than two weeks ago, the idea of postponing Chile came up. Now, we've got our vacation time approved (and I don't just mean me - EDP scheduled his time off already, too), flights and hotels booked, and have started the lists of what we want to see. And really, most of it has come together in the last three days. And we haven't even bought our guidebooks yet.
So now it's time to start the travel blog and record all of the details. For those interested:
We depart from Toronto on September 24 in the evening. We land in Prague around 10 in the morning on September 25.
From there, we'll make our way to Hotel Residence Green Lobster. Seriously, that's what it's called.
Hotel Residence Green Lobster, Prague
We'll spend 4 days in Prague, hopefully taking in an opera, touring Prague castle & the Charles Bridge and seeing if we can make our way to one of the hot springs, which Prague is famous for. We also hear that Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe so we'll be spending lots of time drinking it all in
After we've spent our time there, we'll take the September 29 overnight train to Vienna and check in at our Vienna hotel, Pentahotel, for the next 4 days.
Pentahotel, Vienna
While in Vienna we'll be seeing a performance from the Vienna Boys Choir (tickets already booked!) and visiting Schönbrunn Palace, along with it's gardens and zoo
Early in the morning on October 4, we'll head to the Vienna airport and fly back to Canada.
So yeah, a bit of a change of plans but we're pretty excited about what's coming up in about two months. It will be different from our Italy trip. We'll only have two hotels instead of five so we can settle in a bit more, I'll have my netbook with me to blog frequently, and EDP now has a really nice camera so we'll get some amazing photos.
We're looking forward to spending the next two months figuring out everything we'll see. So far, it's looking like the Prague half of our trip will be a bit more relaxed and laid back whereas Vienna seems to have a lot more going on so will likely be a bit busier. I think EDP is probably most excited about the fact that I won't be whining to stop for gelato every 15 minutes. But I hear the strudel in Vienna is amazing and apparently, the most famous dessert in the Czech Republic is a pancake stuffed with ice cream & fruit and topped with whipped cream so I don't think I'll be lacking in the sweets department.
Also, for those of you keeping score - while there aren't any volcanoes to climb or waters for snorkeling in Prague or Vienna, I'm looking to cross of Thing 58 and Thing 93 while in Prague and Thing 88 in Vienna.
Hazenut
Raspberry
Vanilla
Banana
Strawberry
Lemon
Toffee
Coffee
Chocolate Chip
Chocolate Orange
Dark Chocolate
Cream (but they call it fiordilatte, which sounds much fancier)
Ferrero Rocher
Peach
Panna Cotta
Plus, tartufo twice :)
Time for one more blog entry with the last details of our trip...
We went for a nice dinner in Verona, getting all dressed up and ordering LOTS of food. After that, it was back to the hotel before getting up early in the morning to head over to Venice. Our train ride was uneventful, which was nice. We got a map so we could find our hotel and heading out of the train station to catch the vaporetto (the water bus.) We checked in - our room was already ready for us so we dropped our bags and headed out to Piazza San Marco. It was quite the site. Most of the one side was under water because the tide had recently come in so there were raised boardwalks for people to walk on - though, some people wadded through the puddles with rubber boots. We found the line for the basillica and headed in. It was quite the sight to see, the ceilings are all in mosaics, mostly with gold backgrounds. Sadly, no photos of the inside so you'll just have to google it. After that, it was into the Doge's Palace. It was amazing how HUGE and extravagant it was. The ceilings were absolutely amazing and it's just mindblowing to realize that it was built in the 12th century. Then it was time for some lunch and a trip up to the Rialto bridge!
Happily, Venice was pretty empty of tourists (though there were still a LOT) so it didn't take long to make our way to the front of the bridge. It was a really beautiful view, down the Grand Canal with all the gorgeous old buildings going down either side. We stood there for quite a while, just admiring the scenery and watching the gondolas and vaporettos make their way up and down the canal. After that, I wanted gelato from a place I read about in the book but we couldn't find it on the map and decided to just wander instead. The nice thing about Venice is that even though there are tonnes of little streets and it is easy to get lost, they put signs up on the buildings with directions to the major tourist attractions. After a bit of wandering, EDP decided we should follow the signs for the one attraction and we wandered through little street after little street for quite some time until we stumbled upon the gelato place I was reading about!! EDP tells me that was serendipity and that it was not fortuitous but I all I know is that I had some really good gelato (peach and panna cotta, yum...) We kept walking and finally arrived at our mystery location - the train station. Yup, we walked to the train station. While a bit disappointing, the walk was beautifuly and we now knew exactly how to get there in case we needed to walk. After that, we wandered back to the hotel and relaxed a bit before dinner. Venice has a tonne of seafood so EDP was pretty excited about the dinner prospects. Our dinner was tasty but it took forever!
The next morning, after breakfast being delivered to our room, we went out to explore again. It was FREEZING (even EDP was cold) but we went up to the Jewish Ghetto to take a look. Then, it was time for lunch and more wandering and some shopping for Murano glass! We found some really beautiful glass but you had to be really careful that were you were buying genuine Murano glass, not fake stuff from China. I had a lovely older fellow explain exactly how to tell you were getting the real stuff. He showed me how to look at the beads to see the silver inside and compare them to make sure they were all different. Then he showed me how he has to put a little tag on each piece that matches the tag on the piece with the particular location the glass was made. THEN, the piece has to be wrapped up and the package has to be sealed with a sticker. Quite the process! After our shopping explorations, we headed back up to the train station and made our way back to Rome.
The train trip to Rome was long and he had to take first class since there weren't any seats left in second class. A bit more expensive but we got snacks! Once in Rome, we found our last hotel and popped next store to have our last dinner. While at dinner, we caught a muted version of Italy's Deal or No Deal. Had a lot of similarities but a LOT of differences. No briefcases, just cardboard boxes tied with string. No models, just regular people. AND, sometimes, you have to do a crocodile dance. I'll be looking to stream it on a regular basis.
Then it was back to the hotel to get a good sleep before heading back to the airport the next morning. We caught the airport express, checked in and and waited for the plane to bring us back home. The flight was uneventful though I did get pulled into customs and had the salami EDP bought from duty free confiscated (well, we tried - he can probably order it online, anyway).
We've made it home now and I managed to sleep until 5 this morning! Time to do some laundry and pull the photos off the camera. There's a lot!