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Published: August 1st 2018
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I apologise if this is a bit out of sequence; Rach is still working on 'Berlin #2' and I have agreed to write this whilst she catches up. What's the bets that I post Vienna before Berlin#2 sees the light of day!
The train journey from Berlin with my parents was not the best. We had not yet worked out that first you book the tickets then you pay extra to reserve seats; we had only done the former. As a result, Rach/me and my parents ended up in separate compartments for half the journey. We were eventually re-united after we crossed the German/Czech Republic border and we all shared a compartment with some poor bugger who had to endure Rach and I coughing/sneezing etc.
Our first real jaw dropping moment of the holiday happened on getting out of the taxi at our air BnB, onto the narrow cobbled streets and looked up to see the twin towers of the Our Lady of the Tyn cathedral, spectacularly lit up at 10:30pm. Side note: dad's jaw dropping moment was 10 minutes later when we went for our first local drink and it cost approx. AUD$2.5 per pint. I am ashamed
to say that we then had a British moment, in going to the local Irish pub after the other local one closed; not deliberate, but still left a bad taste (albeit, a pint of Kilkenny didn't!)
Day 1 - The first activity planned (by moi, are you impressed) was to walk the Royal Way of Prague; this is the traditional coronation route of Czech kings, from Republic Square, where a city seat of Czech kings used to be, passed many of Prague's most impressive sights and ends at Prague Castle. That was the plan. Our slow walk, at my father's pace (about 1/4 of Reach's normal pace (note for context: you know the kids when they were small needed to run to keep up with her)) through throngs of tourists (the collective nouns "flock/glaze" don't seem to do it justice), and the blistering heat (yes, hot even by Australian standards). I remembered why dad was christened Grumps, as he grumpily battled his was through the throngs. Approx. 2.5 hours and one beer stop later, we eventually reached the Castle and decided we would pay to see the cathedral and castle. After a very strenuous walk through the cathedral (quite
spectacular), dad and I decided that we needed another pit stop i.e. beer stop whilst Rach and my mum continued the rest of the paid part. I suspect that we were slowly wearing dad down, although he has himself to blame for walking with me up the 300 or so steps in the Berliner Dom the precious day!
On our return to our accommodation, we were hangry people trying to find a reasonably priced restaurants in the streets in and around the main square (Old Town Square), which was doomed to failure given the location. We ended up in a 12th century cellar restaurant, the 'White Horse", which was one of the most expensive places, but well worth the money for a lovely meal; I did however upset the musician who was working through his live set, when I showed Rach a video of traditional Czech dancing that I had taken earlier in the day (with the volume full up in error); he stopped and harassed me for a few minutes, asking if I wanted to sing a song; lucky I was only on my first litre stein of beer at the time or I might have belted out
a rendition of Living on a Prayer (which would have been dedicated to Bert); whilst that was going on in my head he calmed down and carried on.
After dinner we had planned to go to a classical music concert in a local church. To the uneducated (mum, dad and myself) it was the best (probably because it was the first of such) concert ever, in an awesome location; Rach's view: the soprano was OK, the acoustics of the place were terrible, and it was music reduces to its lowest form blah blah.....
Oh shit, was that only day 1? Yes, Day 2 - on realising that we had not started the Kings way at the right point, we worked back to the beginning, being Republic Square, not Old Town Square, did the missing bits. We then spent the rest of the morning/afternoon wandering around the Jewish quarter. Point of note: everything in the Jewish quarter required an attendance fee (in every city that we have been in, even the synagogues (which by the way all have airport type security......), whereas nothing catholic did (just saying, and this is me, Alan, saying this unprompted!) We then retraced our
steps back to find a pub that had really cheap beer that dad and I saw. Despite Rach's continued protestations that we were going the wrong way, we continued on our (my dad and my) path, completely missing the pub and ending up hungry again. This is one of the themes of the time with my parents: dad trying, to no avail whatsoever, to prove Rachael wrong (is she ever wrong?!)
Rach and I escaped to do some Sutcliffe pace walking whilst dad was having a siesta; we visited a few sights that were otherwise out of reach, walking more steps in that hour than we had in the whole day to then.
We then did a night/dinner cruise of the Vltava river. Unfortunately, the free drink was not a massive beer stein as dad and I were expecting, but a shot of some dodgy Prague liquor; dad and I made the most of a bad situation, having 2 each! After fighting the Chinese tourists to the buffet dinner we ended up on the front deck of the boat soaking in the atmosphere and night sights of Prague. Whilst we spent about half of the 3 hour journey
in a lock, the journey was made worthwhile by my mum's comments that she couldn't believe that she was here with us, doing this; a very touching moment, given her early years. We found out that Dad made the most of the buffet when we found him eating an apricot on the walk home; he had another 5 in his bumbag.
We left the next day; our experience of Czech people, which had been OK up to then, was tainted by the staff on boarding the train from Prague to Vienna. We asked two separate train staff (in English, which was possibly the problem) which carriage we should be on, and both, with serious shakes of the head and other affectations (one was definitely gay, I am sure that you can picture it), could not help us; perhaps the trolley people on trains are not trained in how to deal with customer queries!!!!!
Some other memorable moments, points of note:
The beautiful weather, if not too hot, continues;
Europeans obsession for smoking continues; outside a restaurant is fair game for smokers;
More walking slowly;
Recurring activities: constant lookout for cheap beer (whilst with my dad);
Beer wagons: imagine
a bunch of loud, pisshead students on a pub crawl; now put them on seats around a small bar with a barmaid pouring unlimited tap beer; now picture these seats being like bicycles attached around one vehicle, and they need to power their movement like a bicycle; hilarious to watch and you could certainly hear them coming!:
Developing a serious hatred for tourist; especially the ones that need to pose for 2-3 minutes to take various selfies, ignorant of everyone else around them (the selfie generation);
Dad's need to constantly challenge Rach; for some reason Dad had a need to prove Rach wrong; as determined as he was, and the topics were wide and varied, he was never successful (it has taken me many years to come to terms with Rach always being right);
Rach now believes that I am the bigger consumer of toilet paper - no comment
Next post: Vienna (or maybe Berlin #2)
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