Geo: 50.0878, 14.4205Last night, after doing yesterday's blog, we decided to take a walk toward the river along a less-touristy street. Along the way, we happened upon Wenceslas Square, which had been on our itinerary for today. Being so close, we had to explore it last night anyway. This is the square where protests were held during 1969 (Prague Spring) and where a young man set himself on fire in protest of the Communist regime. At that time, 500,000 Russian troops were called in to stop the movement. Hard line rule was the rule for the next two decades.By 1989, the climate had changed slightly. Seemingly very enthusiastic about commemorating anniversaries, thousands of Czech people began turning out to the square again in honor of Jan Palach (the student who took his own life in 1969). ... read more

Geo: 50.0878, 14.4205We got up early and finished packing our bags, had our final breakfast at Schweitzer Pension, and crammed ourselves onto the elevator to meet our cab. Though we requested a "large" cab, it wasn't large enough for all of our stuff. Unfortunately, a second cab had to be called, which doubled our price to Vien Südbahnhof (Vienna South Train Station). Fortunately, we arrived with some time to spare and enjoyed a coffee before boarding our train. Unlike our German train experience, this train left nearly 20 minutes behind schedule. To their credit, they kept apologizing for the delay at every stop.The train ride was interesting, as we sat across from a man from Thailand and a woman from Venezuela having a conversation back and forth in English. They were both nice people. On the ... read more

Geo: 48.22, 16.37Guten morgen!We arose to see the bluest skies yet. It has been a beautiful day in Vienna. Jeannette's emergency whistle/compass/thermometer (from e-bay, of course) registered 80 degrees in the afternoon.After breakfast served by Mr. Klaus, we boarded a tour bus that gave us an overview of the city and a guided tour of the Schönbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Hapsburg family, rulers of the Austrian empire for nearly 600 years. The palace was constructed between 1696 and 1711 and was modeled after Versailles. Of particular interest was Maria Theresa, who despite bearing sixteen children in nineteen years, managed to rule the empire with uncharacteristic strength. She had a full time staff of over 2000 people working at Schönbrunn, 200 of which were assigned to maintain the candles (electricity was not added until ... read more

Geo: 48.1391, 11.5802July 11Leisure and Travel – Not as Much as We Usually Do DayWe got up once again and enjoyed "the breakfast of champions." Because we had no particular place to be, we slept in a bit and didn't eat until 8:30. After that, we went back to our small rooms and repacked our gepacken. Then it off to Starbucks for free internet (our last update until today or tomorrow or the next time we find access.) that wasn't really free. They wanted 6 Euros for an hour ($8.40). And you thought the coffee was expensive! Luckily, an unaware, unsecured network was in close proximity and we decided to borrow some bandwiff. (Hahah!). Then it was off for a day of shopping until we had to re-group and gather at the train station (Hauptbanhof). We ... read more

Geo: 47.4923, 11.0862July 9, 2009Climb Every MountainToday started off with another breakfast of champions. From there it was a visit to the Euraide station to get our Eurail passes validated. The gentleman from yesterday was nowhere to be found, but neither was the personality of the young woman who helped us. Without cracking a smile, she validated our passes and we were off to the Gleis for a train bound to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the village at the foot of the Alps that would serve as our launching point for Zugspitze. Along the route, we took in a number of rural Bavarian villages. The architectural style of the houses was relatively consistent and reminded us of Swiss chalets. Lots of stucco (often adorned with painted artwork), wood, tile roofs, and balconies with hanging flowers. What we were left ... read more