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Published: April 26th 2011
Wiemar
Marketplatz and Town HallFrom Dresden to Vienna – From 5th to 25th April
Now initially Dresden was only a one night stop over, we'll be coming back to see the sites, but it was just a passing visit on the 5th. The first stop was a small town called Weimar about 150 km west of Dresden.
So after a few hours drive on a sunny Wednesday morning we stopped at the lovely town of Weimar. First impressions whilst walking around was that it was that something felt a little odd, as everything was ‘nice’. Certain parts were lovely, the town hall, some of the other buildings such as a concert hall, and the buildings around the market square. But it was everything else that was impressive. It wasn’t that it was all amazing just that
everything was nice. It was only later that I read that everything had been renovated and redone recently as it was the European capital of culture recently. That immediately had me comparing and more so contrasting it with Liverpool! Not somewhere you come to see on its own but a nice stop on the way.
Another stop was the famous Wartburg Castle. What’s impressive about this
is that it’s about 900 years old and was way ahead of its time as a castle. The architecture was largely stolen from Ancient Rome and then re-applied to a castle. Much of it was built to show off to the neighbours and it is quite a sight. The size of the third storey banquet hall is amazing. The Neshwanstein castle copied this and that castle was built some 600 years later.
On what must be the hottest day of the year so far we had a wander around the Hainich national park. The park could have been situated near the Mediterranean as it was so dry. It had the dusty browny yellow colour and there was little if any greenery on any of the ground cover. The trees were the only really green things, and this in early April. The park almost looked out of place.
We returned to Dresden after the brief detour and managed to get have a look at all the sites on the second day after a one day wash out. The city is beautiful, the number of Baroque buildings is quite amazing considering it was completely destroyed in 1945. Everything has been
put back ‘as was’ and only a few things appear unfinished. The Zwinger House is quite stunning, supposedly the art works inside are too but I skipped those! It has a fantastic ornamental courtyard, which was definitely one of the most popular sites of the City.
From Dresden it was down to the Sachsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland) area, most of which is now a national park. The area is famous for the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. It’s hard to describe how bizarre they look jutting out from the ground. Thankfully by now the weather had turned and the days had become beautiful, with only a slight chill in the evenings. We were able to navigate ourselves around the national park taking pictures from atop some precarious looking rocks, and refusing to jump onto others for the possibility of a better view! I assume theses sandstone mountains were created by the Elbe, given their name, but it seems hard to imagine. They really are bizarre though. This was our last stop in Germany, time to head towards the ex-communist countries of Eastern Europe.
Much like crossing from Germany to Poland, as soon as I left Germany for the Czech Republic
you can tell the difference, although the contrast was not as stark. For one the area we were driving through was beautiful. Rolling hills and valleys, (and pretty decent roads!), nice villages, and a huge amount of Skoda’s! Not only the new models designed by the Germans, but the old ones of the skip on wheels fame! Don’t think I’ve seen these since the early 90’s! A slow drive meandering through the countryside which changed as we approached the city of Prague. One of the first signs I saw was ‘TESCO’, seems you can’t escape home wherever you are!
Prague is obviously famous for the number of stag do’s, but as we arrived late on Sunday night, and didn’t hit the city proper until the Monday, we only saw one bunch, ‘The Wedding Crashers’ from Shrewsbury so there outfits said! In the 5/6 months of travels so far, adding up the total amount of other tourists would probably equate to roughly the same number as were in Prague. Walking anywhere was a nightmare as one guided group would inevitably stop directly in your path, oblivious to the other people around them. The old market square is quite beautiful, and
the Easter markets that filled it were an excellent place for eating and drinking mainly. On a baking hot day, dressed expecting much colder weather, the long slog, ok maybe only 20 minutes, up the hill to see Prague’s Hradčany Castle, was a bit of a ‘uncomfortable’, but it is definitely worthwhile. The view of the city from up there is quite something too. The castle itself is built in a square around a cathedral, whilst it’s quite something to see without a wide angle lense it’s very difficult to photograph which is quite a pain. I and many other tried, but the results are a little disappointing. Managed to find a good old Irish Bar to rehydrate a little, and catch a bit of Rocket Ronny at the snooker world championships. I did skip the pie of the day and mash though! A very beautiful city, I can see why it attracts so many tourists.
From Prague it was a drive through the beautiful sunny countryside to Karlštejn. Perched in the Berounka Valley is the majestic Karlštejn Castle. I doubt it would look anywhere near as ‘majestic‘ if it was piddling down with rain, but on a super
sunny day it certainly does. The only problem with castles is you generally have to walk uphill to get to them, or take the smelly-horse drawn carriage. Walking wins hands down. So charging past all the fat slow yanks we get to the top and are swiftly taken off on our guided tour. It is quite amusing as the English tour has about 20 on it, about 4 of which can speak English! Unlike a lot of the things to see back home, nearly everything over here that is state owned has a compulsory guided tour. The castle itself was empty, all the furniture had been taken off by some Austrian a couple of centuries ago, so it’s a little sparse, not up to show home standard anyway. The main tower, which is the most beautiful, was off limits which was a shame. Not that we’d have got to see it as in the two months of the year it is only allowed 15 visitors an hour as they try to keep the room as dry as possible to keep the microclimate as controlled as possible. It must be quite something if they have quite such tight control over it.
Anyway, if you do ever visit Prague, make sure you take a trip out to Karlštejn Castle, you won’t be disappointed.
From Karlštejn it was a trip south to České Budějovice. Also known as Budweis of Budweiser fame. The best thing about this place was its name which I proudly pronounce with my best Czech accent. Apart from that, nothing to report. So moving along swiftly…to České Krumlov.
Now whilst it’s not got such a good name, it does have a lot more to see. It was once comparable to Prague as a major city, and I have no doubt it was equally as beautiful. It has managed to retain its small town beauty, and it’s not the sprawling metropolis that is the capital. The pretty old town is small yet quaint, and from nearly everywhere you can catch a glimpse of the towns highlight, the castle. It’s the second largest in the whole of Bohemia, only the Hradčany in Prague is bigger. The way it stands dominant over the town is spectacular. Hordes of tourists flock to this place, and it’s easy to see why. Amusingly many of the same non-English tourists from Karlštejn are on the
same English spoken tour as us, and whilst not allowed to take any photos inside, many of the group sneakily photograph the bear skins that adorn the floors. This castle has a moat, but it’s not full of water but full of bears! They were all hiding under the bridges in the shade when I passed. The only time there has not been bears in the moat was during WWII.
After the day spent in České Krumlov, it was a couple of hours drive down to Wachau in Austria. Well it should have been a couple of hours but after over five months on the road we found it, our first traffic jam. This meant that we’d get the our campsite far too late to book in, so a night spent in a lorry park at the service station on route was called for. Fortunately it was not too far from where we wanted to be the following day, which was a small town called Melk.
Melk is one of the many places on this trip we visited that we’d never heard of before. But it has the biggest monastery I’ve ever seen, it was massive. The first
part of the self-guided tour was as boring as it could have been. I’m not even sure what it was all about, so it was a quick march through that. It was only during the second part where you came across the rooms which were highly decorated rather than whitewashed that it became quite something to see. The Marble Hall, the library, and the church itself. Only 3 ‘rooms’, but worth the visit alone. It’s no wonder monks could only afford horrible brown habits when they so much money on decorating monasteries like this.
Melk is situated on the Danube, so the drive to our next stop was as picturesque as it gets. The slowly meandering Danube valley was beautiful. Small towns such as Aggsbach, Weißenkirchen, and sit on the banks of the Danube. Dürnstein is one of the most famous because of its small monastery and famous castle which once held an imposing position above the town and held a stregic position in the valley itself. It’s now more ruins than anything else but a trek up the 300m high hill gives glorious views over the town and valley.
After this lovely drive we arrived in Kritzendorf,
Vienna 1
Natural Histroy Museum just outside Vienna and our position for the daily trip to the Austrian capital. The night before the first trip into Vienna I did a bit of research. About 5 minutes of reading into what to see. I came to the conclusion that just wandering around would be good enough as the number of sites was so large it would be hard to miss them, and I was not wrong. It’s not a massive city. 1.6 million Inhabitants in the city itself, and nearly all the sites are within walking distance. I wandered around taking pictures every few seconds, stumbling upon quite amazing buildings all the time. I have not seen so many in any other place. It’s a stunning city, absolutely packed with tourists. Something like 12,000 people visited the Schönbrunn Palace by the time I bought my ticket at 3pm on the day I visited.
Much of the grandeur of the city was down to Vienna being the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty from the mid 15th century, and the capital of the holy roman empire until the early 19th century. On touring the Schönbrunn Palace, the stories of some of the ceremonies for coronations and
Vienna 3
Vienna City Hall royal weddings are quite amazing. With such wealth, each different Emperor seemed to want to leave their own legacy, so multiple palaces, summer residences, and lavish opera houses were built over the years.
I spent a few hours wandering around. I’m sure if a guide was doing the tour it could have taken days. The city is definitely worth a visit. And whilst it’s not my cup of tea, I’m sure taking in one of the great concerts by Mozart (which are being peddled by people in costume throughout the city) would be worthwhile too. I’m not sure if it’s true, but I think it may also be the ice-cream capital of the world. I’ve never seen the number of ice-cream parlours that there are here. Large restaurants that only serve ice-cream, and so many takeaways you do not need to ever search for one! It obviously helps when the weather is good, and it certainly has been.
So that’s about it for the last few weeks. Onwards from here to Slovakia, Hungary, and then down to Croatia. If things go to plan that is!
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