Vienna to Prague and on to Dresden

Thursday 1 May

This morning, as we were packing to leave, we heard a brass band and looking out the window we saw, what appeared to be a children’s band marching past the railway station accompanied by many people carrying red flags, it is May Day. Shortly afterwards another band, dressed in traditional Austrian costumes, marched past directly under our window, they were also accompanied by flag and banner carrying people.

We walked down to the main railway station and caught the tram to the south station, compared to most of the modern Vienna trams this line operates with trams old enough to be in a museum. On the way to the station the tram entered a tunnel and the next four stops were underground before emerging just before the Sudbahnhof to catch our train. Prague was just a stop along the way for our train as it continued on to Dresden and Berlin before finally finishing at Hamburg, I don’t know how long the total trip would take as the Vienna to Prague leg was 4 ½ hours.

Travelling through the Austrian countryside we were surprised how flat is was and the crops in the fields were planted in strips instead of planting the whole field with one crop, so the yellow, green, brown patterns (canola, wheat, fallow) were replicated time and time again, this and the absence of any livestock was quite different to the Australian countryside. The other noticeable difference is that all the countryside is green.

Shortly after leaving Vienna we passed an apple orchard, unlike any we have seen. The rows of trees, about 200 metres long and 3 metres apart, the trees in the rows planted so close together appeared to have been pruned with a hedge trimmer and looking down the rows the appearance was of a green hedge around 1 ½ metres wide and 1.8 metres high.

At the border the Austrian train crew were replaced with a Czech crew and soon the country changed, the flat open plains were replaced with wooded hills and the arable land was in much smaller lots. One farm we passed there were several men planting a ploughed field by hand and their equipment was carried on a horse drawn cart, not a tractor to be seen. The houses and towns were similar to those in Hungary, very run down and in need of a lot of maintenance but in the larger centres, as in Hungary, there appeared to be a lot of construction of new buildings.

The train system is very good compared to home, the carriages are clean and comfortable with a nice dining car and stand up buffet catering for the passengers and the electric locos travel swiftly, much faster than the Victorian Sprinters. Since leaving Budapest and travelling to Vienna and on to Prague all the line has been electrified, I don’t know how many hundreds of kilometres we have travelled but when compared to Victoria, which once had an electrified line to Traralgon, 160 km, which our progressive government pulled out, it makes us realise how pathetic Victoria’s train system is, or non train system as the case may be.

Arriving in Prague we were able to draw some Czech money from an ATM, this was necessary as the Czech Republic like Hungary still use their own currency and not Euros, we were then able to buy a ticket on the Metro, which was handy as our accommodation was a ten minute ride away. We have a self contained room in a hostel but unlike others we have stayed in, it faces onto a lawn and garden area and well away from the main building so it should be very peaceful.

Dinner tonight was at a restaurant brewery which still produces several beers on the premises and the brewing vats were behind a glass wall in the restaurant. The walls and display windows were full of old brewing and bottling equipment and photos as well as barrel making equipment. We had to queue for about twenty minutes before we could obtain a seat but the meal of venison, cranberries and dumplings with a half litre of their beer made the wait worthwhile. We could have had eight 100 ml sample glasses of the various brews but cherry, nettle, banana, wheat or coffee beers to name a few, didn’t appeal to us.

Back to the hostel with its comfortable bed and light weight doonas gave us a great night’s sleep.

Friday 2 May

Breakfast this morning was in the hostel garden, for two reasons, the sun was shining and the dining room was full. After breakfast we set off to explore the Old Town of Prague, we had heard that Prague was the place to visit for Europeans but nothing prepared us for the crowds, literally thousands packing the squares, lanes and churches and this before the tourist season has started. Yesterday was the May Day holiday in a lot of countries so perhaps people have taken a long weekend and come to Prague for the break and like us made their first stop in the Old Town Square to view the Astronomical Clock chime the hour, there were so many people with guides it was difficult to get a clear view of the clock with the guides holding up their umbrellas, flowers, flags, sticks and folders to rally their charges, like a hen clucking to its chickens.

There are two churches on the edge of the square, Tyn Church and St Nicholas and after the Baroque excesses we had viewed in churches along the Rhine, Moselle and Danube Rivers these were quite subdued. Nearly every church we visited or passed today had advertisements for classical music concerts during the day and in the evening; if we had a week to spare we could have enjoyed the works of many of the great composers of Europe. At the edge of the square Ann found another of her "friends", but as usual they didn't want to talk to her.

Walking from the square we entered the old Jewish section of the town, with its museums, synagogues and old cemetery, which is now closed for burials but while it was in use they kept topping it up with earth until they had twelve layers of people buried.

The museum has one of the most extensive collections of Judaic art and artefacts in the world and was started in 1906 and after the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia the Rabbis suggested that the Nazis set up a central museum for all the Jewish Memorial objects and artefacts that they were confiscating throughout the region. This was agreed to by the Nazis but for a different reason to the Rabbis, the Rabbis wanted to save their precious objects but the Nazis set it up as a museum of an extinct race.

From the Jewish town we walked on to the Vltava River and the Rudolfinum, the concert hall. While we were admiring the building and the statue of Dvorak, a convoy of around thirty restored US jeeps, blitz wagons, trucks and an old staff car drove into the square, all the drivers and crews were dressed in authentic US uniforms and carried WW2 weapons, side arms, rifles and machine guns mounted on the jeeps, we thought the Yanks were coming to win the war again. I must check my dates on the end of the war in Europe; 5th May rings a bell, so maybe this was to commemorate the end of the war, because the Russians "liberated" Prague.

We then crossed the river and climbed several hundred steps to the top of a hill where a giant metronome is erected; its steadily beating arm is visible from the old town. The walls lining the steps and all the walls throughout the park are covered with graffiti; it’s a shame to see such lovely old structures defaced and at the top the skate boarders have ripped up steps to make ramps. However the surrounding parkland and the view of the old town and all the bridges across the river was stunning.

We walked on through the park past what we think was the old summer palace, in the process of restoration, with the intention of making our way down to the old stone Charles Bridge and back across the river, instead we arrived at the back of the castle but we had the bonus of seeing the guard being changed.

Walking through the castle courtyard we found a street that took us down the hill past the new town St Nicholas Church and eventually arrived at the Charles Bridge. This wasn’t a good move as the crowds were packed and moving very slowly, when we reached the point of no return we found out why, half the bridge was closed for repair and the remaining part was only about four metres wide, it was like trying to empty the MCG after a Grand Final through a narrow tunnel but with people trying to go the other way, there were also about ten people in wheel chairs being pushed along in the crush. It took us about an hour to cover the hundred metres or so of the bottle neck, not a lot of fun.

Both sides of the bridge were lined with artists with paintings and crafts for sale and if the crowds weren’t so dense it would have been a pleasant experience strolling along and admiring their work. After passing under the Old Town Bridge Tower we walked to the nearest Metro station and arrived back at the hostel eight hours after leaving; if we thought we had walked ten km in Vienna the other day we must have walked closer to twenty today. After enjoying a meal of pork, sausage, dumplings and sauerkraut washed down with a beer, bed beckons.

Saturday 3 May.

Today we “got smart” and caught the Metro under the Vtlava River to the west bank, thus avoiding the bottleneck on the Charles Bridge. Walking up the old castle steps from the Metro we arrived at the east entrance of the Prague Castle which dates back to the 9^th Century, the largest castle complex in the world and purchased our multi entry ticket, we were surprised to obtain a 50% discount for being old. The first section we visited was the Golden Lane a narrow lane with tiny 16^th Century houses along side of the Castle wall; these were former residences for the Castle’s riflemen and later Goldsmiths, and the ceilings were so low that many people had to bow their head to avoid hitting it on the ceiling.

Our next visit was to St George’s Basilica, a very plain church, both inside and out, and the flat timber ceiling was unlike any we had seen before in Europe. Walking on we entered the exhibition of the “Story of the Castle” virtually a museum of artefacts, weapons, clothing and records from the Castle. Many items on display were recovered from tombs of kings and bishops buried at the Castle and the display traces the history of the area back to the first inhabitants, which excavations have revealed were living there around 3,000 BC. Leaving the exhibition we entered the Great Hall of the Palace, the largest high-Gothic vaulted space in Europe, in excess of 50 metres in length with a hand sawn timber floor with planks 30 cm wide.

Probably the highlight of our visit was the St Vitus Cathedral and because there wasn’t an entry charge we stood in a queue for about twenty minutes in the rain, trying to avoid the water spewing from the Gargoyles’ mouths. The cathedral is a huge Gothic building, construction commenced in 1344 and it wasn’t completed until 1929. Many of the windows are made of glass pieces so small they look like mosaics and we heard a guide say that it was coloured glass, not stained. In the apse is the tomb of St John of Nepomuk, two tonnes of Baroque silver with silver cherubs suspended over the top. A chapel on the side of the Cathedral contains the tomb of King Wenceslas, probably the most venerated person in the country.

A little further on we came to the entrance to the Great Tower of the Cathedral and being a mere 287 steps to the top we decided to climb the very narrow stone spiral stairs. These stairs are the only way up and down, so in both directions we had to hug the wall to pass the people going in the opposite direction, I thought I would have worn a hole in my sleeve from rubbing against the wall. From the top we had a 360 degree view of Prague, probably one of the best vantage points in the City and well worth the climb.

We were curious about a strange looking wall we could see; from where we were it looked as if small figures were stacked one above the other, descending the tower we made some inquiries and were directed to some gardens back near the Metro Station. These were the Wallenstein Gardens attached to the Wallenstein Palace, home of the Czech Senate and the wall that we saw was actually a fake stalactite grotto full of hidden animals and strange faces.

As it was over eight hours since we left the hostel we thought it was time to return and boarded the Metro, making a brief stop at Museum Station to emerge in Wenceslas Square to view the statues of King Wenceslas and then reboarded the train and arriving back 9 ½ hours after leaving. (Just slightly exhausted!)

Sunday 4 May

A quiet day today as we travelled 2 ¼ hours to Dresden and as we didn’t have to catch the train until 12:30 we had a late breakfast and enjoyed the sunshine in the hostel garden until we had to leave for the station.

There was a large crowd on the station and we walked from one end of the train to the other looking for our carriage number on the door, it wasn’t until we reached the second last carriage that the crowd thinned and we found that the carriage number was an electronic sign on the side and our carriage was at the other end of the train. When we boarded we found someone sitting in our seat as there weren’t any reserved signs displayed but when we produced our tickets they moved, however a group of 65 students returning to Sweden had more problems than us, as nearly all their reserved seats were occupied and it took their leader over 45 minutes to convince people to move and from the look on the faces of those moved “Not Happy Jan!” Several sat their ground arguing that because there wasn’t a reserved sign displayed the students didn’t have a legal right to the seats, eventually the problem was sorted by the conductor. Were glad we’re not travelling on the next two days as there are groups of 330 and 250 students leaving Prague to return to Sweden so we hope the railways put up the reserved signs.

For a large part of the journey the train travelled beside the Elbe River passing several small towns and villages and being a sunny day and the end of a four day weekend there were people every where along the river enjoying the sun.

We arrived in Dresden on time and a short stroll took us to our hostel only to be informed check in time was 4:00 pm, so we had to sit, together with several others till 4:03 before we were given our room keys. Such efficiency.