A wonderful way to end the tour with Tauck by having a private gallery art tour and rare music manuscripts from Beethoven.
… and dinner with the Lobkowitz family host in the palace.
Headed back to the US!
Here is the favorite of a few posts of our visit to the Czech Republic and the few days we spent in Prague. Here are a few of the other detailed blog posts if interested in exploring further:
Last night we went rogue and walked down some curves and alleys in the darkened streets to explore a local restaurant that was not in the tourist district.
It is called La Degustation – it is an asian fusion restaurant and has a Michelin star. We only tried the 6 course menu, but with all the appetizers and other treats, it felt like 12. Simply amazing food, flavors and staff.
This morning we took a private tour of the Prague Estate Theater which was only a few blocks away from our hotel. This is the only remaining theater or house where Mozart actually conducted and the location still exists or is still in use today. A small, quaint and historic theater worth checking out.
The theater has been in operation since 1873 and was only closed from 1983 through 1991 for renovation. It did not even close during WWII. Don Giovanni is played very frequently, but interestingly, they only play Mozart’s music and no other. The President has a private box at no cost, but our host indicated he is not very cultural and prefers to hang out more in pubs and restaurants.
But we did have a little time to enjoy a few pieces from the Marriage of Figaro in a private recital with some members of the orchestra. We could not sit in the main theater as they were working on building the next set and the set hands were yelling quite a bit.
Here is one of the clips for your listening enjoyment.
We walked through the historical Jewish ghetto which has been mostly demolished, but we went into the Jewish Museum and learned about Golem.
We now know the connection from the Czech Republic Jewish community to the Lord of the Rings movies 🙂
On the way, we also captured a quick picture of where Albert Einstein met and hung out with other academics at the university near the big market square near our hotel.
Not far from the Jewish Museum we visited the Prague WWII memorial which recognized and named everyone that was deported to the concentration camps from Prague and the Czech Republic with all their names on the walls. 80,000 names.
The other side of the memorial was the cemetery which is where the famous Rabbi Loew is buried, but not his Golem servant. There was also many other famous people and scholars.
Now for Golem, the story hoes that his magic was taken away and put into the attic of the Pinkasova synagogue which is the oldest synagogue in Prague.
And to end the day of walking, we had to visit the Communist Museum on our way back to the hotel to help remember the good times when the workers united to be more social than the current capitalistic society.
And of course, some may ask, can you go running in Prague. Yes, you can, check out the blog posting on the route we ran.
Running around the world is always fun. Some of my other favorite spots:
This morning we went up to the Prague Castle that was controlled by the Communist Party during the Soviet area… Now it is where the Prime Minister works. High security.
We also went into St. Vitus Cathedral which was immensely crowded despite the $10 entrance fee.
It is famous for the silver tomb of St John of Nepomuk which had so many people around it, it felt like a grunge mosh-pit when trying to take a picture.
This cathedral was also where the famous priest brought Christianity to Bohemia and created the Cryptic alphabet. I could not remember the full story on this one from our guide.
We also walked around the Lobkowicz Palace where Franz Kafka also lived and wrote some books in the surrounding homes/shops. This is one of the places where he wrote a book. I bought a book on Golem which was intriguing. Stay tuned for that story tomorrow.
The first vineyard was also next to the Palace up on the hill. We decided to walk down and try the local beer instead.
When walking down, you can see the TV tower off in the distance that was built by the Soviet Union and still in use today. The locals call it “Breznev’s Finger”. You can guess how they feel about it.
Moving on to another location not far from the palace…
The real highlight in this area is the Strahov Monastery and libraries associated with the Norbert patron saints and monks.
This is where the most popular craft beer is made in Prague… I think some call it grog though…
But the most interesting aspect is the ancient library of over 250,000 books which we got a private tour of. A movie was filmed here… In 2002, the League of Extraordinary Gentleman had many scenes here. Recognize the scene?
A hidden gem in Prague if you ask me.
Prague is definitely a hot spot with tourists.
Lots of walking across cobblestone streets, lots of old architecture, almost so many different examples, it is hard to see them all and take pictures of them all. This is one of the “cubist” examples.
Also, lots of music, lots of restaurants…and lots of tourists. Almost as many as NYC. The year 1300 midevil tower is one of the hot spots.
Thousands of people fill the square every hour to see the animation and motion in the weighted ancient clock.
Another hot spot is Charles Bridge which is the oldest bridge from the 1850 time-frame that is now closed to tourists, I am pedestrians only. We will walk across it tomorrow.
This evening we went to a local market, purchased some cheeses, crackers, local meats and a good looking Portteus.com american wine to have a snack before heading out for a local concert. The Mark Luxury Hotel in Prague is full of multi-rooms suites that are only 2 blocks away from the main squares.
We then walked to ancient Spanish Synagogue to enjoy a string only rendition of Ravel’s Bolero and some other recitals to get a taste of the local music talent. Excellent choice, amazing inside design and amazing acoustics.
Yes!
If you are in the classic Prague tourist area near the Powder Tower…you just have to wear trail shoes for all the rough cobblestone streets!
So from there, head to the National Theater which is near the river.
The problem is you run through the Times Square section of Prague…which is deserted at 6:00 in the morning…it feels like the walking dead will appear in any second…
But once you get to the river, it is gorgeous and this where all the local runners are. The problem is at 6:00 AM, they are all running 7 min/mile pace and it is hard to keep up with them.
And like every city, you find thing along the way that are…unique and hard to explain.
But, survey says: yes, Prague is a great place for runners to start the day…and listen to your favorite GrowthHacking or Doomsday Prepper podcast. 😉
Here are a few more examples of where I have around the world:
Last night, we had dinner at the Imperial Hotel since John Kerry and company had a dinner event in our hotel taking all the tables. Learn more about the peace conference in this posting. So we needed an alternate choice nearby.
The Imperial Hotel became quickly available since the Syrian peace talks delegation bailed because a member of the opposition party just recently purchased the Imperial Hotel…so they did not want to be associated with the opposition side in any way.
The Syrian delegation all stayed at a different hotel down the street. They did want to hang with us since we were not dressed up enough.
We also went to a private Mozart and Strauss recital at Palais Auersperg.
Great way to end the evening with a little music with some up and coming local artists.
So the local police let us check out from the hotel this morning. Surprise! The police made the Souvenir seller stop selling fake guns next to the peace delegation. Check out my posting yesterday to see it in the shop.
We headed north across the border to the Czech Republic. Waves and waves of the yellow rape seed crops…the phone does not do the picture justice. It is BRIGHT yellow!
As soon as you get across the border into the Czech Republic, it is party time!
Austrians can cross the border for casinos, outlet malls, kids parks…
And lots and lots of nightclubs. Reminder signs are posted every 100 meters along the highway.
We kept driving…until the police stopped the bus. Suspected of smuggling immigrants across the border. Quick check, we were allowed to stay in the country and continue our journey to Prague in this posting.
Whew – lucky us. The blog can now continue for those waiting for Prague highlights.
Over the past 24 hours, we have been able to visit and see many things around Vienna that are hard to describe in a single theme. So, I used a random number generator seeded with fresh entropy to put together a number of items.
We snuck out of the hotel, but the military snipers kept a close eye on us as we left due to the tense Syrian peace talks happening on the second floor of our hotel…
Of course, we needed to try the favorite local Bratwurst and beer. Without question, everyone in the city lines up all day long for this small shack in the city center. Yep it was good.
We explored some of the older areas of the city. One of the unique aspects of Vienna are these plaques on the street that mark where Jews were deported and sent to death camps. Unfortunately, in Austria, if every owner of the building does not agree to the plaque, they cannot be placed on the side of the building, but only in the public street.
This is one of the oldest coffee houses in the world and the oldest coffee house still in business in Austria.
Some things cannot be explained. This was outside the peace museum that was dedicated to those awarded the Nobel peace prize.
I think everyone knows this word even if you don’t speak German.
The city center is full of unique pubs and night clubs. Probably more than you would even see in London or NYC.
It was not walking distance, but Vienna has a HUGE central park – larger than Central Park in NYC. They have one long street for people and no cars that is 4 KM long…and a HUGE ferris wheel that holds 20+ people in a car. One car even hosts a car for dinner with 1 course for every turn of the wheel.
The Jewish center and large synagogue is very close to the city center, but most of the community lives on the other side of the Danube since it is so expensive to live in this area. The street is always blocked for cars and has police patrols constantly due to attacks.
We walked by the oldest university in Austria (I think). We took a quick look at the Jesuit Church that is next to the university. What is unique about this church is it has a painted dome inside that is an illusion. It looks like a dome, but the roof is actually flat. Clever.
We spent some time after lunch to check out the Albertina Museum that had a Monet to Picasso exhibit. We got to see 3 more Claude Monet’s in our list, quite a few Picasso, 1 Munch which was quite cool and quite an exhibit of Chagall which we never had seen before.
The museum is actually part of one of the Hapsburg palaces where some of the kids had lived as they did not like the old school decorations and fluff their parents had built in other palaces. I think I could hang out here if needed…
Then to end the afternoon, we saw the delegation all leave the hotel. The Syrian peace talks had ended. Based on the looks on their faces, it did not look like any progress had been made. Just lots of pomp and circumstance.
After exploring Vienna the day before in this blog posting, this day took a different twist!
There are so many great places to eat in Vienna, the choices are hard.
We were lucky and Platinum AMEX concierge got us into the Do & Co restaurant that is in the center of the city center shopping district.
They had an amazing special for the season: white asparagus. With a hollandaise sauce, it was simply amazing.
Now this morning, walking down the stairs of our hotel, I ran into an unusually placed camera.
Ah hah – a US based delegation is also staying down one floor below us.
When we headed to breakfast, the lobby was full of plain clothes police and private security.
What is going on? Are we in trouble? Guess what is happening here today? The Syrian peace talks are being held here. John Kerry, Sec of State felt the hotel the across the street was more of his liking, but everyone else is here. Should be a fun afternoon.
The hotel is being blocked off by police in all directions. Surrounded! OK – we are going to bust out of this security enclave, no pun intended, and explore more of the cultural history of Vienna.
A few years later, I got to sneak across the border and briefly visit Syria myself in this blog posting.
OK – time to walk around an explore Vienna. We are at a great historic hotel Bristol in the old city center.
People love to walk around and in the city center, to promote LGBT+ awareness and acceptance, the street lights have all different mixes of people and genders happily walked together in love. Love and comfort is definitely the culture of this city.
Steps away from the shopping district and Opera house. We can even hear the opera playing if we open the window in our room without paying 250 euros. Last night was the 5.5 hour Wagner’s Lohengrin 🙂
The shopping district is definitely a tourist area. It is like the Austrian version of NYC Times Square. You can buy anything. Swiss watches, expensive clothes, even your favorite mocked up AK-47 that you could walk out in 2 minutes and carry in the street.
OK – lets talk music. Vienna is also where Mozart lived and worked and not just Salzburg. He loved gambling and card games and that is why he never had money. He died young and it is not clear why he died.
Vienna is also full of many sites of destruction and WWII history when annexed by Hitler. Heldenplatz, the Square of Heroes is where Anschluss occurred.
28% of Vienna was destroyed in the war. You can see in the distance, one of the 6 “flak towers” that still remain in Vienna. “In the still of the night”. They were built by the Nazis for mounted anti aircraft guns during WWII. They still remain because they were built heavily re-inforced concrete which is too hard to demolish with destroying surrounding buildings. This one hosts the ocean Museum.
We walked over and spent a little time at the Art History Museum – also known as the fine arts museum.
It is really big and quite amazing to see the wealth and opulence of the Hapsburg dynasty.
I will call out one interesting piece. This is one painting that is full of controversy. It was one of the first paintings purchased by Adolf Hitler for the planned Fuhrer museum. The museum was never created, but the paintings were stored in the Salzburg salt mines during the war and this is one of the paintings recovered Monument Men as depicted in the movie with that title. It is titled the “Art of Painting” by Johannes Vermeer who is the same artist and same subject as the girl with the pearl earring. It has not been in the museum very often because it is travelling so much. But it is staying in the museum because the original family keeps suing to get the painting back.
We talked a bit to our guide about the immigration status from an Austrian perspective. So far, 90,000 refugees have come to Austria and in Vienna 25,000 have settled. She said that many did not stay, even though they are welcome…they want to go based on the Internet rumors that they will be given free homes, social security, etc. in Germany and Sweden.
OK – back to the walking tour. Everything in Vienna is about the Hapsburgs. Palaces, homes, gardens, libraries, green houses, discos, you name it. The national library looks quite interesting. May have to check it out tomorrow.
We spent the afternoon checking out the palace and gardens. And snacking on a little local schnitzel and strudel of course. The Austrian strudel is definitely different from the German strudel.
It was interesting to learn that Napoleon had married into the Hapsburgs and also lived here in the summer of palace. Learn something new every day…
OK, this entry is long enough, will post more tomorrow. Stay tuned to this channel!
Update: here are some of the other postings for days in Austria:
OK – it is the weekend, so it is time for a long run 🙂
We ran along the canal and headed to the Danube from the City Center in Vienna. If I can only ran another kilometer, I would have actually seen the new Danube and not just the old Danube in the center of the city.
Since we staying at Hotel Bristol, is near the major shopping district, it was completely empty this morning. It was almost like running in a Times Square zombie movie…
Once you reach the canal, you can quickly see that the locals are big fans of modern art.
I did not want to keep stopping though to take pictures of some of the best pieces from the emerging famous artists in Austria.
Even at 7 AM, the night clubs and dance outlets were still open and jamming as we ran by some of them. The one thing I could figure out is what was the “Fairness Zones”.
It was a great morning run. But I do admit, 7 AM was a little early for most in the city center for long runs along the river…off to do a little more sightseeing this morning around the city!
Running around the world is always fun. Some of my other favorite spots:
David Cross Travel Blog 