Trip Report: July 5, 2014 Central Europe ABD (Austria, Germany & The Czech Republic)

[Calfan]

This is my first-ever trip report! After reading so many helpful trip reports here on the DIS, I thought I would try my hand at passing along my thoughts and impressions about our recent Central Europe ABD. I am going to follow a format I have seen and liked in other trip reports, where I give my written review of a particular day of the trip in one post, followed in the next post by photos from that day (assuming I can figure out how to embed photos in a post! I might have to use a few placeholder posts while I figure it out and until we get our photos uploaded to SnapFish).

First off, though, I wanted to provide a few overall impressions and comments about the trip. This was a really great trip, with plenty of activities that were enjoyable for both adults and kids alike. (The Ice Cave was a particular favorite for me, and I know my husband and son would want to give a call-out to the trick fountains at Hellbrunn Castle in Salzburg.) We had a pretty big age range of “kids,” ranging from age 9 at the young end up into the early
20s. However, there was a concentration of kids (7 of them, I think) in the 9 to 11 year old range that made for some great bonding among the Junior Adventurers (and increased the decibel level at any event where the JAs hung out or sat together ). I think age 9 is a pretty good starting age for kids for this trip, especially for activities like the Ice Cave. Our guides, Betti and Jennae, were fabulous. Betti is from Berlin, which really added to the Germany/Austria portions of the trip.

A few things to note for future travelers who are deciding whether to take this trip or who are still in the planning stages. First, while Germany is listed in the title of the trip, there is very little activity on this trip that actually takes place in Germany. While adventurers do spend 3 nights at the fabulous Intercontinental in Berchtesgaden in the German Alps (more on the hotel later), only 2 activities actually take place in Germany – the salt mine tour and the pretzel making. Otherwise, all of the events and activities during the days the group is staying in Berchtesgaden actually take place in Austria, and most of the bus driving time is spent in Austria. This is fine and is not meant as a criticism. I mention it only because if folks are looking for a trip to Germany that is going to give them a good look at Germany, they should probably concentrate on the Germany ABD rather than this one.

Second, this ABD does not do Prague justice in the amount of time spent there or sites covered. Again, this is not necessarily a criticism. I think it is generally acknowledged among ABD veterans that ABDs tend to be weakest in their coverage of the departure city, likely on the theory that travelers have the opportunity to spend any number of pre-days in the departure city and can cover it as thoroughly as they would like before the start of the actual ABD. That is definitely the case with the Central Europe ABD, which really only devotes half a day to seeing a few of the major sites in Prague (Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge and Old Town Square, where the Astronomical Clock is located). Luckily, we gave ourselves 4 full days to enjoy Prague before the start of the ABD, and I am so happy we allotted the extra time. We absolutely loved Prague and could easily have spent another couple of days exploring areas inside or out of the city. It is one of the most picturesque cities I have ever seen (including biggies like Paris and Rome) and is very well preserved, as my understanding is that it suffered very little bombing during World War II. Almost everywhere you turn in Prague, you see a building with spires or an amazing facade or statuary adorning the building. Architectural highlights for other cities are commonplace in Prague. The vast majority of the streets and sidewalks in Prague are cobblestoned, which adds to the charm (but be sure to bring good walking shoes). And I love cities with rivers running through them. We found Prague to be very walkable. We walked everywhere we went within the city for the first 4 days (yes, we logged significant miles!), and it was only on the night the ABD started that we tried out the metro and tram system after the welcome dinner to go back to Petrin Hill to do a mirror maze that my daughter (11) had her heart set on doing. (As an aside, the mirror maze is totally not worth doing, but it made my daughter happy, it made my son (9) happy to finally get to ride the metro/trams (which were very easy to use) and we made a fun evening outing out of it.) So I highly recommend anyone doing this ABD to allot ample pre-time in Prague.

Third, as has been the subject of posts in other threads, if you are on a Central Europe ABD that has its welcome dinner on a Saturday so your full day in Prague falls on a Sunday, you will not be able to enter St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle, as it will be closed for mass. St. Vitus is spectacular and is not to be missed. This is another reason to make sure you have pre-time in Prague so you can do St. Vitus on your own.

Now on to specifics about our trip in the next post…

 

[sayhello]

Yay! Looking forward to more report, and pictures!

Did you find that people spoke English in Prague? Did you have any issues with the language on your pre-days?

Sayhello

 

[distravel]

Hi Calfan,

I am also looking forward to your trip report. We are going on the Central Europe trip on the adults only trip in September but could only schedule one extra pre trip night in Prague. What must see attractions should we plan to see in our extra day? Thanks.

Kathy

 

[Calfan]

Yay! Looking forward to more report, and pictures!

Did you find that people spoke English in Prague? Did you have any issues with the language on your pre-days?

Sayhello

Yes, for the most part we found that people spoke English in Prague, and we didn't feel at all hampered by language issues on our pre-days. We stayed at the Sheraton Prague Charles Square for our pre-days, and as you might expect at a bigger hotel brand, the staff at the hotel spoke very good English. The English of some of the shopkeepers and restaurant personnel wasn't always quite as good, but we had no trouble communicating. No issues buying tickets from the agent at the train station (for a day trip to Karlstjen). We found the people to be friendly and the prices to be quite good, especially in comparison to Austria and Germany.

 

[mare1203]

Yay! Following along

Great information so far. My dad is definitely thinking about this trip, so I'm glad to see a couple trip reports. I've been figuring out the whole trip report thing myself, so feel free to PM me or ask any questions if you have trouble. It's actually pretty easy and kind of fun to figure out how to do it

 

[Calfan]

Hi Calfan,

I am also looking forward to your trip report. We are going on the Central Europe trip on the adults only trip in September but could only schedule one extra pre trip night in Prague. What must see attractions should we plan to see in our extra day? Thanks.

Kathy

Hi, Kathy. The good news about Prague in the summer is that it stays light very late, and most shops and some attractions are also open late, so if you have the energy, you can actually pack a lot in to one day. If you are going to run into the Sunday Prague Castle issue with the ABD, I'd definitely recommend that you do Prague Castle on your own. You can buy a ticket that includes St. Vitus Cathedral and a few other parts of the castle and cover those parts in an hour and a half or two hours. We got to the castle 2 hours before closing time and easily covered St. Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica and Golden Lane (this is the Circuit B ticket). You might duplicate a little of what you will see with the ABD, but the ABD doesn't go upstairs in the Old Royal Palace, and you really don't have enough time with the ABD in Golden Lane to see much of the armory exhibit, which is worth seeing. There is definitely more worth seeing in Prague Castle, and we would have done the Circut A ticket (St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, exhibition The Story of Prague Castle, St. George's Basilica, Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower, Powder Tower, Rosenberg Palace) if we had allowed more time. We had done the Jewish Quarter earlier in the day and didn't get to Prague Castle until later in the afternoon. We also weren't too clear on what the ABD would cover at Prague Caslte and didn't want to duplicate too much. The answer is that, on a Sunday, the ABD doesn't show you much of Prague Castle. The Jewish Quarter is also worth doing. The Spanish Synangogue is quite impressive with its Moorish decor. Another of the synagogues is a holocaust memorial. You should definitely stroll over the Charles Bridge because the ABD moves over it fairly quickly. Petrin Hill is also great for views of Prague. There is a funicular to get to the top, and then you can go to the top of Petrin Tower, which is like a mini Eiffel Tower for the views. The funicular runs till 11pm, so you can do this in the evening too. We had one marathon day where we did the Jewish Quarter, had lunch, did Prague Castle, did Petrin Hill and the tower, found the Piss Sculpture, had dinner and then walked back over the Charles Bridge and back into Old Town Square to see everything lit up there at night. We got back to our hotel after 11pm. We ended up in Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square multiple times in our wanderings. But you can leave Old Town Square for the ABD. You will have an hour and a half or two hours there, and if you forego a sit-down lunch, you should have time to explore the square, go to the top of the Old Town Hall Tower and shop for some souvenirs. You might also try to see Wenceslas Square with the statue of "Good King Wenceslas" on your own. The National Museum is right by the statue, but we are not huge museum people, so we skipped that.

 

[Calfan]

Yay! Following along

Great information so far. My dad is definitely thinking about this trip, so I'm glad to see a couple trip reports. I've been figuring out the whole trip report thing myself, so feel free to PM me or ask any questions if you have trouble. It's actually pretty easy and kind of fun to figure out how to do it

Thanks, Mary. I may take you up on that offer!

 

[Calfan]

Hi, Kathy. The good news about Prague in the summer is that it stays light very late, and most shops and some attractions are also open late, so if you have the energy, you can actually pack a lot in to one day. If you are going to run into the Sunday Prague Castle issue with the ABD, I'd definitely recommend that you do Prague Castle on your own. You can buy a ticket that includes St. Vitus Cathedral and a few other parts of the castle and cover those parts in an hour and a half or two hours. We got to the castle 2 hours before closing time and easily covered St. Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica and Golden Lane (this is the Circuit B ticket). You might duplicate a little of what you will see with the ABD, but the ABD doesn't go upstairs in the Old Royal Palace, and you really don't have enough time with the ABD in Golden Lane to see much of the armory exhibit, which is worth seeing. There is definitely more worth seeing in Prague Castle, and we would have done the Circut A ticket (St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, exhibition The Story of Prague Castle, St. George's Basilica, Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower, Powder Tower, Rosenberg Palace) if we had allowed more time. We had done the Jewish Quarter earlier in the day and didn't get to Prague Castle until later in the afternoon. We also weren't too clear on what the ABD would cover at Prague Caslte and didn't want to duplicate too much. The answer is that, on a Sunday, the ABD doesn't show you much of Prague Castle. The Jewish Quarter is also worth doing. The Spanish Synangogue is quite impressive with its Moorish decor. Another of the synagogues is a holocaust memorial. You should definitely stroll over the Charles Bridge because the ABD moves over it fairly quickly. Petrin Hill is also great for views of Prague. There is a funicular to get to the top, and then you can go to the top of Petrin Tower, which is like a mini Eiffel Tower for the views. The funicular runs till 11pm, so you can do this in the evening too. We had one marathon day where we did the Jewish Quarter, had lunch, did Prague Castle, did Petrin Hill and the tower, found the Piss Sculpture, had dinner and then walked back over the Charles Bridge and back into Old Town Square to see everything lit up there at night. We got back to our hotel after 11pm. We ended up in Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square multiple times in our wanderings. But you can leave Old Town Square for the ABD. You will have an hour and a half or two hours there, and if you forego a sit-down lunch, you should have time to explore the square, go to the top of the Old Town Hall Tower and shop for some souvenirs. You might also try to see Wenceslas Square with the statue of "Good King Wenceslas" on your own. The National Museum is right by the statue, but we are not huge museum people, so we skipped that.

Correction: the ABD did go upstairs in the Old Royal Palace to see where the Defenestration of Prague (that launched the 30 Years War) occurred, but only went to that one room upstairs.

 

[distravel]

Hi, Kathy. The good news about Prague in the summer is that it stays light very late, and most shops and some attractions are also open late, so if you have the energy, you can actually pack a lot in to one day. If you are going to run into the Sunday Prague Castle issue with the ABD, I'd definitely recommend that you do Prague Castle on your own. You can buy a ticket that includes St. Vitus Cathedral and a few other parts of the castle and cover those parts in an hour and a half or two hours. We got to the castle 2 hours before closing time and easily covered St. Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica and Golden Lane (this is the Circuit B ticket). You might duplicate a little of what you will see with the ABD, but the ABD doesn't go upstairs in the Old Royal Palace, and you really don't have enough time with the ABD in Golden Lane to see much of the armory exhibit, which is worth seeing. There is definitely more worth seeing in Prague Castle, and we would have done the Circut A ticket (St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, exhibition The Story of Prague Castle, St. George's Basilica, Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower, Powder Tower, Rosenberg Palace) if we had allowed more time. We had done the Jewish Quarter earlier in the day and didn't get to Prague Castle until later in the afternoon. We also weren't too clear on what the ABD would cover at Prague Caslte and didn't want to duplicate too much. The answer is that, on a Sunday, the ABD doesn't show you much of Prague Castle. The Jewish Quarter is also worth doing. The Spanish Synangogue is quite impressive with its Moorish decor. Another of the synagogues is a holocaust memorial. You should definitely stroll over the Charles Bridge because the ABD moves over it fairly quickly. Petrin Hill is also great for views of Prague. There is a funicular to get to the top, and then you can go to the top of Petrin Tower, which is like a mini Eiffel Tower for the views. The funicular runs till 11pm, so you can do this in the evening too. We had one marathon day where we did the Jewish Quarter, had lunch, did Prague Castle, did Petrin Hill and the tower, found the Piss Sculpture, had dinner and then walked back over the Charles Bridge and back into Old Town Square to see everything lit up there at night. We got back to our hotel after 11pm. We ended up in Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square multiple times in our wanderings. But you can leave Old Town Square for the ABD. You will have an hour and a half or two hours there, and if you forego a sit-down lunch, you should have time to explore the square, go to the top of the Old Town Hall Tower and shop for some souvenirs. You might also try to see Wenceslas Square with the statue of "Good King Wenceslas" on your own. The National Museum is right by the statue, but we are not huge museum people, so we skipped that.

Calfan,

Thanks so much for the detailed advice!!! We are planning to do our own marathon and see as much as we can. It's great to know there are things to do at night. Hopefully we will get some sleep on the plane because we plan to start touring ASAP after landing. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

Kathy

 

[Calfan]

We spent our 4 pre-nights at the Sheraton Prague Charles Square hotel. We had originally booked our pre-nights at the Marriott through ABD but were told we needed two rooms to accommodate the four of us at something like $371 per night per room. Not horrible in comparison to some of the other ABD hotel rates for pre- and post-nights, but I decided to check out some alternatives. We got a junior suite at the Sheraton that could accommodate all four of us for $271 per night and decided this was a good opportunity to save a few dollars. We had also stayed at a different hotel for our pre-nights on our first ABD (Scotland). While changing hotels is a slight inconvenience, it was worth it to us for the savings. Plus, we find that moving over to the official ABD hotel on the day the ABD starts adds an element of excitement for the start of the ABD portion of the trip.

We were very pleased with the Sheraton, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone wanting to save some money on their pre-nights in Prague. In fact, we would probably choose it over the Marriott even if the prices were comparable. It is not quite as centrally located as the Marriott, but we found it to be an easy ten-minute or so walk to Wenceslas Square, and another five or so minutes from there to Old Town Square. We had arranged with the Sheraton for a pick-up from the airport. Our driver was there waiting for us, and the vehicle was in good condition, spacious and comfortable. Our driver was very courteous and spoke good English. When we arrived at the Sheraton, I was reminded that our rate included breakfast and free Wi-Fi, so this was a pleasant surprise. They also stocked our room with two complimentary bottles of water every day. Our room was not ready when we arrived, but the desk clerk kindly offered to provide us access to the Sheraton executive lounge. We recharged there with some complimentary snacks and drinks and then set off to explore Prague.

We had a map from our guide book (The Lonely Planet Pocket Guide to Prague, which I recommend), and the hotel also provided us with a map and directions to Wenceslas Square. Prague made an immediate and very positive first impression on us. Wenceslas Square is actually more like a very long rectangle, and we hit it nearer to the top, close to the statue of Good King Wenceslas. We decided to head down Wenceslas Square in the direction of Old Town Square. On the way, we found a great little souvenir shop (among many, many souvenir shops in Prague). I can’t remember the exact name, but it has a sign board out front indicating authentic Prague souvenirs, and then you follow a path into a little courtyard with a big painted egg. We noted several things in the shop that interested us, but since we found it within the first 30 minutes of exploring Prague, we decided to hold off on making any purchases. We did end up going back later in the trip and bought a number of painted egg Christmas ornaments, and I got a great hat there.

Once we reached Old Town Square, we checked out the Astronomical Clock and the buildings around the square. We didn’t go into any of the buildings since we were just trying to get a feel for Prague on our first day and were pretty tired from the travel and time change. We did check out some of the souvenir shops near the square in search of pins. We like to supplement our ABD pins with flag pins of the countries were are visiting, pins depicting city coats of arms, etc. Shockingly, pins are not at all easy to find in Prague. We went into about half a dozen shops, and no pins. There were key chains, bottle openers, patches, etc., but no pins. We actually didn’t end up finding any pins until the evening of day 3 when we went into one of the Bohemian Glass souvenir shops. Bingo. So if there are any other pin collectors out there who are mystified by the lack of pins in Prague souvenir shops, try Bohemian Glass.

After checking out Old Town Square, we headed back to Wenceslas Square to pay a visit to Good King Wenceslas. On the way, we found the Lego store (did I mention we have a 9yo boy?) which had a pretty amazing scene of the Charles Bridge and Prague Castle all done in Legos. We then headed back to the hotel. We spent a little while getting organized in our room and then headed out again in search of dinner. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the place we ended up. It was one of the more touristy places on Wenceslas Square (Original Czech Cuisine, or something like that). The food was fine but not noteworthy, but, honestly, we probably weren’t awake enough to appreciate a really good meal at that point anyway. They did play folk music which my daughter in particular enjoyed. I’m pretty sure my son fell asleep during dinner. We headed back to the hotel again after dinner and were in bed by 9:30 or so. All in all, a pretty good effort to stay awake and get acclimated to the time change and to get a little familiar with Prague on arrival day.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Looking forward to reading all the impressions of the trip. As you know, this one is definitely on our list. That's a pretty huge savings on the hotel room & impressive effort to staying up to get on the new time zone schedule.

 

[west&east]

I am following along as I contemplate positing my own trip report from this amazing trip as well! I don't know that I will have much to add but I may take a food lover's approach with pics, etc.

I'm happy to answer questions as well. We traveled with our 11 year old son, 15 year old daughter, and my inlaws (age 69 & 71) so we may be able to add some other perspectives.

Dreaming of my next ABD....

 

[Calfan]

The Astronomical Clock

Old Town Hall Tower and The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn in Old Town Square

Very cool manhole covers in The Czech Republic

The Lego mural

Cool juxtaposition of old reflected in new in Prague

Wenceslas Square

Good King Wenceslas

 

[disneyphx]

Loving the report so far! I thought those manhole covers were amazing too! Wish we had thought to check out the Lego store - the mural looks like a fun depiction.
Looking forward to the rest

Michele

 

[Calfan]

Today we took a half-day trip to Kutna Hora that included the Cedlec Ostuary (bone church). I had booked the trip through The Prague Experience online from home. Luckily, the trip wasn’t until the early afternoon, because we weren’t eager to get up in the morning. We barely made it down to breakfast at the hotel before they stopped serving. After getting ready, we ended up with about an hour before our 12:35 p.m. pickup for the tour. We wandered the area around our hotel and were again impressed by how picturesque Prague is. The area immediately around our hotel is admittedly not the most interesting in Prague, but there are some interesting buildings, and we stumbled on a park to wander through. Our tour pickup was a little late, but a driver did show up to drive us to the tour meeting point. For future reference, we probably could have gotten there faster by walking had we known where the meeting point was.

We set out in a little mini bus for Cedlec and the ostuary. It turned out that we were the only English speakers on our mini bus, so we ended up with our own private tour guide. The other six or so guests on the tour spoke Spanish, and they had their own separate guide. Our guide was James, who is American, but was raised in France and has been in the Czech Republic for about a year and a half. He knew a remarkable amount about Czech history and gave us a running commentary as we drove to Cedlec. The confusing thing about Czech history is that almost every king was named Wenceslas. Even Charles I who became Holy Roman Emperor and for whom the Charles Bridge, Charles Square, etc. are named was also actually a Wenceslas. We found the background James gave us quite helpful as we got into the ABD. We learned all about Prague’s famous defenestrations, the Hussite wars, the 30 Years War, etc. We actually ran into James the next afternoon at Prague Castle where he was leading a tour. He leads some of the free walking tours in Prague (Old Town Square and Prague Castle), and we would definitely recommend catching one of his tours.

The Cedlec Ostuary is very cool in a macabre sort of way. The cellar of the church is all decorated with human bones. There are four big pyramids made of human bones, a bone chandelier, even a coat of arms all done in individual bones. Hopefully the pictures in the next post will show how cool it was. We had done the Paris catacombs after our 2011 Med cruise, and this was somewhat similar, but much more decorative. Given our experience with the catacombs though, I wasn’t worried that my kids would freak out in the ostiary.

Next, we headed into Kutna Hora, which was the site of a large and prosperous silver mine through much of Prague’s history, and which housed the silver treasury. We toured the Church of St. Barbora which overlooks Kutna Hora, which was the first of many beautiful places of worship we encountered on this trip. Then we walked down into the town. We didn’t have as much time in Kutna Hora as I would have liked. We saw the Italian Court which housed the mint, but I would have liked to go into the little museum there. But we were all starving by this point, so James took us to an awesome pizza place where we had a quick pizza meal before heading back to the minibus for our return trip to Prague.

Our drop-off in Prague was fairly near the Powder Gate, which is one of the entrances into the old town. So we strolled past the Powder Gate and back into Old Town Square. Today we decided to go to the top of the Old Town Hall Tower, which offers nice views of Prague Castle and the buildings in the square, including the impressive Church of Our Lady Before Tyn. After that, we decided to head toward the Charles Bridge for a stroll over the Vltava River. Just beautiful. This takes you into the neighborhood below Prague Castle. It was early evening by this point, so going to Prague Castle wasn’t an option. Instead, we decided to head away from Prague Castle and walked along the river until we came to another bridge with an island in the middle that would take us back over the river toward our hotel. Along the way, we found some interesting Prague art and also an interesting outdoor photo exhibit showing scenes of Prague after a huge flood there last year. We were still so full from our late pizza lunch, that we decided to skip dinner. We found a café near our hotel and had coffees/hot chocolates and dessert for dinner around 9:00 p.m. Yes, this was the start of our dining on a very European schedule for the rest of our pre-days. We would have to do some serious schedule adjusting once the ABD started!

 

[Calfan]

The park near our hotel

New Town Hall, also near our hotel

The outside of the Bone Church

The coat of arms

The chandelier

One of the pyramids

Photos to be continued in the next post….

 

[Calfan]

The Church of St. Barbora

The inside of St. Barbora's

The town of Kutna Hora

To be continued one more time...

 

[tufbuf]

Wow! Those photos are quite impressive! We are planning to do Prague on our own next spring and Kutna Hora is one of our stops. That is just amazing and nothing I've ever seen before.

 

[Calfan]

The Powder Gate

Views from the top of Old Town Hall Tower

Prague Castle

Petrin Tower in the distance

The Charles Bridge

The castle end of Charles Bridge

The funny art

Coffee (decaf) and dessert for dinner

 

[Calfan]

Looking forward to reading all the impressions of the trip. As you know, this one is definitely on our list. That's a pretty huge savings on the hotel room & impressive effort to staying up to get on the new time zone schedule.

I am following along as I contemplate positing my own trip report from this amazing trip as well! I don't know that I will have much to add but I may take a food lover's approach with pics, etc.

I'm happy to answer questions as well. We traveled with our 11 year old son, 15 year old daughter, and my inlaws (age 69 & 71) so we may be able to add some other perspectives.

Dreaming of my next ABD....

Loving the report so far! I thought those manhole covers were amazing too! Wish we had thought to check out the Lego store - the mural looks like a fun depiction.
Looking forward to the rest

Michele

Wow! Those photos are quite impressive! We are planning to do Prague on our own next spring and Kutna Hora is one of our stops. That is just amazing and nothing I've ever seen before.

Thanks! I am having lots of fun putting this trip report together. Next project will be a photo book for the trip. It's looking like it is going to be massive.