WHISTLE STOP TOUR

First stop - PRAGUE

We left Daniela at the Jedenspeign Station at just after 9 am travelling on an OBB regional train to Breclav which is the border crossing into the Czech Rebublic. A quick change of train & we were rushing through the countryside on our way to Prague. Our rail pass allows for unlimited travel within a 24 hour period so we decided to tack on a scenic ride to Usti and Ladem along the Vltava River & of course back again. This added a bit to our trip but we saw lots more including flat-as-a-tack farming lands, coal-fired power stations & even some locks & weirs on the river. It was almost dark by the time we got back to Prague & it was definitely dark by the time we got our apartment sorted & had settled in. 

Usti nad Ladem, the view of the river as we waited
 to catch the train back to Prague

Off down town for some local currency from the ATM & a few groceries, our apartment is big enough to live in & we will be eating at home for a few nights. After the excesses of Christmas & the New Year we certainly could do with a few nights of tuna salad for dinner. Slept like a log, lovely comfortable bed.

St Wenceslas statue & the protesters memorial

Our first full day in Prague & Grant was up early googling fire stations, as you might expect. He headed off to the closest one while I had a more leisurely start to the day. A bit of time on the net checking out the city highlights & planning for the day so when Grant returned we were off. First to the Museum building which was quite near us & in front of that the Statue of St Wenceslas with its thousands of candles. This statue is also a tomb for two men who protested the communist overtaking of the country in 1969 so I think that is why there were so many candles, it was a memorial as well. We walked downhill then, along the wide shop & bank lined avenue towards the old town centre to see the Astronomical Clock, the two Town Halls old & new & the multitude of magnificent old buildings.



Old Town Hall, or what is left of it anyway
after the Brits bombed it in WW2

We then walked through the narrow winding streets (admittedly only getting a little lost) until we found the Karluv Most or Charles Bridge as it is known world-wide which we crossed, naturally, then walked up to the castle. No one mentioned those million steps, it felt like that many anyway! Finally at the top, photo op! We spent quite a long time in & around the castle area as there was lots to look at, we had lunch in a park, people watching as we ate.

The Powder Tower that forms the entrance gate
to the Charles Bridge



Just some of the many statues which line both sides of the Charles Bridge



The entrance gate to Prague Castle

Down to the bottom of the hill via the 'Pissing Statue' which was a little unexpected & we walked along the river's edge to the next bridge Jiraskuv Most then past the beautiful Narodni Divadio (National Theatre) & back through the city streets to the main avenue & up it, past the Museum & back home for dinner. A very full day & about 15 kilometres of walking.

That is a map of Czech Republic forming the puddle & parts of the bronze
statues moved, swiveling hips etc

Our second day we were able to get ourselves organised enough, to get to the Astronomical Clock, built in the early 15th Century, on the hour. With the other thousand or so tourists we watched the 'performance' of the 12 apostles who come to the windows & to see the skeleton ringing the bell, several other parts of the adornments moved too, although it was nothing too flash it must be remembered that this clock is 600 years old & a handmade one of a kind. 

What would have to be the world's narrowest street,
there was a set of traffic lights to allow access
to the staircase/lane that was only wide enough
for one person at a time, no passing at all!

Grant had collected a couple of brochures the day before for interesting tours to do in the old city so after much debate & indecision we chose the Underground Tour which included historical information & a walk thorough the oldest parts of the city which have been buried since the 1400s. It was very interesting & we met a lovely couple from South Africa with whom we shared a coffee after the tour, it was very pleasant to chat about travels, solar electricity & a multitude of other topics.

   

Grant in the bedroom of our gorgeous apartment - $50 a night - dirt cheap



This is the kitchen & dining area

They recommended the next place on our must see/do list - a Torture Musuem. There were two such museums in Prague & we went to the one they had tried the day before. It wasn't for me, I would have had nightmares for months but Grant went in & spent a very informative hour looking at all the stuff! I found some souvenier shops to look at & then had a burger & chips while I waited. I would have been happy to sit near the river & bide my time watching the water but there was an unbelievably cold wind blowing, bitter in fact, so I needed to be indoors & a burger joint fitted the bill nicely. Once he had finished at the museum we found our way home again to warm up & eat everything in the fridge so it was a bit of a hotch-potch for dinner but food is food so it doesn't really matter.



Had to put one of these shots of Czech Crystal on my blog.  There were shops & shops full of the most divine glasses,
bowls, dishes, chandelairs, trinkets - coloured, trimmed in gold, silver & platinum - UNBELIEVABLE

Our train left at 8:30 am so it was another early start & a walk to the railway station in the drizzle & the dark. The midnight sun had nuisance value when it came to sleeping but these really short winter days have curtailed our touring/sightseeing time considerably.

Next stop - HAMBURG

After leaving Prague we enjoyed an unexpectedly long trip to Hamburg, Germany. It was extra long because the train developed a fault & we spent an hour sitting at the station in Berlin. Never fear, The Deutschbahn got us there in the end. For part of our journey we shared our cabin with a lovely girl from Dresden who is studying, of all things, Jazz Singing, at the University in The Hague. She spoke excellent english with barely an accent & we talked about travel, Australia, life in Germany/Europe in general, you name it we talked about it, really made the trip enjoyable.

The old city centre taken from across the lake, in summer there is a
big fountain in the centre of the lake

We were unable to explore the central city area after the train arrived because it was dark & windy enough to blow a dog off a chain but we still had half a day available to us before our train at 1:30pm the next day. Grant dashed off straight after breakfast to the fire station & was back in an hour which suited perfectly. We left our luggage at our hotel which was just across the road from the main station and headed off for a walk around the main city centre.

Hamburg Town Hall

We walked round the lake area along a couple of main roads then into the older centre to see the Rathaus (Town Hall) and the canals/locks/lake surrounds. We grabbed a couple of postcards & I bought myself a nice warm hat, the wind is like ice even though we haven't had any snow to speak of, yet!



Hamburg Central Station, as seen from our hotel room window

Picked up our luggage & headed across the road to the station.

Next stop - COPENHAGEN

This train journey was an event all its own. We hadn't realised that the train had to cross some open ocean. The little map we have doesn't have much detail on it & we presumed there was some sort of bridge or even a tunnel but OH NO, the train drove onto the ferry. We all had to leave the train, sitting upstairs in the ferry for the 45 minutes it took for us to cross from Germany to Denmark. How exciting, for a few minutes we were inside a train that was inside a ship!! Up on deck there wasn't much to see & it was too cold to be outside anyway really, but there was a huge number of wind turbines in the water which was interesting. Back into our seats, off the other side & on we went to the capital.  By this time we were in total darkness as the sunset brings instant darkness, literally night falls with a thud!



Aerial view of the Copenhagen that Grant took from the top of the Fire Brigade ladder

Woke up to a drizzly day, but that wasn't going to stop us.  Grant headed off to the closest fire station, which fortunately was only a few blocks away.  Once he got back we had a quick cuppa & headed out in the icy wind & fine drizzle to see what we could in the few hours of daylight available to us.

One of the four royal palace buildings with the changing of the guard ceremony
in the foreground & the Marble Church in the background

We caught a CityCirkel electric bus to Nyhaven (New Harbour) where all those cute doll houses overlook the wooden boats in the canal.  From here we walked to the Royal Palace with its four identical palaces around a large square.  We were really lucky to fluke seeing the changing of the guard as it was midday.  The Royal Family were all home as the flags were flying on the roof of each building.  There was a lovely equestrian statue of Christian 1 in the centre of the square.

The Little Mermaid statue is 'very little'

Then we went the rest of the way along the harbour edge to the Little Mermaid statue, risking life & limb on the wet rocks to get close enough for a photo opportunity.  There was a good-sized crowd there despite the weather so we can only imagine what it is like on a warm summer's day. 



Nyhavn & its doll houses, so cute

From here we walked through the Citadel (old military base on an island) & back to Nyhaven for a better look round & to pick up a few souveniers.  Across the square, Kongens Nytorv, we went up the pedestrian street passed St Nikolai's church, the Thorvaldsen's Museum (Art Museum), the National Museum, Christianborg Palace (or what remains which is still quite amazing after a fire in 1794). 



Christianborg Palace



Not everything is old, there are plenty of beautiful modern buildings

By this time, night was drawing in & it was really cold so we short cut home to warm up, passing Ny Carlesberg Glyptoteck enroute.

The entrance to Christiana, rather well done mural

Next morning we planned to walk to the island community of Christianhavn, mainly to see the hippy community 'Christiania' which declared itself a separate state back in the 60s & has been growing every since.  No particularly impressed with this community, just a bunch of people smoking marijuana, bludging on society, living in squalor, not our cup of tea but 'each unto his own'.

There is also the very interesting Our Saviours Church on the island with its exterior spiral staircase on the bell tower which unfortunately is only open in the summer otherwise I would have gone up!! Do you sense the sarcasim - I would never go up something like that but Grant would have for sure.  Believe the views are gorgeous.

Our Saviour's church, very interesting
external staircase

Back across the canal & along to Nyhavn to take a canal boat tour.  In the winter of course they had the glass roof on but it was warm, comfortable & you got quite a good view of the surroundings.  The cruise took us past many places we had already walked but the view was quite different from water level & they gave lots of interesting information both historical & topical.



Beautiful statue of Hans Christian Anderson
ourside the town hall

We actually did almost two circuits (the ticket lasted all day for just $A12 which was good value) going round once but then staying on & going to the second last stop which was close to our hotel.  It was nice to stay on a bit later as evening was just falling & the lights were coming on around the city, mind you it was only 4.30pm but it is totally dark by 5pm. 

This might not look like much of a photo but it shows the gap between the
low, narrow canal bridges & the roof covering of the boat,  They definitely
make the boat just small enough!

That was it for Copenhagen, very nice city, sure it would be even more beautiful in the summer. We caught a train to the airport then flew to Amsterdam.

Next stop - AMSTERDAM

'Fairy lights' so pretty on the canals of Amsterdam in the evening

We flew fom Denmark to Holland as the rail route took us back over countryside we had already seen, so a quick trip in from the airport on the train & a few hundred metre walk to arrive at our hotel. It was early evening so we went for a nice walk along a couple of the nearby canals & past a few lovely old buildings enjoying the fairy-tale feel to the city. It was very pretty with all the lights reflecting on the canals.



Now the canals in the daytime, just as idyllic

Next morning we got off to a slowish sort of start but we intended to just stroll for the day along a suggested walking route. It took us over four hours to wander along the route covering lots of wonderful old buildings including Rembrandt's home, numerous churches & fine pieces of achitecture.

The gables on the fronts of the canal houses indicate the era of construction. The stairways in canal houses are steep & narrow so a pulley system was attached to the main roof beam which protrudes from the top of the building facade & believe it or not they actually built the buildings leaning forward slightly to make it easier to the use of the pulley to haul up furniture etc. We wondered why many houses looked like they were toppling forward.

Can you see the forward lean?
It was so pronounced we were hesitant to
stand in front of it, but it has stood like
that for hundreds of years

The Historical Museum is housed in a former orphanage. In the former boy's courtyard there were little cupboards where the boys stored their megre possessions. It was set up as a permanent display of the history of the orphanage. Our walk also passed the Rijksmuseum (Art Museum) which is itself a magnificent building which was undergong major renovations but still houses works by Rembrandt, Vermeer etc. The Van Gough Gallery was also on this square. 

Art Museum

We passed the floating flower market but unfortunately in the winter there isn't much to look at just locked up buildings on barges in the canal. The Royal Palace is on Dam Square & a bit of trivia for you - the dam is actually THE dam on the Amstel River built to help keep the city from flooding back in 1204 - voila Amsterdam.

Statue of Rembrandt



The Royal Palace on Dam Square

Bikes, bikes & more bikes, it is as bad as Beijing. This would be a fantastic place to have a spring/summer cycling holiday - it is flat, there are cycle lanes everywhere, bikes seem to have right of way as they don't stop for anything.

A trip on the IC train to Brussels next morning. We met a delightful honeymoon couple from Perth on the platform as we waited, which was lovely as the train was 45 minutes late.

Next stop - BRUSSELS

We had rented an apartment for the 3 days in Brussels, it was absolutely lovely & only a short walk to the main railway/metro station. To be honest we hoped to have a bit of a rest here but we did go out both days for a few hours, about ten kilometre walks round the main sights.


You can judge the size of this structure by the cars below it, there were
lifts up to the top

On day one we went to the Atomium which is nine large glass & highly polished stainless steel balls suspended between metal tubes to resemble an atom. It turned out to be much, much larger than we expected & surprisingly lovely. We took the Metro back into town again to the Palace of Justice from where there was a lovely city view & a glass lift down the cliff to the streets below.

Palace of Justice 

From there we walked along one of the streets recommended for their antique stores & eventually back to our apartment. There was a bitter wind blowing so we were very happy to cut the day a bit short & to come home to a hot cuppa & a comfortable lounge.

Me, taking a photo of myself in a glorious
oval mirror in an antique shop window



Grand Place, just one of the magnificent structures,
Tourist Information was on the ground floor

On day two we got going a bit earlier catching the Metro a couple of stops into the centre of the city. Starting at the Bouers Museum, then along to the Grand Place with its stunning buildings, from here we detoured to the Mannequen Pis statue, you'll recognise it the minute you look at the photo!

 

This was only about a foot tall, I had expected
it to be life sized


Around a few back streets to the Royal Palace which we walked all the way round, then wandered back to a Metro station nearby. We took the metro out of town a little to the Museum of Military History & the Art Museum. These two were in the same huge building & more recently they have attached a Natural History Museum & an Automobile Museum. So you can see it is a massive complex.


The Royal Palace taken with the lovely black & gold gates



A panorama of the huge complex of museums & the lovely archway in the centre

Back home & into the packing up! We are off at 7:30am on the train tomorrow morning to Zurich Airport. We will be travelling most of the day & will be going right across Luxemburg, so hoping for some nice scenery on the way.

Our very last night on European soil will be a short sleep over near the airport in Zurich. The next blog will be from Canada!