Czech Mate. June29th

No I am not playing chess with an Australian. Just wanted to say that. We left Hallstatt early in yhe morning headed for Prague. Skipping breakfast we drove along the lake. Nice drive made all the nicer by a stop at a bakery/coffee shop that was giving out samples of pumperknickel bread with a creamy horseradish spread on it. To die for even if you font like horseradish. That and some bakery goods for yhe road including s small bag of pretzels.
Took longrr to get out of Austria than I thought but it is a 4 1/2 hour drive. Once we get into the Czech Republic, the roads go down to two lane roads. Very slow going in the mountains behind big trucks.  We decide to detour to Plzen rather than going straight to Prague. Plzen is home to Pilsner Urquell. Enough said.
We have a typical Czech lunch at what would be a truck stop in the USA?  Very heavy food. Mine was like bisquets and gravy. Mary Ann's  was much better.

 Mary Ann's Lunch

My Bisquets

Takes a long time to find the brewery and since it is getting late, we decide to do the tour when we are headed back to Munich. Plus our hosts in Prague want to know when we will arrive. Evening traffic and an accident (not us) in a tunnel and we get to our apartment around 5:30. One thing about AIRB&B rentals I dont like is the hosts want you there at a specific time and vacations are very nontime specific.
The apartment is in a great neighborhood. Very Yuppie in my lingo. Great shops and metro location.

 Our Street in Prague

 View out our Window

Very Contented

We walk the neighborhood and pick up some food for the apartment. On the way home we stop at a sidewalk wine bar, sample some wine, eat some snacks and head home. Internet is not working very well so their son will stop by tomorrow to look at it. tomorrow. I go out for a bottle of wine and bring home ice cream also. Couldnt find a pastry shop such as they have on every corner in Italy. Feel like I am starting to get a cold. Yuck.  

Hallstadtt, Hallstadtt, Hallstadtt. June 28th

Woke up early to rain so went back to sleep. Wake up to Sunday church bells ringing. What a nice sound.

Church Bells. Click to hear

Got up and ate breakfast in the Hotel. Best part: leibercassen on the menu. Worst part: the waitresses. Oh Well. We book a boat cruise around the lake for 11:00.  I take off to see the waterfall that drops above the town and disappears. Not much of a hike but at least some exercise.

Click to see Waterfall

 Bottom of Falls

Middle of Falls

The tour is nice lasting about one hour and the rain managed to hold off till we got off the boat.

Hallstadtt from the Lake

 Leaving Hallstadtt

 Mountains Along the Way

Coming Back to Hallstadtt

View From the Urinal in Restaurant

Then it started heavy. How do you stop a downpour?  Buy an umbrella and go inside. We had a nice small lunch and then found the restaurant we ate at so many years ago. Dinner at eight. We walked to the church above us and found the reliqey that holds the painted skulls we had seen the first time we were here.

 The Skulls

Mary Ann and those lovely bones

Church of the Bones

Back to the hotel and rest before dinner.  We had dinner at the restuarant we ate lunch at some 20 years ago. Nice meal and as we were leaving the waitress told us there was a festival down by our hotel tonight. That might explain the OmPah band. But now there was an orchestra on a barge in the lake and as the evrning progressed a barge with Austrian  Folk Dancers came up to the dock.  The evening ended with a grand fireworks  display. Quite a sendoff for us. Tomorrow we drive to Prague.

 Our Restaurant

Church at Night

To Hallstadtt With Apologies to Udine June 27th

I don't usually start my blog with pictures but I thought I needed to today. Last night Udine was just a stop on the way to Hallstastt Austria. But this morning we drove through the city center and found out what a little jewel it was. We wish we had had more time to explore the inner city. But it was croissants and coffee and on to Hallstadtt. The ride through the Austrian mountains was breath taking. Plus they had added a new highway with lots of tunnels since our last trip. Much easier.

At the Austrian border.

 Austrian countryside.

Funicular that runs up to old salt mine in Hallstadtt.

 And about an hour outside of Hallstadtt, we turned on to a two lane road that took us through rural Austria. If not for the pouring rain, it would have been perfect. But that was really the first rain of the trip aside from a few showers here and there.
We get to Hallstastt and call to find out no driving in town at all. But the hotel has a shuttle and parking lot and so by 1:00 PM we are at our hotel. With check in not until 3:00 PM, we go to lunch. We aren't in Italy anymore. But very nice food.

 Deer Goulash with Spetzel and Red Cabbage.

Strange directional signs.

We get in our room, unpack, admire the view and nap.

 Our room. Yellow house. Middle balcony on left.

 Episcopal Church, Hallstadtt, Austria.

Main street in Hallstadtt, Austria

Up at 4:30 PM  and a walk through the town and it is a very small town. Quaint would be the word. After a short walk, we get on the ferry that runs back and forth across the lake to the train station. A cheap way to see Hallstadt from the lake.

 Hallstadtt from the ferry.

Me on the ferry.

 Back to the hotel for coffee and a beer and a late light dinner in our hotel.  Everything is very salty. Now here is where I may offend some people. After being in Italy for so long and all the nice experiences we had with Italians, it is a wake up to see how Austrians or at least the ones in Hallstadtt treat foreigners. The waitresses this afternoon were downright rude to some of the diners. They were OK to us, but very curt to others. While waiting for the ferry, a Korean fell down a ditch because the public bike rack was not secured. He appeared to have lost part of a finger in the accident. One of the Austrians there tried to blame the mishap on the young man.

Scene of accident.

The men who ran the ferry would insult people who asked them the times it ran "You need to get your ears cleaned out" he told one lady when she asked him to repeat it. When some girls had missed the last ferry and thus would miss the last train, his reply was "You need to plan better" No mention of how they could be helped.  I don't remember Austria  being this way before. Hopefully it is just a few isolated instances bunched up together. Now I feel better. Tomorrow is a full day here exploring Hallstadtt. As I close there is thunder and lightning outside and the thunder rumbles through the mountains. What a nice way to fall asleep.

Can you say Udine correctly? June 26th.

Lets start with last night. We turned out the lights and went to sleep at 9:00 PM. Didn't wake till 7:30 AM. I guess the Mansels wore us out. Wish Jessicas family could have spent more time with us. I know she would have kept us moving also.  Today we will grab a taxi and go to the airport to pick up the rental car for the next 16 days. We make it to the taxi stand and it is packed with people and no taxis. Strike three. Not for us but yet another Italian strike. This time it is a Metro/Subway strike. Hence no taxis since everyone in Rome needs one. And you thought those stories about Italians always striking was folklore. This is our third. Taxi strike when we arrived, train strike in the Cinque Terra and now this one. The backup plan for no taxi was the metro. As we are waiting at the taxi stand, a lady comes up speaking English asking if she can share a ride to the airport. I tell her yes but can't guarantee she will make her 11:30 flight. A short time later her husband shows up in the hire car that was suppose to pick them up at 8:30. He was a half hour late. So I ask if we can share with them and how can they say no.

They get to their terminal and us to the rental car desk. A quick check in and we are off. Only one wrong turn and 6 1/2 hours later we are in Udine Italy for the night. Dinner and sleep and tomorrow after a 3 hour drive we will be in Hallstadt, Austria where the pictures will be much more intetesting.

 Picture of old fighter jet for sale.

Orvieto taken from a moving car.

Udine turns out to be more interesting than I thought. It is somewhere between veal scallopine and wiener schnitzel and it reflects the diversity of this region. We have a great dinner after a terrible lunch in Bologna. Probably bad timing on our part. But dinner was great.

 Traditional Udine cake with their grappa.

 Traditional lady of the night in Udine.

 Udine after dark.

Udine in the moonlight.

Answer to todays question. "OO duh nay"

Travel day going nowhere. June 25th

We said goodbye to the Mansels today. I helped them get to the airport via the metro and train. They took our extra suitcase home so we wouldn't have so much to carry. I got back to the apartment around noon so Mary Ann and I went out for a light lunch. Just around the corner and nice sandwiches . Two beers later it was time to leave but not before visiting the cheese and ham shop next door to where we ate. These stores are my weakness. Plus they had a dried sausage somewhere between launyeger and beef jerkey and spicy. Will get some more tomorrow for the trip north.
We rest and catch up and Mary Ann gets her hair cut.
About 4:00 pm we head to the Pantheon which we have seen several times but never been in.  It is OK for a building with a hole in the roof. Most photographed hole in the world aside from Linda Lov.....you get the picture. A nice octopus meal Sicilian style, the metro back home and to bed
Two things to mention. I went back to Tuesdays restaurant where I had left my hat and they had it. Hoorah. Many days ago I packed the coffee in my backpack and the grounds came out. My backpack and Renai's suitcase still smell of coffee. Not bad but strange. Tomorrow I drive to Udine or there abouts.

 Dinner near the Pantheon.

 Octopus Sicilian style.

Steve Martin next to our table.

Vatican through the Backdoor. June 24th

Today is Vatican City with the Mansels. It really starts out last night with a scramble to get tickets into the Vatican without having to wait in line.  Of course it costs twice as much and we don't find out if we have the tickets till this morning. We have tickets, but there is a catch. Always a catch. We need to print them out. Fat chance. Renai tries to find a place that will do it with no success. So we walk up to the entrance of the Vatican Museum (95 steps) with an 11:00 entrance time. Then one of the guards points out that the meeting place for us to pick up tickets is over by Foot Locker , wherever that is.  He points down some stairs and Renai and I are off. Ten blocks later, we find the place but are 3 minutes late. Quick call to their help desk, a forced march back up to the entrance, and we find the lady who will get us inside. It is a tour group that we have been added to but there is no tour. But we do get into the museum which is the key to getting to see the Sistine Chapel. The museum is very nice and so is the Sistine Chapel. No pictures allowed inside the Sistine Chapel. But Renai has read up on it and proves to be a good guide. One interesting thing. Getting into the Sistine Chapel,  there are mobs of people and you are swept along with them. Once inside, the guards tell you to keep moving (we find seats on the side and get Renai's art lecture).  Now upon exiting the Sistine Chapel,  the mobs are gone and it is an uncrowded exit through the rest of the museum.

 Mary Ann and Bryan with Last Supper Tapestry.

Beautiful Altar.

We have lunch in the Museum restaurant and head to tour St Peters Cathedral. We get there and the lines are unbelievable.  Might have something to do with it being Wednesday and that is the day for the Papal audience in the square. Did I mention it is hot and no shade in the square. Renai and I walk up to one of the guards letting in tour groups to have him confirm the individual entrance is the one with the large line. He confirms that but also mentions to see his associate Michelle to his right for a fee we can skip the line and go in with a tour group. "Vatican through the back door". Gotta love Italy.  When it is time to go in, we are lead in and taken to the audio self guided tour which is where we pay the fee and get the iPods for the self guided tour of the Vatican. One passport is held as hostage guaranteeing our return of the equipment. St Peters does not disappoint and it is even better with the self guided tour.

 Kirsten waiting in St Peters Square.

 Renai and Bryan entering St Peters.

Kirsten inside.

The Pieta by Michelangelo.

Now if there is a tower or mountain near us, Renai and I have to go up it. Same goes for church domes. And what better one to climb than St. Peters. 500 and some steps. And we convince Bryan to join us. Not much to say about the climb but the views are spectacular. Or breath taking if you walked up.

 Bryan and Renai on the way up.

 At the top.

St Peters Square from the top of the dome

 Me on the dome.

 Renai and Bryan on the roof with a Saint.

The Dome.

We walk down, back into St Peters and down into the crypt where a lot of the Popes are buried.  No pictures allowed. It does show where the original church built by Constantine once was and has some of the old pillars on display. Cool. We head back to the apartment where Mary Ann and the kids are waiting. But wait we get a text that says they are locked out.  Key won't work. Bryan has some shopping to do so Renai and I head back skipping the gelato and wine we had thought we would have. We get back and open the door, but no Bryan. Seems he took a wrong turn and doesn't get home till an hour later. Tired and sore we head out for our last dinner in Rome together. 

 Under the Dome they were above.

 Swiss Guards.

Renai at the Magic Disc.

Dinner near The Spanish Steps. They are very very touristy but they still have to be seen. Nice farewell dinner and then walk to the Trevi Fountain which is under repair. You can still throw coins in though. A good night. Will be sorry to see the Mansels go. We have one more day in Rome then we head North. 

 Annie has lobster.

 Nice fun couple.

Renai and Annie.

 Five coins in the fountain.

Mansels last night in Rome.