Photos

Civil War

Favorite Links

Book Critiques

Ken's 30th

Web Deals!

Light- houses

Central Europe

July 2001

We began our trip in Munich, Germany- heart of Bavaria.  After an overnight flight to Frankfurt, and a short flight to Munich, we were exhausted, but eager to start being tourists!  One of our first stops was the famous Glockenspiel:

The Glockenspiel (center tower) is part of the Munich New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus).  Every day at 5 p.m., the Glockenspiel does a little show.

Next, we headed towards our destination of Prague, Czech Republic.  We drove through the Bavarian countryside, and made a quick stop in Nuremberg- site of the WWII trials.  After a relatively quick stop at the Czech/Germany border, and a couple hours of driving, we were in Prague.  What a beautiful city!  The city is very pedestrian (limited access for vehicles), with cobblestone streets and 13th century buildings.  Somehow, Prague made it through all the wars without significant damage.  Here's a skyline shot of Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral:

Here's a photo of us in the Old Town Square in Prague, taking a horse and carriage ride through the town:

After Prague, we made our way towards Budapest, Hungary, going through Slovakia.  Slovakia isn't quite up to the technical speed that we're used to in the US...at the border, we spent 2 hours while the Slovak customs hand-typed each one of our passport numbers into their computer, and then double-checked their typing by holding up the passport to the screen to compare!

Here we are in Bratislava, Slovakia (the capital).  This is our first sight of the infamous Blue (?) Danube.

We left Slovakia for Hungary...a little bit better technology-wise...we only waited an hour at the border crossing this time!  Looking at a map, we could see that we weren't far from Budapest- but Hungary has ridiculously low speed limits (40 mph), so it took much longer than we anticipated.  But of course, it was well worth the slow-paced drive.  Having no preconceived notions of Budapest, we were quite impressed!  They have beautiful architecture, and a lot of historical sites.  Budapest is split down the middle by the Danube River.  Budapest wasn't always a city- it was formed by merging the city of Buda on one side of the river, and the city of Pest on the other side.  Buda is the older, much more hilly region, and Pest is flat land, and the business center.

Here we are at the Fishermen's Bastion on the Buda side, with the Danube and Pest behind us:

Here's an excellent night shot Ken took via his tripod of the Chain Bridge, with the Royal Palace, which is on the Buda side, in the background:

After Budapest, we made our way towards Austria, and the end of long border waits.  Our first major stop was in Vienna.  By this point in our tour, we were tired of seeing cathedrals and castles!  Vienna was a nice city, but it didn't seem to have the history that Prague and Budapest have.  Buildings seemed much newer, and had less historical significance.  We did visit Schonbrunn Palace, home of the Hapsburgs during their reign.  This was reminiscent of Versailles, complete with gardens:

Next we were off to Salzburg, Austria- birthplace of Mozart, and locale for The Sound of Music.  The travels on our way from Vienna to Salzburg were the first time we saw mountains on our trip.  Vienna (and eastern Austria) is pretty flat land, compared to the mountainous west.  Salzburg is a very pedestrian city, with narrow streets.  We had just watched SOM, so it was quite neat to walk through the city and see the archway that Maria danced through on her way out of the convent, the fountain she splashed water out of, the gardens where the children sang and danced (dressed in their clothes made from curtains), and the square where the Nazis come marching in.  Here's a shot of the Salzburg skyline:

The next stop was the Eagle's Nest- Hitler's mountaintop retreat.  This is located in Germany, near the Austria border.  It was an interesting bus ride up the mountain- very scenic!  Here's a shot of the Eagle's Nest, with a little bit of the tunnel that leads to the elevator to get up to the top:

Here's Marcie on the mountain top of the Eagle's Nest area:

And last but not least, we're back in Munich for what else, but to go to the most famous beer hall in town (Hofbrauhaus) and drink enormous beers with some of our travel mates!