With Brett being on half-term for the entire week, we decided to take a trip to Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. We flew to Berlin without any problems and rented a car for our journey. (While I will admit that I didn't do any of the driving on this trip (besides getting us to London), it was really nice to be riding on the American side of the car.) As you all probably know, I tend to procrastinate ALOT ... well, I didn't let this trip stop me from doing my usual. I didn't program in any of our sightseeing destinations into "Jane" (our handy GPS system) until we arrived in Berlin. We decided that we would start our trip off driving down to Vienna, staying for 2 days, then driving up to Prague, staying for a day, and then finally heading to Berlin to stay for the remainder of the trip. Upon programming in our hotel in Vienna into Jane, we were quite surprised that it was going to take us 8 hours to get there! Anyway, without hesitation (okay -- with a bit of whining!), we headed to Vienna and arrived at the hotel later that afternoon/evening.
We got up fairly early the following day to begin our sightseeing of the town and its surroundings. With it being an early Sunday morning, it was quite nice that there wasn't anyone on the streets until about 9:30 a.m. -- so we were able to drive by several sights, stop the car, get out, and take pictures without anyone really rushing us. Our first real stop for the day was Schonbrunn Palace. Schonbrunn was the imperial summer palace during Maria Theresa's 40-year reign. When Mozart was just 6 years old, he performed in Schonbrunn for Maria Theresa. Once we left Schonbrunn, we walked through the entire city centre of Vienna and were happy to find a TGI Fridays for lunch. ;o) After enjoying a delicious lunch, we decided to continue our walk through Vienna to see the remaining sights.
Liberation Monument
Schonbrunn Palace
Schonbrunn Palace (back garden)
Schonbrunn Palace (looking back at it from the garden)
Black squirrel playing in the Schonbrunn Palace garden. Do we have black squirrels in Illinois?!
Neues Rathaus (New City Hall)
Karlskirche
St. Stephen's Cathedral
Monday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and began our journey to Prague. (We checked "Jane" the previous night to program in all of the Prague sights -- and realized that the Czech Republic (CZR) isn't recognized by her AT ALL. That would be why it took us 8 hours to reach Vienna on Saturday. So rather than taking us from the Berlin airport through the CZR to Vienna, Jane decided to take us all the way around the CZR as she didn't recognize any roads.) Anyway, we used Jane to get us to a city close to the CZR; however after we arrived there, we were totally on our own (it is amazing how much you begin to rely on that system!) to get to the city of Prague and our hotel. We arrived without too many problems (although I'm sure Mike would disagree). Like I said before, I didn't do any of the driving on this trip -- so my job was to be the "navigator" and ensure we reached our destination. And also like I said before, I rely on Jane a lot. Need I say more?! Let's just say that I didn't read the foreign map too well in order to get us to our hotel. ;o) With all of the bumpy roads and trying to decipher the foreign street names, I was just trying not to throw up in the car! Thankfully Mike is excellent with road maps and was able to get us to the hotel. (Lesson learned for Amy -- program Jane before leaving on a trip!) ;o)
With us only being in Prague for one day, after we checked in to the hotel, we were off for some fastpaced sightseeing. While we took in a ton of sights, the main ones were Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Petrin Hill, the Old Jewish Cemetery, and the Old Town Square. We didn't really go into any of the buildings as we wanted to ensure we saw everything while we were there. Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. CZR joined the European Union in 2004. It just amazed us as we were driving through the country that several years ago, we would not have been allowed into the country. We were hoping to run into some sort of border control so we could get our passports stamped -- but didn't have any luck. We drove right in and right out without being stopped (guess that is a good thing, right?!). Until 2010, the CZR will continue to use Crowns as their currency. Well, with 2010 coming up rather quickly and us realizing we wouldn't be travelling back, we stocked up on a few bits of their currency that we can keep. ;o) The city of Prague is absolutely beautiful and after seeing all it has to offer, it stands within the top 5 of our favorite visited places.
Charles Bridge
Charles Bridge (with Prague Castle in the background)
Old Town Square with the 15th Century Astronomical Clock and Church of Our Lady Before Tyn in the back.
Old Jewish Cemetery
Our last stop on the trip was Berlin. We knew Vienna was nice and Prague was fantastic -- but we honestly weren't sure what to expect for Berlin. We arrived in Berlin at late afternoon with the weather being nice, so decided to walk a couple miles down the road to see the Brandenburg Tor (where the Berlin Wall once stood). While in the area of the Tor, we noticed a Dunkin Donuts sign. I know that doesn't necessarily sound that good to too many of you -- but for our family not having the option to ever get Dunkin Donuts ... oh my goodness! We walked in and were like kids in a candy store! We all picked out a couple donuts (and I paid the outrageous amount for them) before heading back to the hotel to enjoy them (and no, we didn't save any of them for breakfast the next day). ;o) We woke up on our last full day of the trip to find it raining. Definitely a bummer; however we were really happy that the rain hadn't occurred on any of our other sightseeing days. We headed into the centre of Berlin to visit the Pergamon Museum. In the museum, the main things that interested us were the Ishtar Gate, Pergamon Steps, and the Market Gate of Miletus. After we saw the main things in the museum that we wanted to see, we headed to McDonald's (always a safe bet in a foreign city) for a quick lunch and then decided to do the Hop On Hop Off bus tour of Berlin. It was still raining a bit but had turned rather chilly. (We figured that a bus tour is a great quick way to see everything we wanted to see without having to walk for miles and miles and miles.) While not knowing what to expect for the city of Berlin, it was a very busy city; however the history that it had to offer was phenomenal.
Brandbenburg Tor
Walking back to the hotel from the Tor
Getting ready to enjoy our Dunkin Donuts!!!
The "walk" and "don't walk" lights were made up of the Ampelmann (they look like little generals) -- really cute!
So cute, we had to buy an umbrella with the Ampelmann on it. ;o)
Pergamon Museum -- Market Gate of Miletus
Pergamon Museum -- Pergamon Steps
Berliner Dom
Reichstag (federal government building)
Standing in front of the remains of the Berlin Wall
Another photo in front of the Berlin Wall
Checkpoint Charlie (location where the Allied Forces had to cross from East Berlin to West Berlin during the Cold War)
Stamps that were put in our passports at Checkpoint Charlie (these stamps were the official stamps used in past years; however aren't used any longer -- except for people visiting Checkpoint Charlie).
We exhausted all of the children on this trip -- but Kendall let it get the best of her by falling asleep on the tour bus while listening to the history of Berlin. ;o)
Just another cute photo! If only they would always be this peaceful and get along so well...
We had an absolutely wonderful trip and are looking forward to our next adventure -- whatever it may be!
2 comments:
Cute photos of the kids....looks like you had another great trip..I would have been like Kendall!!
You guys are the travel gurus! Whenever any of my family or British friends say anything about the amount of our travel time, I tell them about how much you guys go (with 3 kids).
It looks like ya'll had a great time (minus a few driving mishaps).
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