Prague, Czech Republic (5-8 April)
In a nutshell, Prague is a great city, great for exploring on foot and has great, cheap beer! We spent the first 4 days of our trip in here, and our highlights included:
- taking part in a ‘Free Walking Tour’ on our first afternoon – a 3 hour walk around the city with a guide highlighting the most relevant areas and giving us a brief history of the place (and you pay as much as you want at the end of the tour). For us, this was a great introduction to the city and I’d recommend this to anyone thinking of visiting the city.
- wandering round the different areas the city (including the old and new town, castle district and Jewish quarter) taking in the architecture and sights
- sampling the ‘tank pivo’ (fresh, unpasteurised tank beer). Many pubs only had 2 or 3 beers to choose from (light, dark, wheat beer), and all tasted delicious! It helped that half a litre cost around 33Kc (about 80p!!)
- taking in the sights across River Vltava in the castle district - a quieter area across the Charles IV Bridge, with great views back over Prague
- experiencing a range of weather – from heavy snow on the second day to sunny, t-short weather by the time we left!
Krakow, Poland (9-10 April)
After experiencing our first overnight sleeper train (leaving Prague at 10.30pm and arriving in Krakow at 6.30am) we arrived in Krakow bright and early for the start of our 2 night stay. We made the most of our time here, doing another free walking tour on the first morning and then exploring the city on foot that afternoon. Krakow is kind of like a miniature version of Prague, although I felt it had more of a local and student feel (which I liked) compared to Prague’s touristy feel. On our first evening I sampled the local Polish vodka and we also tried some local cuisine (including sour soup which was interesting, yet not interesting enough to ever try again!). There was a really nice atmosphere around the town at night – the main square had a lovely buzz from all the people sat outside the restaurants.
The next day we visited a Jewish museum in the Jewish area and then went on an organised tour to Auschwitz, something I was keen to do on this trip. The tour took us to Auschwitz I where we were guided around the camp and saw exhibits detailing the life of the prisoners and also the remains of the gas chamber and crematorium. We then visited Auschwitz II (Birkenau) which was a short drive away. This was a much bigger camp (although it was never finished) and was where the trains would bring in the prisoners. There were also gas chambers and crematoriums here however they were destroyed when the Germans knew they’d lost the war (to conceal evidence of the camp). The tour was very thought-provoking and obviously not an uplifting experience, however it was really well organised and worth doing.
Olomouc & Brno, Czech Republic (11-12 April)
For the next part of our trip we headed (by minivan and then train) back in to Czech Republic to visit a few smaller towns. Firstly we spent one night in Olomouc, a small university town on the east side of Czech. The town had an efficient tram system linking the station area at the top of the town with the main town centre a mile south. We stayed in a lovely, plush apartment which was a nice break from just having a room and a bed! With only one night here we spent our time wandering around the town (which had a nice square and area along the river) and then chilled at the apartment at night. From the moment we arrived at the station we noticed that there weren’t many English speaking people here (quite different from Prague and Krakow) - we were obviously off the tourist track which was nice!
The next day we headed off via bus (run by a company called Student Agency who offer a cheap way of completing long distance trips within Czech) to a town called Brno which was only a half hour to the west of Olomouc. The town wasn’t as pretty as Olomouc (it appeared a little run down on the outskirts however this opinion might be due to the fact that our hotel was located in this area), however it was still nice to walk around and we found a nice place in the town that had good beer and nice food.
Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic (13-15 April)
Next destination on our travels was the lovely, picture-perfect town of Cesky Krumlov in the south Bohemian region of Czech, our last stop before Germany. The town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the centre sitting within a horseshoe shaped bend in the river Vltava, and the castle outwith the centre giving great views back over the town. We loved our time here ,and our highlights included:
Doing yet another free walking tour to learn about the history of the town (and bumping into the tour guide later that night and going for a pint with him!), strolling the cobbled streets, seeing the resident brown bears at the castle, sitting out in the sun enjoying more tank beer and just enjoying the lovely views!
Regensburg, Germany (15-18 April)
Our original plan for Germany was to base ourselves in Regensburg (and then Munich) and spend our days exploring the region and the famous ‘Romantic Road’ however, it turned out we were quite far from the Romantic Road and so had to change our plans. As a result, we spent three days and nights exploring Regensburg – a nice bustling university town (with a population of around 140,000). It felt like a mix of modern and medieval Germany, with a main square and cathedral surrounded by both independent and high-street shops and lovely areas of green space and view points over the river Danube. We found some great beer gardens (and beer!) while we were there and also nice health food and drink shops. Although we originally planned to see a lot more of the area, we enjoyed Regensburg and feel we now know the city well!
Munich, Germany (18-22 April)
For the last stop on our trip, we got the train south to Munich (it took about 1.5hours). Ee arrived on Saturday afternoon into the hustle and bustle of a major city which was quite a change from anywhere else we’d been on our trip...and although initially a little daunting we soon got our bearings! While we were in Munich we explored the various areas of the city, with our highlights including
- Chilling in the English Garden – a large public park in the city with 3 beer gardens, loads of open space and also an area on the River Eisbach especially created for surfers to hone their skills!
- Visiting the Viktualienmarkt – a huge outdoor food market with loads of vegetable/fruit/meat/cheese/deli/wine stands alongside bars with outdoor seating, which appeared to be used as much by tourist as locals on their lunch breaks. We enjoyed wandering around here and buying bits for our alfresco picnics J
- Drinking in Hofbrauhaus – a huge brewery/beer hall in the centre of town, serving delicious German beer and food accompanied by live German oompah bands. We took the opportunity to sample the renowned German Apple Strudel here and weren’t disappointed!
A highlight of our time in Munich (and the trip overall) was our day out to visit Neuschwanstein Castle – a 19
th century palace built on a hill above the village of Hohenschwangau by Ludvig II of Bavaria. We booked the trip through ‘Mike’s Bus Tours’ and would recommend this tour to anyone heading to Munich – it was a great day out! We went down to Hohenschwangau (which is situated near the border of Germany and Austria with great views of the Alps) by coach and started the day with a bike trip around the surrounding area with plenty of photo opportunities. After lunch we had a go on an ‘Alpine Slide’ while a few of the group headed up the cable car to do a paraglide! We then got back in the coach and drove to the foot of the palace, walking the rest of the way up past viewing points and finally to the palace itself where we got a 30minute guided tour (no photos allowed unfortunately). The palace itself looks magnificent (and was the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty), and inside was very extravagantly decorated in homage to Wagner. We were then driven back to Munich arriving early evening.
Overall, we had a great trip covering three countries and discovering new places....hope you enjoy the photos!
