Czech Please!

Czech countryside scenery... or is that Hungarian scenery?

Today we took a train from Budapest to Ĉeské Budějovice in the Czech Republic. The train ride was rather mind boggling but I won't go into it here. Let's pretend we just got to the Ĉeské Budějovice train station which looked like a holdover from the days of the cold war.

The Train Station

We got a cab and soon we checked into the Grandhotel Zvon. Our room surprised us with its charm and art deco-ish looks. 

I can't swear this is truly 'art deco' but that is my interpretation.

I mention the room mostly because it puzzled us at the start. The lights didn't work at all, which seemed kind of dicey for such a 'grand' hotel.

We called the front desk and soon a clerk was at our door. He asked for one of our plastic key cards.



\







He slipped a key card into a slot by the room door & voila, the lights went on. Turns out that only with the key in the slot did the room's electricity work. That seemed kind of strange but but it means when guests leave the room, all the lights are out. Clever way to keep hotel costs down. I wonder how many times a day the clerks have to explain such to their hotel guests.

View through the curtains

For the record, the elevator would only take you up to your floor if you pressed your room key against the sensor. Lots of safety measures.


Here is the view out of the hotel room window. There was a truly 'grand' view of the fairy-taleish main square.

View from the Grand Hotel room window

The Baroque Samson Fountain is currently surrounded by a humongous wooden structure which is all a part of an artsy project. The overhead bridge runs from the window of a nearby art museum, to a view of the Samson fountain. Why? Uh... don't ask me, I'm not an artist! What I do know is the buildings surrounding the square are in beautiful pastel colors - as you can see above - and they gave me the feeling I was engulfed in magic.

There were loads of places to visit

We decided although it had already been a long day, we ought to take a walk to stretch our legs after our train trip from Vienna. There were loads of places to visit which was daunting. Ignoring the town's high points, we just started meandering around the town. We were hungry so we were also searching for a place to grab a bite.

Oh yeah, this menu seems... um... foreign... to me, anyway

Spire of a local art gallery with a name translating as 'Gallery under the stone frog'

Many tiny & quaint shops on the back streets 

I absolutely HAD to go into U Dobraka, a little grocery store

Yet again, I cannot believe I got in and out of that store without buying up all the sweets.

I was just as taken with the veggies they had... Jo and I had a nice discussion about several of the veggies, not to mention the 'Paprika'

Am still not sure which of the veggies was Paprika and if it is the same as what I know as being Paprika.









... not to mention the yogurts, cheeses, puddings and whatever-else-the-heck was in the fridge.

Oh yeah... and the colorful, Claire-baiting Marzipan candies.... good heavens!

Back on the streets there were decorative building gew-gaws

The lions must get tired of hosting those pesky humans

Before it got dark, we found the Masné krámy Restaurant. It was a long building, rather plain on the outside but on a grand scale at the interior.

Dining to the left, drinking to the right

Jo ordered the beef neck in horseradish which didn't taste like horseradish back in the states, but it was good. I had rabbit pate with apricot marmalade and bread to spread it all on.

Jo's beef neck with horseradish sauce.

I had homemade bunny-pate with a savory apricot marmalade jam on toast. It was really good, and for me, it was unusual.











My dessert was even more unusual and strangely tasty. Doughy potato dumplings like long sausages, buried under a white and tan powder of poppy seeds, ala mode, with deeply yellow, vanilla ice cream. Yummy... I think.




Jo had skipped dessert in favor of chatting with other diners in the restaurant. I don't just mean chatting from her seat. Jo will get up, walk over to someone, sit down and engage them in conversation. I watched her tonight in amazement, wishing - a bit - I could find topics of conversation with someone I never met before. THAT is how you enjoy a trip, engaging people from other lands, not hunkering over your bunny-pate like the hermit I am.

 I was amused that coincidentally, another friend of mine, who shares the same nickname - Jo - is very nearly as outgoing as Jo Beach. Maybe having the nickname Jo predisposes one to the ability to engage people where-ever the Jo's may go. Sadly, I am largely unable to talk to strangers, though I wish I could, I'm too self involved I guess. I'm a crank by comparison to my dear pals, Fort Bragg Jo and San Diego Jo.


On our long walk back to the Grand hotel, Jo stopped at a little ice cream shop for a single scoop of vanilla gelato. I'm glad I was too full for any more dessert, because I could have stood there an hour before deciding which of those well decorated creamy delights to try.

We finally made it back to The Grand Zvon Hotel under the night sky, chattering about tomorrows adventures, when we'll figure out how to get to our next destination for the day.

A Little More Vienna

A view of Wien (Vienna) from atop the double decker tour bus.

When I left the Natural History Museum, the double decker tour bus took me back to central Vienna.
Then back in central Vienna, I slowly meandered the streets. I discovered one of the buildings I had passed earlier in the day was now a bit more interesting for its large outdoor screen was now airing - something-or-the-other. It seems I had ignored something Vienna is rather famous for - it's Opera House. There was a Sunday matinee of Robert Wagner's 'Lohengrin' going on inside the opera house while outside, was a live showing of the opera. I lingered to watch the opera that was in German, which is the native language of most of the outdoor audience, save for me. Duolingo wasn't quite enough help with opera.

No need to buy a ticket to enjoy a live performance at the Vienna Opera House

I looked up what Lohengrin was about, and let's just say I wish I'd been there when the swan swam in dragging the boat. Musta been cool.

But now I roamed the streets looking into shops with some idea of getting for a trinket or three.

A Vienna street

Fiaker - carriage - perhaps over 100 yrs old

The most hard to resist were the Schokoladen-Läden, and don't get me started on the Viennese pastry shops.

Adorable little faux Faberge eggs....

And adorable little whats-its

Motzart shop where I resisted buying an ensie wiensie violin that came with a case

Just because the sky grew darker, doesn't mean the crowds thin, when in an international city like Wein (Vin). Tourists, families, even a small group of brown-robed holy men, wandered the streets. I stopped to watch a man blowing enormous bubbles to the delight of all.

Der Bubble-Meister

A Bubble Vodermort, how clever!

I totally enjoyed my day in Vienna. I got a bit lost on my way back to the Garten. I made it back to my Straussgassehaus train station destination, no problem. The trouble was I got out at a different entrance than I had used earlier in the day. For once, my sense of direction escaped me, but after questioning several people at a bus station, I got my bearings and took the long walk back to the hotel. It as dark and lovely and when the hotel was in sight up the street, I sat a while on a bench to soak it all up. I was thrilled when I saw die fledermaus fly by! No, I did not see an opera fly by, I saw flapping, breathing, flying mammals - bats fly by! I saw Viennese flappy things! I know that's not the usual thing a tourist crows about, but I tell you, it made my day. Now... what species will they have been?

Oh never mind. I'll end this post with a short video of Lohengrin at the Opera House earlier in the day.  Perhaps I'm wrong, but I cannot imagine a U.S. opera house offering free viewing of a performance like this. Have a brief glance for yourself.

Ein Langer Tag - a Long Day - in Vienna

We arrived in Vienna by train in late afternoon, taking a taxi to our overnight stay at a little Viennese Inn, 'The Garten'.

Kunsthistorisches (art history) Museum

Where we searched for the underground station

The next morning we were off wandering perhaps a quarter mile where with the help of a friendly Viennese gentleman, we found the local Straussgassehaus station.










We took the underground to Stevenplatz (Steven's plaza). Exiting the station we found ourselves in a huge plaza with loads of tourists, facing a large church (I'm guessing St. Steven's).

Facing the 'underground' entrance in Stevenplatz

We took the time to join tourists for a quick view inside the cathedral

Before we could enter the church, one of the ticket sellers approached us. While I declined, Jo was thrilled to purchase a ticket to a concert for tonight.

Much paperwork to procure a ticket

Jo, happy with her ticket for a concert tonight featuring Motzart, Strauss, Beethoven and other famous musicians of Wien (Vienna).

The interior of the St. Stephan's Cathedral was of course, beautiful. I wanted to buy everything in the gift shop, but restrained myself - a reoccurring  & unfortunate theme for the day.

Following a brief tour of the cathedral, we found our way, perhaps another quarter mile on, to one of my favorites - an 'get on, get off' double decker tour bus. That was all the Vienna I am getting this trip so I kept my eyes open for where I wanted to actually get off the bus and tour.

As one would expect, lots of impressive statues and such

King Neptune and his sea-steeds, at a palace? Nope, its a traffic turn-turnaround

St. Francis of Assisi

Sailed past cute little shops

The Tower by the Danube

The Vienna Tower which has a Seattle type restaurant at its top. Found out it also has a... wait for it... bungie jumping platform. Um... not even on a dare...

The remnant of the old Jewish quarter of the city

A tempting spot I might have explored if I had a second day to tour Vienna was the Wurstelprater amusement park, commonly called the 'Prater'.

Nearly antique whirly ride at the Prater

Prater centerpiece - the Giant Ferris Wheel

And this little Prater piggy is an ATM machine

The bus crossed the Danube numerous times

At the end of the bus tour, I'd absorbed a fact or two. Jo decided to go back to our room to rest up for the night's concert, and I decided to get back on the bus and return to the spot that I thought I would enjoy having as my 'in depth' local in Vienna - the Natural History Museum.

Maria Teresa Statue that sits between the Art and Natural History museums

This adorable & picturesque mini-pachyderm stands in front of the Natural Museum steps

The little guy seems to enjoy all the attention, not to mention all the selfies.

The museum entryway

This is the grandest natural history museum I've ever seen. Really, the entryway alone would take one's breath away, with the marble stairs leading up to statues and lovely carved reliefs and enough paintings for the place to double as an art museum.

The massive marble stairway leading up to exhibits

And there were so many categories of exhibits to visit, it was overwhelming. My path through room after room of exhibits - both modern in style and old type exhibits from the 19th century that in themselves all double as antiques. My favorites were easily the endless cases exhibits of wildlife, both contemporary and extinct. The joy of world class specimens!

Skeletons of the massive extinct Moa birds from New Zealand

As most of the exhibits were in German, I could only absorb so much info. For example, is this an actual skin of a long extinct Dodo or a thoughtfully reconstructed recreation of the bird?

Massive skeleton of extinct Irish Stag

Room after room of stuffed creatures pillaged from around the world 

Lots of  'old style' museum exhibits like these of different kinds of deer species

There were many beautiful and unexpected sights, such as displays of stained glass for this cathedral of the natural world.

Stained Glass displaying the beauty of diatoms

Did not linger in the hall of entomology

Though the wildlife displays had my eye, there were other displays of botany, entomology, fishes of the world, and a long time favorite, gemology in competition. for my attention. It was entertaining to see a display that omitting 'doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles' managed to combine two of my very favorite things, ornithology and minerology. Humm... might have been nicer had the birds been alive. The exhibit explained how many birds have gemstones as their namesake.

A Topaz Hummingbird and Topaz

A Lazuli Bunting and a Lapis Lazuli stone

Topaz Hummingbird & Topaz gem















A Lazuli Bunting and its namesake Lapis Lazuli stone







Here is a brief blip - only about 90 seconds longer than my attention span. A look at a heat sensitive video cam, which was fun as I've only ever seen such cameras on television shows, and a CGI of extinct lions.

Toured the museum for hours, and had lunch there at the elegant cafe there.

Beautiful dome by the little museum cafe

When I'd had enough of roaming the halls, I bee-lined to the museum's gift shop. Lots of things to talk myself out of purchasing.

Pretty, fishy toys, stuffed, like many of the museum's inhabitants

Amazing bird calls, each type as unique as the bird it mimics (how did I not buy one???)

Now I've seen some impressive museum gift shops in my time, but this shop, though relatively small, had some relatively impressive objects and nick-knacks for sale. The child below probably took a week to choose just one or two toys from the humongous throng of extinct and contemporary plastic play critters for sale. Dinosaurs, Hippos, Polar Bears and Giant Sloths. HOW did I not bag a few for meself?

Let's face it, that's a lot of toys

There was one thing I am kicking myself for not buying.  I could have I-kid-you-not, bought genuine, gathered in Siberia, Mammoth hair from the an animal long gone during the Pleistocene era. What was I thinking not buying at least a bag of that stuff? I will never forgive myself for passing it up.

I could have carded this with my Alaskan Quiviet (muskoxen undercoat) to spin up and knit into a rarest of the rare knit scarf. Rats.





Are you tired of proxy wandering around Vienna? Let's end this post here and I'll continue it in a bit. I promise.