Austria and Bohemia

We are now in Vienna, Austria. We’re staying with a cousin of Gus; Swen, and his wife Barbara. They also have son, Marc, who is 20. Once again we are being very spoilt with a nice bedroom and ensuite – this camping lark isn’t too bad... The house is in a village close to Vienna, but also backs onto the bush and is at the end of a road so very quiet – we like it! We’ve been into Vienna itself twice now – yesterday Swen took us in and we had a bit of an overview; then today we went back on the tube to have a better look.

Our first stop was the Schonbrunn Palace. We were thinking how beautiful it is, and how like Versailles when we discovered that it is the birthplace of Marie Antoinette (who lived and died at Versailles). If anything it’s more tastefully decorated than Versailles itself, not quite so over the top. Poor girl never really had a chance – she knew no other life! We also discovered that royalty resigned from government and Austria became a republic in 1918 – no beheadings though, I think there may have been a deportation but that was all.

Vienna itself is amazing – the architecture is stunning. We couldn’t get over the variety and beauty of the buildings.

The library was something to behold – we were speculating as to where the returns bin might be.

The city also has a really nice feel about it, not too big or too busy. There were lots of interesting things happening in the streets – street performers and horse & carriages; neat little old cafes and restaurants; as well as opera of course.

Have now crossed into the Czech Republic, formerly Czechoslovakia (about 20 years ago became Czech and Slovakia – I’m sure you all knew that); and before that again this region was Bohemia. I really like the sound of Bohemia... The contrast as we came over the border from Austria was immediately obvious by the condition of the road – in the Czech Republic there were no white lines and the tar seal is a very patched surface. This changed the next day as we got close to Prague, however, and we even got onto a modern motorway. On the way through the back roads I saw two horses being used to pull logs in the forest; and an elderly lady turning over a paddock of hay with a pitchfork – the Czech is apparently ahead of the rest of Central Europe in development but I guess twenty years isn’t all that long for such big changes.

We visited Cesky Krumlov, a cool little town on a bend in the river, almost an island. It was founded in 1253 or thereabouts. The castle was once owned by King Wenceslas – now I know nothing about him except that he’s the subject of the Christmas Carol - Good King Wenceslas, and it turns out it is the same guy. I would have had no idea what country he came from.

The garden layout was also inspired by the garden at Schonbrunn Palace, which we’ve just visited. All the European royal families obviously had lots of connections. The royal family here also were deposed in 1918. We were amused to see that all the bricks are painted on the plain walls - we thought this was just an attempt to make it look original; but apparently this is how they were originally done. The tower was very high and had very scary stairs leading up it but I did get myself there; I then stood at the top with my back firmly against the inner wall while Gus took photos of the view.

There was a very large, loud bell that sounded just as a little girl behind us was passing, she completely freaked out and screamed – poor thing.

Today was Prague – this would have to be our number one city for architecture. We walked into the main square of the ‘Old City’ and just didn’t know where to look first. There is so much variety and so many beautiful towers and buildings. The Old City was built in the 10th century, the ‘New’ City in the 15th century. We travelled on a tram to get into the city – these are still the most common form of public transport here.

The clock on the Old Town Hall is something else. It’s the oldest astronomical clock still working in the world. We couldn’t work out how to tell the time but apparently it displays astronomical information, like the relative positions of the sun, moon, constellations, and major planets. I’m sure it does all that but not so as we could tell! Every hour, on the hour, the little skeleton on the side pulls a rope to strike the bell; the other three characters move; different saints appear in the windows at the top; and to finish off this performance a man standing on the viewing tower at the top blows a song on his trumpet. I heard an American voice say “Wow, they really make a big deal out of it don’t they” – you have to imagine the accent for that.

The castle is the biggest castle complex in the world – it’s not one building though, and not a fortress like other castles we’ve seen; more of a group of buildings around a central cathedral. The cathedral had some of the best (ugliest) Gothic gargoyles we’ve seen. Apparently these were originally designed to keep evil spirits and the devil away.

The clock on the cathedral is also quite unusual. The top one was built first and tells the hour. The lower one was added much later, when an Austrian was in charge, and tells the minutes. The Czech guide reckoned that exact time isn’t too important to the Czech people.

Another interesting(?) feature of the city are these cages, some just cover wells but others are where witches were burned. It's hard to imagine that this really happened... and right here.

The infrastructure of the Czech Republic is still improving; even the campground we’re staying in leaves a little to be desired. The bathrooms are the first really unclean ones we’ve come across in a campground. I’m opting to use our own ones in The Enterprise. We’ve met two kiwi couples in this camp though, so that’s been a bonus. We had a book swap with the first couple – exchanged about 5 books each, so will keep us going for a bit longer. It’s quite cheap for us here – they don’t have the Euro but have their own currency, the Krona – 1000 Krona is roughly equivalent to 35 euro. Makes it very tricky for us to work out but mostly things are cheaper than we expect. Apparently wages here are very low too, about 900 euro a month, but it is possible to live on that here. Minimum wage is only about 500 euro a month – I promise not to complain about my wages again – for a while anyway...

We enjoyed an inexpensive lunch at the market at a long table - with people who were speaking a huge variety of languages. Gus had a big sausage sandwich and we both had a round pastry thingy - not sure what but tasted good. We also had freshly squeezed orange juice, for about $5NZ total. It’s a really beautiful city, and really to be recommended if you’re anywhere near this region. We are very pleased that we have visited – quite different to Western Europe. We’ve talked to people who have been to Hungary and Croatia and really enjoyed them too – maybe another time...