Author: Sara

This morning, we caught an early tram to the station in time for our five-hour journey to Vienna.  We boarded the train and found our seats in a compartment of six, sharing with two chaps from Quebec. We had a good chat on the way and compared journeys and travel tales as the train wound through the mountains of the Czech Republic and Austria. 

When we arrived in Vienna, we walked to our hotel with the help of Oli’s magnificent hand-drawn map.  Magnificent it may have been, but it certainly wasn’t to scale and the walk was a lot further than we had anticipated (the map also blew away in the wind when we were halfway there, which didn’t help!) Mishaps aside, we checked in without a problem and then took the metro a couple of stops to the city centre. We had a lovely walk through the buzzy pedestrian zone and decided that we liked Vienna straight away.

After a quick look at the cathedral, we headed to another Lonely Planet restaurant recommendation. This time our trusty guidebook let us down! There were supposed to be two good restaurants in near proximity, but unfortunately neither seemed to exist. Instead, we found a tasty noodle bar nearby, which had a kitchen in the centre of the restaurant and felt just like you were eating in someone’s home. Oli ate his whole meal with chopsticks (a first), while Sara ate most of hers with chopsticks, but some straight from the bowl (not a first!) 

After a good dinner, we walked back to the city centre and through the pedestrian zone towards the Opera House, where there was a huge screen and outside seating to encourage people to enjoy the performance for free – what a lovely, inclusive idea.  We sat for a while and really enjoyed the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, Sara was still feeling poorly on her birthday 🙁 

She opened her cards and presents (thanks, all!) while still tucked up in bed and we then had an early breakfast so that we could beat the crowds to Charles Bridge.  The main motivation for this was to photograph Oli’s “cool” Mission Impossible sequence! Having never seen the film, Sara was totally baffled by this whole exercise, but Oli had been talking about it since our arrival in Prague so she humoured him.  We got a few weird looks (unsurprisingly) but our mission was successful! 

We then walked towards the old town and visited the main square to see the famous astronomical clock chime at 10am.

We also climbed up the clock tower, which had a great view over Prague. 

Next, we wandered down a shopping street hoping to see the Municipal House, which was supposed to be worth a look. On the way, we stopped for a hot chocolate and sneaky slice of birthday cake in a spectacular, high-ceilinged Art Nouveau cafe.  On our way out of the building, we were wondering where the Municipal House had got to, only to look up and realise we’d been in it all along!  Classic.

Afterwards, we finally tracked down the English-language bookshop, but unfortunately had no luck with the renewable energy book. We walked down a very posh shopping street and around the Jewish quarter before crossing our fourth bridge of the city back towards the hotel. This time, we both had an afternoon nap! In the evening, we went out for a birthday dinner to the restaurant we had been so impressed with on the first day.  Unfortunately, we were seated inside this time so didn’t have the beautiful view, but it was still a lovely meal.

Sara woke with a sore throat and feeling a bit under the weather, but it was a beautiful day so we headed out for some sightseeing after a lovely buffet breakfast. We walked uphill to the enormous castle complex just in time to see the changing of the guard and a band playing – excellent timing, but it was very crowded. We bought our tickets and took ourselves on a whistle-stop tour of what the castle had to offer, including a cathedral, palaces, and a basilica. We enjoyed what we saw, but really noticed that things weren’t as well-preserved or restored as we would have expected. Before long, Sara had really had enough and needed a rest, so after sitting in the sun with all of Prague below us for a little while, we went back to the hotel for the afternoon. On the way back, we bought guilty-pleasure Subway sandwiches to cheer ourselves up! 

While Sara napped, Oli headed out on his own adventure to search for an English-language bookshop to buy a book about renewable energy to keep him occupied on our train journeys.  He realised later that he went to the wrong street, so no wonder no one seemed to know what he was talking about when he asked for Big Ben.  They must have thought he’d mistaken Prague for London!

After a good rest, we went out for dinner at a pizzeria again recommended by the Lonely Planet. The building didn’t look like much from the entrance, but the restaurant was in the cellar and the pizzas were massive and yummy.