“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” ~Jawaharial Nehru
Well, we are riding and rolling our way through the hills of Austria and it is absolutely breathtaking. Rolling hills of the greenest grass for as long as the eye can see dotted with beautiful Austrian style homes tucked in the valleys.
In order to tell you how we got here, I must first tell you where we've been.
We left Germany on Wednesday of last week and traveled south to beautiful Praha (Prague), Czech Republic. It's easy to see when you cross the border from Germany to Czech Republic. It's absolutely beautiful! We spent the last two hours of our trip alongside a flowing river with the sun shining on the rolling hills and huge rocky mountains. It is truly amazing. We arrived into Prague late that night and spent the evening settling in, grabbing a bite to eat, and chatting with Mom and Dad.
We spent a couple days exploring Prague and I feel in love! I loved Prague! I think it's my favorite place we have been yet, next to Brugge. Prague was like a beautiful painting come to life. You know those paintings you see of beautiful old towns with clouds that look fake? That is Prague. We were beyond lucky to have beautiful weather during our stay too. I can't wait to show pictures!
Anywho...we explored the Prague castle estate, toured St. Vitus's Cathedral, and climbed our way up the Cathedrals south tower to enjoy a 360 degree view of the city. We spent some time in the Old Royal Palace and walked across the Vltava River via the beautiful St. Charles Bridge and rubbed the feet of St. John of Nepomuk to grant our one wish! We saw the famous astronomical clock in the Old Town Square (did you know they blinded the man who built the clock so he could never build another one as magnificent...crazy) and sat through a classical concert in the church of St. Nicholas. We explored the wonderful John Lenon graffiti wall and strolled along the lovers bridge. Story goes that a long time ago and boy and girl stood on the bridge and threw a locked lock into the water to signify that their love would last forever. Since then people visit the bridge and lock their own locks on the gates with their names or writings on them. We had traditional Czech food out in the square before renting a row boat and spending an hour rowing down the river and visiting the old Jewish cemetery and museum in the city. We spent the night watching the Czech Republic vs Russia futbol match in the Old Town Square where they had set up a huge screen and were having concerts and activities for the city to celebrate Euro 2012. This was great fun except that Czech lost!
I was sad to go, but we left Prague (barely catching our train) early Saturday morning for Vienna, Austria.
We spent about 36 hours in Vienna and I have to admit that I think we could have skipped it all together. I can't decide whether it's Vienna or the rain or the fact that I am finally tiring after 3 weeks of constant traveling, but I wasn't taken by Vienna and am pleased that we are headed out this morning. Don't get me wrong, parts of Vienna were beautiful and nice. It's a lot of what we have seen over the last few weeks and it is all starting to look and sound the same though!
Since we knew we wouldn't be in Vienna long we decided to spend our time on a tour bus to give us a brief look at the city and all the main attractions. After the bus tour we walked through the main streets of town, but everything...absolutely everything is closed on Sundays. We had some lunch then decided to head back to the hostel and call it an early night of resting, reading, and watching futbol. First we stopped at the Schloss Schonbrunn castle to walk around and explore for a bit. I am so glad we did because if not I would have felt that Vienna was a absolute waste. The ground and gardens of the castle were so refreshing and after a quick walk up the lawn we were able to get a nice view of the city past the castle. This was all before the sky opened and it started to rain cats and dogs on us! We rushed our way out the castle gates and made it back to our hostel, but not before we were drenched from head to toe. We called it an early night and I was able to catch up on some sleep before packing up and moving out this morning.
Like I said before, Austria is absolutely beautiful and I am able to see it now that we are traveling through the countryside. I hope that the beauty and charm sticks with us all the way to Salzburg!
LOVE LIFE
and know that you are blessed!
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