Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge is one of the famous bridge at the Prague river. It's a stone gothic bridge with many statues on it, officially there are 30 statues on the bridge. Build in 1357 (wow!) and finished in the beginning of 15th century.

There is a tower standing at the both sides, we were coming to the bridge on the side of the old town.



It's one of the must visit of place in Prague, so this bridge is always full of people. There are artists, musician, souvenirs vendors, well, it's a very touristy place.


And this is the Prague castle and the opposite bridge as seen from the Charles Bridge.




With this view, I could stay hours at this bridge! Too bad we didn't have much time, as we had to continue exploring Prague's old town. I still wonder how beautiful it will be to see sunset from the Charles Bridge. Really hope to visit this place again someday with rene:)

written on November 29, 2011

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Vltava River

After visiting the Prague Castle Complex, we were transferred by our bus to one point near the river and continued on foot to explore the Vltava River of Prague. We were actually heading to the famous Charles Bridge, but I will make a separate post on the Charles Bridge.

It was very cloudy that afternoon, however we still enjoyed the beautiful scene along the river. This is the first bridge we saw at the river.

We continued walking to the left side of the river, where there is a park full of people selling their paintings. There are also boat resto along the river, a group of Harley Davidson, it's a perfect place to hang out.

The Prague Castle was very beautiful seen from the Vltava River.

written on November 25, 2011

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Prague Castle Complex

I am very excited to share my first visit ever to Prague in my travel blog. This is the most impressive city during my East Europe Trip. I fell in love with Prague!

We arrived at Prague at about 5 pm after our journey from Brno. We went directly to Hilton Prague, than had a group dinner. I didn't join the dinner that night, as most of the time I couldn't eat anything if we had local food dinner:p

The next day we explored this beautiful city, started with a visit to Prague Castle, which located on a hill. We alight at one point, and began to walk. We were warned by our tourguide to wear comfortable shoes that day, as we had to explore the city on foot. Than we arrived at a gate, the first entrance we found at the castle complex. Behind the gate we found a square with a beautiful fountain at the middle.



We kept on walking, until we found a bigger gate guarded by a soldier and which decorated with statues of Fighting Giants.


In front of the gate there is another square called Hradcany Square.



There is also a viewing gallery from the square where we can see the city of Prague.




We walked into the gate and found the St.Vitus Cathedral.



After that we got the ticket to go to the Prague castle, too bad we couldn't take the picture inside, but the ticket got the picture of it, so I posted the picture of the ticket instead.



Than we also went to the Golden Lane to see a street where houses are so small that they fit more to dwarfs than to people. Probably it's the smallest street in Prague:p



We also visited what so called Toy Museum.



The whole complex is just amazingly beautiful :)

written on November 23, 2011

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Brno Czech

On our way to Prague after visiting Vienna, we stopped by for lunch at Brno, the second largest city in Czech Republic. We had another Chinese meal at the center of the city, and after our lunch, we were given one hour to explore Brno.


It's a very beautiful and quiet city. We enjoy all the shops and the ambience at the square. Checz currency is crown (koruna), 100 crown is equal to 4 Euro.


I also found two toys store, Sparkys is a modern store which I also found in Prague and Salzburg. While the right picture below is a traditional toy store "Komiksy" selling toys made from wood. A really interesting store:)


Tram pass a road full of shops...


Wish that we had more time in Brno, I really love this city.


written on November 15, 2011

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Sofitel Vienna Review

This is the hotel where we stayed for two nights in Vienna. Sofitel looks very eyecathing with its rooftop, giving a very modern atmosphere from the moment we walked into the hotel.

When we entered the room, we were amazed by the size of the room. It's really spacious. It has an open bathroom with the direct access to the bedroom. The bed and pillows are really really comfortable. The soap and shamppoo are Hermes! The minibar are free of charge, and we had our coffee maker in our room!

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Dinner at Grinzing

To complete our sightseeing in Vienna, we ended up that day with a dinner at Grinzing area to try some local food. The resto is quiet nice with its local touch, a lot of tourist bus coming to this resto.

We had a chicken meal that night, comes with potato and the salad. I didn't try the chicken and the salad. I only had the potato, and the apple struddle which we had for our dessert.

During our dinner, there was a traditional music show, and the guy even played Bengawan Solo, the famous Indonesian song. A very nice touch:)

Eventhough I didn't enjoy the food, I like the atmosphere of this resto. It will be nice to come here at summer and have dinner at the open space area.

written on November 13, 2011

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Vienna Sightseeing

After a visit at Schoenbrunn which is a former summer residence, we continued visiting a former winter residence or called Hofburg Palace. We didn't get in, we just take picture from the outside.

And of course we visited the Johan Strauss statue, too bad the original place is under rennovation.

After lunch, we continued our sigtseeing to Kärntner Straße, a famous place for shopping. We alight from our bus at the opposite of Opera House, and were given free time.

The street has so many branded shops, cafes and souvenir shops. We can find Mozart Chocolate in every souvenir shop, with -I might say- a very unreasonable price. This street is a very touristy area.

It was hard to find toilet in this area, so i went to McD for our toilet break. We had to pay 0,5 euro, but the toilet ticket can be used as discount for our purchase at McD. I had a strawberry smoothies, and found it has an online order system:p

We may find many stalls selling this huge sausage and beers.. We were told by our local guide that Vienna's people eat sausage and drink beers for their lunch.

written on November 13, 2011

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Schoenbrunn Palace

On our first morning in Vienna, we didn't have breakfast at the hotel, we went early in the morning to have a breakfast at the Schoenbrunn Palace, which is a former summer residence, and now is the major tourist attraction in Vienna.

The breakfast located at a small cafe located beside the palace. We had bread with jam and butter, a warm and very delicious bread! For the beverage we may choose a cup of coffee or a hot chocolate. I had a cup of hot chocolate which was very delicious and came perfect with the wheather of 10 celcius degrees that morning.

After the breakfast, we took pictures in front of the palace, and went inside the palace. The normal ticket price is 10,5 euro for adult. Too bad we were not allowed to take pictures inside. We had a local guide explaining the major rooms this palace has. I was not impressed with the front look of this place, I have been to Versailles Palace before, and I thought that Versailles is more impressive.

But when we went to the backyard, WOW, it has a beautiful garden, a very photogenic one! Too bad we only had few minutes to take picture here, so I didn't go up the hill. For sure, this place is a must visit place in Vienna.

written on November 11, 2011

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Vienna's Ferris Wheel

After the have fun go mad shopping at Pandorf, we continue another 1 hour drive to Vienna, and went directly to a Chinese resto. It was an upscale chinese resto I might say. The exterior looks like a japanese park, though inside it was realy chinese. Another good chinese food were served. But one of the resto staff was really rude. We could see from her gesture that she wanted us to leave as soon as possible! Guess the resto was fully booked that night.

Arriving at the Sofitel Hotel at about 7.30 am, we went straight to the room, and as I have read it on the TA review, the room was very special. I would make a review later on regarding the room in this blog, how the room has an open bathroom, has a coffe maker inside!, free mini bar..for sure it was the best hotel during our trip.

Then a small group gathered at the lobby, we would like to try the tram just like in budapest, and tried the ferris wheel that we saw on our way to the hotel. Andy, our map reader asked the hotel concierge on how to go to the Ferris Wheel, and he was told to just walk straight. It was windy and really cold that night. We walked about 20 minutes to an interchange station called Praterstern.

We crossed the road and voila, we saw the Ferris Wheel. It is located in the Prater amusement park, which also has a roller coaster, and a Madame Tussaud.


The ferris wheel called Wiener Riesenrad, and the ticket for one ride is 8.5 euro! So expensive! But we still wanted it a try.

We went inside, first there was a little museum regarding the wheel. So we just knew from the museum that the wheel was really old fashioned, unlike the London Eye or the Singapore Flyer. Oh noo, but we have purchased the ticket already:p We walked to the next room which was a photo studio room, and we were surprised to see becak from Yogyakarta at the corner of the room. Heheee a becak in Vienna!



We got into the Wiener Riesenrad, wow so old:p I guess the expensive ticket is for the maintenance hehee However we could see the beautiful city at night from the wooden capsule. And inside there is the picture on the wooden wall with the name of the buildings. There were two other visitors in the capsule, and they were upset when we had to get out from the capsule and one of them yelled to the officer "only one ride? so expensive!" Frankly speaking, it's not worth it to get into the Wiener Riesenrad. It's 100% tourist trap.



When we walked to the exit, there was a souvenir shop with unreasonable tourist price.


We took pictures in the amusement park area. Glad that the Madam Tussaud were closed, otherwise it will be another tourist trap:p


As the night were getting cold, we decided to take the tram going back to the hotel. We were confused to find the machine to buy the ticket. We asked a guy for the direction. So we need to go downstair to take U1 line. Bought the ticket for 1.80 euro, and put the ticket on the macine. By the way I was wondering why the ticket was so expensive? The next day from our local guide, I just knew that the ticket valid for two hours journey! While we were on the train for only two stops away from Praterstern station!


The train is again so old fashioned. It remind me so much to Kereta Api Parahyangan, a train from Bandung to Jakarta which is no longer operated. The door should be open manually. Oeps sorry, we didn't know that we have to open it by ourselves. People who waited outside the train opened the door for us, and from their face I knew they were upset:p

We were confused whether to get out or go back to the previous stop. Andi the explorer told us just to get out from the station, and yess we saw our hotel:p What a night in Vienna.

written on November 5, 2011

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