Polish Sweets

I wanted to bring back some candy from our trip to share with my coworkers, as it is a tradition when anyone on the floor goes on a trip (and many do quite often as most are from other countries) to bring something back to share. Basia was nice enough to pick up some traditional candy when she went to the food market during our stay. I was able to find the web site of one of the candy makers: http://www.krowka.zywiec.pl/en_oferta.php Their Cream Fudge is yumo.

Hail Polska!

Today was a hot day in Bochnia, and many storm clouds passed over during the day with periods of thunder. At about 5:15pm it looked like it was finally going to dump, but what came down was hail, in huge pieces. This video and these photos do not quite capture it, I started the video when it was winding down, but I certainly would not want to be outside when this stuff is coming down. Apparently this i not THAT rare in this part of the world...crazy.

Bochnia, Poland

Today is certainly the hottest day of our trip, 31C/88F. We originally thought of visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp, but it is located about 2.5 hours away in Oswiecim, Poland. Courtney has already been, and I am really touristed out. We decided to just enjoy our final day in Bochnia. We strolled through town, visited a Polish cemetary, and also the oldest preserved Jewish cemetary. The history of this area is amazing, but of course mixed with the horrific past of the holocaust.

Yesterday we visited the Bochnia Salt Mine, which is most of what this town sits atop. We were about 250m (820 ft) below the surface. At one point Salt was more valuable than Gold, and the mining of Salt took lives. There is a chapel in the mines, which a small train track (to get around in the mines) goes through, which is pretty cool.

After the Mine tour, we plopped down at a Beer Garden in the town center, and listened to some local bands and also there was a mix of music, dancing, and a fashion show. We also noshed on some Keilbasa which was awesome. We also came accross some local Gypsies, pretty bizzare folks. They were reading peoples fortunes with a piece of thier hair, and just trying to peddle and get money (and dude..they stunk).

Another cool discovery in Poland was thier pretzels, which is kind of a mix of pretzel and bagel. In fact this is the origin of the Bagel as we know it in NY.

Tonight we are spending our last night having dinner with Erin, John and Basia at a local Polish restaurant right here in Bochnia, which we are really looking forward to. It has been a fantastic trip, and the opportunity to spend time with Courtney's family has been terrific.

Poland

Our train to Krakow, Poland was delayed due to a late arrival in Katowice. This did not end up being too bad, got in about 45 minutes late, but Courtney's brother John was at the station in Krakow to meet us. The trains in Poland seem a little older (run down) and not as on schedule as in Austria and Switzerland. Another challenge was that the conductors on the trains in Poland did not know any English. So it made things a little more challenging, but it all worked out. Luckily the train, once in Poland did not have many people on it. When we got in, we got a taxi and stuffed our large suitcases into it.

We then stayed at a beautiful luxury apartment of one of John's friends. We spent last night in Krakow, had dinner in the Old Town and hit a local bar. The local beer, Tyskie, is awesome. The next morning we headed back to the Krakow train station to meet up with Erin that just arrived from NY, then we all took a train to Bochnia. We are staying at John and Basias beautiful home here, and I even got my own pair of traditional Polish slippers (although they are a bit snug ;)). We had a traditional bean and keilbasa (in a spicy tomato broth) lunch, and then relaxed a bit and took the kids to the playground.



It is nice to be staying in a home and relaxing after all of our travelling and hotel stays. Tonight we will have a good Polish dinner and probably put down a little Vodka. Also it is great to finally to some laundry! The language is hard to understand here, but we are picking up a few phrases.

News Alert: Prague is no longer cheap!

Guess it's a combination of the crappy USD and increases in prices, but Praha is not the Eden of bargains it used to be. We had a great time though, and our accommodations are nice and reasonable. We are staying at the Aparthotel City 5 and the staff here is great. We started our first day with a stroll across the Charles Bridge into Old Town, and grabbed dinner at Navomestsky Pivovar, as recommended by my friend Steve. This is a brewery/restaurant, which was excellent and had reasonable prices. I had the dark beer goulash with horseradish, spicy sausage and bread dumplings, I of course had their house dark beer to keep it company...good stuff. (And who would pass up a dish with 'spicy sausage'? Not I).

We then caught an alternative theater show at the Black Light Theater. It was a trippy show about Alice (in Wonderland) as she goes through her adult life. Very wacky, but I did get to see her 'you know whats' so that made it worthwhile, love Prague ;)

Our second day we started with a tour of Prague Castle, oh after a stop at Starbucks (I needed a fix of the coffee I love and am used to), we did complement it with some apple strudel though. Other than there being a lot of grinds at the bottom of the coffee, it was damn good. So back to Prague Castle, we decided to pay the extra Crowns to do the audio tour, which was definitely a good idea. The St Vitus Cathedral is amazing, so beautiful. The rest of the castle is pretty cool (not as cool as the one in Salzburg). We then headed back to Old Town to check out the open market and ended the day with (drum roll please) a Mexican Dinner (I know..getting Mexican in Czech is nutty..and should be done only at your own risk). There is a place accross from our hotel called Hombre (how can we not go there). As expected, it was no Don Juan, but we were able to get a decent enough light inexpensive dinner. It seems people drink bottled water here in Czech more than in Switzerland and Austria, I am assuming the tap water is not as good (which makes sense based on mountain / river location).

We enjoyed Prague, there are certainly A LOT of tourists here, but luckily much less soccer frenzy. We have a long train ride (about 8 hours) ahead of us tomorrow morning from here to Krakow, Poland. I am looking forward to being in a less touristy location, and we will be there for 4 days...so it will be good to wind down a bit, also we are staying with family..so that will be nice. Off to bed...(I almost bought the 'Czech Me Out' t-shirt ;)).

Vienna to Prague

Luckily we are seated in a cabin on the 4.5 hr train from Vienna to Prague which has an electrical outlet, so I can squeeze in a blog post. We are excited to get to Prague, we are staying at an Aparthotel (more of an extended stay type of place, like a short term apartment). The hotel Allegro in Vienna was a pretty run down place, and the rates were really high due to the soccer. But, it was the first place where we got scrambled eggs for breakfast, so that was a bonus. There was also a scare, as a newly checked in guest thought his laptops were stolen, and the cops were there and the hotel manager was completely stressed out...going through cigarettes like nobodies business. It turned out that his wife had hid the laptops under the sheets of the bed...ugh. In any event, we are looking forward to a cheaper city, it is approximately 16 Czech Crowns per 1 USD, nice to get away from the Euro :)

We both packed pretty big bags, and can get by without doing any laundry, but if the opportunity comes up to do some laundry, I will be jumping on it. We are getting some really nice weather, aside from some of the rainy times in the beginning off the trip (which we got through ok), it has been mild and sunny...sweet. We also have a bunch of recommendations on places to see and eat in Prague from friends that have been or lived there. We were also warned to be careful of pickpockets in Prague (if you don't see any more blog posts for a while, maybe MY laptop was stolen ;)).

As I mentioned in my last post, we got around in Vienna primarily by taking trams and subways (underground). Living in/near NYC, we were accustomed to getting around in this fashion, and found the mass transit system relatively easy to navigate. I cannot believe this is already day 12 of 18, the trip is going fast, but we are really enjoying it. We both feel like we saw plenty of Switzerland and Austria.

Strudel Dudel

We started the day with a visit to the Spanish Riding School, to attend the morning training session. Seeing the White Stallions being trotted around the course in preparation for their larger shows (which need to be booked months in advance) was quite a treat. We then went on to finish the city walking tour that we had to interrupt yesterday afternoon due to the soccer fans. We strolled through the enormous Museum area, and by Burggarten.

Since we had already sampled the famous Sacher Torte and Melange (Viennese Coffee), it was on to Apple Strudel (originally brought to Vienna by the Turkish..along with Coffee). We trekked back to Schonbrunn Palace where an Apple Strudel cooking demonstration and  sampling was being offered for 3,90 Euros. This was a real treat, we also got the recipe for this amazing Strudel. When the host (Dorothea) asked for a volunteer to assist here, you know who's hand shot up first (beat out all the little kids)! I was able to assist in the cooking process, and get a certification for cooking Strudel...so what's up!?

After this we headed back to the Naschmarkt (an outdoor market and restaurant pavilion)  to browse some of the vendors goods'. We wrapped up the day with...HAMBURGERS! (Aren't they from Germany or Austria?). After sampling all this Austrian food, we were craving a good old Hamburger and Fries, we ate at an Australian  Restaurant. We ended the day with a stroll through the Innerstradt area with all the street performers and shops and Gelatterias!

Vienna was the biggest city like area in Austria we visited, we took mass transit all over (as opposed to some transit and lots of walking in other areas, since they were not as sprawling). Luckily we bought Vienna Cards, which gave us 72 hours of unlimited Metro travel. In the morning we head to Prague. We have enjoyed Austria, but we are looking forward to getting away from the soccer fans, and onto a new country!

Wien (Vienna)

So with just our luck, we have been hitting many cities right when there is a Euro 2008 soccer game going on in town...ugh. It has not been too bad, but since Vienna is the biggest city in Austria, this place is most impacted by the fans. Luckily we made a reservation on the train from Salzburg to here, otherwise it would have been tight getting a seat, especially with our huge suitcases (we did not pack as light as we maybe could have). All that aside we did get a good first day in Vienna. Our hotel, Hotel Allegro is ok, seems like it was a nice hotel in its day, but it is a bit rundown. Fortunately we were able to get accommodations in Vienna these days, currently there is no availability in the city at all!

Our first sight today was the Schonbrunn Palace; we took the 1 hour Grand Tour of the interior, which was beautiful.  

We also explored the rear gardens, which were immense.

After that we hopped on the Underground (Subway) to the Naschmarkt (Outdoor Market) area to eat at an Asian restaurant that was recommended by our Lonely Planet Austria book called Mr. Lee (I figured it was good luck to go there, since my first employer was a Korean named Mr Lee, who owned a Pizzeria in Centereach, NY where I grew up. I washed dishes by hand at the age of 15 (off the books of course) and ate lots of free pizza, and was able to buy my first drum set (had to throw that story in there ;)). Mr Lees was awesome, you would not know by looking at it (looked almost like a fast food Chinese place), but they had tables outside in the Market area and the food was cheap and awesome. Mr Lee himself was there..all smiles all the time. I had a lime fried chicken and Court at the Satay Chicken and we started with a California salad, which was bean sprouts and Salmon and Yellow Tail sushi...really good.

We then started the Walking Tour (Lonely Planet has a walking tour for every city..sometimes there are blah..but we always hit them). We had to end our walking tour halfway due to the huge Fan Zone for the soccer setup in the center of town; we got our way back to the Sacher Hotel and had Sacher Torte (made famous by this hotel, and sold throughout Austria). It is a chocolate covered chocolate cake (had a hint of orange to it), it was very good, the Wien Malange (coffee with Milk) is also a coffee style (was very much like a cappuccino..very milky) specific to Vienna, this was a great way to end the first day here.

Mozart Balls!

Our second day in Salzburg was good, we took it a little easy as we have been going non-stop. We did a short (unintended) hike in the morning along this path that brought us to a church and past some interesting crucifixion and religious statues (perhaps the stations of the cross). So many churches here, and when you go in they are so beautiful; between the alter, the painted ceilings, the pipe organs (see the picasaweb photos for some examples).

We made a visit to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which was very interesting (Castles and Fortresses are cool).

 

We stopped at a small cafe near our hotel for dinner (I had the Cordon Bleu; made with pork instead of chicken) and Court had the Turkey Schnitzel (crazy sh*t). Looks like we have another great sunny day ahead, we have an 11am train to Vienna, so getting ready to leave now. Oh and we tired the Mozartkugeln (Mozart Balls), chocolate candies the shape of truffles, not really that great I got to tell you!

Jungfrau Proposal

We are about to embark on our second day in Salzburg, we plan to explore Old Town and check out some of the exquisite shops. It should be a bit quieter today, since the soccer game was last night (Russians and Greeks). The sun is shining, we got a great nights sleep, and the breakfast here at the Bergland was excellent (a good buffet with the usual Cereals, Yogurts, Meats/Cheeses, Eggs (hard boiled), Breads, Coffee/Tea, etc.

Although this happened back when we were in Interlaken (June 10th), I did not get a chance to write about it yet. As a few of you have known, I planned on proposing to Courtney here in the Alps. I decided to ask her on the opt of Jungfrau 14,000+ feet above sea level. It actually turned out perfectly; I gave our camera to another couple, asking them to snap a photo of us. Courtney turned around for a moment, and I dropped down to one knee and held out a ring. At first she thought I was joking (since the ring was huge...I brought a cubic zirconium to ask with, the real diamond is waiting for us with a jeweler in the diamond district of NY :)). I asked her if she would marry me and (of course) she said yes. The couple (taking our photo) luckily spoke English, they snapped a great photo and the woman started crying. Once I explained to Courtney that I decided to not bring the real diamond on the trip, she understood and agreed it was the best call. It turned out to be the perfect proposal, and how many people captured their proposal on tape? No specific plans yet for the wedding, we will start thinking about that after the trip. Just wanted to share this news with everyone. We are off to enjoy Salzburg, I am going to look for Mozart, I think he is living with John Lennon ;)

The Hills are Alive with Music (Salzburg)

We arrived in Salzburg, Austria this morning at about 11:30am, after a 2 hour train ride from Innsbruck. We are seeing a lot of reserved seats on the trains here in Austria (as opposed to Switzerland). We have been lucky so far without them, in fact today sat in an enclosed 4 seat area (private rooms) on the train and made a friend; Matteus from Vienna, who was in Bern for one of the soccer games. We may meet up with him in Vienna for dinner; he is in the catering business, and told us a lot about living in Austria and Vienna.

As soon as we arrived we had about a 10 minute walk to our hotel Hotel Bergland, which we love so far. Very sheik, and big and clean rooms (also free WiFi, so I can blog again :)). Another great thing about this hotel, is that we were able to sign up immediately for the 2pm Sound of Music tour and the bus picked us up directly from the hotel, which was great. The 4 hour tour (bus tour with various stops), was a lot of fun. Our tour guide Peter was a rip, we thought he was gay, but he is apparently married, he was very funny and a great tour guide. We visited many of the spots used in the filming of the movie, including Mirabell Gardens, at the very end. 

Afterward we were starving, so we hit an Italian place in Old Town called Il Sole, Court had a pizza and I enjoyed a calzone, very good. After that we had a nice stroll down Getreidegasse in Old Town, but most of the shops were closed for the day, so we will be heading back there tomorrow. Lots of cool stores; including an Easter Egg shop with thousands of hand decorated eggs, and a Christmas Store. We are looking forward to a good nights sleep and to see what the breakfast is like here at the Bergland. Auf Wiedersehen!

Innsbruck, Austria (first day)

I want to write a lot more about Interlaken, but since we have been so busy I will tell you about our first day in Innsbruck, Austria while it is fresh in my mind. We took a 7:05am train from Interlaken, Switzerland this morning, which took us via Bern and Zurich to Innsbruck Austria. We got to Innsbruck at about 1:25pm, so it was a pretty long train ride. Luckily our European East rail pass kicked in with no problems (one of the attendants at the Interlaken West train station knew nothing about this pass).

We checked into the Hotel Heimgartl, where our host Margaret checked us in. We had such a great experience at our last hotel, we were already assuming this one would not be as good. It is not bad, we had a hard time just finding available accommodations at a decent price here in Austria due to the soccer tournament, so we are not complaining.

As we have been doing in many of the cities, we start with a recommended walking tour (from the Lonely Planet travel guides) which usually lasts about 1.5 hours. We got caught in some rain, and bought cheap umbrellas, but then it cleared up and turned out to be a nice day. We checked out some of the local gift shops, the Golden Roof, the Hofgarten, St James Cathedral, and of course the excitement of the soccer games buzzing all around town.

We then sat and chilled at a cafe (Invinum) in old town for a couple of hours, to pass the time, as we were meeting our friend Doris (a student/teacher we know here in Innsbruck for a real Austrian dinner). When we met Doris, she brought us to Gast Haus Gruber, she translated the menu for us and made some recommendations. We started with Schhultz Krapfen (spinach and cheese dumplings). And then went on to another traditional Austrian dish (forget the name) with beef, ham, potatoes, onions, and topped with a fried egg; this was really good. Although, I think I should have ordered the pork cordon bleu with fries..saw some people at a nearby table that got this...damn...out-ordered! No the dish I got was really good!  This was served with a salad of cabbage, very similar to Cole Slaw (or sauerkraut) and was very refreshing.

Our first day in Innsbruck has been great, we have seen so much. We have 1 more full day here before we move on to Salzburg (I can hear the sound of music now). Tomorrow we plan to head up the mountain and do a few hours of hiking, weather permitting. (by the way this posting is not getting to the site immediately, as we do not have Internet access at this hotel, which we don't love :)).

Interlaken

We have spent 3 amazing days here in Interlaken (literary meaning; between the lakes), which sits between the Thun and Brienz lakes, which are beautiful. The water is so clean, blue like in the Mediterranean, and clean enough to drink. The train ride from Geneva to Interlaken West (there are 2 train stations in Interlaken West and Ost (East)..about 30 minute walk between them) was nice, but it got really awe inspiring when we passed Bern and came upon the Interlaken area.

As soon as we arrived at the Interlaken West train station we were able to find our way to the hotel, Rugenpark B&B, where Ursula (her and Chris operate it) has taken great care of us. We have been able to buy all of our mountain train passes through her, and she has given us great recommendations for dining. We then took a mountain train (cog wheel) up to Schynige Platte (2068m), where we had an awesome 2 hour hike. And I might as well tell you know, since Court will..she loves the story...on the hike back to the train station I fell full ass in to a puddle of mud. There were a lot of muddy patches...hey I am growing as a hiker ;)

Yesterday we went up to Jungfrau (top of Europe) the highest train station at 3454m. We went through an Ice Palace (tunnels cut through glacier..awesome), we were in snowfall when we reached the highest peak, and had a great time. We met a really nice couple from Belgium (Eddie..and..I forget his wifes name)..great people that kept us company on the train.

Last night we went to Anker (previously Hotel Anker) here in Interlaken. From the outside it just looks like a run down tavern. The place is run by Channet (pronounced schanet [janet]). She is the bomb, the older woman..taking care of all the customers and just super sweet. The food was amazing. Court had a pork chop special and I had a thin chicken cutlet (schnizel style) great portions, great service, great wine..this is our favorite restaurant so far.

I have so much more to blog about, and so many pics. I am uploading some more now to picasa (see slideshow on this page), but I have to get to bed as we have a 7:05am train from Interlaken West to Innsbruck, Austria (via Zurich) in the morning. We may not have internet connectivity from the next hotel, where we are for 2 nights. But I will be snapping lots of photos and will be blogging much more later in the trip. We will definitely have some down time when we are in Bochnia Poland. Ciao for now!

Geneva

We have enjoyed Geneva, yesterday the town was buzzing with soccer fans with one of the Euro 2008 games going on in town (hence the soccer ball atop the Jet d'Eau). The weather is very mild (about 60 deg F) and slightly overcast. The sun broke out a bit this afternoon (our second day) and we enjoyed some beer along the river, not too far from our hotel.

Today we took a trolley tour of Old Town and learned more about some of the areas we had explored yesterday. We went to the bohemian town of Carouge and had some killer deserts and coffee. Yesterday we had the best Fondue I have ever tasted at Cafe du Soleil. Not a lot of places took credit cards, so we converted some more USD to CHF (Swiss Francs) at the train station today. We have our train tickets for tomorrow mornings 3 hour train ride to Interlaken. We are looking forward to heading up to Jungfrau tomorrow morning from Interlaken). Here in Geneva, it is very international, mostly French is spoken. We have been able to get by with English, but have needed interpreters in a few spots along the way. Interlaken is supposed to be an area where German is spoken primarily, so I am brushing up on my phrases tonight. We enjoyed paninis from a local vendor and some wine and treats out on our balcony at the hotel this evening, getting to bed early for tomorrow. Hopefully we will have WiFi in Interlaken, so I can keep blogging, good night!

The Eagle has Landed

Despite a 30 minute delay on the runway, we arrived and getting to the hotel from the airport could not have been easier. The GVA airport is very clean and the people there very friendly, as expected. We took a 6 minute train from the airport to downtown Geneva and walked 5 minutes to the Hotel Des Tourelles, which is nice. We have a great view and a small balcony overlooking the city and the water. It is 12:30pm here (6 hours ahead). The flight was incredible, great dinner and breakfast, unlimited beverages (including wine, beer, and spirits [johnny red]). Also movies and TV shows on demand, caught some Flight of the Concorde and The Bucket List. Well, we are off to explore Geneva!

De Plane! De Plane!

We are all cozy on our A330 (Airbus 330?), I obviously don't know much about planes. Actually I did spend some time working for an aviation management company near LI McArthur airport, back when I started with Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0, and BTrieve...kickin it old school. I did learn that the plural of aircraft is aircraft, and I did learn what an auxiliary power unit is, and how different models need to be serviced based on an FAA regulated serviced schedule. (I think this is a little more interesting than hedge funds...but hey...I got to pay the bills :) So each seat on this flight has its own TV screen like on Jet Blue, and like on the Egypt international flight they come around with a basket of candy and also give you a little airline care package with: socks, headphones, toothbrush, sleeping face mask. So we are pretty much livin the good life. Stay tuned as we get vertical.

Always pack a bathing suit

On our way to EWR in our elegant car service, 28 bucks..jackpot. Giving ourselves plenty of time to check in given the weekend traffic. And yes, I packed a bathing suit. My friend Joe taught me many years ago (I think on a winter trip at a hotel with an indoor pool) always pack a bathing suit. Words to live by...if there is an opportunity to dip...you know I'm dippin.

All Packed Up

We are all packed and ready to head out for our 18 day Central/Eastern European vacation! Running and hiking shoes are key. We are flying Qatar Airways from Newark Airport to Geneva Airport this evening. The direct 7hr 55min flight should not be too bad after the 14 hours flight to/from Egypt I recently endured. We are both so excited for this trip, which we have been planning since February of this year. I will be taking along the gadgets I took to Egypt, so I hope to actively post pictures and blog to this site as we travel through Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Poland. I was able to plot out a pretty comprehensive Google Map for our trip as well. Here is the itinerary:

• Geneva, Switzerland
• Interlaken, Switzerland
• Innsbruck, Austria
• Salzburg, Austria
• Vienna, Austria
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Krakow, Poland
• Bochnia, Poland

In each city we will be staying at hotels or aparthotels (Prague) and taking in all of the sights. We plan on doing plenty of hiking and eating (the food will be better than Egypt ;)). In Innsbruck we will be visiting with Courtney's friend Doris, and in Poland we will be staying with Courtney's brother John and his family. We will also be seeing Courtney's cousin Erin in Poland, who is also traveling in Europe at the same time. See you all soon!