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Day 4: Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral
The next morning we went back to Prague Castle, this time arriving fresh and full of energy. We started by going round the Old Royal Palace, which included the site of the Second Defenestration of Prague, which Ramesh had been disappointed not to see on our first visit to the city. There was quite a lot of interesting information about the legal history of the city, and some cool interior design, but the audio guide and the maps didn't seem to quite link up, so some of the tour was a bit confusing. Wandering around the grounds there was more history and some really stunning architecture. The Cathedral was my favourite bit, with lots of blingy tat and some beautiful stained glass windows.
Tomb of St John of Nepomuk
Rose Stained Glass Window
We spent quite a long time in the castle complex, and when it was time to leave the main entrace was closed, so we had to take a rather circuitous route back to somewhere with a reasonable number of restaurants to find ourselves a late lunch. After a hearty lunch we were both feeling fairly tired, so went back to the hotel to rest, and I decided that since we were at leisure I would ask them to heat up the jacuzzi for me. I got down to the health suite with my dressing gown and kindle to find a very luxurious candlelit bathroom with a couple of glasses of fizz waiting for me. Obviously they'd assumed, not entirely unreasonably, that we'd be bathing together. I thought it over as I immersed myself and decided that since it would be a shame to waste them, and more pertinently, that "on honeymoon" is a sufficiently unique special occasion that there wasn't too much danger of it cascading into a slippery slope of immoderate drinking, that I would indulge myself. And so I enjoyed a glorious couple of hours in the world of Armisted Maupin's San Francisco, gradually turning into a prune.
Having already eaten quite a lot of traditional Czech food, that evening we went out for dinner at a place called Cafe de Paris, which had a very short menu but none-the-less managed to cater to the vegetarian, and fed me some of the best frites I've ever had, along with a jolly decent steak.
Day 5: Travel to Vienna
The next morning it was time to leave, albeit at a fairly civilised time, so we packed our bag, checked out, and called an Uber to take us to the train station. Everything went fairly smoothly and we settled into our nice comfortable seats to watch the world go by as we made our way to Vienna. I spent some of the train journey captioning photographs that I'd taken so far, and starting to write journal entries about the weddings, and the four hours passed remarkably quickly. Getting from the station to the hotel went a bit less smoothly, because I got confused about where the Uber app was telling me to go, but we managed it in the end. This hotel wasn't quite so ridiculous as the one in Prague, but it was still very pleasant and the bed was enormous. After a long day of travelling we didn't want to do anything particularly demanding that evening, so we got settled in, then went for dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant.
Day 6: Literature Museum, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Ferris Wheel
Our first full day in Vienna was a busy one. We started with the Literature Museum, but accidentally went round it in the wrong order, starting on the first floor, and then realising when we got to the second that the exhibition had been designed to start there. There was some interesting commentary about the history of Literature and related art forms in Vienna, but in some ways it's not really a subject that translates well to a museum - the information would probably come across better in book form, and most of the artefacts felt a bit random.
After a pause for a quick sachertorte we went on to the Kunsthistoriches Museum which was awesome. In some ways it felt similar to the V&A, in that it's a real mixture of art and artifacts from around the world and across the centuries, but it didn't have quite the same sense of "Look at all the stuff we stole!". I think I only managed to see a little under half the galleries in the time we had, and by then we were both reaching a point of art fatigue and not really able to take things in.
"Lovers in a Garden"
Fabulous clock
After another break for ice-cream, we went for a trip on the Wiener Riesenrad, Vienna's version of the London Eye, but on seeing it from the ground, Ramesh decided that he didn't really fancy looking down from the top, so kept himself busy whilst I went up. It was pretty neat, but there were quite a lot of people, and Vienna isn't nearly so picturesque as Prague.
The next morning we went back to Prague Castle, this time arriving fresh and full of energy. We started by going round the Old Royal Palace, which included the site of the Second Defenestration of Prague, which Ramesh had been disappointed not to see on our first visit to the city. There was quite a lot of interesting information about the legal history of the city, and some cool interior design, but the audio guide and the maps didn't seem to quite link up, so some of the tour was a bit confusing. Wandering around the grounds there was more history and some really stunning architecture. The Cathedral was my favourite bit, with lots of blingy tat and some beautiful stained glass windows.
Tomb of St John of Nepomuk
Rose Stained Glass Window
We spent quite a long time in the castle complex, and when it was time to leave the main entrace was closed, so we had to take a rather circuitous route back to somewhere with a reasonable number of restaurants to find ourselves a late lunch. After a hearty lunch we were both feeling fairly tired, so went back to the hotel to rest, and I decided that since we were at leisure I would ask them to heat up the jacuzzi for me. I got down to the health suite with my dressing gown and kindle to find a very luxurious candlelit bathroom with a couple of glasses of fizz waiting for me. Obviously they'd assumed, not entirely unreasonably, that we'd be bathing together. I thought it over as I immersed myself and decided that since it would be a shame to waste them, and more pertinently, that "on honeymoon" is a sufficiently unique special occasion that there wasn't too much danger of it cascading into a slippery slope of immoderate drinking, that I would indulge myself. And so I enjoyed a glorious couple of hours in the world of Armisted Maupin's San Francisco, gradually turning into a prune.
Having already eaten quite a lot of traditional Czech food, that evening we went out for dinner at a place called Cafe de Paris, which had a very short menu but none-the-less managed to cater to the vegetarian, and fed me some of the best frites I've ever had, along with a jolly decent steak.
Day 5: Travel to Vienna
The next morning it was time to leave, albeit at a fairly civilised time, so we packed our bag, checked out, and called an Uber to take us to the train station. Everything went fairly smoothly and we settled into our nice comfortable seats to watch the world go by as we made our way to Vienna. I spent some of the train journey captioning photographs that I'd taken so far, and starting to write journal entries about the weddings, and the four hours passed remarkably quickly. Getting from the station to the hotel went a bit less smoothly, because I got confused about where the Uber app was telling me to go, but we managed it in the end. This hotel wasn't quite so ridiculous as the one in Prague, but it was still very pleasant and the bed was enormous. After a long day of travelling we didn't want to do anything particularly demanding that evening, so we got settled in, then went for dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant.
Day 6: Literature Museum, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Ferris Wheel
Our first full day in Vienna was a busy one. We started with the Literature Museum, but accidentally went round it in the wrong order, starting on the first floor, and then realising when we got to the second that the exhibition had been designed to start there. There was some interesting commentary about the history of Literature and related art forms in Vienna, but in some ways it's not really a subject that translates well to a museum - the information would probably come across better in book form, and most of the artefacts felt a bit random.
After a pause for a quick sachertorte we went on to the Kunsthistoriches Museum which was awesome. In some ways it felt similar to the V&A, in that it's a real mixture of art and artifacts from around the world and across the centuries, but it didn't have quite the same sense of "Look at all the stuff we stole!". I think I only managed to see a little under half the galleries in the time we had, and by then we were both reaching a point of art fatigue and not really able to take things in.
"Lovers in a Garden"
Fabulous clock
After another break for ice-cream, we went for a trip on the Wiener Riesenrad, Vienna's version of the London Eye, but on seeing it from the ground, Ramesh decided that he didn't really fancy looking down from the top, so kept himself busy whilst I went up. It was pretty neat, but there were quite a lot of people, and Vienna isn't nearly so picturesque as Prague.
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Date: 2019-11-04 07:50 pm (UTC)From: