We also explored the old town, including Kapitelplatz, its picturesque central square. Here, for a small fortune, you could ride a horse and carriage through the cobblestone streets. Salzburg is a magical city. It’s the home of Mozart. Everywhere you wander, you encounter memorials and attractions commemorating its famous citizen. The old town really is the perfect postcard rendition of a classic medieval European city.
Beyond Austria, Salzburg is also known for The Sound of Music, an Oscar-winning film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Much of the movie was shot in and around the city. Perhaps the most iconic of locations is the Mirabell Palace Gardens. Julie Andrews, playing Maria, and the children under her care sing 'Do-Re-Mi' while dancing around the Pegasus fountain in the gardens and using its surrounding steps as a musical scale. That’s the fountain above, with Festung Hohensalzburg in the distance.
After lunch, on 18 October, Hamish, Karin, Matt and Shelley bid us farewell at the train station. Mum broke down in tears and sadly accused Hamish and me of abandoning her. In her eyes, our decision to live overseas - Hamish in Europe and me in Australia - was motivated by a desire to escape her clutches. Her worldview stunned both of us.
I was excited to see Prague. Six years earlier, a group I was travelling with in Eastern Europe had tried unsuccessfully to enter Czechoslovakia. As a result, it was still on my bucket list. Furthermore, in the intervening years, Czechoslovakia had ceased to exist as a nation. It had split peacefully into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 31 December 1992.
The journey to Prague was stressful. It was scheduled to take five hours by train. However, it ultimately took almost seven hours thanks to major works along the line. On two separate occasions, the train ground to a halt without warning (or at least without a warning in English). We were bundled off the train, loaded onto buses and transferred further up the line, where we rejoined a second train.
The first detour was unbelievably stressful. We stopped in a tiny town with a station barely larger than a shed. I had to work out what was happening by asking passenger after passenger until I found someone who could speak broken English, then herd my bewildered parents onto a replacement bus. Even worse, my brother had given my parents a truly enormous suitcase which I had to manhandle off the train and onto the bus, along with my own luggage (and repeat the exercise when we rejoined the train).
We eventually reached Prague mid-afternoon. My father was quietly starting to panic, as I’d not booked any accommodation. I’d reassured my parents weeks before that we’d be just fine. All that was required was a quick stop at the local tourism centre where they’d help us secure suitable accommodation. In hindsight, it was a rather bold move. Perhaps one best suited for backpackers who are happy to crash anywhere for the night, rather than two recently retired pensioners. Much to my father's relief, the tourist office found a tidy little three-star hotel on the edge of the old city.
We spent the next 1.5 days exploring everything Prague has to offer. However, we spent our first afternoon trying to locate the local American Express office, as I’d agreed to pre-book accommodation for Berlin, our next stop. At the time, I knew American Express offered last-minute travel assistance. I decided it was our best option. However, we never found the office, or perhaps it was closed on a Saturday. I cannot recall which scenario played out. As a result, we carried on to Berlin without pre-booked accommodation. A decision I’d later come to regret.
We also crossed the Vltava River via the Karlův Most, more commonly known as the Charles Bridge, to visit Malá Strana, an old town on the opposite bank, and on to the bold white buildings of Hradčany, also known as Prague Castle. While in Malá Strana, we took the opportunity to climb the belfry of St Nicolas Church, a spectacular three-hundred-year-old Baroque church. That's the church above in all its white marble splendour.
Charles Bridge is a destination in itself. This medieval stone arch bridge is 516 metres long and nearly 10 metres wide. Three bridge towers guard access: two on the Lesser Quarter side (including the Malá Strana Bridge Tower) and one on the Old Town side, the Old Town Bridge Tower. We climbed 138 steps in the Old Town Bridge Tower for a panoramic view of the bridge and surrounding river districts.
Along its length, the bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 Baroque-style statues. They were originally erected around 1700, although they've been replaced over time by replicas. Along its length, local artists display and sell their work, displayed on giant sandwich boards. It makes for a grand entrance, leading toward Prague Castle, which dominates the hillside above Malá Strana. Mum and Dad loved it, as did I.
After lunch, on 18 October, Hamish, Karin, Matt and Shelley bid us farewell at the train station. Mum broke down in tears and sadly accused Hamish and me of abandoning her. In her eyes, our decision to live overseas - Hamish in Europe and me in Australia - was motivated by a desire to escape her clutches. Her worldview stunned both of us.
I was excited to see Prague. Six years earlier, a group I was travelling with in Eastern Europe had tried unsuccessfully to enter Czechoslovakia. As a result, it was still on my bucket list. Furthermore, in the intervening years, Czechoslovakia had ceased to exist as a nation. It had split peacefully into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 31 December 1992.
The journey to Prague was stressful. It was scheduled to take five hours by train. However, it ultimately took almost seven hours thanks to major works along the line. On two separate occasions, the train ground to a halt without warning (or at least without a warning in English). We were bundled off the train, loaded onto buses and transferred further up the line, where we rejoined a second train.
The first detour was unbelievably stressful. We stopped in a tiny town with a station barely larger than a shed. I had to work out what was happening by asking passenger after passenger until I found someone who could speak broken English, then herd my bewildered parents onto a replacement bus. Even worse, my brother had given my parents a truly enormous suitcase which I had to manhandle off the train and onto the bus, along with my own luggage (and repeat the exercise when we rejoined the train).
We then drove through the countryside with my father constantly asking where we were going. Were we travelling all the way to Prague on a bus? I had no idea. The second unscheduled detour was equally disorienting, although this time, we at least could guess what would happen next. However, the enormous suitcase never got any lighter!
We spent the next 1.5 days exploring everything Prague has to offer. However, we spent our first afternoon trying to locate the local American Express office, as I’d agreed to pre-book accommodation for Berlin, our next stop. At the time, I knew American Express offered last-minute travel assistance. I decided it was our best option. However, we never found the office, or perhaps it was closed on a Saturday. I cannot recall which scenario played out. As a result, we carried on to Berlin without pre-booked accommodation. A decision I’d later come to regret.
Prague was another truly memorable medieval city. On our first day in town, we wandered through Wenceslas Square (that's me in the image that opens this post), then on to Staroměstské náměstí, a historic plaza in the heart of the old city. This historic square is home to several of the city’s most iconic sights, including the Church of Our Lady before Týn, a 14th-century Gothic-style church with pointed 80-metre-high twin steeples. Nearby is the Old Town Hall, which features Prague Orloj, a mechanical Astronomical Clock.
The clock is an engineering masterpiece. It houses three main components – an astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; a timepiece and statues of various Catholic saints stand on either side of the clock; "The Walk of the Apostles", an hourly show of moving Apostle figures and other sculptures, notably a figure of a skeleton that represents Death, striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.
The clock is an engineering masterpiece. It houses three main components – an astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; a timepiece and statues of various Catholic saints stand on either side of the clock; "The Walk of the Apostles", an hourly show of moving Apostle figures and other sculptures, notably a figure of a skeleton that represents Death, striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.
Charles Bridge is a destination in itself. This medieval stone arch bridge is 516 metres long and nearly 10 metres wide. Three bridge towers guard access: two on the Lesser Quarter side (including the Malá Strana Bridge Tower) and one on the Old Town side, the Old Town Bridge Tower. We climbed 138 steps in the Old Town Bridge Tower for a panoramic view of the bridge and surrounding river districts.
Along its length, the bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 Baroque-style statues. They were originally erected around 1700, although they've been replaced over time by replicas. Along its length, local artists display and sell their work, displayed on giant sandwich boards. It makes for a grand entrance, leading toward Prague Castle, which dominates the hillside above Malá Strana. Mum and Dad loved it, as did I.
It would be another decade before I'd return to this wonderful city. After a couple of busy days on our feet, it was time to head north for the iconic Cold War city of Berlin. Follow this link to learn more about our time in the German capital. Once again, our train journey didn't go quite as planned.
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