Probably our most adventurous train ride and part of the vacation. This was our first of two overnight train rides. To be frank and honest it was not the most of luxurious of train rides. Even though we were in first class and not sharing the space with four other people I can't say that it is what I would have called first class accommodations. That of course was the least of the little hiccups in our train ride up there.
The train ride up there was a bit rocky in addition to our less than stellar accommodations. There were many jerky stops along the way. Our longest stop had to have been for passport control that occurred at about three in the morning. They actually stopped the train while they went through the cars doing passport control. Again that was just a slight disappointment in the whole traveling overnight by train process.
Our biggest hiccup probably was the train connection from Krakow to Warsaw. We all were aware of the fact that we had to switch trains in order to continue our venture up to Warsaw along with the fact that we had only seven minutes. Unfortunately for us there were no signs that would indicate which platform we needed to be on so we at six in the morning missed our connection. Figuring that we would be okay by catching the seven o'clock train up to Warsaw.
So our saving grace wasn't completely our saving grace since there wasn't any open seats left on the train and it was a completely first class train. In the end we ended up sitting on our suitcases in between carriages since no one working on the train seemed to be up to helping us out which again shows the different in cultures. We finally made it to Warsaw though at about ten. We headed straight to the hotel. We were all ready after that rather stressful trip to just merely hit a bed and sleep until dinner. Much to our dismay though the hotel wasn't ready for us, so our rooms weren't ready. We however weren't ready to go out and explore the town. We made it as far as lunch and that was as far as we got before we made it back to the hotel and camped out in the lobby until the receptionist finally took some pity on us and allowed us to have one of our two rooms. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the hotel room and then making our way out to dinner.
More to come from our adventures in Warsaw...
25 July 2007
16 July 2007
Prague, Czech Republic
Country number three. We were moving along at a rather rapid pace through the countries. On our first day in the city we went to see the Infant Baby Jesus of Prague, which is a wax statue of Jesus as a child given by the Spanish. After that we went souvenir shopping and then off to dinner at a Steakhouse. A very relaxing Sunday for the family.
The next day we took a tour of the city. We saw:
-Prague Castle
-Prague's version of the Eiffel Tour
-The Astronomical Clock, which has become a running joke with the family due to it making on our list of things to do in Vienna when it actually is in Prague and not Vienna
-New Town
-Lesser Town
-We strolled down Golden Lane
-St. Vitus Cathedral
-Old Town Square
-Old Jewish Quarter
-Wenceslas Square
-Main Train Station
-State Opera House
-National Museum
-National Theatre
-The Klementinum
So on our second day we definitely saw a lot and we went on to see a few more things the following day before we embarked on our first overnight train to Krakow. The following morning we trekked out to the T.V. Tower, the tallest point in Prague. In the afternoon we set out on what turned out to be a scavenger hunt for the Kafka Museum. After finally managing with many inquires to various business to find the place we headed out onto the Vltava River for a pleasant afternoon boat ride. On the boat ride we were able to see the Charles Bridge and to see the various sights such as Prague Castle from the river. Dad thought that it was a bit on the short side and it was but Karlena and I both enjoyed the tour guide and the tour.
After the boat ride we headed back to the hotel to retrieve out suitcases and then headed off to the rail station to have dinner and to wait for our overnight train to Krakow.
The next day we took a tour of the city. We saw:
-Prague Castle
-Prague's version of the Eiffel Tour
-The Astronomical Clock, which has become a running joke with the family due to it making on our list of things to do in Vienna when it actually is in Prague and not Vienna
-New Town
-Lesser Town
-We strolled down Golden Lane
-St. Vitus Cathedral
-Old Town Square
-Old Jewish Quarter
-Wenceslas Square
-Main Train Station
-State Opera House
-National Museum
-National Theatre
-The Klementinum
So on our second day we definitely saw a lot and we went on to see a few more things the following day before we embarked on our first overnight train to Krakow. The following morning we trekked out to the T.V. Tower, the tallest point in Prague. In the afternoon we set out on what turned out to be a scavenger hunt for the Kafka Museum. After finally managing with many inquires to various business to find the place we headed out onto the Vltava River for a pleasant afternoon boat ride. On the boat ride we were able to see the Charles Bridge and to see the various sights such as Prague Castle from the river. Dad thought that it was a bit on the short side and it was but Karlena and I both enjoyed the tour guide and the tour.
After the boat ride we headed back to the hotel to retrieve out suitcases and then headed off to the rail station to have dinner and to wait for our overnight train to Krakow.
15 July 2007
Vienna, Austria
Since our arrival in Vienna wasn't until about eight that night our adventures didn't begin until the following day. We took a city tour. On the tour we were able to see:
-St. Stephen's Cathedral (there seems to be a few of these around the world)
-The Hofburg Palace
-The State Opera House
-Heroes' Square
-Parliament (which looks very Grecian)
-Succession Building
-Schonbaunn Palace
That was day one. After the tour we seemed to have worn ourselves out and headed back to the hotel for a rest before we headed over to Prata Park to take a ride on the Big Wheel which is mentioned in the film "The Third Man". A relaxing and enjoyable ride. Very similar to the London Eye in London.
One our second day in Vienna we trekked off to see the Terra-Cotta Warriors, which were on display for the first time in Austria. An interesting experience especially since one of my friends had gone to China and saw them there as well so we basically saw them at the same time. Crazy huh?
Before we went off to see the Terra-Cotta Warriors we set off to the Danu Tower. Our biggest problem seemed to be finding it. We ended up in the local park walking around looking for the entrance to the tower only to find that we had to exit the park and walk further down to reach the tower. We finally managed, after being within a stone's throw of it numerous time, to make it to our destination. An interesting aspect of the Danu Tower is that you can bungee jump off of it. None of the family members, however, were feeling terribly adventuresome and so we keep that off our list of things to do before we left Vienna.
After our excursion to the Danu Tower we went back to St. Stephen's Plaza to wrap up the last minute souvenir shopping. As we were there a protest rally marched through the plaza. Apparently they were protesting the closing of a home for the homeless that the government was trying to close down. Shall we say that it was a interesting close to our time in Vienna before we hopped a train to Prague that evening.
-St. Stephen's Cathedral (there seems to be a few of these around the world)
-The Hofburg Palace
-The State Opera House
-Heroes' Square
-Parliament (which looks very Grecian)
-Succession Building
-Schonbaunn Palace
That was day one. After the tour we seemed to have worn ourselves out and headed back to the hotel for a rest before we headed over to Prata Park to take a ride on the Big Wheel which is mentioned in the film "The Third Man". A relaxing and enjoyable ride. Very similar to the London Eye in London.
One our second day in Vienna we trekked off to see the Terra-Cotta Warriors, which were on display for the first time in Austria. An interesting experience especially since one of my friends had gone to China and saw them there as well so we basically saw them at the same time. Crazy huh?
Before we went off to see the Terra-Cotta Warriors we set off to the Danu Tower. Our biggest problem seemed to be finding it. We ended up in the local park walking around looking for the entrance to the tower only to find that we had to exit the park and walk further down to reach the tower. We finally managed, after being within a stone's throw of it numerous time, to make it to our destination. An interesting aspect of the Danu Tower is that you can bungee jump off of it. None of the family members, however, were feeling terribly adventuresome and so we keep that off our list of things to do before we left Vienna.
After our excursion to the Danu Tower we went back to St. Stephen's Plaza to wrap up the last minute souvenir shopping. As we were there a protest rally marched through the plaza. Apparently they were protesting the closing of a home for the homeless that the government was trying to close down. Shall we say that it was a interesting close to our time in Vienna before we hopped a train to Prague that evening.
14 July 2007
Budapest, Hungary
Today the family took a guided tour of the city, learning that Buda was the hilly part of the city and Pest was the flat part. Our tour guide was Daniel. On out little tour we saw:
-the second largest synagogue.
-Szent Istvan Bazilika-St. Stephen's Basilica
-Orszaghaz-The Parliament House
-Budai Var- Castle Hill
-Gellert-Hegy(Citadella)-Freedom Bridge
-Hakasz Bastya-Fisherman's Fortress
-Hosoktere-Heroes' Square
-Matyas Templom-Matthia Church
-passed by Varosliget-City Part.
We also crossed the Danube via the Chain Bridge and saw the 0 stone. That is what the tour entailed. After the family was a bit wiped out due to jet lag and the fact that it had been a three hour tour so we headed back to the hotel to relax, eat, and freshen up for the dinner at Pertu Station where Mom and Dad were looking to try Hungarian Goulash. Sadly though it wasn't what they had expected though they weren't completely sure what the criteria was for good Hungarian Goulash soup. Now this was a restaurant that was more than determined to make sure that when you went to the washroom that you didn't walk into the wrong restroom. There were at least six different means of indicating which restroom depending on your gender you were supposed to use.
The following morning was used as a means of doing all that everyone still wanted to do before we trekked onto Vienna at 4:10 that afternoon. With all four of us moving at about nine that morning we headed out to the Vaserley Museum. It was where one would consider the middle of nowhere leaving the taxi driver none to happy at the fact that he now had to go back into town without a fare. It was also where were failed to have shall we say the ability to convey meanings for we spoke no Hungarian and they spoke no English when it came down to buying tickets for the museum. Eventually though we managed to at least pay something and receive tickets in exchange but for all we know they could have jipped us horribly. As Dad would say well fine.
After the Vaserely Museum we headed back to Buda and the the Budai Veri Labyrinth. That was and interesting experience. Supposedly throughout the years it had been torture chambers, arsenal storage, etc. Indicating that over the years it have served many different and not always related purposes. That didn't always seem to come across though. Every once in awhile you would find yourself staring at statues wondering there meaning or you were flat out staring at a brick wall questioning the same thing.
The most interesting part of being down there had to have the been the Labyrinth of Courage. It is called that on the basis that it the labyrinth that is in complete darkness. Now the family had not intention nor desire to go through this, but quickly came to the conclusion that we must in order to get to the exit. We had two gos at it. The first time we were unsuccessful and came back out trying once more for a less darkness filled exit. Once more we seemed to have come to the conclusion that it was the only way to go so with some guidance and studying of the map we managed to make it out only to find once we were out that the doors which we made the assumption of being locked were actually the more lighted way out.
After that little adventure we headed back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage and hop onto our 4:10 train to Vienna, Austria.
-the second largest synagogue.
-Szent Istvan Bazilika-St. Stephen's Basilica
-Orszaghaz-The Parliament House
-Budai Var- Castle Hill
-Gellert-Hegy(Citadella)-Freedom Bridge
-Hakasz Bastya-Fisherman's Fortress
-Hosoktere-Heroes' Square
-Matyas Templom-Matthia Church
-passed by Varosliget-City Part.
We also crossed the Danube via the Chain Bridge and saw the 0 stone. That is what the tour entailed. After the family was a bit wiped out due to jet lag and the fact that it had been a three hour tour so we headed back to the hotel to relax, eat, and freshen up for the dinner at Pertu Station where Mom and Dad were looking to try Hungarian Goulash. Sadly though it wasn't what they had expected though they weren't completely sure what the criteria was for good Hungarian Goulash soup. Now this was a restaurant that was more than determined to make sure that when you went to the washroom that you didn't walk into the wrong restroom. There were at least six different means of indicating which restroom depending on your gender you were supposed to use.
The following morning was used as a means of doing all that everyone still wanted to do before we trekked onto Vienna at 4:10 that afternoon. With all four of us moving at about nine that morning we headed out to the Vaserley Museum. It was where one would consider the middle of nowhere leaving the taxi driver none to happy at the fact that he now had to go back into town without a fare. It was also where were failed to have shall we say the ability to convey meanings for we spoke no Hungarian and they spoke no English when it came down to buying tickets for the museum. Eventually though we managed to at least pay something and receive tickets in exchange but for all we know they could have jipped us horribly. As Dad would say well fine.
After the Vaserely Museum we headed back to Buda and the the Budai Veri Labyrinth. That was and interesting experience. Supposedly throughout the years it had been torture chambers, arsenal storage, etc. Indicating that over the years it have served many different and not always related purposes. That didn't always seem to come across though. Every once in awhile you would find yourself staring at statues wondering there meaning or you were flat out staring at a brick wall questioning the same thing.
The most interesting part of being down there had to have the been the Labyrinth of Courage. It is called that on the basis that it the labyrinth that is in complete darkness. Now the family had not intention nor desire to go through this, but quickly came to the conclusion that we must in order to get to the exit. We had two gos at it. The first time we were unsuccessful and came back out trying once more for a less darkness filled exit. Once more we seemed to have come to the conclusion that it was the only way to go so with some guidance and studying of the map we managed to make it out only to find once we were out that the doors which we made the assumption of being locked were actually the more lighted way out.
After that little adventure we headed back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage and hop onto our 4:10 train to Vienna, Austria.
11 July 2007
Let the trip begin....
On June 25th, 2007 The Matthews family headed off into the great unknown commonly known as Central Europe. To the observer's eye and to those involved it was a vacation that started off a bit bumpy. Having made it to the car park with fairly good time we unloaded our shall we say rather extensive pile, one luggage plus on carry-on person with an additional one or two bags for four people comes out to about ten bags, out of the car. Once that was done Dad goes into the office to leave the keys with them only to learn that they want him to leave the keys for the car in the car. Makes sense. That is until Mom turns around to him asking him where he put their set of keys for the car. The answer is...in the car, which she has just locked manually. Well they had two weeks to get into the car considering that it was in a place that they most probably would have wanted to move it at some point in time.
A minor setback that has two weeks to work itself out. After telling the car park people the situation it is a quick drive to Newark Liberty International Airport. Now the question was which airlines? With a quick stop at the United Airlines Terminal we find that we are in the wrong terminal because though there is a United Airlines Number we will be flying on Lufthansa Airlines, which along with United Airlines is part of the Star Alliance. Off to Terminal A which houses Lufthansa Airlines.
Lufthansa still does check-in "old school style" where you still have to go up to the counter and they are ones to check you in unlike some of the other airlines like Continental which allows you to do that via "self-check in". Making it to the front of the line and up to the counter we in encounter what appears to be a trainee. Upon further observation it appears that the whole Lufthansa Airlines counter is being run by trainees with supervisors watching from behind. This little fact turns outs not to be in our favour as time it turns out that the trainee makes a mistake that leaves Dad with two tickets out to Frankfurt, Germany and Mom without one. Just a minor problem one would think. Not the case it seems. We now have to have the whole check-in cancelled and we have to go back to Customer Service to have the whole thing sorted out. This is fine except we are slowly running out of time and we still have to go through security and to still have our bags checked in. Finally there is a light at the end of the tunnel and by 4:30, forty-five minutes before departure, everything is solved...at least in the sense that we are all on the plane.
Setback this time around is that because it took them so long to correct the mistake everyone else on the flight had been more or less checked in leaving us with seats with two seats together and two seat scattered. The only solution to that minor dilemma is to go up to the desk at the gate and see if there are any available seats together. The answer turns out to be a no. Option two ends up being asking people to see if they would mind exchanging seats with you. A process that definitely complies with all airline safety regulations I am sure. The end result being that Dad managed to get the woman sitting next to him and Mom to exchange seats with me and leaving Karlena on the other side of the plane several rows up.
The good news is that we managed to make it to Frankfurt without any more little upsets. From Frankfort we flew into Budapest, Hungary, again with no more little "annoyances". Now the journey really begins.
A minor setback that has two weeks to work itself out. After telling the car park people the situation it is a quick drive to Newark Liberty International Airport. Now the question was which airlines? With a quick stop at the United Airlines Terminal we find that we are in the wrong terminal because though there is a United Airlines Number we will be flying on Lufthansa Airlines, which along with United Airlines is part of the Star Alliance. Off to Terminal A which houses Lufthansa Airlines.
Lufthansa still does check-in "old school style" where you still have to go up to the counter and they are ones to check you in unlike some of the other airlines like Continental which allows you to do that via "self-check in". Making it to the front of the line and up to the counter we in encounter what appears to be a trainee. Upon further observation it appears that the whole Lufthansa Airlines counter is being run by trainees with supervisors watching from behind. This little fact turns outs not to be in our favour as time it turns out that the trainee makes a mistake that leaves Dad with two tickets out to Frankfurt, Germany and Mom without one. Just a minor problem one would think. Not the case it seems. We now have to have the whole check-in cancelled and we have to go back to Customer Service to have the whole thing sorted out. This is fine except we are slowly running out of time and we still have to go through security and to still have our bags checked in. Finally there is a light at the end of the tunnel and by 4:30, forty-five minutes before departure, everything is solved...at least in the sense that we are all on the plane.
Setback this time around is that because it took them so long to correct the mistake everyone else on the flight had been more or less checked in leaving us with seats with two seats together and two seat scattered. The only solution to that minor dilemma is to go up to the desk at the gate and see if there are any available seats together. The answer turns out to be a no. Option two ends up being asking people to see if they would mind exchanging seats with you. A process that definitely complies with all airline safety regulations I am sure. The end result being that Dad managed to get the woman sitting next to him and Mom to exchange seats with me and leaving Karlena on the other side of the plane several rows up.
The good news is that we managed to make it to Frankfurt without any more little upsets. From Frankfort we flew into Budapest, Hungary, again with no more little "annoyances". Now the journey really begins.
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