The Trifecta!
Budapest, Vienna, and Prague!
Even with the tightening COVID restrictions and lockdowns, these three cities have been a blast! Prague has even jumped to number one on the list of favorite cities for some in our group (Naunie & Papa in particular).
We were joined by 4 friends from home, which added to the fun. Tony met us in Budapest and stayed through Vienna. Jon met us in Vienna and stayed through Prague, where Bill (back for round two!) and Joe met up with us.
In Budapest, we took a bike tour of the city and many walks to Castle Hill and the ‘pest’ side. Our apartment was perfectly located in the ‘Buda’ side right near a public transit center. The food was delicious and we all tried our hand making Strudel with a fantastic cooking class in the home of the “Kitchen Pixie”.
In Vienna, we were lucky enough to catch several Christmas markets before the rise in COVID cases led to closures (the day we left). A trip to Hietzing, Vienna to see Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Habsburg rulers, made for a great day. The palace and it's surrounding gardens take up 500 acers and although the gardens are not in bloom it is easy to imagine how beautiful they must be in spring. We walked to Neptune’s Fountain and the Gloriette at the top of the hill directly across from the palace where the views of the city are superb. Unfortunately we were not permitted to enter the restaurant in the Gloriette because Covid rules had changed that morning and kids needed a negative Covid test to enter. So we stopped at an outside café at the bottom of the hill. Once back in the city the kids took a Covid antigen test which we were told would be good for 48 hours.
Papa and Paul decided to call it a day and stayed in for the night while Mom, John, Sophia, Ava and I ventured out again, but only after mom made a delicious Hungarian Goulash for everyone.
Our evening walk took us to the Christmas World on Rathausplatz. One of the larger Christmas Markets in Vienna. Again our vaccine cards and kids test results were checked before could enter the outside market. It was fun to see the different types of food booths and holiday venders.
On our last day in Vienna, we took a spin on the Ferris Wheel (and watched a couple have a romantic dinner in one of the cars). We also tried out a self-guided scavenger hunt using Questo that had us follow in the footsteps of famous balladeer Augustin during the Black Plague. A ton of fun with a bit of history and a great value for the money (only $11)!
Prague, with its mix of Gothic, Baroque, and Renaissance architecture and long, complicated history was a beautiful and interesting city to explore by foot. Our apartment was in the Old Jewish Quarter, a couple blocks from the main square with the famous Astronomical Clock Tower built in 1410 and the stunningly beautiful Church of Our Lady. We ate our share of Pork Knee and Beer Sausages and Ben was thrilled to have a few more folks to drink beer (and Absinth) with. We walked over the Charles Bridge to Prague Castle, the largest ‘castle complex’ in Europe and explored St. Vitus Cathedral. We also got to enjoy live music at a local Jam Session (Jon brought his Soprano Sax) and even stumbled upon a pocket park with roaming peacocks, completely unfazed by our presence. All in all a pretty cool city and one we’d all happily come back to!
