Category: Places

Prague Trip (post 7 of 7): Scavenger Hunt

Now, on to find R2D2 and the other oddities… You think I jest?

Aha! What is this we spy hiding in the bushes?

OK, that mission accomplished… On to Brno to find the two-headed hanger-on-er-er…

More snow…

All along the highway there was billboard after billboard, all with the Czechia flag and we were wondering why… It seems they used to be normal billboards!

Hmmmmm – this Moulin Rouge seems to be where one can rent women by the hour…

After several unsuccessful attempts, we finally found a church that seemed to be the correct one…

…but alas, no two-headed children in sight…

There were, however, some very cool characters!

But wait……! What do we have here? Yet another church… and……..

Success!

By the way, why were we in search of these oddities? Why not! It was sooooooo much fun!

Now headed back to Vienna in search of the building with no straight lines and then home sweet home…

This building was designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser…

…and then off to the ‘monster-ish’ Spittelau waste incineration plant, also designed by Hundertwasser.

Then… remember where we started this journey with the laying of new light-rail tracks?

Well, they had the road closed off so Alexander was not able to drop me home – however, being the wonderful gentleman he is, he zigged and zagged through the barricades, and then reversed a whole block down a one-way street so that he could deliver me safely to my front door.

So from starting before sunrise and ending well after sunset, all in all, this was one of the best days ever – and sooooo much fun!

~ Bella

Prague Trip (post 6 of 7): Lunch with Friends

This was funny… On the way to Prague, Alexander and I had been discussing quantum physics, vibrational attraction, etc… In particular, we were discussing how to attract a Bentley (as you do!)…

We were at this intersection and Eliska (who does know Prague) suggested we turn left, and Alexander (who didn’t know where he was going) said several times, “I feel like I should turn right”… So, I over-ruled everyone and suggested he follow his instincts and turn right… and what should come toward us immediately we turned right?

A Bentley! 🙂

This is Prague Castle…

Hmmmm – yes, please come through these gates and we will beat you to a pulp… LOL!

…and now it is time for lunch…

Time to drop off Eliska, but first she shared with me her favourite hangout…

…and now we head back in the direction of Vienna – on a scavenger hunt!

…in search of R2D2, a building with no straight lines, a red-eyed trash-eating monster, and a two-headed naked boy hanging from a church… Click to continue…

Prague Trip (post 5 of 7): Heaven on Earth

I will now always remember this as the gate to heaven on earth…

We were back up to the Strahov Monastery, this time to see the library…

We didn’t know one had to have a photo permission authority sticker until a woman coming down the stairs gave this one to me since she was no longer using it!

…and here is heaven!

It felt sooooo surreal being there – as though I was dreaming it…

Eventually, I had to move on… and came across something else quite extraordinary!

These books were created in the 19th century, and each one is actually from one tree – the whole book is made from that tree, as well as containing all the information pertaining to that tree…

They were extraordinary!

This (below) is the ceiling… and here we re-encountered the extremely grumpy lady who was so touched that we came back, she was extra-helpful and accommodating!

…and when you need a break from heaven on earth, you simply go to another part of the building for yet another heaven on earth…

This (below) is the now-not-grumpy lady showing us how the rotating book stand works…

Behind these gilt doors were kept the forbidden manuscripts…

…and past what at first glance looks like a chunk of concrete – that just happens to be from Ancient Egypt and thousands of years old!

Back to my lovely books…

…and a final look at heaven on earth…

…and still we continue with even more to experience… Click to read on…

Prague Trip (post 4 of 7): More Alchemy

…the Klementinum!

…only to discover the Klementinum Library that I reeeeeally want to see is up 172 stairs… Some days I could do that, but not today. Oh, well – yet another thing to look forward to on my next trip!

But wait…

…we were let in to see THIS!!! It is magical!

Darth Vader statue? Hmmmmm, and later you get to see R2D2! (no, I’m not kidding…)

The old F100 Coca Cola truck was groovy…

…and to the Speculum Alchemiae…

The women framing this door are amazing!

Hmmmmm, me thinks the lion was not impressed by this fellow…

…and back up the hill to what turned out to be HEAVENLY!

Click here to continue…

Prague Trip (post 3 of 7): Alchemy

It seems in order to even drive past the US embassy, one needs to be searched…

That is all well and good, until one cannot find the lever to open the hood…………. oh dear…

Some time later… they finally let us go (although they never did get to look under the hood!)…

Yes, that is a gold cow…

…and in to the Museum of Alchemy…

I adore this staircase – and the wear on the tread that comes from literally centuries of use…

…and on to… click here to continue…

Prague Trip (post 2 of 7): Strahov Monastery

First stop was the Strahov Monastery… with the Strahov Library on my bucket list.

Upon arrival, we were informed by a very grumpy lady that the library was closed for lunch – so we decided to do some exploring and come back later.

Before leaving, however, we peeked into the beautiful church…

On our way again, past the old city fortification walls…

I think the Irish are everywhere…

…and we were on our way to the Klementinum, until we were stopped by US police! Yes, you read that correctly…

Click here to continue…

Prague Trip (post 1 of 7): Fred and Ginger

I now know what it feels like to fit a whole week’s worth of experiences into just one day! …and who are Fred and Ginger? You’ll just have to read and find out…

My trip to Prague was AMAZING! … and there was no way I could fit it all into one post, or two, or three… It ended up being SEVEN posts! But just wait until you see some of the things I saw – sooooooo cool!

Leading up to it, during the night construction workers have been busy laying new tracks for the light rail and, while I complete understand this needs to be done, let’s just say sleep has not been easy to come by recently… Oh, well – who needs sleep? 🙂

I set Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” song to wake me up at 06:20am – and found myself bopping along to two repeats of it before I finally found the will to actually get out of bed… The pink sky of dawn (that didn’t happen until 06:47) is visible behind the opera house…

Now primed and ready for my day, I head outside and there is barely a creature stirring (apart from the ever-present construction workers)…

Across the road to the lovely Hotel Bristol where my car is already waiting for me… and I met my driver, Alexander – and what a fun trip we had!

…and we are off…

…and it seems everyone received my memo asking them to please stay off the roads to give us a clear path…

As with my drive from Budapest to Vienna, stopping at the border to purchase a sticker for the windscreen…

Travelling along during the three-and-a-half hour drive, Alexander and I talked about just about everything imaginable – and laughed for hours…

This casino reminded me of the ‘pretend’ Las Vegas as one drives from California to Nevada before actually reaching the ‘real’ Las Vegas…

While this may look like I photo-shopped it, this is actually a real image – and it looks just as strange in person!

Not sure what he was up to, but this helicopter pilot had his craft awfully close to those wires…

Although it was still chilly, I was surprised to see snow…

Welcome to Prague!

We were early to meet our guide so, since I already had several items from my bucket list, we went in search of Fred and Ginger!

Mission accomplished! Well, sort of… Let’s go down, around the block and come back in the other direction to get a better view…

Meet Fred and Ginger!

Designed by Frank Gehry and Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić, the building is known as The Dancing House (Czech: Tančící dům). Gerhy named it Fred and Ginger in honour of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, however he was concerned about bringing American influences to the region, so dropped the name soon after.

I still think ‘Fred and Ginger’ fits perfectly…

OK, having found our dancing buildings, we explored Prague a little before it was time to go off in search of our guide…

By the way, that is the River Danube…

This is the entrance to the famous Charles Bridge that I wanted Alexander to drive over… however given that it is only for pedestrians, he politely declined. Poor Alexander, the number of places I asked him to drive, park, wait… almost all of which were ‘technically’ not exactly precisely perhaps maybe where we should have been… 🙂 He was a total gentleman and such a good sport; and as I mentioned to a friend today, I have officially made him ‘family’.

Somehow the man with the mo-hawk seemed very fitting in front of the torture museum…

This poster would give me nightmares! I cannot image what the film is like…

Later, when we picked up Eliska, our guide, she informed us that these cars are specially built for Prague tourist operators…

I felt sorry for Eliska when we collected her. She was wonderful and ever so professional – and commenced by introducing herself and saying that we would start our tour at such and such a place – only for us to tell her we had already been there…

So, she suggested another place – and we had been there as well…

Then I said that I had some places I really wanted to visit and gave her the list on my phone…

…and so began our glorious off-the-tour tour of Prague!

Click here to read on…

River Danube Cruise to Slovakia for UNICEF

Cruising on the River Danube from Vienna to Slovakia, making new friends, and all in aid of a good cause – what a wonderful way to invest one’s day!

After leaving home and walking across the road to grab a taxi (and spotting yet another beautiful door!)…

…I arrive at the Twin City Liner jetty at Schwedenplatz (German for Sweden Square – although I have yet to look up why it is called that).

Today was the ceremonial opening of the Twin City Liner season 2018.

As part of the festivities, original “Pressburger Kipferl” were served at the entry point in Vienna.

The history of this delight apparently began at the end of the 16th century, when the first records from the former Pressburg of the sale of a pastry filled with poppy seeds or nuts appeared.

The Radio Wien-Band was terrific…

These shoes were on one coooool cat… 🙂

No, the sound guy is not blocking his ears from noise…

…he was attempting to warm them up!

Boarding time…

…through the main deck…

…and up to the captain’s lounge!

These rather peculiar looking buildings are fisher huts…

You can see from the water flowing around this buoy just how powerful was the current…

Some of the huts are quite decked out with solar, satellite dishes and more…

This (below) is my new friend, Michael – a retired computer engineer who grew up in Slovakia (or Czechoslovakia as it was at the time) and now lives in Vienna…

I always think these trees look like they have pom-poms on them…

…and while we were happily tucked away in the captain’s lounge, others found the going a little ‘breeeeeezy’…

Welcome (back) to Bratislava!

This city has only been the capital of Slovakia for 25 years… It’s amazing to think of such major history being so recently created.

…complete with UFOs…

Time for lunch – and since I didn’t have breakfast before I left, a very much appreciated break…

This photo does not do this meal justice – it was delicious!

…and back to Vienna…

This lady (below) was doing a ‘Titanic’ pose…

Hmmmm – so this light helps you see where you slipped?

Michael and I stopped in for a couple of glasses of wine…

…and a most glorious chat about all manner of things from places, to culture, to politics, to economy… and just as we were wrapping up, we discovered we could have continued on for several more hours on one of my favourite subjects, quantum physics!

…and home to enjoy for a late supper half a Viennese hot dog I picked up from a vendor at my front door… LOL!

An excellent day!

…and as I am posting this, it is the following day – and today I rest for tomorrow I am being picked up around 7:00am and am off to Prague!

It has been a huge week – including adding a new person to our team – and being delighted beyond delighted that they were up and running in basically o time at all… Feeling ever so blessed!

Stay tuned…

~ Bella

Magical Horse-Drawn Carriage Ride through Vienna

What a magnificent day! Slept in, then rugged up (it was minus 1 outside and lightly snowing), walked literally 3 minutes past the opera house where I stepped into a horse-drawn carriage and rode around Vienna for an hour, had a magnificent lunch, strolled home via a stop in a very cute clothing and accessories shop (hmmmm, pretend I didn’t say that! – and the bags (yes, plural) full of goodies I brought home from the store are a figment of your imagination – note to self: may need bigger suitcase!), did about seven or eight hours of work that I love, and now am curled up posting this! Magical day! and another thing checked off my bucket list!

(below) Fashion, cafe, lingerie, jewellery, Lindt chocolate, all within the magnificent Hotel Bristol building… and Coca Cola (I am a Coke Zero fan)! What more could a girl want!

I showed immense intestinal fortitude today – I walked past this beautiful bookstore without going inside…

This (below) is just one of the many bump in-out doors in the Vienna Opera House. It is fun to imagine all the stories they could tell…

…and literally about three minutes after I left home, here is my ride…

…der Fiaker!

“The term “fiaker” originates from the French and refers to the hackney carriage stand in the Parisian Rue de Saint Fiacre. In 1720, the carriages – which had previously been referred to as “Janschky” coaches in Vienna – were renamed “fiakers” (and numbered).

Then the carriage trade really began to boom: more than 1,000 fiakers were on the road in Vienna between 1860 and 1900. The carriage drivers were often characters that were known throughout the city and also sometimes performed as singers. They were appreciated for their discretion, especially when one or the other fine gentleman was amusing himself in the fiaker with his paramour. Probably most famous among them was Josef Bratfisch, the royal coachman of Crown Prince Rudolf, who brought the prince’s lover Mary Vetsera to Mayerling in 1889, where both lives found a tragic end.” [from the wien.info site]

…and in case you are not up on your history, Crown Prince Rudolf was the only son and heir to Franz Josef I (who was Kaiser of Austria when the opera house was opened and whose name I read in gold every day as I look at the beautiful building). When Prince Rudolf died (how he died is a whole other story), the next in line to the throne when Franz Josef passed away was Archduke Franz Ferdinand – and if that name rings a bell, the assassination of he and his wife lead to WWI.

This little white four-legged fluffy wanted to eat the big white four-legged ones!

You will have heard of a schmuck, yes? Well this is where you buy old (antique) ones!

I love amazing doors – and Vienna is full of them!

…and I love reflections…

Even the patterns in the cobblestones are beautiful…

Coming around the edge of this building… this is what heaven looks like to me! You could transplant me back to anywhere from around 1840 to 1910 (when King Edward VII died and the world ended) and I would be a very happy pixie… To a large extent, I live elements of a Victorian/Edwardian life – long skirts, silk handkerchiefs, fountain pens, wax sealed notes and letters, my outlook, values… and as much as I adore my convertibles, give me a horse-drawn carriage any day…

Although, I am the first to admit, I could not live the amazing life I do without my technology…

Yes – this (below) is definitely what the world of my own creation looks like… Not a modernly-dressed person in sight.

Is it just me, or does this guy on horseback appear to be looking backward over his shoulder for something?

These girls must have a headache by now…

Re Pinocchio (below), did you know that the town in which it was set, of the village of San Miniato Basso, was originally named Pinocchio? …and that the inhabitants of San Miniato were called Pinocchi or Pinocchini? It’s amazing the useless information that is stored in my brain… 🙂 But then again, I guess I need to give the Hamsters that live in my head something with which to play every now and again…

…and in front of us is again, the opera house – back to where we started…

Time for lunch…

Then back home and back to work – only to hear a few hours later music coming from below…

…and another glorious day draws to a close here in magical Vienna…

Goodnight, all…

~ Bella

Vienna’s beautiful Hotel Bristol

Vienna abounds with luxury, elegance, and beauty – and they were all combined in my experience last night at the Hotel Bristol.

Opened in 1892, this beautiful hotel was named after the British town of Bristol.

The photo above is from their website – I wasn’t able to catch one of the doorman myself…

Former US President Theodore Roosevelt resided at the Hotel Bristol in Vienna´s city center in 1910. From the hotel he was driven to the audience with Emperor Francis Joseph I. At the Bristol he met the first woman awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize (1905), the resolute Bertha von Suttner. Six years before, she had visited him at the White House, where he told her about his mission to make peace between Japan and England. In 1906, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for that – as the first US American. But Roosevelt had ridiculed Suttner’s peace organization in the press, which led to a lively debate between them. [from Hotel Bristol’s website]

For me, no such high-stakes discussion… First, a drink in the bar…

…then into the dining room for dinner…

…and what was for dinner? (a huuuuge!) Wiener Schnitzel, of course!

~ Bella

PS: I decided to go back for lunch today – and it was surprisingly affordable! Only €26 for three courses… and there was more than enough food to provide an elegant sufficiency for the entire remainder of the day, without even needing dinner.

Beef Tartar

Salmon

…and Sacher Torte

Yum!