Catch Up - Friday 5th September

Dan thought he could probably lead us around Venice with his knowledge of the Assassin's Creed map. Dan was wrong. We got lost within the first couple of hours of being there, and it didn't help that our map had no road names and those that did had no road signs to help. In Venice, every street is a backstreet, and some paths lead straight into the canal. Dead ends give no notice. We made our circuitous way to San Marco, pausing to look at the water, the old-world buildings, and sparkling jewellery in shop windows.

After all the claustrophobia-inducing, narrow alleys of Venice, Piazza San Marco's vast open space was a surprise. On one side, the basilica towered over a long queue of people waiting to go in. Shops lined two sides, and one corner of the square led to the sea.

We had a little sit-down in the shade, and Lucy, Dan and Mitch bought some gelato ice cream from a kiosk in a restaurant. We looked in the windows of all the shops along the perimeter, admiring the expensive Murano glass ornaments. By this point Lucy, of course, needed a wee but refused to pay for the public toilets so we bought our entrance to the Doge's Apartments where there were loos. We then made our way around the tour route, through gilded rooms with dark carved ceilings with paintings on the walls. We saw portraits of doges; globes; maps; furniture; a range of weaponry; and the dungeon prisons, accessed via the Bridge of Sighs. We were there for some time, and although we'd planned to go back and cook at the campsite, we ended up eating in the centre. We picked a little restaurant, which was not that great and charged us a bomb for bread and drinks.  

Done eating, we took a promenade along the waterfront and then got our bus back to the chalet.

Catch Up - Thursday 4th September

The only train combination which could get us from Vienna to Venice was an eleven hour journey, so it was up at six for our first train. We bought breakfast at the train station and got a train to Innsbruck through mountaineous scenery punctuated with bright blue and green rivers, and traditional Austrian log chalets.

The InterRail app confused us a lot regarding our next stop, Brennero Brenner. It seemed to be telling us the station was in both Austria and Italy. The confused cleared when we realised it was exactly that - the border ran through the station. We bought lunch here, boarding another train to Verona, from where we changed for Verona. It was incredibly tiring, and when we checked in to our chalet at the campsite (not as big as it sounds, but fairly comfy), we just ate at the site restaurant and went to bed.

Catch Up - Wednesday 3rd September

Our aim for this day was to see as much of the city centre as possible. We caught a metro to the centre, and got on a tram which follows the Ringstraße. Far more scenic than Bristol's ring road, this circular route incorporates some of Vienna's finest buildings into one journey (or two, as there is a tram change in the middle). Having finished the trip, we got off and went to look at the outside of the Parliament building. Like many state buildings we've seen, it was neo-classical, with great white columns and a statue of Lady Liberty outside on a fountain. Next to this was the Rathaus, the city hall, which we mistook for a church, not yet used to the fact that in mainland Europe, there are spires on all sorts of buildings. A ridiculous number of sights we've seen have been undergoing restoration work and thus covered in scaffolding, and the Rauthaus (and, later this day, the Votive Church, the Stefansdom Cathedral and St. Peter's Church) was no exception. We saw what we could of it, then popped inside the Votive Church next door.

We walked in the direction of a clock in the centre which is famous for its hourly show. We arrived just in time for the midday spectacle - twelve famous figures walked past the clock face, each with a different organ theme. This took about twelve minutes, and by the end we were well ready for lunch.

We had initially intended to buy sandwiches from a well-known sandwich shop, but we had failed to check the size of the sandwiches. Upon discovering they were finger food, we found a sit-down Italian (yes, again) restaurant where we ate lunch.

Stefansdom Cathedral was just around the corner, so we wandered there and had a peek inside. Far more impressive, but much smaller, was St. Peter's Church around the corner. A very similar style to St. James' Church, this rounded building was full of sculptures, and someone was playing the organ. We thoroughly enjoyed it!

Having walked the short distance to the Hofburg Imperial apartments, we went round the Imperial Treasury, looking at the Austrian Crown Jewels and admiring the embellished jewellery and robes.

We'd researched proper Viennese coffee houses so at 3pm we went to Café Central. We ordered Viennese-style desserts (apple strudel with custard for Mitch and Dan, and chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream for Lucy and Siân) and hot drinks (hot chocolate for Dan, and Viennese-style coffee for the other three). The walls and floor were marble, and there were imperial portraits on the wall. A hot drink and a cake cost us roughly €11 each, but it was worth it.

We'd read in our guide about a clock museum showcasing 4,000 clocks, but on our way there we passed a sign reading "ESPERANTOMUSEUM | GLOBEMUSEUM | PAPYRUSMUSEUM" (for those of you whose German isn't as good as ours, that roughly translates as "ESPERANTO MUSEUM | GLOBE MUSEUM | PAPYRUS MUSEUM"). Intrigued, we looked inside and were absolutely thrilled to discover it was free for under nineteens. The woman on Reception squinted at Siân's ID, seeing as she's almost nineteen. Or maybe it was just surprise that hip youths like us wanted to look at globes and paper.

The Esperanto Museum was amusing, and the Globe Museum, as Dan said, was out of this world. These museums took up a floor of a building each, but, to our great dismay, we couldn't find the Papyrus Museum. We asked the receptionist for directions, and, following them badly, we ended up in a high, painted-ceilinged library with beautiful bookshelves and displays of manuscripts. After we'd recovered from our disappointment at the lack of papyrus, we realised how lovely the décor was. We looked around a bit, and got some more directions for the Papyrus Museum.

"You'll have to hurry though," the security guard warned, "it closes at six."

So hurry we did. In our desperation to see the papyrus, Lucy and Siân even resorted to running. Thankfully, we made it in time. Whilst we were getting our breath back the ticket guard marched up to us, stern-faced. We showed him our tickets, and he smiled and handed us a small sample of papyrus each. We looked round the exhibit, then took a walk to St. Charles' Church before getting a metro back to the hostel. We'd left it too late to buy food in the supermarket, so we got takeaway Chinese.  

We went back to the hostel to relax, and Siân went to jump up onto her bunk. Unfortunately, she misjudged it, smacking her knee on the wood and ending up with an almighty bruise.

Catch Up - Tuesday 2nd September

We had quite a slow start to the day, making sure we ate a proper breakfast. Dan had ditched his crutches on the last day in Prague and today we decided to walk to Schönbrunn Palace. It was, of course, drizzling, so mackintoshed and umbrella-brandishing, we trekked down Mariahilferstraße to the palace, via a supernarket for buying lunch. Having eaten breakfast an hour earlier than the others, Lucy and Siân were so hungry they had to stop and eat some bread and cheese on the way.

 

The palace, on the outside, was how you'd expect it to be. Painted a sunny (unlike the weather) shade of yellow and decorated with white flourishes, it was quite imposing. We ate lunch then bought tickets for the Imperial Tour - a walk through forty of the palace's 1400 rooms. As we were under nineteen, this cost less than €10 (Austria loves sharing culture with under nineteens, it seems). We were given audio guides, which explained the purpose of the rooms and described the major characters of the Austrian imperial family. As it focused on the 18th and 20th centuries, we got rather confused by the chronology. We also struggled to remember who was who, especially as one Empress had over six daughters called Maria.

The rooms themselves were amazing. There were bedrooms and dressing rooms and living rooms and offices and bathrooms and children's rooms and rooms for playing cards in and rooms for meeting people in and rooms with no purpose except looking pretty. We were especially impressed with the Grand Hall, a huge white and gold ballroom with magnificent painted ceilings. We also passed through a room where Mozart had played his first concert aged six, and Siân fangirled.

 

In spite of the rain, we took a stroll through the gardens. There were some nice fountains, fake ruins and a very posh summer house, all of which we couldn't help commenting would have been nicer in dry weather. 

When we returned to the hostel, Mitch and Lucy cooked our first properly self-catered meal, bean fajitas, and we went to bed.

Catch Up - Monday 1st September

We caught a train at 10:48 which took almost five hours and went directly to Vienna. We had a bit of a walk at the other end, and were so tired by the time we arrived at the hostel. We "cooked"/heated up our emergency Pasta 'N' Sauce, did some washing and Lucy, Mitch and Siân bought a cup of tea from reception. This was their first proper cup of tea in over two weeks, and the receptionist laughed at their stereotypically British glee.

 

After this, we went to bed. The bunkbeds were comfortable but had no ladders - this will be significant later.

Catch Up - Sunday 31st August

Once you've done the Old Town in Prague, there isn't much else to do. Our third day was wet and miserable, but we wanted to visit the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn so we hurried down to the centre to look around before early Sunday closing. It was lovely inside but all the churches we have visited have begun to merge together in our memories!

 

We spent a long time hunting down Lidl in the pouring rain, then bought and ate lunch. There is a park on a hill overlooking Prague, so we climbed that and walked around. We'd all bought unusual Milka flavours so here we ate them. Never try peanut and pear flavoured chocolate. It is a sin.

After a little more souvenir shopping, we went back to the hostel, eating at the on-site restaurant.

Catch Up - Friday 29th August

We caught a tram to the Old Town, and were pleasantly surprised at the historic beauty of Prague's buildings. Mostly in the Rococo style, many are painted pastel shades and have white sculpted fruit, flowers and faces above windows and doors. 

When we arrived in the centre, we found a market, and spent some time looking around the stalls. Lucy bought earrings; Siân bought a brooch; Dan bought some crisps on a stick. 

We then decided to walk to the Old Town Square, which meant an amble through winding cobbled lanes, walking past expensive designer shops and passing some more amazing buildings.

The Old Town Square is vast, and dominated by the Town Hall with its famous astronomical clock. We signed up to a walking tour of Old Prague, with the guide promising that she'd wait for Hopalong Dan, then went to watch the hourly clock show. At 2pm, wooden statuettes of the twelve apostles waved their way past a small window above the clock faces; a figurine of a skeleton rang a bell to signal the death of three sins, which were nearby and shaking their heads; a golden cockerel nodded; and a real bugler played a fanfare from the top of the tower. 

The clock faces too are impressive, telling the time in modern, Byzantine and old Bohemian formats, showing the phase of the moon and the current sign of the zodiac as well as informing the reader of which saint's day it is. 

After the clock show, we joined the tour guide for the free walking tour. She took us all around the Old Town, past numerous churches, through the Jewish Quarter and back via a theatre and the Powder Tower. What she told us about each site was incredibly interesting, and we'd never have found out so much about what we were passing otherwise. A particular highlight of the tour was St. James' Church, which has a modest façade concealing a magnificent Baroque interior, decorated with gold plated carvings and statues. 

Enticed by the prospect of more Mexican food, we once again ate at 7 Tacos. That evening, Dan stayed in the room whilst the others went down to the common room. They met a Serbian woman, an Austrian man and three fellow Brits of the same age, with whom they played pool. Nobody was very good, drawing the games out, and after playing at chatting, Lucy, Mitch and Siân went to bed at half one.