Day 33: Vienna - Prague

This morning we packed our bags for our journey to Prague.  Our first stop though was Shönbrun Palace.  Once again, we picked up our local guide (Sofia) and began our tour of the Palace.

The palace was built by Emperor Leopold in the 17th century and modelled on Versailles, and was the summer palace of the Hapsburgs.  The palace is absolutely beautiful with over 1000 rooms and divided into 3 wings.  Only 40 rooms have been opened to the public, including the bed chambers for both the King and Queen (they had separate bedrooms) as well as the banquet hall, although the banquet hall was empty.

On our way through, another tour guide entered the room and spoke over a belt speaking, so we couldn't hear our guide.  Being the prick that I am, I told her to wait until we had finished.  She didn't like it, but she did wait.

After the tour of the Palace buildings, we entered the back garden.  Now this garden is impressive - at over 400 acres, it is not tiny and includes on of the oldest running zoos in the world.

The fountain at the back of the front section of the garden (and this was over 400 metres from the palace) includes statues of Neptune, a waterfall and a lake (with ducks).  I was lucky and managed to get some shots of the gardens through the fountain, looking back towards the palace before out time was up and we had to leave to catch the bus into the city once more.

Found Paul & Sue having lunch (they didn't join us at the palace) at a small bakery and joined them for a bite to eat.  All of a sudden, a woman carrying a baby in her arms came rushing towards us.  Hearing the stories of Gypsies throwing a baby at you so you catch it (of course you do) and then grabbing whatever they can get their hands on, I quickly threw one hand up between myself and this woman, and told her to bugger off (ok, it was nicer than that, but it was in German!).  After the incident with Lorraine, I wasn't taking any chances.

Back on the bus for our trip to Prague.  We stopped at the border for a quick break and to change some money.  From the border, we drove through some lovely countryside, but I slept for an hour or so and missed quite a bit.

Our next stop, after a 3 hour run on the bus, was only 25km out of Prague.  Cant say I was too impressed as we could have broken the trip a bit more evenly instead of 3 hours and then 30 minutes.  We were told we were stopping because of regulations, not for our comfort, but because we had to.  Hmmm...

The hotel was lovely, but not the hotel we were advised in our books.  No problem for Elisha and I, but Warren and Lorraine had organised for their new credit cards to be delivered to the other hotel.  Warren wasn't too happy especially with all the crap they have had to go through already.

After dinner, we drove from our hotel into the new town of Prague.  Now I thought Edinburgh was taking the piss with a 250 year old old town, but Prague takes the cake.  The new town was built in the 14th century!.  In no one's language is 500 years new!

Headed to the castle district and was greeted with some spectacular views over Prague.  Had a quick drink on the hill then headed to onto the Křižíkova Fountain.

The Křižíkova Fountain is famous for the water and light show that is put on 4 times every night.  It is absolutely spectacular with video projected onto a wall of water whilst other parts of the fountain shoot water up to 40 metres into the air.

We were lucky, as once a week, the show is augmented with ballet dancers as well as the light show.  We saw excerpts of Carmen, The Little Mermaid (yes, this is a ballet, and is quite a dark story - how they turned it into a kids story I'll never know), Gladiator and Swan Lake.  It is rather strange to see Swan Lake with both video projection and ballet and it really worked.  The show can seat up to 5000 people, although only 1500 or so are able to see the show from the front.  The show lasted for about 45 minutes or so and was fantastic, from start to finish.