Czech Mate! (haha, get it??)

Dobry den!
(hello in Czech)

We really enjoyed Prague. It was everything we expected, if a little more expensive than the guide books indicated - possibly a result of the large number of tourists that crowd the city. The old buildings in the town, the castle on the hill, tons of history and local legends. This is definitely a place we left feeling like we had barely scratched the surface, and that there was so much more to discover than the main tourist attractions we had time to see!

Here are a few photos of the highlights of our visit:

The astronomical clock on the clock tower of the old town hall. Every hour, little figures of the twelve apostles appear, rotating around at the top, while the skeletal and other figures next to the lower clock face ding bells.

At the top of the clock tower, after the clock has chimed every hour, this guy plays a short tune on his trumpet and waves from each of the four sides of the tower.

On the Charles bridge with Prague Castle up on the hill. The castle complex has lots of things to visit, including the royal palace, the cathedral with St Wenceslas's remains/chapel (of "Good King Wenceslas" fame - even though he was never king), prison tower and torture chamber, and gardens.

At the Old-New Synagogue. This is one of the oldest  synagogues in Europe. Jews have prayed here for over 700 years, only interupted during the Nazi occupation between 1941-1945. Stu had to wear a Jewish kippa on his head (you can just see it in blue) to enter the synagogue.

We had dinner one night in what was "the oldest cellar restaurant in Europe". All the walls were covered with beer mugs or dead animals (mostly dead animals - heads, rugs, or fully stuffed bears) - was a little creepy...

From Prague we headed to Neuschwantstein castle in Bavaria. The night before our visit, we stayed in a little village about half an hour away. The village of Jungholz is actually in a little chunk of Austria completely surrounded by Germany, and only touches the rest of Austria at the very peak of Sorgschrofen mountain (at 1638m). This out-of-the-way village was really a "typical" Austrian village - mountains all around, rolling green pastures, cows and sheep with bells around their necks that you can hear echoing around the mountains and valleys, quaint little farmhouses clustered around little path-ways. It's quite popular with Germans and Austrians for hiking in the summer, but more so in the winter when the small ski-field is open.

 Let's try uploading my first video to the blog, hopefully it works... and you might even be able to hear the clanging of the cow-bells! Hmmm... video didn't work, here's a photo instead...

View of Jungholz. We actually stayed in a cluster of houses (making up the even smaller village of Langenschwand) about 10min up the hill from the main village.

Frolicking on the hills!

A pretty view. The dots on the nearest hills are cows.

Next, on to Neuschwanstein castle. There's a lot of hype about the castle, and it didn't disappoint, though you can only see a few of the interior rooms. We also visited Schloss Hohenschwangau (where Ludwig II, who built Neuschwanstein, lived as a child during the summer months). You can't take photos inside either castle, but luckily they're both very photogenic on the outside :)

View of Neuschwanstein from Hohenschwangau.

Stu at Hohenschwangau.

View of Hohenschwangau from near Neuschwanstein.

Us and Neuschwanstein.

We're now in Luzern, staying with my sister at her flat for a few days. Another blog on our stay here in a few days...

Tschuss!