Prag: Czech Republic

We decided to park the car and take a couple of bicycles on rent. We did a bicycle tour with a tour guide. Our guide was from Australia, by far one of the most interesting personalities I have met in my life. Our man takes a flight from Australia to Prag, blows all his money in Prag, and stays back in Prag since he doesn’t have the money to buy a return ticket. But as far as I could say, he was no less happier than any average American with a lot of money. I for sure envy this guy. With his only qualification of knowing to speak English, he is spending the time of his life in Prag, while I slog all day just to take all my money and spend it on people like him in the 2 days I spend in Prag.
Meet my role model Luca:

Prag was a magical city with a lot of castles again. But this time the castles had the Russian influence. The red rounded domes on the top etc. Archana bought a lot of souvenirs. Check her out posing a jester hanging down on a spring. Still has a find a place in our home, but it sure did find a place on my blog.

One of the best parts of the roadtrip was the drive out of prag into germany. Acres and acres, or I should say, oceans and oceans of yellow flowers filled the side of the roads. Here is a view from one of the rest stations. This was the view for most of the 100 miles that we drove from Prag to Nuremberg.

The Czechs are truly a republic! Apparently the Czechs have been ruled over and over again by foreigners, they have a constant xenophobia. Check out the work of a local artist. A man peeing in a pool of water. If you look carefully, he is peeing into the map of the republic. There was no explanation for this anywhere. I extrapolated it as the sculptor’s freedom to go totally wild and carve out the most outcast ideas. He would have been prosecuted to even express such a thought under the Communism ruling.

For the same reason, most Czechs are, I am told, non believers. All the churches in the city are put to great use: tourism. It felt like walking in a fairy tale, with beautiful lightings on all the structures.

Next Stop: Bratislava, Slovakia.
Nothing to write about this sleepy town, but for this bridge.

Transition out to East Europe – Budapest Hungary.

Our GPS stopped working, so we were back to the good old AAA maps that we picked up from a gas station after pumping $150 worth gas into the car @ 3 Euros a liter, that works out to more than $12 a gallon. Let’s not talk about that! While the whole world was cribbing about $135 a barrel, Archana and I were enjoying a 1500 mile European road trip!

One thing we quickly noticed about east Europe, people hate communism. That comes out in the way they ridicule communism. Check out a capitalistic tee-shirt shop on a sidewalk in Budapest.

McLenin’s, “KGB still watching You” and of course the other shirts that cry out loud, “WE ARE FREE, THE IRON CURTAIN HAS LIFTED”.

Archana found some Russian tanks to pose with. These tanks were commissioned out not more than just 20 years back.

Some wonderful pictures on a cruise in Budapest. This is on the river that runs right in the center of the city and separates the twin cities of Buda and Pest

We stayed at a hotel a few miles away from the city, tucked away in the woods. Gave a true Eastern European living feel. We travelled the bus into the city.

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Vienna: The Big Cake of the world

“If New York is the big apple of the World, Vienna is the big Cake of the world”, a board read outside Vienna. True. The cathedrals and palaces add a true grandeur to the city. I would have written a lot about the royal palace of Vienna, but my enthusiasm dies down after seeing the Mysore palace. The latter being much richer and grander, yet less celebrated than the Viennese royal palace and apartments.

Salzburg – Mozzart or Mozz-hurt?

We were looking forward to visiting the much celebrated birth place of Mozzart, Salzburg Austria. We just spent half a day and the Mozzart-ness in the town was just too much for us. The place is a mess, people commercializing Mozzart way too much. You cannot wink without having seen one instance of Mozzart; even the chocolate wrappers have the face of mozzart staring back at you. It was exciting to start with, but when we came across life-size statues of mozzart outside restaurants offering you chocolates or showing you the way in, it went from funny to annoying.

We celebrate the fact that Gandhi was born in India. I have visited Gandhi’s birth place Porbandar Gujarat. Gandhi is more than revered in such places. It was interesting to see the (mis)use of Mozzart in the name of a capitalistic society.

The inner city still has its charm. We did some shopping in some exquisite showrooms in the typical European narrow cobbled streets of Salzburg. Check out the name boards of the shops in the street!

Beautiful city. Great arhictecture. This one is the land of “Sound of Music”. A stroll in the park right by Mozzart’s birth-house. 2 famous greek mythological figures: Pegasus and Unicorn find celebrated spots in the park.

The perks of having a car! Tired of the Mozzart infestation, we took the car out for a stroll in the Austrian country side. One thing you quickly find out in Europe is that once you get over the tourist proliferated areas, and you see the _real_ Europe, it is truly beautiful. Check out another ‘Castle in the Air’ that we came across 50 miles southwest of Salzburg.

Fourth PitStop: Beautiful Bavaria, the land of BMW. Yes, too many bimmers on the road. Every 3rd car was a BMW and every 2nd car was a VW

Neuschwanstein: Castle in the air
This is the castle after which disneyland is modeled against.

Third pitstop: Random German village off Autobahn A3
One of the privileges of driving in Europe rather than taking the Eurorail or flights. Took an “Ausfart” (German for Exit) into a small town. As far as we could see, the village had a gas station, a grocery store, a railway track and a church. So basically a typical American town off I-10 + a church – english + german. But of course, everything was fascinating since the village was in Germany. So we took a lot of pictures, much to the dismay of the local folklore, who had probably never seen anyone take pix of the dirty railway track that goes through their town.

The Second Pit Stop: Stuttgart Germany
With Sandeep in Stuttgart Germany. Head quarters of Merc and Porche. Sandeep, my underwear friend (literal of “langotiya yaar”) works for Mercedez Benz Technology. Check out his cool Merc A-Class in the backdrop.

Still awaiting the lazy ass Sandeep to send me our Mercedes Benz museum pix. Will post as he sends.

The Excitement of AutoBahn: The First Pitstop

Some Arbit rest area. But we loved the fact that we were driving in Germany, so we took pictures around. It might look like some regular photos taken on the outskirts of Austin TX on I-35, but believe me, when you know you are in Germany, and have driven all your life on the American interstates, everything looks fascinating. Even the rest area

The Car
SixT is a good rental company. Probably the most preferred in Europe. We initially booked a Peugeot 307 Convertible. However, they apparently do not allow expensive cars into eastern Europe. We had to settle with a Ford Mondeo. Also, if you really want to enjoy the Autobahn, I recommend taking a car with at least a 2.5-3 litre engine. We were able to cruise the Mondeo at 200 kph with ease.