Riding in the Rain

The weather has been pretty bad lately, which means that I catch the tram to work because I don't want to get wet.  This doesn't stop the locals though, who seem to be perfectly happy to hold their umbrella while they ride their bike.  I haven't managed to get a photo of someone holding an umbrella and talking on their mobile phone, I'll keep an eye out though.

Hup Holland Hup

Over the last 2 weeks the Euro 2012 football championship has been on.  There was a lot of hype during the buildup around the chances of the Dutch team.  Pubs and cafes were covered with orange and big inflatable footballs, and had areas set-up with big TVs for everyone to watch the games.  Even though they were highly rated coming off a grand-final berth in the last world cup, the locals seemed more hopeful than expectant about the chances of their national team.  They had good reason for this pessimism- Oranje were eliminated in the group stage without having scored a single point, and only 2 goals in the For column- second last only to tournament minnows Ireland who exceeded their expectations with just a single goal.

There were a few brief 'did you watch the game last night' chats, but no-one really wanted to talk about it.  The orange flags and streamers decorating all the pubs disappeared fairly soon after the exit of Oranje, and while there is still some interest in the remaining games (semi-finals and grand final remain as of today), I'm disappointed that I won't get to see the orange army support their team in a big match.

Cafe Loetje

Just around the corner from our house is one of Amsterdam's most popular restaurants, Cafe Loetje.  It is famous for its steaks, so much so that when we try to describe to someone where our house is Cafe Loetje is often the most well-known landmark.  We went there for dinner on Friday night, and I can see why it's famous- the steaks are incredible.  When you order a steak, that is what you get- a plate with a fairly small looking steak on it.  Chips or salads must be ordered separately (but were also delicious and definitely worth it).  Once you start eating though, you realise that it's bigger than it looks because it is so thick, and the gravy it comes with is filling too.

While we were sitting there eating our food, a cat just wandered in and hopped up onto a stool at the bar.  We were quite fascinated, but no-one else seemed- I guess he was a regular.

They don't take bookings so we had a half hour wait, but the atmosphere was fun and relaxed so we were perfectly happy waiting at the bar with a Heineken.  Very Dutch, very gezellig and very delicious.

Prague

A few weekends ago, there was a public holiday long weekend, so I took an extra day off work and we spent 3 nights in Prague.  It's pretty incredible that I can leave work at 5pm, and by 8:30pm we are in different country- still takes some time getting used to after having spent my whole life in Australia.

Old Town Square

As we walked from the train station to try and find our hotel, which was in a great location just near old town, we were walking through some narrow winding streets when they opened up on the main square.  It's surrounded by beautiful old cathedrals and towers.  This is where the astronomical clock and clock tower stand which each hour drew massive crowds waiting to see and hear it chime.

Astronomical Clock

It is a beautiful city full of gothic architecture and colourful buildings, and of course many many spires (Prague is nicknamed City of a hundred spires).  We had a great view from the Petrin Tower, built on a hill which looks out over the city.  It looks kind of like the eiffel tower and apparently it's peak is higher above sea level than the eiffel tower's- but only because of the hill it stands on.  This is good for us, because we took the stairs.

The Petrin Tower

The view from the  top of the tower

The famous Karlov Most (Charles Bridge) is worthy of its title as one of Prague's most popular attractions.  The statues lining the length of the bridge were incredible and creepy, and it was great to see both in daylight and lit up by the streetlamps at night.

We also spent a fair bit of time at the castle grounds, which is full of historically significant, and beautiful, old buildings, such as the St Vitus Cathedral and the royal palace. It was here that the Second Prague defenestration took place which triggered the thirty year war. After having recently been in Germany and seeing and reading about the impact that this same war had on places like Rothenburg ob de Tauber, it was pretty incredible being here.

The entrance to the castle grounds

St Vitus Cathedral

The other side of the cathedral

Some of the other things we did and saw:

• Prague beer festival- 1 litre steins of Czech beer for 3 euros. We were only there in the afternoon so it didn't have the full atmosphere, but it was still heaps of fun
• Food festival- Prague's best restaurants were doing lunch in the park. The food was good, but I generally prefer quantity over quality so wasn't terribly impressed at the small, expensive portions
• Delicious restaurants- we ate some great Czech food - lots of dumplings, braised meat, stew, cabbage, potatoes. My favourites were a braised duck, and a crunchy fish salad- it looked like a plate of chips, but they were actually fried fish!
• Opera- we didn't just do food related things. We went to the state opera and saw the Marriage of Figaro, which was actually quite fun. One of this opera house's calls to fame is that Mozart frequently visited and played here. He debuted some of his operas here, and it is apparently the last remaining opera house that Mozart actually performed in, so it was fitting to see a Mozart opera there.
• Wenceslas Square- one of the main city square where there is the national museum and the King Wenceslas statue
• Dancing House- buildings that are built to look like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing

I think we earned our food though- we must have walked 20 or 30km over our time there. The cobblestones are not the greatest thing to walk on, so a comfortable pair of walking shoes is a must. It was also really hot, in the 30's. We had bright sun most of our holiday which is good, but because it was quite cool here in Amsterdam before we left, I was not at all prepared clothing-wise. Other than this it was a really great weekend. Prague is not the kind of place I fell the urge to go back to again, but it is a beautiful and interesting city which was definitely worth the visit.

Prague Beer Festival

Delicious, filling and cheap food at Czech restaurants

Marriage of Figaro at the Estates Opera House

Dancing House

Inside the St Vitus cathedral

Outside the Opera House

In Prague, the fish ARE the chips

Old Town Square by night

Gateway above one of the entrances to the Charles Bridge

Crowds walking through the streets near the Charles Bridge

European Easter Part 4- The Romantic Road

The Romantic Road (Romantische Strasse in German) is a stretch of road through southern Germany which passes through many little traditional German towns.  There is nothing particularly special about the road itself, other than that it runs mainly parallel to the main highways so is a nice relaxing drive through the country side.

Our first main stop was an overnight stay in Donauworth. To be honest, there was not a lot here.  It was nice to walk along the main street in town, which was covered in Easter decorations and had a church with some interesting bells, but not much else.

Our next stop was at Schloss Harburg (Harburg Castle) which was definitely worth a visit.  It wasn't a massive castle, and there was not much information or any tour available, but it was very cool to walk up the steep street, under the portcullis and into the castle courtyard.  There was many of the original fittings in place, such as the archery view ports in the wall, and the oil-stained murder holes above the entrance.

Lunch was had at a little cafe in Nordlingen, where we had a view of the beautiful gothic St Georg's church, with its classic tall steeple.  We spent some time at the nearby town of Dinkelsbuhl which also had a beautiful old church (the similarly named St George's church).  Both of these towns deserved extra time for exploring but with the limited time we had, we decided to spend more at Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and we were not disappointed.

St Georg's Church, Nordlingen

St George's Church, Dinkelsbuhl

Along with Nordlingenand and Dinkelsbuhl, Rothenburg ob der Tauber is one of the three remaining German towns to still have completely intact city walls.  This is the first thing you notice as you have to drive through the narrow archway to enter the town.  Inside it was like a fairytale, and we had a great 2 days and 2 nights here.  There was plenty to do- we went for an early morning walk around a large portion of the town, explored the walls including the many areas where you can actually walk along the top of the walls where the sentries would have been posted, we went to the medieval torture museum which had not only instruments of torture but many other interesting historical exhibits, plenty of souvenir shopping and eating at the many cosy little restaurants and cafes.

One of the highlights was the Night Watchman tour, which is run every night by a guy in the character of a medieval night watchman.  As we walked around the town at dusk, he tells of the town's history from it's beginnings in the 1300's, its rise to economic fame, its downfall due to war and disease in the 1600's, its hibernation and it's eventual rediscovery in the 1800's.  The tour is full of serious historical information, as well as some interesting anecdotes and is very entertaining.

Our hotel was very cool, it was set up like an old manor, complete with a suit of armour and deer antlers on the wall.  It was very big and luxurious, and we were sad when we had to leave the hotel as well as the beautiful old town of RodT.

Other random photos from our time in Germany.

Nordlingen

St Georg's Church Church, Nordlingen

Decoration one one of the altars in St George's church, Dinkelsbuhl

Entrance through the RodT town wall that we had to drive through

Old Gothic church across from our hotel in RodT

Inside one of the many German Christmas stores in RobT (called Kathe Wohlfahrt)

Various torture devices at the Medieval Torture Museum

"Shame Mask"
In medieval times, immoral people (liars, gossips, drunkards etc.) were made to wear these masks for a period of time as punishment, so everyone around them would know that they were bad

Execution's Axe- the inscription reads "When I lift my axe, I wish the sinner eternal life"

Schneeballen (snowball)- a delicious pastry invention from RodT

Night Watchman tour through the town at dusk