Budapest to Prague on the Blue Danube

The French hotelier Accor operates the Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, and Ibis chains in Europe. Price, roominess, and level of luxury decline in the listed order, and usually superb quality control provides reliable consistency from hotel to hotel, but quality was a bit frayed around the edges at the Budapest Sofitel. Turning on the TV was an adventure in the mysterious, the mystery being how to make it work, which even baffled the staff. Postcards the front desk assured us would be mailed "tomorrow" for $1 each were undelivered four weeks later. The buffet breakfast, included in the high room price, was a disaster of empty serving trays and cold supposedly hot dishes on one of our two mornings. The other day, the breakfast was quite nice.

Perhaps it was hangover from the Soviet days, but there were no such problems at the super-efficient Prague Hilton. That said, it was a nice, modern, comfortable hotel. Rooms weren’t spacious be American standards, but not bad for Europe. The window drapes did a first-rate job of keeping out light (see our comments on the cruise accommodations).

Beds came with no top sheet and a comforter, which we found was too warm for a hot summer night, even with A/C. This is common in Europe, and we have fix. We removed the comforter from it’s cover, piled the insulation in a corner, used the cover as a sheet, and found real blankets in the closet, giving us a real American-style bed.

For what you get, which is nice enough excepting breakfast, the Budapest Sofitel ain’t cheap.

The hotel has a fine location in downtown Pest on a large square almost on the banks of the Danube across from Castle Hill, near Vaci Ut., the city’s premier shopping street (boutiques and souvenir shops), not too far from the metro (Vorosmarty Ter or Deak Ter, the only station where all three metro lines converge), and only two blocks from Gerebaud.

Although stuffy on a hot summer evening, U Bile Kravy is a good French bistro, with an English menu featuring beef. The food merited returning for our last evening in Prague. I tried steak on our first visit, which was typical European beef– more strongly favored than US beef and noticeably tougher. That’s the way it’s been everywhere in Europe where we’ve tried beef, so this was no fault of the restaurant. Americans may or may not like European beef, but this is a good place to try it since prices are low.

I also ordered a side of green beans, because European green beans are superb. These were grilled and nicely flavored.

The first night, she had chicken rolls stuffed with broccoli, ham, and cheese, accompanied by a crab or crayfish cake and an excellent cream sauce. I liked my taste of this dish well enough to order it the second night. Her chicken breast with cream sauce on our second visit was also fine. Portions are large, as an entrée, accompanied by a mélange of vegetables and greens, was plenty.

Befitting a fine restaurant, meals are prepared from scratch, and that takes awhile. Be prepared to wait 30 to 45 minutes.

A big treat of the evening is paying the bill. For a big steak with a side order of green beans, the chicken and crab dish, three beers, and tip, the tab was not much, and although a 15% tip might have been too much, for the next night, our waiter from the night before recognized us and pounced before the other waiter could.

Both French and Moravian wines are offered, but we opted for Czech beer, being in world’s number-one beer-drinking country. The beer menu includes Pilsner Urquell, the father of all modern beers and still, after 600 years, among the best. In the 1300s, the Urquell brewery in Plzen (German: Pilsen, adding ‘er’ for the possessive – Pilsner Urquell, or Pilzen’s Urquell brewery) discovered a new and improved method of brewing beer, which is why you sometimes hear beers described as pilsners, meaning they use Pilsen’s Urquell’s brewing method. But, as fine as Urquell is, we opted for a stunning dark beer not available in the USA, at least not in Utah, but Urquell is.

Cost: Diner for two, three beers, and tip: Meal 1 was $27, and meal 2 was $19.

A quirk of Czech restaurants that often irritates Americans is that the basket of bread the waiter puts on the table is an extra charge ($0.50 to $2). If you don’t want it, tell him to remove it when he brings it to the table. U Bile Kravy is one place where you should get the bread, slices of a typical French baguette, for the incredibly good crab roe butter that comes with it. This stuff is terrific and not to missed.

The ambience is delightful, sort of rustic French farmhouse, with three small dining rooms, two with six tables and one with three tables for two.

After an 18-hour airplane trip, we looked for a hassle-free place for dinner close to our hotel. This had a good number of choices and reasonable prices and was not crowded. My Weiner schnitzel was the second best I’ve ever eaten, so we returned on our second night in Budapest and I ordered it again. The second was even better than the first, with the meat almost perfectly cooked and the potatoes greatly improved. The menu described the accompanying potatoes as "roast potatoes," but the first night, they were more like potatoes Anna. The second night, they were excellent roast spuds.

She enjoyed the two chicken dishes she had, but can’t remember the details after two 8-hour time changes.

The second night, we went for an ice-cream sundae dessert. There were separate order forms on each table in English and Hungarian for ordering sundaes as you wanted - number of scoops of, kind of ice cream, sauce flavor, whip cream, nuts, etc. - you build your own concoction on the menu and then the staff makes it.

From eyeballing menus in the area, this was a bargain place to eat and well worth the price. How to find the restaurant: The Gresham Palace occupies an entire block. The restaurant is across the street from the back side of the Gresham Palace, almost in line with its front entrance.

This is a huge Czech barbeque/smokehouse restaurant featuring beef, pork, and chicken. We tried the mixed grill sampler for two, a pork kabob, a chicken kabob, and two slabs of pork tenderloin. Each was differently flavored (for instance, one kabob was peppery), but all were good (my view) or at least interesting (her view). I would have returned for a second night, but she didn’t like it that much.

The building is modern, a large Quonset hut-type structure with a wood ceiling and a big grill pit in the middle of the single, large dining room. There are also some outside tables directly in the setting evening sun. The restaurant is on a hill overlooking the city. The tables along the widows directly opposite the entrance and on the terrace have a panoramic view of Prague, but it is long way out from the center of the old town.

Cost: dinner for two, three beers, and tip: $30

The beer menu includes Pilsner Urquell, the father of all modern beers, and still, after 600 years, among the best. In the 1300s, the Urquell brewery in Plzen (German: Pilsen, adding ‘er’ for the possessive, Pilsner Urquell, or Pilzen’s Urquell brew) discovered a new and improved method of brewing beer, which is why you sometimes hear beers described as pilsners. But, as fine as Urquell is, we opted for Krosovitze, a stunning dark beer not available in the USA, at least not in Utah, but Urquell is

Getting there: It is a good way from the center of town. Take the red metro to the Roztyly station. At the top of the escalator, outside one side of the building are bus stops. Go the other way. Walk toward the street uphill from the door, looking uphill until you see the restaurant’s name in the building’s roof through and above the trees on the hillside. Now that you have it located, walk up the paved sidewalk toward the street, with the restaurant on your right, to the ascend dirt path (about halfway to the road) leading up hill into the trees. Follow that path uphill to the side of the restaurant.

On the way, stop at the Vysehrad station (surface station) for the view just outside the station.

I never pass a church in Europe without looking for an open door, as surprises lurk inside. Sometimes it is an early church a millennium old, and here and there in corners are still the remains of paint applied to decorate God’s house 700 to 800 years ago. Sometimes it is a stunning work of architecture, like with Melk, Chartres, St Vitus, Wies, York Minster, and St Stephen’s(Budapest); sometimes it is odd - bodies of long-dead saints and bishops on display in glass caskets atop the alter, a pyramid of skulls piled in the basement at St. Florian Abby; sometimes there is history - the kings of France crowned at Rheims, the Austrian Emperors crowned at Bratislava, the pulpit where Martin Luther preached; and sometimes there is music. Sometimes it’s just a dull old church, but the rewards far outweigh the disappointments.

In Austria, look for the statue of St Florient dressed as a Roman gladiator pouring water on a burning house and recite the ancient prayer to St Florient, "Good St Florient, spare my house from fire and burn down the neighbor’s instead."

On a recent 2-week Danube cruise, I found, behind open church doors, the Pressburg Children’s Choir rehearsing for a concert in Bratislava, the King’s Consort rehearsing Handle for a concert in Nürnberg, and a local choral group performing a free concert in Prague’s St Ludmilla’s, a double blessing, as the decorated interior of this remarkable church would make anybody’s top-ten list. Some of the best churches-as-works-of-art charge admission, up to $10 for Melk, but few are not worth it, except perhaps when considering subsequent visits. I like baroque and have been to Melk at least 10 times. Gothic churches I find as dull and boring as the old gray stone from which they were built. On our first visit to Prague, we were impressed with St Vitus (admission), finding it the most impressive Gothic cathedral we had ever seen, so I returned on a later visit and learned that once was enough - having seen it once, the revisit was just another dull, old, boring Gothic pile. I go out the way to find Baroque churches - I hunt them down like treasures.

Years ago, it seemed that churches in Europe were always open, but vandalism brought many locked doors, especially at lunchtime.

Churches are not the only place where I watch for an open door. I’ll look inside any interesting open door and often discover a nice little courtyard, garden, or impressive interior. If the outside of the building is impressive, I try the door, even if it is not standing open, and have found many rewards.

I’ve yet to get into trouble barging in through an interesting door and playing the dumb tourist. Sometimes a cop nicely chases us out, but sometimes it brings good luck. I went to find to the room in the Esterhazy Palace, now government offices, in Eisenstadt, where Haydn led the orchestra. I went in a door near where the Michelin Guide indicated the hall should be and was stopped by a guard, who jabberer away at me in German. I replied, "I don’t understand German," and he switched to English, "The building is not open." "Oh, I was trying to find the Haydnsaal" (note the use of the proper German name, sending a message of politeness and knowledge of Austrian culture), trying to look disappointed. He must have been bored or feeling lonely or generous, for he shrugged and said, "Come with me," and I got an escorted tour of the concert hall, with explanations of why the floor was wood instead of marble (Haydn made the prince tear out the expensive original marble floor because it produced too much echo), where the orchestra performed (in the balcony), and where the prince and his guests sat in the middle of the great marble hall in a semicircle with Haydn, the most famous musician in the world, standing at the apex, leading the orchestra from afar.

So, when traveling, look for the open door and enter. A whole world waits inside.

Budapest has so much to offer, you might think it hard to pick one not-to-be-missed experience, but it was easy – do not miss having an afternoon snack at Gerebaud. Calling it a coffee shop, café, or patisserie makes no more sense than calling Versailles a house. Gerebaud is one of the best examples of one of Europe’s greatest and most unique contributions to eating, the fancy pastry shop. Little shops serving excellent cakes, pastries, and ice-cream concoctions abound in Europe, but only a few rise to the level of Gerebaud, perhaps only Vienna’s Deml.

Gerebaud rises above the ordinary pastry shop in its dining rooms, with several chambers of opulent, over-the-top 1880s interior finery that recall a distant, perhaps imaginary, time of elegance, lace, and gentility. The walls of each room are covered in patterned satin, green in one room, dark red in another, with stucco decoration around the ceilings and window and door. The ridiculously small tables are of heavy marble with guild legs and silly little chairs.

Although it was very hot and there was extensive outside seating with lots of umbrellas for shade, we never hesitated on both our visits to sit inside in the wonderfully ornate rooms.

Even if you know from looking at the menu, the laminated plastic menu with color photographs of the offerings seems strangely out of place in this 19th-century public palace – don’t miss taking a trip up to the order desk to view the display case. The ice-cream confections were a wonder – three flavors of ice cream, two types of sauce, real whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry on top – and to eat. And so were the superb cakes (tortes).

Although overpriced, the whole experience makes it well worth the tariff.

Gerebaud is on one side of Vosomarty Ter (Vosomarty Ter metro; do not confuse it with Vosomarty Ut. Metro).

The Austrian Empire dominated Europe from the 11th to 20th the Century. Time, wealth, and power built three of today’s greatest European capitals– Vienna, Prague, and Budapest–-all must-see destinations. Unfortunately, our two days in Budapest were only long enough for an introduction to this marvelous old capitol.

Castle Hill is a superb collection of old, mostly Baroque buildings. Every street is worth exploring. Be sure to see the side of the Palace opposite the Danube facing side. By some accounts, the Hilton lobby sits over a boundary stone marking the eastern limits of the Roman Empire, but if that’s true, why are there Roman ruins across the river?

See the view of Pest from Castle Hill, Fisherman’s Bastion, and along the river across from Parliament.

See the view of Castle Hill from Pest near the Chain Bridge.

Visits to St Stephen’s and St Matyas cathedrals were well worth it.

The area between Parliament and St Steven’s is a wonderland of Art Nouveau buildings. Don’t miss the memorial to Prime Minister Imre Nagy, executed by the Russians after the 1956 failed revolution. Nagy stands facing the Russian Embassy, but his face is turned toward the Hungarian Parliament building. At nearby Liberty Square, a Soviet War Memorial, guaranteed by treaty, faces the U.S. Embassy.

Although unplanned, we arrived for the biggest weekend of the Budapest Folk Festival–-folk music and dance groups from around the world performing free on several outdoor stages along the Danube. The main show, lasting 3½ hours, was repeated three times at three locations, all within blocks of our hotel. The day closed with a grand fireworks show over the Danube. If you have flexibility in your travel dates, go for this Saturday in June.

Walk around Vajdahunyad Castle, built for Hungary’s 1000th birthday in 1896, its many facades reproduce 20 of Hungary’s most famous buildings, in a variety of architectural styles. It’s crazy, but somehow it all hangs together. (Heros’ Square metro).

Have snack at Gerbeaud (see entry).

Public transportation is incredibly cheap and goes everywhere. Stop first at one of the city’s tourist information offices and ask how to use it and how to get to your destination if it involves a bus. Although bus routes are marked on some tourist maps, they are very hard to read, and incomplete. The bus maps at the metro station aren’t much better.

The #10 bus from Pest to Castle Hill is a bargain compared to the funicular and a pretty ride.

Hungarian is a baffling language, but English was widely spoken and English menus were readily available in the city center, which is also where most of the tourist attractions are.

Our ship docked about a 15-minute walk outside the town of Melk. Bus transportation to and from the Abby was provided. Since the Abby sits on a cliff high above the town, taking the bus is a good idea, but the optional downhill walk back from the Abby through the quaint, old town to the ship was a good choice. Somewhat regrettably, since Melk is one of Europe’s premier tourist attractions, the main street of the old village of Melk is a string of hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. Still, the 300-year-old Austrian ambience made it a pleasant stroll. Everybody comes to Melk to visit the Benedictine Abby, perched high above the Danube. The site of the Abby was once home to the first Kings of Austria, the Babenburgs, but Jacob Prandtauer, the famed baroque architect, put Melk on the map. The Abby’s west wing, which is seen from the town below, is 1,100 feet long. This was our tenth visit or so to the Abby, a never-to-be-missed destination when we are in east of the Rhine. We had to wait about 15 minutes in line to enter the Abby. On a previous visit, I counted 62 tour bus parking spaces in the parking lot. There were eight buses there for a 15-minute wait. I can’t imagine what the wait is when the place is busy. Unfortunately, there have been some changes. The Imperial Apartments have been turned into a religious museum. The stucco work, inlaid floors, and frescos have been covered up with blue cloth drapes to provide a fittingly somber backdrop against which to display a bunch of old chalices, miters, bishops robes, and assorted religious claptrap, so we quickly abandoned our guided tour and headed for the real treasures, which now commence on entering the banquet room, the aptly named "Marble Hall," the last and most impressive of the Imperial Chambers. Here we finally found Prandtauer’s genius uncovered and in full flower: marble columns, gold leaf, wild stucco creations, complex inlays, and a vast ceiling fresco. We hung in the room until we caught a gap between tours when we could take in the whole shebang and take pictures without heads in the way.

We left the dining room to go out onto the balcony, with its great views of the Danube Valley, the little town of Melk nestled against the cliff below the Abby, and the facade of the Abby Church. Crossing the balcony, we entered the famed Abby Library, another superb outburst of Prandtauer’s imagination, where we attached ourselves to an English-speaking guide to learn the details of the library, which boils down to this: for a few hundred years, this was one of the Western World’s great centers of learning. I noticed a small volume dated 1392 on display in the corner. The guided tour ends in the library, with the guide casually mentioning "you can see the church on your way out."

On leaving the library, we went down a spiral staircase into the church. I’m not going to give the surprise away, but be sure to look over the railing of the stairway, both up and down. As soon as we could after entering the church, we turned back to watch the unsuspecting enter the church, for the guide’s seemingly dismissive set-up for the church visit was one great put-on. They could have said, "At the bottom of the stairs, you will enter the greatest building ever constructed anywhere in the world," but leaving the uninitiated thinking, it was all pretty much over and was cleverly done. After gawking at the church for awhile, we turned around to watch people enter after leaving the library. Entry is by a small door in the side rear of the church. A few steps brings the visitor to a wide-open view down the central aisle of the church, and here, first-timers stop and fall silent, their eyes bugging out, mouth dropping open, and they staring, dumbfounded.

I’ve have read a lot about the church, seen lots of pictures of it, and taken quite a few myself, but none do it justice, so I won’t even try to describe it. But, heed the words of Empress Maria Theresa, who said, after visiting Melk, "Had I not seen it, I would have regretted it."

Tips: Try to visit the church in the early afternoon on a sunny day, when sunbeams stream through the clear glass windows high on the south wall to spotlight the gleaming gold crowning the dark marble columns on the opposite wall. Prandtauer mastered special effects 300 years before George Lucas, and all he had to work with was stone, paint, plaster, and a lot of shining gold. There are also some interesting lighting effects on the main alter from the late afternoon sun.

If you are driving, the parking lot is behind the Abby, that is, at the end of the building farthest from the Danube. You can eyeball your way there or follow the "Stift Melk" signs. Or, you can climb stairs up from the town at the base of the cliff.

Admission is about $10, but there is an optional free look at the interior of the church. From the parking lot, follow the crowds to the paid admission entrance, a door in a long gallery of gothic arches with a cobblestone street separating the gallery from the side of the church. Farther on, about halfway on down the side of the church, there is a door that opens into one of the side alters. A glass partition keeps you from getting all the way inside, but from here, you can see most of the interior.

The visitation ticket also includes one of the Abby gardens. Turn left after passing out of the main Abby building on the way to the parking lot. A little baroque pavilion across the formal garden from the entrance has an ice-cream and cake shop, a far better place for a snack than the larger, more crowded restaurant just below the stairs from the parking lot.

Having only a day in Vienna is like trying to read "War and Peace" in 15 minutes. You can’t even see the highlights in a day. Fortunately for us, the 1-day stop by the cruise was our 10th day in Vienna, so we used it to take the included bus tour of the inner city, since a sightseeing drive around the Ring is always worthwhile; get us into St. Stephen’s, where we quit the tour; and go off on our own to see some of the highlights of the city we had not gotten to on our previous trips.

If you only have a day, pick from this list. If you have 2 days, you MIGHT get through the whole list.

Phooey on coffee shops. Hit a pastry shop (Konditorei) and then a café for a beer. This is a point worth extra emphasis: to not eat Austrian cake (torte--tortah) at least twice a day is to miss the country’s greatest contribution to civilization. Austria’s second greatest accomplishment is dunkle (dark) bier. Then come Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and the Strauss family. The National Library is one of the great masterpieces of baroque architecture and a definite must-see. The hours are weird. Check ahead on the Internet or at a tourist info office.

The Schoenbrunn apartments have more spectacular Braque opulence. Some of the 1,400 rooms are open to the public. Get there by the metro. There are two Schoenbrunn stops, one at each end of the palace (this is big – 1,100 rooms). Go the station farthest away from the inner city, where the masses now use the Emperor’s private metro station. And as long as you are here, see the Carriage Museum.

The finest view of the 550-foot-long exterior of the building is from the gardens in the rear, especially from the Gloriette.

Walk around the inner city. The Graben, and pretty much any other street, is worth exploring, as is a trip around the exterior of the Hofburg.

A restaurant note: Along with backhendle, Wiener schnitzel ranks as Austria’s greatest culinary accomplishment, especially when properly done, but beware the cheaper substitutes. Prime milk-fed veal, essential for great Wiener schnitzel, is expensive. Some restaurants substitute a cheaper pork fillet. To be sure of getting the real deal, ask the waiter, "Kalb oder porc?" while pointing to the Weiner schnitzel on the menu. Kalb is the right answer.

How do you know if you have scored a perfect Wiener schnitzel? First, you will be served with two plates. One, a large oval platter about a foot, across holds the schnitzel, and the plate isn’t big enough for it – it extends out over the edges. A veal cutlet is pounded out impossibly thin, breaded, and quickly fried, cooked just long enough that the breading is a crisp golden-brown, while the meat is juicy tender. A good schnitzel is easily cut with a fork or spoon. It will be accompanied by several slices of lemon. Squeeze lemon juice on the schnitzel. The second dish holds a side of green beans. Add a dunkle bier and you are set for one of the great meals.

Have lunch at the Rathskeller in the Neues Rathaus, a stunning neo-Gothic building. Order Backhendle (the Austrian model for Kentucky Fried Chicken, but the Colonel doesn’t know it) and a dunkle bier, Austrian dark beer, one of the world’s greatest brews.

If you are more inclined to art than architecture, the Kunsthistorisches Museum is one of the world’s top art museums. The Breugle collection alone is worth the visit.

The 24-hour tourist ticket for public transportation gets you around faster and much cheaper than any alternative, but a buggy ride around the inner city is a great way to rest your feet. There is buggy ride stand near St Stephen’s, opposite the start of the Graben.

Most tour books will tell you that the famous Blue Danube exists only in song, that the real river is a muddy, brown color, but don’t believe everything you read. For 4 days, we had traveled the muddy, brown Danube, but when I was returning to the ship late in the afternoon on a sunny day, walking along the quay with the sun at my back at a low angle, lo and behold, the river was a shining deep-blue color. With the slightest change in direction, mud returned, but with the sun properly lined up, the river was indeed blue. Perhaps it was just coincidence, but Johann Strauss Jr. lived just a few blocks up the street from where I saw the Blue Danube.

At Passau, the larger Inn merges with the muddy Danube. The Inn, flowing down from the high Alps, carries a load of lightly colored mountain rock sediment that gives it a milky blue color. At the convergence of the two rivers, the two colors swirl into each other, spinning eddies of blue and brown that gradually mix into the dominate brown, but there again for awhile is the Blue Danube. This is best seen from a boat.

So, while the authors of those guidebooks may have never seen the Blue Danube, I have. It’s not easy to find, but it is.

Passau, well off the typical American tourist route, except for the Danube cruises, is well worth a visit. The compact old city sits on V-shaped piece of land formed by the confluence of the rivers Inn and Danube. Atop the hill, across the Danube, is the prince archbishop’s castle, built there not to defend the city, but to give its unpopular rulers protection from the locals. On the hill, across the Inn, is the Monastery Church Mary Help, which got its name when the emperor fled from Vienna to Passau for safety from the Turkish invaders. The emperor visited the little church and is said to have prayed, "Mary, help!" and shortly thereafter, received the good news that the Turks had been defeated at the gates of Vienna.

The old city can be thoroughly explored in 2 to 3 hours, but this is a city worth lingering in, which we could not do on account of the cruise schedule, but have done before. The cathedral is a baroque masterpiece, with a spectacularly decorated interior and the world’s largest church pipe organ (regular concerts are given). The original Gothic building (1404-1530) mostly burned down and was replaced by the baroque building, except for the alter end of the church, which survived the fire. There is good view of the remaining Gothic parts of the building from the Residenzplatz. The Residenz (Bishop’s Palace) has a good baroque stairway just inside the entrance.

Our local guide, a graduate student at the nearby university working for the local tourist office, delivered the most interesting tour lecture we have ever experienced.

St Michael’s is another good baroque church, and there are two pleasant town squares, one at each end of the cathedral. One of Passau’s best attractions is simply wandering the streets and passageways of the old city. The banks of the Inn are quite steep, so most streets running across town end in a narrow stairway, going down to the one street along edge of the river.

The only drawback to the visit was not enough time. At least one more hour would have been needed to explore on our own after the guided tour, and even longer for a trip to the looming castle across the Danube, which is best accessed by car.

If you are driving, don’t miss the short side trip to Scharding, Austria (10 miles), an especially quaint, old town on the Inn. There are some impressive remains of the old medieval town walls, especially at the far end of the square, where an old city gate still stands, and along the riverside, where there is a cute little baroque parish church, an impressive town square, and few tourists. The road to Scharding also passes the Church of Mary Help and is worth a short visit.

The day of the cruise offered passengers a choice of activities: take an optional (extra-charge) bus trip to Salzburg, or stay on the ship from Linz to Passau, as the river from Linz to Passau is one of the most scenic parts of the Danube. It is also very difficult to drive if you are trying to see it by land. I once tried to drive along the river here, but found it difficult, if not impossible, because of the road system--all the minor local roads do not connect for a riverside drive. Although we could see from the ship that there were roads along the river most of the way, they were not shown on my 1:500,000-scale map. We could also see they were not continuous on either side of the river.

This was a real choice--there is no practical alternative to a boat for seeing the river scenery. So what to do? The river or Salzburg. For us, this was a no-brainer, as we had been to Salzburg three times and don’t especially like it, so we stayed onboard for the scenic cruise. If you have never been to Salzburg, it’s a tough choice, but I would stay on the boat. We have taken 15 vacation trips to Austria, and Salzburg is the only place to I have no desire to return. Some of our dislike of Salzburg may come from the extreme difficulty of driving into the old city. There is only one road into the old town. Think of the letter "D" where the Inn River forms the straight side and the curve is a mountain. The city sits within the D, with only enough room for one road to squeeze through where the mountain meets the river. Making matters worse, the mountains and the river preclude any possibility of driving from here to there in the city in anything like a straight line. Finally, on-street parking was $6 an hour in a year with a very good exchange rate (free on-street parking is available a few more blocks away from the old city, but lots of luck finding a spot).

Because of the lay of the land, only once did we arrive in Salzburg in anything like a good mood, and that may have colored our perception of the town (I’ll describe the best way to drive into Salzburg at the end of this commentary). So, keeping in mind that getting there is not half the fun, it might be okay coming on a bus tour, since the driver gets to suffer, while all the tourists have to do is sit and wait in traffic.

On the other hand, even recognizing the arrival problem, we weren’t much impressed by Salzburg. We have seen a lot of Austria in our 15 trips, and Salzburg is the only place in the country that lacks charm, and Salzburg’s lack of charm is not compensated for by great sights. There is an okay castle, okay palace, and an okay church or two, but, except for the view across the river from the Mirabel Gardens, it’s all mediocre.

To make things even worse, there hoards of tourists packing everything. While Prague also is packed with tourists, we found the mobs irritating in Salzburg, but no bother in Prague, because it is such a great place. Salzburg isn’t. Stay on the boat.

If you must drive into Salzburg, go this way: Exit the expressway at either the airport exit or the next exit to the north (routes 3 and 4 on the Michelin Guide’s town map). Turn right on Aiglhofstr. from the airport exit road or Rudolf Biebli Str. from the other exit, then left on Neutorstr. into the big underground parking garage inside the Monchs Berg. Walk out of the parking garage in the same direction you were going when you drove in and you are in the old city.

Now recognized as one of the world’s great tourist cites, Prague may well be the best Europe has to offer. We are usually put off by hoards of tourists, but they don’t bother us in Prague. So the place is jammed. Who cares? It’s Prague. We spent 2 days in Prague last year and 3 more days last month, and I’m ready to go back.

The old city – the tourist’s city – is divided into six parts, and Castle Hill and Mala Strana are on one side of the Vlatava (Moldau) River. Josefov, Stare Mesto ("old town"), Nove Mesto ("new town"), and Vysehrad are on the other bank.

Here is my idea of a perfect introduction to Prague. This will take several days.

I. The heart of Stare Mesto. Take the metro to Namesti Republiky and leave by the exit marked "Obechi Dum." This is important: use ONLY this exit, and look up as you climb the stairs to the street. The view is mind-blowing (Municipal House on the left and the Pariz Hotel to the right). Go to your left, past the front of Municipal House (look inside) to the medieval Powder Gate, and down Celetna to the justly famed Old Town Square (interiors: Tyn and St Nicholas). Walk around the square. Leave the square by The Royal Way--Male Namesti, parallel to the clock side of the Old Town Hall, to Karlova and go across Charles Bridge. Continue ahead to St Nicholas Church, Prague’s top baroque masterpiece (on the left near the altar is a staircase marked "Museum." Go up for access to the view from the high balconies along one side of the naive.)

I skipped the performance of the astronomical clock to explore the nearby streets. She stayed to watch the clock and said that I had the better use of the time.

II. Castle Hill. Catch the nos. 22 or 23 trams from the square behind St Nicholas or at the Malostranska Metro station. Get off the tram at the second stop after the metro station, cross the street, and head into the castle (nice garden to the left along the castle wall). Watch to the right for the free public restroom, the cleanest in Prague, in one of castle’s out buildings. You enter into the Second Courtyard. Turn right and exit into the First Courtyard and exit to the left to the low wall for the view over the city. Now you have a choice of loop walks - two of Prague’s best baroque works (II. a) or the castle (II. b).

II. a. Monasteries, Palaces, and Museums. Go up the street (Loretanska) that runs from the front entrance to the castle to Strahov Monastery. See the church, library, and Philosopher’s Hall. Return the way you came to Loretanska Namesti (square). Head left to the Loreta for a self-guided tour of the interior. (Be sure to include the Treasury on the second floor.) On leaving The Loreta, bear right down Cerniska to Novy Svet, one of the city’s best-preserved old streets, but curiouslyfree of tourists. Return to the castle or to Loreta Nam. to Uvoz to Nerudova , the most famous street in Mala Strana, which will take you back down to St Nicholas Church. From the front end of the castle, there is also a street going back down into the heart of Mala Strana. You can also catch the tram back to the metro from the square nearest the Strahov Monastery.

II. b. The Castle. Europe’s largest castle, the mile-long Prague Castle, is still the seat of
government. Study your guidebook to decide what parts of the Castle you want to take in.
There are a variety of combination tickets for admission to the various features. The top sight, especially for fans of Gothic, is St. Vitus Cathedral, the best of all the Gothic churches we have seen. You can get a free look at the great Gothic Hall of the Castle from the entrance. Next, I went down the Golden Lane, an improved and gentrified version of Novy Svet. The narrow, about 8 feet wide, street is jammed with visitors. One side of the street is a blank wall of one of the castle’s palaces, and the other side is lined by colorful, small houses only one room deep built up against the castle wall. There is an armory museum on the second floor above the shops, and the entrance at the uphill end of Golden Lane.

You are now at the far end of the castle, where a long stairway lined with souvenir stands returned us to the Malostranska Metro station.

III. Cross the Charles Bridge from Mala Strana to Stare Mesto. The cityscape from the bridge is well worth seeing from both directions. In 6 days, I think we crossed the bridge seven to eight times.

IV. Sunset behind Prague Castle from the Stare Mesto end of Charles Bridge.

V. Others:

a. Wenceslas Square is a wide, long street lined by impressive Art-Nouveau buildings, but nowhere near as impressive as the Old Town Square. Don’t miss the café inside the Grand Hotel Europa and the facade of the hotel.

b. Josefov was our least favorite of the four famous quarters of old Prague.

c. Views from the platform and just outside the Vysehrad metro station

d. The streets of Nove Mesto around Namesti Miru

c. The Cubist buildings at the corner where Resslova meets the river (Karlovo Nam. Metro)

d. The streets of Mala Strana

e. Wallenstein Gardens (Mala Strana, Malostranska Metro, tram nos. 22 or 23)

f. The view from the river end of Anenska Street (1 block south of Charles Bridge)

g. The interior of St. Ludmilla’s church, Nam. Miru

VI. Pick any place in Stare Mesto, Nove Mesto, Josefov, or Mala Strana and start walking. Baroque architecture prevails in Mala Strana. Josefov and Stare Mesto are a mix of baroque and Art-Nouveau buildings, and Nove Mesto is predominantly Art Nouveau.

The tourist crowds seemed to melt away as soon as we got off the main tourist streets.

TIPS: Most metro stations have one ticket machine with a button to push for instructions in English.

The most inexpensive and efficient way to get around is the 24-hour unlimited-rides ticket, good for the bus, tram, and metro, but also check out Prague Card on the Internet before you leave if you will be staying several days.

Czech food is pretty bland, except for chlebicheki (a little open-faced sandwich on a slice of baguette) and pastries, which is why we opted for French after a few days (see U Bile Kravy). Others say the pizza is very good.

A quirk of Czech restaurants that often irritates Americans is that the basket of bread the waiter puts on the table is an extra charge ($0.50 to $2). If you don’t want it, tell him to remove it when he brings it to the table. The same goes for a rack of condiments.

A US friend who grew up in Prague recommends the opera as Prague’s quintessential experience.

Somewhere once upon a time, I read something in a restaurant review where the author said that any diner who likes everything and every restaurant has no taste; he can’t discriminate the good from the bad, because not everything is good. This philosophy holds in travel, as well–-some places are more worthwhile than others; some click with the traveler, some don’t; and different people, depending on their different likes and dislikes, will resonate more with some places than with others. And vise versa. After two visits, Nurnberg still does not click. You might like it, but we are minimally impressed.

It may be that, after visiting some real heavyweight attractions–-Budapest, Vienna, Melk, Passau, and Regensburg, and with Prague only a day away–-second-string Nurnberg just doesn’t stack up, suggesting that Nurnberg might be more impressive as a first, rather than next-to-last, stop on a tour.

There are some interesting bits and pieces, but the whole doesn’t resonate with us. There is a pretty good old castle, an outstanding old city wall, some Nazi sites of mostly historical interest, some museums (which we have not visited), one good street of half-timbered houses, a couple of nice river views, and an insipid old city within the walls.

The main town square features an old Gothic church (c. 1350) and "The Beautiful Fountain", an outstanding example of a certain type of medieval (14th-century) urban decoration (extensively restored).

There is a remarkable cemetery in the summer where the graves, most of which are above-ground sarcophagi, are decked out in large planters and bouquets of flowers.

The best views of the city wall are in the neighborhood of the castle and where the river enters the old city. It costs $0.65 to use the restroom in the metro stations.