Saturday - March 30
Back to Zurich today with an overnighter at the Radisson before catching our 8:30am (Sunday) flight to Prague.
Sunday - March 31
We were up early for our 8:30am flight to Prague, made even earlier due to daylight saving time starting. All went smoothly - half empty flight - car/driver waiting - early check-in to our Junior Suite at the Hilton Old Town - including access to the Club Lounge to our surprise.
We spent the afternoon doing a bit of a self-guided walking trip around the old town, walking up to the castle and crossing the famous George Bridge. We had a light lunch in a pub near our hotel. After happy hour in the club we had dinner at Zinc in our hotel - good food but it was empty so no atmosphere.
Monday - April 1
A great warm (18℃) and sunny day - we did a big self-guided walking tour and spent a lot of time in the castle visiting the paid admission areas. We took the famous number 22 tram back towards the old town but jumped off when we were close to the entrance to the castle grounds (where we had started our day) to have lunch at Villa Ricter - a vineyard within the castle grounds. As it was already quite late (after 1:30pm) we made an afternoon of it - then headed home. The lunch was amazingly good - both the food (guinea fowl and duck) and the vineyard’s own wine. Since we’d had such an excellent lunch we just had snacks in the lounge for dinner.
Tuesday - April 2 - Karlovy Vary aka Karlsbad
We’d booked a car and driver for the day to take us to Karlovy Vary - a wonderful old spa city about 2 hours drive away. We were surprised when our driver said he’s never been there. We spent a few hours walking around and window shopping - it must be a very rich town as the streets are lined with ultra high-end shops. All of the river front cafes were pretty much empty (it was still a bit early season and it was quite a cool day) so we ended up having a pretty ordinary lunch in a pub - for $20. Amazingly in this very touristy town the staff in the pub did not speak any English, like not one word. Even the menu was only in Czech with a few words of German thrown in - our waitress found a waiter who spoke some German so we were able to order a beer, a glass of wine, one spaghetti olio and a salad.
Back at home - we enjoyed happy hour in the Club then had dinner at the bar in the Marriott hotel across the street from us. Service staff spoke English and were very friendly.
Wednesday - April 3 - Karlstejn
We took the train to Karlstejn, about 40 minutes away, to visit the famous castle. From the train station it’s still a 20-30 minute walk uphill but we made it. You can only visit the castle on a guided tour and fortunately for us the English tour was starting not long after we got there. All in all the tour was a bit boring but it was a nice day out - there is nothing else to do in the town unless you wish to purchase kitch souvenirs. After the visit we had lunch at a local restaurant which was OK - when we tipped our waiter he was totally astonished - I guess tipping outside of Prague is unheard of - maybe that explains some / many of the grumpy service staff. We then took the train back to the city and laid low until happy hour - updating blogs etc.
After happy hour we had dinner at a local restaurant, Adele - very trendy looking with excellent reviews but it didn’t knock our socks off.
Thursday - April 4 - Cresky Krumlov (cancelled)
We had another big day out planned - with a car and driver to visit CK - 2.5 hours drive each way. However the booking agency made a mistake and booked us on an 11 hour bus trip - once we realised the mistake it was too late for them to get us a car in time to make our trip - so we cancelled - refund came through a few days later.
Instead we visiting various sites in the old town - dancing house (ho hum) and the monastery where there is an amazing library of ancient books which can only be viewed from the door way - it also had the most expensive toilet in the city (20 czk or 1 EUR). We had a light / late lunch at Villa Richter again, great but service was a bit loosey-goosey. As I was having a severe bunion attack we headed back to the hotel a bit early and had a rest.
As planned we had dinner at a local fine dining restaurant - Portfolio - excellent but expensive by Czech standards but not by Sydney standards.
Friday - April 5 - Dresden
It was off to Dresden by train at 10:30am - there was an issue with the hotel taxi to the station - the driver insisted we pay cash even though we had paid the hotel. Once we got to Dresden we called the hotel and they sorted it out immediately - refunding us.
We arrived at the Hilton in the old town in Dresden around 1pm - after checking-in we had a light lunch then did a self-guided tour around the old town and a bit of shopping - browsing actually.
After showers we hit the Club Lounge for happy hour where the food offerings were much better than the Hilton in Prague - it was temping to just make a meal of it; however, we were able tor restrain ourselves. We had dinner at the fine dining Italian restaurant in the hotel which was offering 20% to hotel guests - it was excellent (rack of local lamb for Dieter and sea bass for me).
Saturday - April 6 - Dresden
It was another fine day - sunny with temps 7-19℃. After breakfast which was again superior to Prague - gotta love those Germans - smoked salmon and pretzels.
We spent the morning in the Dresden castle - totally amazing - restored after it was wiped out in 1945. After lunch in an outdoor cafe - we walked around the old town snapping photos.
After a drink in the lounge we decided not to go out for dinner but get by on lounge snacks.
Sunday - April 7 - Dresden
A bit of a big day out - off to Kirnitzchtalbahn by tram and S-bahn - a local tourist area with scenic towns and many hiking trails. We had a nice day - taking a ferry across the river, riding a vintage train and having lunch.
Monday - April 8 - Dresden to Zurich
Our flight back to Zurich was only at 8:30pm so we checked out of our hotel and spent the day visiting Meissen where the highlight was the Meissen factory and tour. On the way back we stopped at the Dresen Panometer - an amazing exhibit in an old gas works with 360ᵒ pictorial on a 1:1 scale of the city after the Allied bombing in 1945 which destroyed the city in one night.
It was then off to the airport where our flight was delayed but we finally made it to the Radisson at around 10pm.
Tuesday - April 9 - Zurich - Singapore - Sydney
We left Europe on SQ around mid-day - arriving home 2 days later at 6pm Wednesday evening.