Czech-one-two...

(Yes I know.)

Since Dubrovnik we've been on the road for a bit over a week and have covered a bit of ground. Because of time constraints, as serious as they are for a 19 week trip, we decided to do Austria and the Czech Republic in a week.. So it was Vienna and Prague. But first we rounded out our time in Croatia with three more nights at the same camping spot we spent our first two nights. It was that good. It could only have been better if we'd had a boat and some rods. See for yourselves.

Austria was...I'm not sure what Austria was. Vienna didn't do much for us, but then that probably had a bit to do with not seeing one tourist information centre at all while we were there. That made the public transport difficult, though we figured it out in the end with a bit of help from an old lady waiting for the tram.

We did, however, find a nice place to stay outside Vienna. It was a winery/restaurant with a vineyard behind. They parked us out the back with the tractors, and fixed up the bill by going inside for a glass of wine and some pork crackling. Bloody good.

To slow the pace a bit we spent a couple of nights out in the sticks, in a little town called Eggenburg, a walled medieval town. It was lovely to get back to a small town like the ones we enjoyed so much in Belgium. The photos below are from the neighbouring town, Stoizendorf, a 45 minute walk away. It's an old wine producing area. One street was lined on both sides with cellars dug into the banks and vineyards in the fields behind. A great spot.

Prague, where we were today, was really nice. One of the first things we noticed was that even the tourists seemed a bit more relaxed. We didn't have to spend half our time fighting our way through the crowds. There were lots more old buildings, Prague is a nice looking city, lots more nick-nack vendors, and all the stuff other cities have. We did check out the Communism Museum which was recommended to us by some friendly young dutchies at our campsite. It was, of course, specifically about communism in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) and it was really well put together. Those years must have been horrendous for the people who lived through it.

We did also see some happy things. There was an old man playing jazz on a corner in the city. He had a cd playing and soloed to it on sax and trombone. Every now and then he'd stop playing and just sing along. It was excellent, plus he was at least 80 wearing suspenders over his white shirt. The real deal.

So that's it so far. Tomorrow we head to Germany which should be a nice relaxing time, hopefully seeing a bit of their national parks. Till next time.