First thing in the morning I check the programme guide and anythin of note, I set to record, then if I forget, I can watch it later. I love my freeview plus!
I thought Prague, Vienna and Budapest were some kind of holy trinity? Compare and contrast, sort of thing? If I was doing similar, I'd definitely factor Ljubljana and Zagreb into that itinerary somewhere
I just felt a little let down by Vienna, in contrast to the other places I visited. It felt like you had to be older and wealthier to enjoy it. Admittedly I didn't get out to the Palace though, which is meant to be pretty special. And yeah, I wanted to see Italy so went in that direction, but really fancy going to Ljubljana, Bled and into Croatia.
If you went to Vienna and didn't go to the summer palace then you missed the best thing there. If you go to Vienna in the Summer they have a free music area behind the rathaus which is either a live performance or a recording where the locals gather after work. They also have a foods of the world festival where you can pick up different styles of food for 5 or 6 Euros a pop which is a bit lower than the average cost of a meal there. The National gallery and museums are also pretty good and there is a brilliant gelaterie at Swedenplatz near the quay. I loved the contrast between Vienna and Budapest as the former twin cities of the AustroHungarian empire. Vienna so much the modern efficient Germanic city compared to Budapest being a good example of the old Soviet system. If I had had to choose I'd definitely not bother with Prague which I felt was hugely over rated and full of stag parties and adult entertainments. Good beer,crap food and stunning women but you can honestly do Prague in a day.
Disagree about Prague, you need more than a day just to take in all that's going on on the Charles Bridge, also you must have been very unlucky to find crap food, I found some wonderful restaurants serving exceptional food very cheaply!
I agree with Dave. Prague may have become a recent 'stag / hen weekend' jaunt, but when I went it was very different to that and totally mindblowing - and you wouldn't begin to scratch the surface in 24 hours.
I spent four days there and ended up spending the last day riding the tram along the Danube to the lido which was superb as I had run out of things to do in the guide!. I ended up eating Italian food on the last night due to having three really poor meals on the first three nights. For me the Charles bridge was impressive but I'd not spend the day on it.! I was really disappointed with Wenceslaus Square, other than the clock very little to look at. I went in the late 90's so things may have improved but it was a lot smaller and dirtier and seedier than I had imagined. I got fed up being repeatedly propositioned by women of questionable morality and blokes trying to get me to visit their clubs. That said the beer and stunning women just milling around did soften the blow somewhat but not somewhere I could recommend with a good conscience.
Some of the basement jazz clubs are totally wonderful, though when I went many didn't have fire escapes, etc Plus the stately Vltava river flowing sedately through countless photo friendly bridges, the incredible old Jewish quarter / cemetery, and stunning buildings all in subtle pastel colours. I loved it, so there
What's not to love! Really appreciating this thread, still working on my itinerary for June. Great to hear the experiences of some of you. Definitely getting to Bled and Ljubljana, hoping then to get over to Italy. I notice there's no direct train, sounds a bit convoluted, but there you go. I noticed when Portillo did it on his Euro travels, he took a freight train! Afraid I don't have the pull of the BBC!
I would definitely recommend Berlin for three or four nights. If you go to Berlin make sure you visit the Pergammon Museum - it is not massive but it is an amazing concept. Look it up on the web - fantastic. If you do Charlottenburg then make sure you go down to the Mausoleum as the marble works are pretty impressive. Potsdam is only a short hop and well worth a look. The Reichtag and Brandenburg gates are both impressive although I found checkpoint Charlie very cheesy. The museum on the old Gestapo HQ the "Topography of Terror" is fairly stark look back at the Holocaust and WW2 in general -it pulls no punches. The old East of the city can be a bit iffy at night particularly if you are non-white and non-heterosexual but that can be said of a lot of the former Soviet block areas and personally I found Berliners to be very friendly and welcoming and they didn't laugh too much at my weak attempts to speak the lingo (which was kind).
