by Justin
The lake in Bluntautal Valley is a beautiful alpine spring with a surface like stained glass. This valley looks like it was pulled directly out of a fairy tale story. This valley is surrounded by a beautiful forest and huge mountains that jut into the …
Located over the Salzach Valley, Hohenwerfen Castle is a large and imposing medieval fortress positioned like a sentry over the town of Werfen. Despite being so imposing, the castle is quite a magnificent site with its pinnacle towers jutting into the sky like arrows. The …
My Fürst recommendation for when you go to the Salzburg region is to go to Cafe Fürst and try some original Mozartkugel. 125 years after their creation, Paul Fürst’s original Mozartkugel (a delicious chocolate orb with a pistachio marzipan core) is still famous today. A true Cafe Fürst Mozartkugel is wrapped in an only blue and silver wrapper, however the imitation brand’s wrapper is red with a color image of Mozart’s head instead of the silver silhouette on a true Cafe Fürst Mozartkugel. When my mom went into a store and got a package of the non-original ones, she took one bite and threw the whole thing in the trash, and said “the ones at Cafe Fürst are much better.” The Mozartkugel that I got were bought by my family at the original Cafe Fürst. The Cafe Fürst Mozartkugel may be more expensive, but they are the perfect symphony of flavors and textures. Overall, Cafe Fürst’s Mozartkugel may have been the best treat on my trip to Austria and the Czech Republic.
Schloss Hellbrunn is a summer palace from 1615, meant for Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus. He used this palace for the entertainment of the people in his kingdom. The coolest thing about this palace is its trick fountains, marvels of ancient engineering that blast water out of strange positions at unexpected times. One of the fountains is actually a table and chairs. When activated, this fountain sprays water up the pants of unexpecting guests. The only chair that doesn’t spray water is the one that Markus Sittikus ate at located at the head of the table, which meant that all of his guests were left soaked after a meal, but he remained dry. Another extremely cool fountain is not so much of a trick, but it really puts on a show. This fountain launches a golden cap into the air before bringing it back down gently. This fountain was actually made to represent the rise and fall of the monarchy. Another extremely cool fountain is in a very unexpected position. Two deer head statues located on the walls of a palace building shot water from every point on their antlers as well as blasting water in all directions from their mouths. The palace was originally used to entertain Markus Sittikus’ subjects and the systems that he used to entertain them still work on people today. Overall, while not the most grand of palaces, this one has quite a few tricks up its sleeve and this makes it awesome in a different way than other palaces. I recommend that you go on a warm day because the fountains will probably spray you from all sorts of odd positions (I had an unassuming gargoyle head shoot me in the butt).
If you want fun activities, relaxing luxury suites, amazing wildlife, great scenery, and rich history, look no further than the Schloss Fuschl; it has all of this and more!!! This incredible hotel is actually a refurbished palace in an amazing rural lake setting. It is …
The best part of Český Krumlov was the castle and its spectacular bear moat. One of the most amazing features of the castle was the huge ornamental tower sticking out like a giant toothpick in vibrant shades of green, red, and yellow. Another incredible feature …
Our first day in Český Krumlov was spent on the river. We rented a three person raft and rode down the river to avoid the tourist-packed hours of the day. The rafting company told us to go on the more rural route because it was less crowded and had amazing scenery. One amazing part of the boat trip was all of the birds: a behemoth flock of white-winged terns, a family of ducks that followed us down the river for at least a mile before giving up, two common kestrels, and a hugely beautiful great grey heron with spectacular plumage. We also saw tons of dragonflies zooming around mini lily pads, like an airport of metallic blue four-winged hover planes on time lapse. Another interesting sight was a green dragonfly stuck to the tail of a blue dragonfly.
Another amazing part of the trip were the weirs, which are boat waterslides enabling you to cross the dams in the river without capsizing. The dams are there to slow the flow of the water in the Vltava River to stop the river from flooding. These weirs are the best part of the rafting trip, and the bigger the better. Going down a weir is basically like going down a wet slide in a boat.
The only tough parts of the trip were that we accidentally got the raft stuck on the rocks three times, but we just pushed off and kept going. By the end, my butt was starting to hurt so I kept changing positions, but in the end it was very worthwhile. My advice is to start your rafting trip at 10:00 in the morning and paddle 9.3 miles to Zlatá Koruna, just like we did. This route will almost certainly give you enough time to avoid the tourist-packed mid-day hours.
On the road from Prague to Český Krumlov we saw two amazing castles. Their names are Zvíkov and Hluboká, and they are almost completely different… aside from one thing, they are both spectacular in their own ways. Zvíkov was at the point where the Otava …
Our second walking tour day was mostly on the hill where Prague Castle and Strahov Monastery are situated. I think the best part of our tour was the monastery on the top of the hill. The Strahov Monastery on the hill overlooking Prague Castle is …
The first stop on our recent trip was Prague, a city overflowing with fun and history. Both of our days were super-fun private walking tours around the city. Our guide Lucka made sure that we had a great time on both of our tours and she was great for families with kids. She knew a lot about the city. She was a local, so she knew all of the ins and outs and knew all of the good shops too. I would definitely recommend getting a tour from her when you come to Prague. Click to find information about getting a tour: Caput Regni Private Family Walking Tours.
On the first day of our tour, we saw three synagogues, lots of churches, the famous Charles Bridge, and the astronomical clock. Our first day on the walking tour was mostly about the Jewish section of Prague. We went into three synagogues, but only one is still in use now. The outside of the synagogues were not flashy or ornate, but the torah pedestal is nothing short of spectacular. When we went into the active synagogue we saw the actual former seat of Rabbi Loew (Rabbi Loew was actually rumored to have created Golem, but it went on a rampage and he destroyed (or at least deactivated and partially broke) it to save Prague from it). Even now, no one is allowed to sit in his seat in order to preserve it.
Both the famous Charles Bridge and the incredible astronomical clock are wonders of the worldwide architecture and some of the most well-known parts of Prague. The Charles Bridge has around thirty statues on its guardrails, but only the greenish-one with five stars circling its head is actually from the original set on the bridge. This monstrous medieval bridge has a very interesting way to shield itself from floating ice chunks (this defense takes the form of wooden shields in front of the pillars to deflect the ice). The astronomical clock’s face shows all twelve signs of the zodiac, as well as: day (blue), sunrise/sunset (red), and night (black) on its huge circle. Its hands actually show the sun and the moon’s position relative to the current time in Prague. For example, if the sun is pointing straight up the clock tower, it is noon. Though very different, both of these features are some of what make Prague the way it is.
Later, we went across the river to Vyšehrad fortress. We ended our first tour here, and went down the hill and had lunch before riding the tram back to our hotel and ending the first great day of our incredible trip.
A little tip for you when you go to Prague is something I learned from my guide and from watching the Honest Guide videos on YouTube: Chimney Cakes (aka trdelník) are not traditional Czech, but are Hungarian (seriously, Google it.) They should call them “chimney fakes” rather than “chimney cakes”! Here is a link to a video that I watched from the Honest Guide, a local who caught many scams, and this is one of them: Honest Guide Czech Candy Video. His videos are really interesting and have lots of information about visiting Prague.
I just went on a completely super terrifically incredible trip to Austria and the Czech Republic! On this trip, I went to Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Salzburgerland, and last but not least, Vienna. In my upcoming posts you will hear about all of the incredible things …
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