Prague

Prague is probably the most beautiful city in the world, and has definitely been one of my favourite stops so far. This is despite the fact that it rained almost the entire time we were there.
The historical centre of Prague is beautiful, and it is like walking back in time or onto a movie set. We also found Prague to be rather inexpensive and it has the best street food ever!
We had a few days in Prague so we got to do a little bit of exploring.
One of the first things we did was walk into the town square to where the famous astronomical clock is. Now every hour this clock does a performance, and every hour hundereds of tourists crowd around to see it. Don't get me wrong this clock is beautiful and an amazing piece of work especially when you consider how old it is and what it does, but this "performance" is  a little bit ridiculous. A few doors open,  a skeleton rings a bell and there is some sort of chicken that clucks.
Clocks aside we saw some incredible things in Prague.
The beautiful castle where we saw the changing of the guards, Saint Nicholas's church (this lead to a strange conversation about why Santa has a church and how baby Jesus delivers presents at Christmas not Santa) and we crossed three beautiful Charles Bridge. An absolute highlight was the nuclear bunker tour, we got to hear about the communist occupation of the Czech Republic after WWII and the lead up to the Czech Republic becoming a Republic. As part of this tour we got to go into a nuclear bunker that was built by the communists. Within the bunker there is a climbing wall, bar and a museum (yep 3 things you expect in a bunker). In the museum there was an amazing collection of gas masks and gas mask products including gas mask cribs for baby's complete with hand pump for Mum to pump air into the crib. We even got to try on a gas mask and hold an assault rifle (Simon advised me after I posed with it for photos that it actually was a real rifle).
Food was a definite highlight in Prague (ok it has been a highlight of the whole trip!). In the main squares there are a head of market stands, and a heap of food stalls. These stalls sold corn on the cob, ham off the bone, chips, spiraled fried potatoes, cider and hot dogs. But my favourite were these amazing donought like creations called Trdelnik, which is basically dough rolled around a rolling pin and cooked on a grill then rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Delicious!
One of the most interesting restaurants we attended was in Prague. Simon had a minor case of man flu so had spent one afternoon in bed sleeping (this was the perfect opportunity for me to buy a bohemian crystal vase when he wasn't looking!) so we set out to find something close to the hotel that was somewhat healthy, mainly not deep fried and served in a smoky tavern. Just around the corner from the hotel we found a restaurant that served pretty standard food - meat and veggies which sounded perfect. What we didn't realise was that this was a themed restaurant. So as we opened the door to get a table and a man dressed like Fred Flinstone complete with animal skin and face paint rushed to meet us. We had walked in to a cave man themed restaurant! We were taken into a large room which was made up with fake rocks complete with cave art and large (hopefully fake) bones decorating the place. To order your meal you were given a large menu and each item had a corresponding code, you had to write the codes down on a supplied notepad and then.... bang a giant rock on your table to get your waiters attention. In fact anytime you wanted anything such a drink or the bill you had to bang your table rock. The wait staff were all looking like they were from the set of the Flinstones and spoke in some sort of cave man language. It was a really fun experience (and rather noisy with all the rocks being banged) and the food was fantastic!
Prague was really one of my favourite cities, everything in the historical centre was just beautiful and it is definitely a place I will be visiting again. Although leaving Prague I was faced with the issue of traveling while keeping a bohemian crystal vase safe....

Flying in Germany

In the past, I may have, on occassion, had a bit of a whinge about Australian airlines and airports. After seeing how flights around Europe work, I just want to say I'm sorry, and I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again.

We have a few short flights to take inside Europe and the UK on this trip. The first was Munich to Berlin, via Air Berlin. This was only a very quick 1 hour hop, and although the airport was rubbish, the security measures extreme, and Fiona and I got shafted into separate rows despite booking the flight several months ago, it was fairly uneventful.

Today we are flying from Berlin to Edinborough, through a budget carrier called EasyJet, which I'm certain must have been the basis for the TV show "Come fly with me".

After the last experience, we knew it wouldn't be as simple as say flying from Sydney to Brisbane, so we arrived early. The first thing we noticed was there were several unhappy looking Germans waiting right near the baggage drop desk. Apparently you aren't allowed to drop off your bags unless your flight is departing within the next 2 hours. They time this down to the minute. So anyway, we check our bags, and proceed to security.

Security at German airports is ridiculous. Fiona and I stripped down to almost naked, and the metal detector still went off for both of us. This then means a frisking by some enormous German bloke barking orders in half German, half broken English. Oh, and you've got a camera in your bag? Get it out. Show me a picture on it. And I'll just take the lense cap off and stare into it to make sure it is indeed a camera, and not a couple of kilos of C4 explosives shaped exactly like a camera.

Ok so all fine now, get a coffee and stuff, flight will depart in an hour or so, no idea what gate though as its not on the board. Finally it appears on the board, and it immediately says "boarding". Rush to the gate, line up for a passport check to see if we are permitted to leave the country. We hand over our passports, the police officer says "There is no stamp. How did you get to Berlin?" We explain that we caught a flight from Munchen, and nobody stamped our passports. She looks worried. She then starts quizzing us, wanting our life story for the last month, wanting train tickets and boarding passes that we simply don't have, because who the hell keeps their old boarding passes? She even tries calling someone on the phone, there appears to be no answer, meanwhile the line behind us is building up, and we are getting just slightly worried that we will be incarcerated in Germany for not keeping an old boarding pass. Finally, she just shrugs, hands back our passports, and says we can go. Ok then.

Having apparently passed the thorough, somewhat confusing test put to us by the police, we walk around a corner, present our boarding passes and passports for I think the third time now, before being prodded into a tiny waiting room area with a plane load of people in it, to wait for the plane to arrive.

Eventually the plane arrives and my first thoughts are that it looks old. Certainly older than the planes used by Virgin and Jetstar (I found out later it was an airbus A319, launched in 1995). I tell Fiona that it is most likely on its last legs, having flown many tens of thousands of short hops across Europe over the last 20 years or so. She doesn't appreciate this.

Finally, by pure luck and as if it was some special test of patience devised just for me, there was an old scottish woman sitting in my seat. Being as polite and charming as possible, I informed the lady that I believed she was in my seat, and asked if she would mind moving. She responded sharply, and without hesitation, that seat "C" was nearest the window. Fortunately, before I got the chance to cause an international air rage incident, the flight attendant stepped in to confirm that I was in the right, and a very disgruntled old lady got out of the way to let us in, making no eye contact with either of us for the rest of the trip.

Fee's Oktoberfest Experience

Ok so this is Oktoberfest purely from my (Fee's) point of view, because I know Red is going to want to record his own version of events. Just to confirm no one was hurt in the making of Fee and a Red man Abroad Oktoberfest Edition.
As we had perfectly timed our trip to Munich with the opening weekend of Oktoberfest there was a few awesome things going on (and what felt like a million tourists there as well).
To open Oktoberfest they have a huge parade where all the breweries participate with their oompah bands, wagons full of beer kegs and all their staff all wearing their dirndls and lederhosen.
So Saturday morning we decided to head to the parade first - well actually I requested it as I love parades!! When we got there it was packed but one clever Redman found some barriers that were next to a building that were perfect for climbing up and gave a fantastic view of the parade. So we climbed up and watched and watched and watched... the parade was huge and we got there after it started but it fully made you appreciate how much beer must be served! And I was a little jealous that the staff on the floats already had beers in their hand.
When the parade was over we followed the masses to festival grounds. On the way there we got to see the tapping of the first keg by the Mayor of Munchen (best job ever!) through the window of beer hall. The tapping is followed by a 12 gun salute although Red asked if it was fireworks (not sure why he thought this as it was Midday!).
When we got to the festival grounds it was packed! Not only was it packed but their were random wagons with clydesdales still attached from the parade, which of course everyone wanted to stop to take a photo of. Eventually we made our way through the crowd. The day before a tour guide had told us about the "traditional" section of Oktoberfest, which most of the tourists avoid as you have to actually pay to go in. At this point Simon was reluctant to drink a beer, something to do with too much to drink at the Hofbrauhaus the night before. However I convinced him that it really was a good idea to at least find a table to sit at as it was Oktoberfest.
We found some empty seats in a table in a beer garden, where two Bavarian couples were seated.  After ordering a stein each (I had a Radler which is a German shandy and delicious!) we struck up a conversation with the Bavarians and by our second stein we had become friends. Our new friends were great fun and soon we were learning lots. We were told about the Wolpertinger a very dangerous German animal (google it, it is fantastic!). After a miscommunication about cocaine we got to try sniffing tobacco (hilarious!) and were gifted postcards that taught us the basics of anatomy in Bavarian.
Our new friends then nicely showed us the highlights of Oktoberfest (Bavarian style). This included a bar carousel where you can drink steins as the ride goes around. Simon had a go on one of the sideshow games, a shooting game where he got to show what an awesome shot he is. He hit 11 out of 12 targets, and managed to impress the Bavarians. He even won me a duck!
We then went to a white beer bar, just to try something different and yep they made Radlers with the white beer which was lucky for me!
Eventually it was time for our new friends to go home, after a quick stop to buy fish sandwiches. They swore they prevented you from getting drunk, we however couldn't stomach a fish sandwich after a few steins.
We said goodbye to our new friends and went to explore by ourselves. First thing on Simon's list was curry wurst.
After enjoying a huge plate of curry wurst and fries covered in mayo (yummy!) we then thought it was a great idea to go on a rollercoaster.
There was an Olympic themed rollercoaster with the 5 rings which were loop the loops! Awesome fun! Although I am not sure it was a great idea after lots of beer and curry wurst.
It was finally time to call it a day, but fun day was had by all. We also managed to avoid the legendary hill - where they leave you when you have had too much beer. 
Oktoberfest 5 out of 5 stars!

Munich, day 1.

It's now our last of 4 nights in Munich, and the city really has been extraordinarily good to us. I don't know if it's just because everyone is in such good spirits because of the festival, or if we have just been lucky, but we have had an absolutely awesome time without really planning a thing.

Our first full day in Munich was Friday, one day before the start of Oktoberfest. We started off by heading slightly out of town for a tour of the Dachau concentration camp. I won't go on about this too much, as I don't think my words could really do the experience justice, but it was emotional. If you can visit one of these memorials and not at least feel something, then there is something wrong with you. Whilst Dachau was far from the worst camp in terms of the number of people killed, it was the first concentration camp, and provided a model for camps such as Auschwitz. The tour guide we had was very good, and the museum on the site did an excellent job of explaining everything from how Hitler's national socialist party first came to power, all the way through to the specifics of the camp, and the eventual liberation by allied forces.

After returning to town, it was time for something a bit more cheerful.
Now before I get too far into this, here is a small glossary of terms:
Wasser: water.
Bier: Beer. More common, cheaper and easily obtainable in Munich than wasser. Consumed by every Bavarian man, woman and child from birth, in vast quantities.
Radler: A mixture of half bier, half lemonade. Usually consumed by (a). Small children that aren't quite ready for full strength, and (b). Fiona.
Biergarten: Outdoor beer garden. Something which appears
absolutely everywhere in Munich. Our Ibis hotel had one, every pub, restaturant and cafe has one, we went to a museum thinking we could get away from drinking bier for a while, it had a biergarten. I didn't check but I'm sure if you went to the local hospital, there would be a biergarten there.

We met up with a good mate from home who is in town for the festival, started by having a look around the (still empty) Oktoberfest site, and finished by going to the famous Hofbräuhaus for a bier and a meal. This place is amazing. For starters, its massive. Table after table and a huge outdoor biergarten. It just seems to go on forever. There is constantly German oompah music playing, steins being drank, just a great atmosphere. I was instantly hooked and sat down with a stein in one hand and a huge pork knuckle in the other. Fee settled into a radler and half a chook. It was at about this time that we met some Aussies that were looking for a table to share. This made things interesting. They were like younger, stupider models of us, and made sure that the steins, and at some point the jager shots, kept coming. Fortunately, we managed to escape the quickly escalating drunkeness before it got too out of hand, knowing that the main event was starting the next day. Even so, it was a great night, and really gave us a taste of the Oktoberfest experience even before it had officially started. 

Eagle's Nest Tour (i.e. went to Hitler's house, got snowed on)

For our second day in Salzburg we had organised a full day tour including "The Eagle's Nest", a salt mine tour, and the mountain town of Berchtesgaden .

First stop was "The Eagle's Nest", or "Kehlsteinhaus" as it is known in German, or "Eagle Hawk's Nest" as Fee had been constantly incorrectly calling it.

I was really excited to be visiting The Eagle's Nest. The history of the place is amazing. Here goes my wikipedia entry: It was constructed by the National socialist party as a 50th birthday pressent for Hitler, who used it for showing off to important guests. 8 people lost their lives constructing it, but I doubt that bothered old mate too much. Hitler apparently only ever visited it about 15 times, as he was scared of heights. The vast majority of buildings like it that belonged to the Nazis were destroyed by the allies at the end of the war, but the Eagle's Nest survived, with the British RAF claiming that they chose not to bomb it, and other sources saying that they simply couldn't hit it.

Right, so back to the tour: The weather wasn't good, it had been raining all morning and this made the bus ride up the mountain, around crazy corners with no real guard rails to speak of, that bit more interesting. It was of course worth it when we reached the top and laid eyes upon the incredible structure above.

So, after walking through Hitler's tunnel, and riding in Hitler's brass elevator, we had finally reached Hitler's tea house. We started by taking the path outside the bulding, leading up to the mountain summit, which provided excellent views of the building exterior. It would normally provide even better views of the landscape below, to a distance of around 200kms, but visibility was fairly limited due to the weather. However we did get some glimpses of the town below and the surrounding mountains.

It then started snowing, a lot, so we headed inside to have a look around. The most impressive part of the interior, in my opinion, is the Italian red marble fireplace, which was a gift to Hitler from Benito Musselini, and was complete with chip marks from allied soldiers looking for souveniers back in 1945.

It was soon time to head back down Hitler's elevator, through Hitler's tunnel, onto the bus, and back down the mountain. Further down the mountain towards the town of Berktesgarten, were the former residences of many high ranking members of the Nazi party, inlcuding Hermann Göring , Albert Speer, and Adolf himself. You might remember some of these names from the Quentin Tarantino documentary "Inglourious Basterds".

Vienna

After a little bit of confusion we made it to our apartment in Vienna, the person arranged to meet us their didn't show up, the man on the phone spoke terrible English and luckily a nice German girl helped translate so we could get the pin number for the key lock box. Then the person who was meant to show up the next day to collect our money didn't show - wonderful organisational skills!
As we only had a short time in Vienna soon after arriving we headed out promptly and hired some bikes. This was a lot of fun although the bike paths were a bit confusing at times. Bike riding was a great way to see the city and it was pretty successful I managed to only hit one pedestrian (oopps)! So as we rode around Vienna we found some lovely gentleman dressed as Mozart in the park selling tickets to a legitimate Viennese classical music concert - so the romantic Simon decided to take me on a date. 
Prior to our romantic night of classical music we randomly found an aussie bar for a quick drink. They served cider so I was excited. In the bar we made friends with a drunk Brissy girl, her Italian friend and were served Irish cider by a Norwegian and a German. Definitely an Aussie experience!
We then went off to find our concert, and after lining up with hundreds of bus tour groups we were informed we had lined up for the wrong concert. Luckily the Palace our concert was in was just across the road (lots of Palace's in Vienna!).
The concert was a really fun experience with ballet, opera signing and classical music. It was definitely aimed at tourists who were not classical music buffs. The fact that it was a "tourist trap" was a shock to the American's sitting behind us, and the "Mozart" they got their tickets from seemed like such a nice genuine guy!
The next morning we headed into the city center as there was a church tower Simon wanted to climb. And boy did we climb! We had to climb 382 stairs up a spiral stair case that was quite narrow. The view at the top was amazing but phew those stairs were hard.
Later that day we went to the Imperial Palace, where the Spanish Horses are shown (unfortunately didn't get a chance to see them), and the Sisi Museum. The  museum showed you the living quarters King Franz Josef and Queen Sisi (who tragically died and then became super popular).
For dinner we lashed out and went to an Austrian Aldi where we scored fish, vegetables, beer, wine and ice cream for like 10 euro, a bargain.
We finished our time in Vienna with a ride on the Riesenrad, a giant wooden ferris wheel that has been operated for 100 years. We got beautiful views of the whole city and was a lovely way to end our time in Vienna!

Salzburg

Our first experience in Austria was the incredible view of the mountains that can be seen from the train on the couple of hour trip from the border up to Salzburg. Our second was the crazy taxi driver that was about 500m into the trip to our hotel when he spotted some people giving away free milk drinks, slammed on the brakes, apologised, ran over to them (meter still running), grabbed two cartons of the milk things, threw them in the boot and continued the journey. Upon arrival to the Bloberger Hof hotel, he asked us if we drank milk, then thrust four of the drinks in our hands (presumably as compensation) and sent us on our way.

The Bloberger Hof, amusing name and all, deserves a special mention as it was a fantastic place to stay. When we arrived we were informed that we were in the honeymoon suite. The lady then inquired as to whether we were on our honeymoon, and I think the look on my face would have immediately told her that this was not the case. Nevertheless, it was a very comfotable, large room, equipped with all the necessities of an Austrian hotel: Balcony with amazing view of the Alps, ye olde minibar with bier and schnapps, four post bed with large mirror on the ceiling, everything you could want really.

On our first day out in Salzburg the weather was rainy one minute, rainier the next, but it didn't worry these two brave adventurers, equipped with weather proof jackets, and passes that gave us access to every indoor attraction in the city. So, we started by waiting for the Glockenspeil (spelling?) to sound, signifying to all that it was 11.07am (cmon Austria, a bit of German efficiency please), before heading up to the huge fortress that overlooks the city.

The castle was an amazing series of structures. It is one of the largest surviving castles in Europe, and inside was pretty much exactly like "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" on Xbox, except Nazis with Sten machine guns weren't hiding around every corner, and they probably didn't have a giant robot Hitler in the basement. Still, it was very impressive, providing excellent views of the surrounding landscape, and containing a number of museums in its many rooms.

Other highlights of the day included visiting Mozart's birthplace, ducking over the river to Mozart's house, seeing Mozart's statue, listening to some of Mozart's music, learning a bit more about Mozart's life, eating Mozart's (chocolate) balls, and having pork weinerschnitzel for dinner, which was one of Mozart's favourite dishes.