Today was to be a wonderful day. I knew it from the beginning seeing as how we had a full day of interesting places to visit. The first on our list was taking the train by a relatively popular natural site of Germany called Saxon Switzerland National Park. This features a cliff side monolith area with a walkway, overlook, to hoodoos on top of a mountain. The first obstacle to overcome was to cross the river located about 50yds from the train tracks.
The town was called Schimilke and in order to get to the natural area one had to utilize a paid for ferry for 2EU per person. The way they crossed was pretty unique seeing as how a small boat that can carry out 20 people would be attached to a large concrete pole int he middle of the river, and as the ship disembarked from the bank of the river, the rear fin was adjusted to create the push of water via river flow. It was a slow but efficient process, and in about 10 minutes we had crossed the river.
The park itself is free, but there were many vendors in the sale town area to buy breakfast, snacks, and novelties. It was about a half mile steep ascent to reach the overlook and top of this park. This was a great hike, and way to stretch our legs, the only bad part was we had our back packs and it took its toll carrying through the day. Nonetheless we did reach the top.
There are about a mile of immediate trails to see all the overlooks of this, and to explore the cliffs, and restaurant. The restaurant itself was a pleasant surprise since we were starting to get hungry. WE decided to get a banana, and a bread roll with a drink as a snack up at the top. This was a great area to relax and see over the land we had just ascended, and to be able to once again know we were deep in the thick of this trip and be happy with our efforts thus far. We decided after taking the highest hiking trail and enjoying the top to head back down, and take the ferry back across. I supposed the 2EU was a good deal since it was both directions the fee covered.
Now it was time to spend about 2 hours getting to Prague. This particular train ride, was not exactly comfortable. The closer we got to Prague the more full the train became, and we already we sitting on the ground since it was busy being almost an hour and half from the city. We did arrive eventually on time, thank goodness seeing as how there were multiple times people were upset with the conductor for not letting the full amount of people wont he train.
This is where the currency changed from EU to Coroner, thus we needed to exchange some euros when the opportunity arrises, so in the train station we did just that (about 100EU converted). I still tried to use my credit card for everything. Upon arriving it was later in the day, (about 2pm), and we still had not checked into our hostel. We were located about a half mile walk from the train station to the hostel. This hostel and train station was called…. and it was actually a nice walk to get there and stretch the legs which had been sitting on the whole time. Upon checking in we were pleased to find that we had a room to ourselves instead of a shared dorm. This allowed us to leave our things and go explore the city while giving out backs a rest. Thus that is what we did.
We headed out to the local snack mart for water and a snack, then decided to a actually walk into the historic section of the city. Up to this point it had not been interesting as we were in the metro suburb here there was little history and architecture. Nonetheless a short half mile walk inward brought us to the river, and the access to the famous Old town of Prague.
This city quickly became one of my favorites as we got closer. Even though it was one of the dirtier cities, we could tell we were in for a treat to explore. This would be a half day to explore during the evening since we were to come back the next day and have a full day to spend. After exploring the … cathedral on our way downtown, we decided it was time for dinner, and as we approached the old town square (very famous), we had stopped at an underground restaurant for dinner, and it was delightful underground gourmet and local fare. The prices in Prague are very cheap relative to Europe thus we enjoyed a great dinner on the relative cheap. I had a beer, and we both split a chicken and duck dinner with sides. This ran us only about 20$.
After dinner we decided to go see the old town square as it was starting to get darker yet the sun was still up. To our dismay the old town clock which was world famous was under construction, thus we were only able to get a picture and view of the covering they gave it. Either way the old town square it was located in was a nice place to relax as there were vendors, and locals enjoying the evening and many musicians who’re extremely talented performing. As a pianist I even saw a man on a keyboard playing Franz Liszts la Campanella which is incredibly difficult!
From this area we were to try one of the famous desserts in the city called Medovnik which was a waffle type cone breading that was filled with ice cream and treats. This was almost like fair food that was extremely tasty. I highly recommend anyone going here should try one of these. This was where it was starting to get dusk, and from this point we were at the famous old town bridge called the Charles Bridge, which featured many statues of historical figures of Prague. This is where there were almost 50 street performers, and people gathered to listen and dance as this was a walking bridge for people only. It was here we watched the sunset to some of the most epic music me and Ashley enjoyed…. this was pure nostalgia. There was a feeling of peace and happiness knowing we were doing what we loved and the plan had come together perfectly up to this point. If I were to break this trip into sections, I would say I felt the first quarter of this trip had just been reached as a milestone.
After the sun set we decided to head back to the hotel and grab a beer at a bar, and then one for the room so we could cleanup and get ready for an exciting day tomorrow.
BOOKED July 24 -Saxon Switzerland NP
dresden to
6:59-7:32 SBA31711
to Kurort Rather Station
SBA31729 12:02-12:23
To Schoena Station
(2:58 RE 5448 to Decin Hlavni Nadrazi chg 3:26-5:08 FT 687)
EXPENSES
13.90 breakfast
4 ferry
2 water
6.85 snack top of hike
4 fries
Coroner currency
27 water
35 water
301 dinner
745 beer
160 beer
57.06 adjusted from corona