Sticker Shock...

Ouch! Vienna is expensive! Every museum costs 10 euro, and when we checked our bank account to see how much we were charged for the three one-week transit passes, the total came to $57!! Oh well, we will skip the $5, 300ml Coca Cola and drink beer instead, it's cheaper than mineral water.
It rained all day so we decided to make it a museum day, but not before Stefan and Bernie went to the US consulate to drop off their passports to get extra pages put in. They will pick them up tomorrow morning before heading to Schoenbrunn.
We went to the Schatzkammer (crown jewels, royal socks, etc), and the Kunsthistorisches museums today. We were exhausted and went straight home afterwards to eat leftover Bratwurst with pretzels and Radlermass, then naps.

Welcome to Vienna!!!!!

OMG we just got to Vienna
and they have all these touts in period dress (like this guy) in front of the Stephansdom (cathedral) and all over. They're trying to sell you tickets to a classic music performance or something I guess, we never wanted to get too close. We passed a couple dozen and then we were in front of the Staatsoper and this wench out of Amadeus was yelling "Hey you, come over here! Want to go the opera!" and when we didn't even look at her she goes, "Hey gays! Oh sorry I mean Hey guys!" :-( Hah-hah very mature Stefan said.

Good thing Troy didn't hear her he would have had a choice rejoinder ready! but actually just now he said, since I didn't hear her, she must have been referring just to the two of you! Sorry, I don't think so Troy. :-)


But not to worry we are happy in Vienna we have this great apartment with a view of the cathedral on the 7th floor of an office building, and Stefan just cooked us this lovely dinner! He was complaining all thru Czech Republic that he never got to eat any vegetables, so he decided to cook this healthful meal!

Prague

After a long and mostly uneventful journey, we made it to Prague late last Wednesday night. We had arranged a ride to our apartment rental beforehand, so our driver was waiting at the airport with a sign.
We rented a huge 3 bedroom apartment for about $125 per night and we love it. It has a kitchen and a washing machine, and it is right in front of a tram stop. It is only a couple of stops to the center of town. We have alternated between exhausting sightseeing days such as visiting the Prague Castle yesterday (apparently the largest castle in the world), and lighter days that might include a visit to the Prague city museum.
There has been lots of walking, and lots of 0,5 liter pilseners for under $2. When we can't get by on English, there have been several occaisions when Stefan has been able to communicate in German. Bernie's Russian training has helped out when trying to decipher some Czech words.


We celebrated Troy's 32nd birthday last night by going out to eat at a restaurant in the old town (Stare Mesto) that is run by the Pilsner Urquell brewery.

Tomorrow we will probably take a day trip to an as yet to be decided Czech city such as Plzen, Karlovy vary (Carlsbad), or Cesky Krumlov. Wednesday we take the train to Vienna!

The day before...

Things have been hectic with Stefan finishing his thesis, both Bernie and Stefan moving from Santa Barbara (Bernie after nearly a decade in SB) and preparing for 4 months abroad all within 4 days, but we are almost ready. Since this is the first post, we thought we would add our itinerary:

Sacramento-Los Angles-Paris-Prague Aug 21-22

Vienna-Amsterdam (overnight layover)-Cape Town Sep 7-8

Cape Town-Amsterdam-Paris-Mauritius Oct 1-3

Mauritius-Paris (overnight layover)-Mumbai Oct 10-11

Delhi-Paris-Beijing Oct 31-Nov 1

Beijing-Seoul-Sydney Nov 15-16

Sydney-Cairns Nov 18

Cairns-Brisbane-Perth Dec 1

Perth-Melbourne-Hobart Dec 4-5

Hobart-Sydney (flight not booked yet)

Sydney-Seoul (overnight layover)-Tokyo-Honolulu (16 hour
layover)-Portland-Sacramento Dec 13-15

Here is a link to our flights on Great Circle Mapper (nearly 70,000 miles in all). We won't go into the booking details here, but if you are wondering why we are traveling in such circuitous routings it is because we are on award tickets and also due to the configuration of the SkyTeam airline alliance, there are no direct flights between many of our stops.

Needless to say we are quite excited.

We depart from Sacramento tomorrow afternoon and meet up at LAX with our friend Troy from Seattle who is joining us for the European portion of our trip. Troy's 32nd birthday will be celebrated in Prague on August 26th. Happy birthday Troy!

(Picture at left is a going away lunch with friends Stefan, Thom, and Scott).