Annie - our son is going to Prague in September (and Berlin, Munich, Venice and Cinque Terre) so I will pass on your comments to him. Anything else to add?

Love the pictures, Annie! DD and I are really looking forward to our trip to Prague in September. Any restaurant recommendations?

Stained glass window by Mucha...there's a museum in town of his work, but we didn't get there.

Entrance to Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge:

Waterway separating Kampa Island from Lesser Town....reminded us of Venice.

I suggest getting a travel guide that includes self-guided walking tours...we got Rick Steve's Prague and it was very helpful and informative. It will guide you to the various districts (Old town, new town, lesser town, wenceslaus square, castle hill, kampa island, jewish quarter) and things to see ... otherwise you can blindly walk by buildings and not realize their significance.

We ate at Celnice which was right near our hotel (marriott) which included traditional czech food, good beer and reasonable prices. (While Pilsner Urquell is the big thing, we preferred the dark beer.)

We also ate at a restaurant on Kampa Island, but don't remember the name. There is a lovely one called Kampa Park overlooking the Vlatava and the Charles Bridge. (Reservations recommended for dinner.)

Some folks ate at the Municipal House (Obecni dum) and enjoyed it...there is a very expensive fancy restaurant inside (Francouzska Restaurace), and a grand cafe, and a beer haul in the basement with typical pub food.

There are a ton of places to eat, so you won't go hungry.

We were looking for trad'l czech food given our heritage, but if you think about the people who live there, like us, they prefer a variety of cuisines, so you can find some good Italian, French, Asian and international restaurants too.

Also, do not bring a lot of US currency thinking you'll change it....the best exchange rate and lowest fees comes from using an ATM to withdraw cash with your debit card. Don't forget to know your PIN and to tell the bank and credit card co. when and where you'll be traveling...otherwise they may shut off your card.

Use a money belt...pickpockets abound esp in the touristy areas so best to keep your money tucked away....we got ours on amazon and they worked well. Also, esp in Prague, do not let your credit card out of your sight...they are renowned for stealing the numbers. Best to pay restaurants and such in cash.

Electronics-wise, wi-fi worked well. There's lots of technical details to phone usage and stuff which you need to look into if you want to go "plugged." We wanted to go "unplugged" so we brought the ipad just to keep up with email.

It was fun going through the locks.

The blue danube isn't...it's green. What looks like shadows on the river isn't. It's the waters from the 3 rivers in Passau coming together...the Danube, the Ilz and the Inn. The Inn is the largest, is decidedly green due to the minerals it carries and gives the Danube the green tint all the rest of the way.

For those of you interested in biking, from Passau to Vienna is a fabulous bike trail...reasonably flat as it's along the river's edge, the scenery is incredible and the tours they run truck your stuff to the next hotel with stops at these wonderfully quaint villages along the way. I've never considered such a thing, but this looked so intriguing, it was tempting.

Passau:

Through the Schlogener Schlinge

Cesky Krumlov a UNESCO World Heritage site which retains its original renaissance facades, streets and views:

Annie, it all looks wonderful! I am so glad you had such a marvelous time and thanks for sharing your pics-keep them coming!

When I was in Paris a river boat cruised by and we could see a lady in her pjs, and in her bed, with the curtains open so she could see the Eiffel Tower as they passed it.

Thanks for sharing your pictures.

Thanks for sharing your photos. Everything looks amazing.

Durnstein: The castle at the top of the mountain was where Richard the Lionheart was held captive for awhile.

Schonnbrun Palace, Vienna....1,440 rooms and 1,500 servants to maintain it....a decorator's dream...or nightmare!

Easy to get ABC (Another Bloody Cathedral) as every town has a church, cathedral, or basilica, and the are all decorated to the 9s in the most incredible ways, esp the high baroque churches. Just stunning.

Dinner at the Palais Palavicini in Vienna...so well done....opera, ballet and strauss waltzes.

So many stunning things at the imperial treasury including the coronation robes of Charlemagne, but this to me was the most impressive....thread painting. They actually used varying shades of thread with the tiniest of stitches to create the images on the vestments of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Sun, Jul 28, 13 at 20:41

Bratislava:

Budapest

Fancy tile on the Mathias Church....each tile over $40! Yikes!

Ceiling at the opera house

Our riverboat, the MS Treasures

First McDonald's open in E Europe

More serenading at our farewell dinner in the Hungarian Academy of Science

Chain Bridge

And just for mtnrdredux, the foyer of the Four Seasons where she stayed, formerly a palace.

Gorgeous photos, thanks for sharing!

Beautiful scenes and your photos are wonderful! Thanks for posting them. Never considered traveling to Prague, but it's tempting after seeing and hearing about your trip.

Thanks, I took over 750 photos....I'm really editing a lot here, but feel free to ask more if you are interested.

It looks so wonderful! I'm getting the travel bug.

It was a lot of prep to get ready and we hadn't traveled overseas in a long time so we did get rusty and were somewhat apprehensive, but it worked out beautifully and we were very glad we went.

One thing though, go while you're younger and physically fit. It gets much more difficult as you get older and esp if your walking and stair climbing is infirmed in any way.

Also the jet lag and the diet changes and sleeping issues and excretory issues are really abusive to your system. Much easier to handle when you are younger.

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Mon, Jul 29, 13 at 9:29

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! Thanks so much for posting, I really enjoyed the pictures.

I can't wait to go, perhaps next year. My sil has gone 3 times she loves it so much and I'm going next time with her. She talks so much about the beauty that I have to see it. Thanks for the wonderful photos, I enjoyed them so.

So interesting to see your pics, many of the same places I visited in June. TFS

That's the most modern McDonald's I've ever seen in Europe. Must have missed that in Budapest! The ones I've seen are usually in old buildings with more modest signs. I took a pic of the one in Salzburg which was an antique sign redone with the golden M. Quite 'tasteful' for McD's.

BTW, for anyone traveling I highly recommend melatonin for sleep and jet lag and acidophilus for digestive health. I had no problems with jet lag going to Europe altho it took about a week on my return before I quit waking up at 3 am. I brought the acidophilus with me that doesn't need refrigeration, took it regularly, and ate "everything in sight" with no problems.

Thank you for sharing such beauty. Takes my breath away! Wow about the thread painting-- unimaginable.

luckygal, very interesting....we didn't go to Salzberg...had the choice between that and Cesky Krumlov and chose the latter. Here from Durnstein is the straw wheel at the Alter Klosterkellar indicating they're open for business...had a wine tasting there. That was pretty tasteful of McDs!

I really liked this guy with the lamp in a cathedral in Prague.

And talk about a warm a cozy kitchen...this one from Cesky Krumlov

Anele, it's incredible the amount of work that went into the vestment.

The image of Christ on the same piece is done differently...it's done with couching over the gold and silver threads...the image is created by how the couching threads are spaced. And of course they did this to give him greater luminosity. Amazing stuff.

I also want to say that, for any vacationers or wedding goers or whatever, we made a photo book from our vacation shots with shutterfly and I'm pleased as punch with the results. Complete flexibility on putting together each page and the printed pics have a great color rendition...I ordered the book with a padded cover, looks like a nice coffee table book, the pages are done with a heavy clay. Really nice and it arrived in less than a week after sending it off. (No affiliation...just a happy customer.)

I have a fear of water plus a delicate stomach. I am ok on a boat as long as I can see the shore.and the water is not too choppy. My husband would like to go on a cruise. I think I would be ok on a RiverBoat cruise as I would be able to see land. . May I ask, was it a Viking Cruise that you took? Did you have negative experience at all? Is there a lot of motion on the boat?

We took Tauck which was recently named the top river cruise tour by travel and leisure mag. This was our 6th tour with them...they spoil you for anyone else.

You will always see both shores and the boat is so smooth...about the only time we felt any motion was when they were going sideways to dock. Far less bumpy than driving.

We talked with others about Viking, and while they are initially cheaper, they have so many add ons (you pay for side trips and tips, etc.) that by the time you're done, I don't think you're better off. Further, they pack more people on the same size boat so their cabins are smaller. And Tauck always does exclusives that no other tour company can do...like dinner on castle hill in prague with a private tour of the museum, or dinner at the palais palivicini, which is open only to Tauck.

I have no interest in a big cruise ship at all, but this was a great way to travel.

Thanks for the info, I will look into Tauck.

One more thing I forgot to share, was, I had no idea how decorated the exterior of renaissance buildings were...and how wonderful that these originals still exist...