1999 · Prague · Bavaria · Salzburg · Munich
Prague,
(Written during the Great Shutdown of 2020. Memory isn't this good — internet searches filled in a lot of holes.)
Prague before it became cool. A Bavarian king who fancied himself a futurist and built the castle that became Disneyland. Salzburg in the rain with a salt mine slide a seven-year-old had oversold. Munich sunshine at the Hofbräuhaus with everyone but Germans.
First trip to Eastern Europe — a work friend highly recommended Prague and I was able to use some of my frequent flyer miles on British Airways from all of my India trips. We connected through London and a couple days before my trip I found that there was an executive meeting in London to review the strategy, so I “volunteered” to present my portion in person and go a couple of days early. Ended up being a factor in ultimately getting a job in London later that year. After the presentation we went out for a very late night (same friend's fault) and I overslept picking Sharon up at Heathrow (pre-cell phone) and was running to the tube a couple of hours late when she came out of the tube and we happened to run into each other on the street. She knew my hotel and tube stop and just figured we'd run into each other, so no harm no foul and the vacation started.
Prague lived up to the billing, we were lucky to visit before Prague became “cool”. Stayed in a place in the city and walked everywhere the entire time and visited all the tourist sites. I was lucky to find pictures of all the different sites and one thing I have learned going through this exercise is that “incidents” do make trips memorable. In Prague I don't have any specific recollection other than it was a great place to go and I knew I would want to go back someday…but still haven't been yet. Must mean that we had no “incidents”.
Prague's historic centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992, just three years before this visit. The city largely escaped the destruction of World War II and retains one of Europe's best-preserved medieval city centres. The Lennon Wall on Velkopřevornámě Square began shortly after John Lennon's murder in 1980, when Czech youth started painting his image and peace lyrics on a wall controlled by the Knights of Malta. Under communist rule the secret police regularly whitewashed the wall, but it was repainted overnight each time. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 it became an official symbol of free expression. The Charles Bridge, completed in 1402, connects the Old Town to the Malá Strana district and is lined with 30 Baroque statues added between 1683 and 1714.
After leaving Prague, for some reason we went to Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany first instead of Salzburg. Neuschwanstein Castle was one of several castles in Bavaria that we visited and was built only about 140 years ago by King Ludwig II. He was kind of a crazy guy and fancied himself a futurist — as you can see from the pictures Neuschwanstein Castle was the basis for the ultimate Disneyland and Disney World castles. Inside it was kind of weird and had secret rooms, it was more a replica of the most extravagant things from other castles as when it was built in the late 1800s, no other castles were being built. We also went by his boyhood castle, Hohenschwangau Castle which is only a couple miles away as well as a Poellat Gorge Waterfall. We also went to Linderhof Palace that he built and finished with a hike to Ehrenburg Ruins which was across the border in Austria. Of course there was no German and Austrian border and back then it was just Bavaria and was a place that it's always been a home to kings.
From Ehrenburg we drove to Salzburg, all I really remember was that it rained the whole time and we went to a couple of free Mozart concerts in churches. The same friend who told me that Prague was a great place to go (which was correct) also told me that the salt mines and the slides the workers took to get to the mines was the coolest thing ever in his life. So we did the salt mine slides and unfortunately I don't have a picture of us in our salt mine gear as we slid down long wooden slides to get down to the mine. Was ok, but not the coolest thing ever — so when I returned to the USA, I mentioned that observation — he admitted that he was only about seven.
The same friend who recommended Prague (correctly) also told me the salt mine slides were the coolest thing ever in his life. So we did them. Was ok, but not the coolest thing ever — so when I returned to the USA, I mentioned that observation. He admitted he was only about seven at the time. The same friend's late-night recommendation in London also caused me to oversleep picking Sharon up at Heathrow. No cell phones. She just figured she'd find me on the street. And she did. Track record: 1 great tip (Prague), 1 oversleep (Heathrow), 1 oversold experience (salt mine).
From Salzburg we drove to Munich and found glorious sunshine and we spent most of our time just bopping around the city in the parks and ended up taking a bike tour around the city. Of course we had to take the pilgrimage to the Hofbräu Haus — where no Germans were there but lots of people from everywhere else so that was pretty fun too.
