From Vienna to Prague

Day 8:
A long bus ride from Vienna to Prague. There are places to stop in between for lunch and breakfast.

We stopped at a roadside restaurant at a place called Melikana about an hour before reaching Prague.
It's a buffet style lunch with lots of buses arriving simultaneously making it a run around carrying platters. Food is OK. Coffee too but not as good as in Budapest. There are charging stations for smart phones and ATMS. They accept Euros or Czech currency. They have only pay toilets, better take Euros or Korunas.

We reached Prague late in the evening and had our group dinner at our hotel. Later went out without tour director who showed us how to work the Metro. The nearest Metro to our Hotel was Andel. You come across many shopping areas before you get to the metro, a 10 minutes’ walk. Metro is quite clean and Czech people value their assets, no defacing of the walls etc.

We walked around the old town and had the first look at the Astronomical Clock...

Here are some pictures of the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtIyGsg-pDU

Danube river cruise along the Wachau Valley

We went from Vienna to Dürnstein, after about an hour or more of bus ride. We did some sightseeing of this town with the fabled blue church over the hill and 16th century residences. It was typically a town for tourists with lots of shops, restaurants, wine shops etc. on both sides of narrow, cobbled streets. We then boarded the boat at Dürnstein pier at the foot of the hill around 10:00 AM. The ride was for about 3 hours or more and the boat had an on-board restaurant. At a distance, you can see the castle now in ruins that had held Richard the Lionheart captive.

Later we visited the Benedictine Melk Abbey (Lower Austria) adjacent to the Wachau Valley. It has the tomb of the past rulers and a library with a huge manuscripts collection. We also visited the blue gallery and enjoyed the projected slide show on the walls of the museum. on the way to the the Melk Abbey we saw from the boat the ruins of a castle where the Richard of Lion heart was imprisoned.

Wachau valley is well known for its vineyards and wineries. We visited one of them and were served wine ex-gratis...

Watch the slide show of the visit on YouTube here:

https://youtu.be/0bcEmuUUJM0

Schönbrunn Palace cannot match Versailles but Vienna is a nice city

We could visit quite a few places. It was a very warm day and one can get quite tired.

• Rococo style Schönbrunn Palace (UN Heritage Site) and its environs

The palace museum is huge and it reflected the opulence of the times. Room after room filled with art objects; huge mirrors; chandeliers and paintings.

• Ringstrasse

• Gaudí styled Hundertwasser haus - Out of the ordinary, fairytale
• Leopold Museum
• Mozart Statue in the Palace grounds
  Albertina Museum
  Shopping, Karlsplatz  etc

Here are some slides of the day:

https://youtu.be/LpQUyy1NN28

Jaguar's battery driven cross-over SUV will be on the streets soon

All of a sudden the landscape has changed. Fossil fuel has become a dirty word. Even emerging markets are on this bandwagon. Have we got enough Lithium?

Slated for second half of 2018, Jaguar's I-Pace (https://www.jaguar.com/jaguar-range/i-pace-concept-car/index.html) will be taking on, one-on-one TSLA's Model X (http://www.barrettjaguar.com/clp-jaguar-i-pace-vs-tesla-model-x).

These are the impressive specs taken from Wikipedia:

The expected EPA rated range is 220 mi (350 km). The I-PACE is powered by a 90kWh LG Chem[1] lithium-ion battery comprising 40% of the car's cost, and the battery management system is developed by Jaguar. The battery can be charged at 50kW. The 0-60 mph time is 4 seconds. Each motor is 197 HP and 258 lb-ft. of torque, for a total horsepower is 395 HP and total torque is 516 lb-ft. The rear trunk is 18.7 cu-ft., along with 1 cu-ft. of front trunk (or “frunk”) space. The drag coefficient is 0.29.

Here is the concept car from the Jaguar site:

At Szentendre on the way to Vienna

We visited the picturesque town of Szentendre on the bank of Danube in Hungary not too far from Budapest. It is easy to reach there by bus. It is truly picturesque as you see in the pictures and if you are into painting you may like to visit. It has a beautiful church and there are restaurants although we did not eat there.
We visited this town during our recent trip to Europe and spent a delightful hour there on the way from Budapest to Vienna. Later we travelled to Vienna...
Arriving in Vienna we went out although it started getting dark. The subway (metro) is clean and convenient. Karlsplatz was where we headed to...

Head here for the slide show of the day:

https://youtu.be/JEZRKT_JUmE

Gellert Hills view of Danube and Danube Boat Cruise

It was more like a free time in Budapest.

We visited the World Heritage listed Gellert-Hegy (Hills) from where one can see the bend in the Danube river. The panoramic view is great. It was somewhat a hot day in June but it was quite breezy. We went up part of the way in a taxi (about 5 Euros) and came down in a bus. About half a mile from the hill top there was a fine restaurant that people go on special occasions. It was quite nice.

We looked forward to the boat ride in the night but half way during the cruise it started raining heavily. After the cruise we took a taxi to the hotel as it was still raining and somewhat dark.

Here are some pictures of the day:

Decorated cows of Salzburg

I saw these advertising full-sized cow sculpted out of clay or something and painted over in Salzburg.

They really looked nice. Stern Biergarten in Salzburg is a remodeled old Bier Garten of the 1930's.

This beer garden/arcade is on one of the side streets of Getreidegasse, a busy shopping street. The most famous of Salzburg's sons, Amadeus Mozart was born on this street. The street is lined with ground level fountains. The day we came across this place, a European football games was playing and the bier garden was overflowing with the soccer/beer enthusiasts.

These cows are called the 'Sternbrau cows'.

This one was not part of the Sternbrau but in another location nearer to  the house where Mozart was born.

Here is an Austrian tradition of brining cows from higher alpine regions to lower levels.

Budapest, Hungary day tour

Into the 3rd day of our European visit we toured Budapest by bus. We had a local guide who spoke reasonable English. Our tour director spoke English, German and Czech.

Touring a city by bus (Inside the bus) has advantages as you cover many places. The downside is you miss 'your feet on the ground' and the opportunity to look at things from a couple of directions. If you are some what hard of hearing and the sound system is less than adequate, you miss a awful lot of information the guide is giving.

Here is a short list of things you see in a day tour
House of Parliament
The Chain Bridge
St. Stephan's Basilica
National Opera House
The Central Market
Fisherman's Bastion
The river Danube
Holy Trinity Square

Here is a slide show video of our tour:

Visiting Berchtesgaden Salt Mine was cool and Going up to the Eagles Nest was cooler!

We left Arcotel Castellani early after breakfast around 8:00 AM in our bus. It takes just 30 or 40 minutes to reach Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, a mere 16.6 miles from Salzburg. This area is famous for its salt deposits and provided a rich commodity and a source of revenue for the people in ancient times. Because of this it was occupied by France, Austria(Salzburg) and Germany.

The visit to the salt mines was interesting. You need to purchase tickets to enter the Salt Mines and the shop. Shop alone is free where you can buy salt related products. You must wear the proper attire to the mines which you can wear over your clothes and store your other items in the lockers (2 Euros which will be returned). After wearing the special over clothes, you wait your turn to ride the rails. This was an interesting experience. However, there are also walk ways and staircases. After reaching the bottom of the rails you cross the subterranean salt lake in a boat with other visitors to visit the gallery in the museum. It is pretty well done with lots of stuff to see how salt was recovered and brought to surface for commercialization.

There appears to be a slat mine health resort, 'Heilstollen' where you can find relief for several kinds of ailments.

Berchtesgaden was also the holiday retreat for Hitler and his lieutenants. The Kehlesteinhaus (Eagle's Nest) atop the Kehlstein peak was a present to Hitler for his 50th birthday. We will visit the Eagle's Nest after visiting the salt mines

"Salt is the most valuable gemstone given to us by the earth." 

Justus von Liebig (known as the greatest chemistry teachers of all times)

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Justus-Freiherr-von-Liebig

Before embarking our journey to the Eagle's Nest, we had breakfast/brunch/beer/coffee at one of the smaller towns on the way. The bus to Eagles Nest takes you to an intermediate point after which you take a specially fitted bus to go another intermediate point. From here you take enter the tunnel to the elevator shaft. You then ride up to the disembarking area to walk to the Eagle's Nest. The view of Bavarian Alps from here is unforgettable. Cameras can only capture a fragment of this beauty.

Here is a slide show of this visit. Come back here later as I plan to upload at least one video.

Walking around Salzburg

This is day 12 of our European tour and it was as exciting as it was tiring.

The Mirabel garden soon after the lifting of a rain was most beautiful, perhaps at its best. The city is divided by the river, the old town and the new. As is always true the old city is where you go and see most of the things. The house where Mozart was born is always crowded. Tourists milling around most of the times. The cathedral is very nice.

The Hohensalzburg castle is another place you must visit. You need to go up in a cable car and it is pretty steep. There are restaurants in the intermediate stage. The view of the city below is nice and keep you busy taking pictures.

Viennese Coffee at Tomasellis was quite good. We sat out on the terrace, but you can also sit inside the restaurant which retains some old décor.

The shopping district is never too far with lots of restaurants. I did find an Indian Restaurant run by a Punjabi and food was quite good. It was not purely Indian, you could have Italian as well as Mexican.

Here are slides from that visit.

Visit to Český Krumlov near Prague

Český Krumlov is on the World Heritage list 1992. It is very beautiful with the castle, the monastery, and the gardens. A place you must visit if you are anywhere near Prague or Salzburg. Its early owners were Germans later acquired by Czechs.

You must see to believe how beautiful it is and the next best thing is to see its pictures on the Internet.

This one is a slide show of pictures taken with iPhone 6S and Lumia 950.

Andel and Mustek in Prague

There is a nice shopping center in Andel and many good eating places. Andel is well connected with many of the other places by Prague Metro which is clean and well run.

Mustek is part of Prague which has many churches, places of interest and other attractions. It has a lot of open air restaurants and side walk cafes. It is also a partying place. Foreign tourists crowd here to quench their thirst and hunger.

This is where we found the crystal and glassware vendor, Moser. Moser has two shops in Mustek.

Moser Glass Na Prikope 12, Old Town, Prague 1, Czech Republic

Tel: +420 224 211 293

Visit to Prague castle

Prague is a historic place with lots of church spires and Baroque architecture; a city cut in two by the Vltava river. Charles Bridge connects the two halves, the old town and the new. It is a truly beautiful city with ancient churches and history dating back to the Roman Empire. We had an optional tour to visit, a walking tour of Jewish Quarters. We missed it as we wanted to see more of the city.

Backpage.com and child sex trafficing

Advertising revenue is the main source of revenue for many of the tech giants, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Google etc. While the companies are filling their coffers they have not paid enough attention to the ethical side of their business with their supposed strong belief in first amendment.

It is as well they put backpage.com out of business and sent its boss to the jail. Backpage.com made tons of money trafficking child sex and of course paid these advertising companies their cut.  It's not only backpage.com that is at fault but also the big tech giants.

Here is an excerpt from Change.org,

"Two special interest groups, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) — funded by tech industry giants Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others — actually intervened to file briefs supporting Backpage.  These tech groups were actually defending Backpage’s right to host ads selling children.  Amazingly, the CDT and EFF have also jumped into other Backpage cases around the country filed by children.
Support of Backpage by the tech industry has not wavered, even though a 21-month Senate investigation revealed that Backpage facilitated the crimes by coaching pimps on how to post ads to evade law enforcement"

How much effort should it take for these companies with deep pockets to find out backpage.com's intentions?

Here is a video of his sentencing:



Backpage.com has universal converge

Backpage apps on major online advertising: