Artsy Geek

Prague welcomed us with cloudy sky and just a little sun, but it made more comfortable to explore the majestic town. We sang at St. Nicholas Church located at the town square in Old Town.  The Baroque church was a great place to sing at.   My husband and I were glad to stay an extra week in Prague to explore more of the city.  More pictures from our week alone in Prague are coming up soon!

I thought at the beginning that I will be able to combine Prague and Czesky Krumlov into a single post, but then I realized that this two hour stop over at Czesky Krumlov needs its own post.  This town can only be described by one word - magical.  I now understand why they chose to film Pinocchio here. View of the castle.  Unfortunately we were unable to tour it. Czesky Krumlov has lots of small streets and passage ways. While having a dinner "U dwou Maryi" we've made friends with a local resident. Czesky Krumlov is another place we would love to visit again.  Unfortunately the train trip from Prague would have taken three hours, so we abandoned the idea to go back to Czesky Krumlov this year.

After the arrival at Salzburg we experienced an evening tour of the city with a Citadel towering over it.  It is a small town with a very comfy atmosphere. Unfortunately Salzburg follows the small town rules when the town closes at sundown. While in Salzburg we took a trip to a Tea House on the top of the world.  Eagle's Nest was a given to Hitler for his fiftieth birthday even thou he had a fear of heights.  To get there one needs to take a special bus up which ascends the mountain through a very narrow winding road with nothing but a small railing dividing you and the side of the mountain.  The views at the top were just breathtaking!  Lots of good pictures so I had trouble narrowing down the list of the best of the best. But who can complain about too many pictures of Alps... :-)

From Vienna we drove into the Alps.  It was fun watching the mountains growing in front of us. Even with a glare on the bus windows I tried to take some pictures of the experience of driving through the Alps and its fabulous lakes. The destination of our trip was Hallstatt.  A tiny town with absolute stunning views!  Our short visit to Hallstatt included singing at the Lutheran Church of Hallstatt which is a well known landmark with its tall picked roof rising above the town. We then continued our trip to Saltzburg.  Here are some additional mountain pictures that I was able to capture on the way. Hallstatt is one of the places I plan to visit again and stay for at least a week if not more relaxing, looking and hiking at the mountains and enjoying the peace and quiet of the place.

Vienna was fantastic with the great architecture and bright buildings.  We explored the city under a cloudless sky. The highlight of the day was a visit to the opera house where I wished I had a tripod to capture more of the magnificent interior.  Not sure why people in Vienna did not like it when it was re-built and redesign after WWII. In the evening we also went to a concert hall where we were seated at the orchestra seats for a Mozart concert.  The orchestra seats were placed on the stage right behind the orchestra which was a surprise to all.  It was a great experience seeing the animated face of the orchestra conductor throughout the performance. With the choir we also took a trip to Stift Geras for an evening concert.  We were treated to an excellent dinner of pork, beef, dumplings and salads.  Everyone agreed that it was the best dinner we had thus far on our trip.  After dinner we rehearsed in possibl...