Grüß Gott!

Grüß Gott!

After an early morning boat taxi away from Venice and to the bus, we were on our way to Austria! Our first day there, we were really busy with tours…we started at 8:00A.M. with a tour of the Opera House, which had been somewhat destroyed in WWII. Seeing the contrast between the very new (from the 20^th century) and very old architecture (from the days of the Hapsburg empire) was very interesting. Next, we met at the Kunsthistorisches Museum to see more art, and the day finally ended with a Baroque concert, Il Nascimento dell’Aurora. The next day included a few more museums, and the day ended with a classic German dinner from Beethoven’s Bar (above which Beethoven is rumored to have composed).

The next stop in our tour of Eastern Europe was Prague, which was very different than the other cities to which we had traveled. The Czech Republic is not part of the European Union, and has only been its own country for about twenty years (since the fall of the Soviet Union). Fortunately, the bus ride turned out to be shorter than expected, especially as we had tickets to Carmen, one of the most well known operas, at the Prague National Theater. The next few days were filled with art and music lectures, museums, and walking tours. The highlight of Prague for me was seeing the Prague Castle, which included St.Vitus’s Cathedral and the Kralovsky Palace. Although these buildings were at the top of a very steep hill, they were beautiful, and the view from the top was incredible.

Coming soon: Berlin!

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