Venice

Another overnight train - this time Vienna to Venice. This was due to be a slighter better journey as i had booked a 1st class sleeper with shower and wc. Unfortunately.................. when the train arrived there was only 2nd class carriages and my seat number turned out to be a couchette in a six berth carriage - albeit all to myself. The guard was very apologetic explaining that he had only found out 10 mins before time that the train was not its correct set up - whether they had not sold enough 1st class tickets or there was some form of mechanical breakdown i guess i will never know. Anyway you dont buy these tickets for the quality of the accomodation - it was somewhere to sleep, coffee and breakfast was provided just before arriving.

Transfer to my hotel was by bus, boat and then brief walk to hotel which is just off St Marks Square- so i arrived around 9am to drop off bags. Then spent sometime seeing some of the sights - my ticket gave me free travel for 24 hours so i decided to get boat to Lido to get my bearings, one stop back and then a walk back to hotel to check in properly.

 I am staying at a old fashioned (non chain) hotel - Hotel Montecarlo. You benefit from more interesting rooms, old fashioned service from a more mature staff and a more unique experience. You also find areas where the hotel is a bit tired, so there are pluses and minuses. 

Afternoon was some more wandering and a stop at Peggy Guggenheim which had some excellent modern art and a specific Surrealism exhibition.

Tuesday was my only full day in Venice, so spent the morning on another walking tour. Once again a small group and an interesting guide who provided details on the main attractions but also went "off piste" a bit to some more unique areas. I seemed to have been very lucky with my guides this trip, like today's host Valentina, they have been informative, enthusiastic and all provided personal observations/perspectves. After that i had a general walk around - its an interesting city where its easy and pleasurable to get lost (with google maps saftey valve when required). You see both history as well as how modern life goes on across its unique infrasructure. It truly deserves its title as "Birmingham of the South".

Photos of Venice - be warned they are not edited so may contain multiple/poor photos

Podcast of the day : Parenting Hell

Currently reading :  Agent in Berlin by Alex Gerlis

Vienna

The train from Krakow to Vienna was very easy. I had booked a single sleeper which was basic but fine, it always takes a time to get used to the noise of an overnight train but i eventually got a decent night sleep.

Arrived early into Vienna, hotel was about 15mins walk from station so i was able to drop off bags and be ready to start the day by 9am. I had booked another walking tour, starting at 10-30, so that gave me some time to get to location and take in some of the surroundings.

Walking tours are very dependant on the quality of the tour guide and sometimes influenced by the mix of fellow travellers. Here it was good on both counts - with an excellent guide and a small tour of 5 people in total, from US, Ireland and Dubai. The tour guide, Dace, seemed to be working partly for the money but as much because she loved showing people around her city. My poor knowledge of european history once again meant i started not really knowing much about Austria, other than its a scenic small european country. Did not take me long to work out that was not always the case, and historically Austria was a world power and Vienna one of the largest and most prosperous capitals. It showed in the areas we covered, which was mainly the old royals buildings and surrounding areas inside the old city wall. 

The tour provided an interesting and honest view of Austria's history. As Dace said the main skill of the Austrian royal family had been to have large families and make sure they married well over the years - often with opponents they had been recently at war. The wealth came through in the impresive buildings although the masterplan of inter-connecting buildings had been interupted by World War One and was never fully completed. The tour took us inside of a number of the churches, where there were some impromptu musical events and it was clear that church and music were bigs parts of the city's history and current culture. I bought into this by attending a Vivaldi Four Seasons recital at Karlskirche (St Charles Church). It was played by Orchestra 1756 (google if you dont know the significance) which was small, with 5 violins, a double bass and piano. My ear is not very qualified to judge, but it seemed very pleasant and went down well with the full crowd.

I was staying one night in Vienna, so i left bags at the hotel to collect later before my evening train. I was just going to spend the day walking around, seeing in more detail some of the areas i had gone past yesterday but also taking in some other areas (such as the banks of the Danube - which were actually a bit drab and disappointing). Whilst morning started bright, by around 11am there was rain so i noticed an art gallery with a Monet to Picasso exhibition so jumped in. My limited art history and interest really starts around the Monet period, so it turned out to be a good spot to spend a couple of hours. After that it cleared up and i continued with my walk. Overall an interesting city that i would recommend for a couple of days.

Photos of Vienna- be warned they are not edited so may contain multiple/poor photos

Currently reading :  Reverend Richard Coles Murder before Evensong

Krakow

The train from Wroclaw to Krakow left late morning and took around 3 hours. That left me with Weds PM in Krakow, a day trip booked to Auschwitz on Thurs and then a full day in Krakow ahead of my overnight train to Vienna.

Krakow has a good feel to it. Like Wroclaw the architecture is fairly typical central european with large medieval looking squares. Given many of these have been destroyed over the years, they have been rebuilt in a similar style. The river, also like Wroclaw, provides a natural boundary to the city and good opportunities for walks. The one aspect i noticed in Krakow was a greater reference to Ukraine, with a vibrant march taking place on the Weds i arrived and a number of Ukraine events in the main square - also looking to raise money. Given i heard Wroclaw had taken in around 200,000 refugees its obviously impacting on that city but less obviously.

Both cities are very easy to walk around - i favour just going off in a random direction, you never really get badly lost and google maps can always get you back on track, 

I wont say much about the Auschwitz trip. The one downside was a slightly maverick driver that did not always comply with the Highway Code (or Polish equivalent), walked off without much concern about people keeping up and seemed not too worried to have one ticket spare (and no idea what happened to that person). Thankfully he was only in charge of getting us there, where we were passed to a local guide who was excellent.

The tour itself was not surprisingly challenging in many ways but something you have to do.

Photos of Krakow

Photos of Auschwitz - be warned for both they are not edited so may contain multiple/poor photos

Currently reading :  Reverend Richard Coles Murder before Evensong

Wroclaw

So I arrived in Wroclaw (still struggling to work out how to pronouce but have been told "pronunciation is Vrotzwarve, rhyming with 'starve'") on Friday afternoon. 

The bridge event would last a minimum of two days and a max of a week depending on how well we did. The only other time we had played the event the format was different and we ended up surprising ourselves and others by winning our qualification group and then losing in the first knockout round (64 teams). Here the qualification would only be the top 32 teams and would be very difficult.

The venue was slightly out of town, but good playing conditions and it was great to be playing live bridge again, with screens, against good opponents and with good teammates/friends. As a team we started slowly and never really got any momentum such that qualification soon became challenging and by middle of the second day impossible. We played some decent teams but did not play as well as any of us would have liked - at events like this you get penalised for mistakes which otherwise might not be punished. Surrounded by a lot of professional teams as an amateur team you need to start well, get some momentum and play with a bit of luck. Not this time.

So from Monday onwards, the choice was a consolation pairs event or some sightseeing - and the latter was a more appealing option. Wroclaw is quite a small town, with an interesting history and whilst not full of "things to do" listed on Tripadvisor enough to keep you entertained for a couple of days. The rain, much appreciated across the whole of Europe, continued over the weekend and on Monday, so my first free day was spent walking around taking in the sights, in between coffee stops. Tuesday the weather improved and so i decided to take in some of the local museums which were covered by a ticket costing c £10. This provided access to:

The Panorama of the Battle of Raclawice - i struggle to remember where i have seen something similar (i think it could have be in US) but it was a panoramic picture covering a battle in the late 18th century. There was a good english audio guide available which provided some background to the battle - my knowledge of Polish history is not good but i think this is one of a number of conflicts with Russia.

The National Museum - mainly 15th to 19th century sculpuure and art - not surprsingly with a catholic influence

The Four Domes Pavilion - very entertaining modern art gallery

The Ethnographic Museum - small museum covering history of local people and migration

Given that i did not know with certainty how long the bridge would last - and what else there might be to do in Wroclaw - the hotel was booked until Thursday and my next train booked for Friday night from Krakow. So i decided to leave a day early, take the train to Krakow today (Weds) and then stay in Krakow for 2 nights. A day trip is booked on Thursday, which will leave me 1 1/2 days to see what Krakow has to offer.

Photos of Wroclaw- be warned they are not edited so may contain multiple/poor photos

Podcast of the day : Tailenders

Currently reading :  David Baldacci - The Escape

Currently watching : The Staircase (Sky Go)

48 hours in Berlin ... well just over

So i arrived in Berlin Tuesday evening slightly later than i had expected. 

Eurostar and then train from Brussels to Koln was on time and i then had to change for a train to Berlin. Looking at the departures board there was no reference to my train (and later trains were being shown) but there was another slightly earlier to Berlin which went fairly shortly. The queue at the information desk was a bit long so i decided that i might as well get on the train that was shown. It ended up being a less direct route and adding a couple of hours to the journey but comfortable with decent wifi. I still dont know whether the other train was running or not.

I had been to Berlin for a couple of days back in 2010 when i took a sabattical from work, but it was on my list of places to go now that i am on a much longer "sabattical". Its an interesting city with obviously a  diverse history much within living memory. I was 21 when the Berlin Wall came down, and remember it well - even the David Hasslehoff performance (which just seemed weird). At the time there was change across much of eastern europe, very similar to the recent "Arab Spring". Perhaps it was my age, the world at the time or how things were reported but everything seemed a lot simpler then - you "knew" who the goodies and baddies were and there was a much less nuanced debate on "regime change".

There were a number of walking tours advertised on Tripadvisor and that looked like a good way to re-engage with the city. Tours like this tend to be more intimate than on/off bus tours and guides often open up with their own specific views/expereinces. What better way to get a local's view on the world in 2022. So i was slightly disappointed at first to find out that Scot, from Glasgow, was going to be our tour guide. Initial disappointment went however as it became clear that he was really a local (had been there for 5 years) and not a back-packer trying to make some money whilst travelling. He provided a good background to the history of the city, concentrating not surprisingly on the period from the WW1 onwards where the city has gone through monarchy, an inflation impacted attempt at democracy, fascism, war, being cut in four and then two and the fall of the wall and unification. As explained, many of the buildings/sites have therefore had many changes in their use over time.

The tour lasted about four hours and primairly covered areas previously within East Berlin, including the Museum Island area, Brandenburg Gate, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Topography of Terror Museum, a small section of the wall and then Checkpoint Charlie. It was not rushed and provided reasonable overview and ideas on some longer visits. Obviously its impossible to see some of these areas without covering challenging issues around war, Nazi ideology and Holocaust and Scot managed to discuss in a well balanced and thought provoking manner. Overall an interesting tour and guide.

After the tour i specifically went back to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and Topography of Terror Museum.

Thursday i decided to have a museum day and went back to Museum Island. This is a group of eight sites, all impressive buildings, covering a range of subjects. A single pass gives you access to all of them, although it would be difficult to do all of them justice in a single day. They were an interesting mix,  many of them covering explorations by germans rather than german history including study of ancient Greece and Egypt.  After that a brief river trip to provide a slightly different perspective of the city.

Today is a travel day, direct train from Berlin to Wroclaw where the bridge starts tomorrow.

Photos of Berlin - be warned they are not edited so may contain multiple/poor photos

Podcast of the day : The Rest is History

Currently reading :  David Baldacci - The Escape

Currently watching : Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams

Europe here i come......

 Whilst i have had a few holidays post covid, its been a while since i feel like i have gone on an adventure - either somewhere far away or a trip which is a bit different.

So after deciding to play in the World Bridge Series in Wroclaw, it seemed like a good idea to spend some time before/after travelling around Europe. I wanted some flexibility and decided to purchase an Interrail ticket so that i could travel by train as/when i wanted. There is a wide variety of tickets available and it generally seems like good value for money (even when i decided to upgrade to first class). The ticket enables me to travel on 10 days over a month - some trains require reservations with associated fee and i have also gone for a couple of sleeper trains where you pay depending on the sleeping option you go for.

Everything is planned, but hotels are all cancellable the night before so i can decide to change my itenerary as the trip evolves.

I enjoy rail travel. Its relaxed, can provide a more scenic option and provided you have enough to keep you occupied the longer journeys go quite quickly. In addition railway stations tend to be in the centre of cities avoiding the trek from an airport. At the moment, rail travel seems to be more reliable compared to flights where airlines/airports are struggling with fully reopening post covid.

Interrailing was a common rite of passage for people before they started work when i was young, but i never went. I imagine in those days you packed a guide book, perhaps a map and some paperbacks to read as you went. Slightly different now (!!) - a smartphone (with £10 roaming Sim), tablet and laptop provides me with everything i need to get around, podcasts to listen to, plenty of ebooks to read and downloads from Netflix, Sky Go, Amazon and BBC Iplayer to watch over the coming weeks. And of course an ability to review system notes before arriving in Poland.

The journey starts with Eurostar fron Brussels, from where i take train to Koln and then Berlin. A full day travelling before a few days in Berlin.

Podcast of the day : Test Match Special

Currently reading :  David Baldacci - The Escape

Currently watching : Succession Series One