It’s fall break and the little ladies and I are doing a city tour of Central Europe, spending a few days in three of the regions major cities: Prague, Vienna and Budapest.
The cities are all close in proximity and well-connected by train, which should make it pretty easy to go to all three, and there’s the added adventure of the train journey.
Miss P and Miss V are at an age (9 and 12) that makes train hopping to multiple cities over a course of one week seem doable. I wouldn’t think of trying this with kids younger than tweens, especially since it’s just us girls this trip because Mr. Man couldn’t tear himself away from his busy schedule
Our trip starts in Prague. Actually it starts in Amsterdam, where we will take a plane to Prague. We’ll spend 3 days “czeching” out the city, visiting castles and taking a tour with Context Travel whose family-friendly walking tour of Paris was one of our favorites. This will be my third trip to the city – the last time I came for the Christmas markets, which I highly recommend – and I’m really looking forward to seeing it again.
Miss P also has been, but since she wasn’t even a year old, she has no memory of it and is excited to come back. Miss V is also looking forward to it.
Just the other day she was looking through an old volume of Pocket World in Figures from The Economist and noticed that the Czech Republic has the highest number of beer drinkers in the world. Why my 9 year-old is investigating countries with the most beer drinkers, I don’t know. But I guess I should just be grateful that she’s researching the places she’s going. I guess…
We leave Prague and take the train to Vienna, a journey that is approximately 5 hours. This will be my second trip to Vienna – the first time was just for a couple of days for the Christmas markets (another that I recommend) – and the first trip for the little ladies. I remember thinking how absolutely elegant the city was and I can’t wait to go back and see Schönbrunn Palace, St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom) and the Hofburg Imperial Palace. We don’t have an organized tour planned for Vienna, so we’ll just walk and wander and figure it out.
Our final stop is Budapest, which is about three hours by train from Vienna. This will be my third time to the Hungarian capital, though it’s been about 10 years since my last visit. Miss V is making her first appearance there, while this will technically be Miss P’s third visit – once when she was an infant and the first time, in utero – this will be the first one she’ll remember.
We are scheduled to take another walking tour with Context Travel when we’re in Budapest and meet up with Mr. Man who will join us for the last leg. Yay!! The trip ends with a flight from Budapest back to The Netherlands.
We are taking advantage of the City Tour Around Central Europe package offered by the area Starwood Hotels & Resorts properties and staying at the Sheraton Prague, Le Meridien Vienna and Le Meridien Budapest.
As always, I’ll be making updates to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as we go, so follow the hashtag #mtfallbreak and enjoy the journey with us.
