Getting into the routine now of our travel days! Early wake up, quickly get changed and pack rest of clothes, take backpacks to hotel lobby, chow down breakky, then get on bus! Breakky wasn’t too impressive today but managed to make a cheese and salami/ham/devon roll for lunch out of it.
We were on the bus and rolling towards Mauthausen concentration camp around 7:30am. Around 8am Di was observing how her hands were a little dry cos she hadn’t put on her lavender hand cream last night. Then she made a dreadful realisation. Her wedding ring wasn’t on her finger!!! My heart sunk. She quickly went through when she last had it and where she could’ve lost it. She remembered having it on last night when she went to bed so we concluded that it must’ve have fallen off somewhere in the Salzburg hotel room this morning. Jaz called up the hotel to see if they could check the room for the ring. Unfortunately when she called back 30mins later the reception guy hadn’t found it and was going to ask the cleaners to have another search and call Jaz back if they found it. So far today they haven’t called =(. We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that they probably won’t find it or maybe someone will and they’ll just keep it. Oh well - Di will just have to get another ring after just 7 and a half weeks of being married! I told her that means she has less to spend in the US!
We arrived in Mauthausen around 9:30am in time for a 10am video presentation about the history of the concentration camp. Although the primary purpose of this camp was for the prisoners to work a quarry mine, it didn’t diminish the shock and tragedy of the many deaths that still occurred here. The camp did have a gas chamber and crematoriums that were in use and human experimentation and torture occurred there too. The prisoners included not just Jews but also political prisoners from the former Soviet Union, Austria, Poland, and Spain.
After the video we had some time to check out the camp itself. It was sobering to walk through the exact same gates the prisoners would’ve been shepherded through. We had a look at the barracks where prisoners were crammed into, the gas chambers, the crematoriums, and the numerous memorials there. We also saw the notorious death staircase where prisoners were forced to carry 40-50kg quarry stones up the stairs 11hrs a day.
We left Mauthausen with a somewhat heavy feeling in our stomachs at what had occurred there and at the other concentration camps. This was not helped by a stopover at Maccas for lunch!
After lunch we drove for almost 5hrs towards Prague, taking probably an hour and a half longer than it should’ve due to getting stuck in traffic due to roadworks. The countryside was rather similar to that of England’s with its rolling hills covered with the yellow flowering rapeseed plants.
We reached Hotel Olympik Tristar in Prague around 5:30pm and checked in and here we are resting in our hotel room before dinner at 7pm! Simpsons is showing in German on cable tv which is rather interesting to watch!
We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant which was a buffet of stewed pork, roast chicken, rice, veges, and sponge cakes for dessert. Then we set off for our walking tour of Prague around 8:30pm!
We all caught the metro from Invalidovna to Mustek station in Wenceslas Square. Jaz gave us some time to change money and we managed to change some AUD to Czech krowns at a rate of about 14.80. Jaz then led us the old town square (Staromestske nam) with its astronomical clock, then past the Tyn church to the Jewish quarters (pointing out the Jewish ghetto where Jews were kept during WWII), finishing up with a walk along the river towards the famous Charles bridge. As the sun started to set and the city’s lights came on, we had stunning views of Prague Castle across the river on a slight hill.
After the tour, we went with Jaz and most of the tour group to one of her favourite pubs, a pub beneath this restaurant! You go through this ordinary looking Czech restaurant and at the back is this little staircase leading down below. At the foot of the staircase is a small bar and then there are quite a few tables in what may have once been a cellar. Quite a few of the guys and girls tried the local specialty Absinth! It’s basically a 70% vol bright green drink, the one that Van Gogh was high on when he got his ear cut off, and the one the bohemians drank in Moulin Rouge. The way you drink it is to heat up some sugar in a spoon with a lighter, then stir the melted sugar into the shot before drinking it. We didn’t try it but the guys told us it was like drinking metho! We tried their local beer instead and afterwards decided to call it a night!
We caught the metro back to Invalidovna and our hotel easily enough just as a slight drizzle began to fall. Yay we get to sleep in tomorrow! Nite!
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