Botel Marina: A Review

And now my first botel review.

In Bratislava, I stayed in a botel, the Botel Marina, which was situated on the left dock of the Danube river in the shadow of the Bratislava Castle. On the surface, this sounds like a wonderful location. Actually, it would have been a wonderful location had I not had to haul my 100 pounds of crap from the end of the public transportation line (I have not been in a cab the entire time I’ve been in Europe) to the botel, which was a little bit of a hike. Also, location wise, while there were plenty of things within a fifteen-minute walk, there was NOTHING within a five-minute walk, so every time I left the botel, I had to make it count.

I got there about an hour-and-a-half before check-in, but the hotel let me check-in early, so I went straight to my room. Despite the fact that it had two twin beds, one of either side of the room, it may have been the smallest room I’ve stayed in during my trip, so far. Don’t even get me started on the bathroom. Let me just say that I could have taken a shower in the stall, urinated in the toilet and shaved in the mirror all at the same time. I’m not saying I did. I’m not saying I didn’t. I’m just saying.

Noise was also a problem because of the Rockin’ Slovakian Accountants. The botel does have an Indian restaurant and a bar. Those were in use by a party being held by PriceWaterhouseCoopers people who were drunk and kind of loud outside my porthole. Nevertheless, being accountants, they were done by 11 pm, so noise ceased to be a problem afterwards.

The hotel did have free wifi, which is always a big, big plus in my book. The television only had about eight channels and it was the first hotel I’ve been in here that didn’t have MTV. How the hell can I enjoy my trip if I don’t know who’s been eliminated from Rock of Love?!?!?!?

Two big problems. First, there was no free breakfast, which I’ve grown used to. I had to leave pretty early to catch my train, but a little food first would have been nice. Second, there were serious drainage issues with the shower. About halfway through, I noticed that the bathroom was flooding. I had to stop, let everything drain, and then go back to showering. It flooded again, but at least I was done. Now, you may be thinking – “but Sheldon, you were on a boat. You could have just opened the window and let it drain into the Danube.” Yes, the windows were too high.

The room was about $90/night. Not a bad price, I suppose, but it is Slovakia. I did love watching the Danube roll by from my bedroom window. I have to say, though, that though I did like the experience of staying on a boat, there were probably better options closer to civilization that I could have chosen. So it goes.

Prague: Passing Thoughts

And now, back to Praha. My last post hit most of the highlights of the trip, at least with respect to the famous landmarks. Now, I just want to throw out random comments, that may or may not have pictures to go along with them. (Who am I kidding? Some of them will have pretty pictures.)

I wanted to go to a football match while I was in Prague, but it was not to be. The two biggest clubs in the Czech-speaking world both play in Prague, Slavia Praha and Sparta Praha, and they were playing each other. As it turned out, however, the match was moved to Monday and I will be in Berlin by the time it is completed. There are two other football clubs in Prague, however, Bohemians and Bohemians 1905. They also played together on Sunday. I went to the stadium in hopes of seeing the match, but there is a lot of bad blood between the two clubs, resulting in a sold-out stadium and no way for me to get a ticket without paying more than I was willing to pay for two sub-par Czech clubs. So, no football for Sheldon.

At least, no live football for Sheldon. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there were numerous sports bars around my hotel and on Sunday there were a lot of great matches. In the early afternoon, I went to a place next to my hotel in which you could watch matches as well as bet on them to watch the match between Rangers and Celtic (Rangers won 2-1). The beer was 46 Koruna a piece (around $2.70), so that was my nourishment while I sat around with a bunch of Irish/Scottish/English folks watching the match. That had to be my Praha football experience.

I also got to see the end of the Chelsea/Liverpool match, but that’s a food story, not a football story. It was my last night in Prague and I realized that I had more Koruna than I knew what to do with. I decided to spend it at a place advertising “authentic” Czech food. (I chose the place, in part, because it was broadcasting the aforementioned match.) My appetizer was Czech Goulash Soup, which was really damned good. The broth was thick and it was similar to beef stew except the beef was ground instead of chunky. I also had something that called itself a Czech Three-Meat Special. Having been in central Europe for a few weeks now, I expected sausages. What I got was more similar to a pork/chicken/beef stir-fry. It was good, but not what I was expecting. That took me through most of my Koruna, so it also solved a problem in addition to satisfying my hunger.

Let’s see . . . what else. Okay, I told you previously that Prague was the most picturesque city I had been to since Paris. To highlight this, even the subway was picturesque. So much so that I took pictures. I loved the convex and concave alternating rows of multi-colored circles that were in the subways. I also road on the trams. Not nearly as picturesque, but I did love the way that they listed the next half dozen stops ahead of time.

I was walking of metro-ing all over the city for the three days that I was here and I didn’t have a chance to actually go into any of the museums or to spend a lot of time exploring the area, with the exception of the Jewish Quarter and Old Town. Both had wonderful mixes of old and new, with modern cafes taking up the bottom section of buildings that were hundreds of years old. It definitely is a city to which I would like to return.

Okay, that’s it for Prague for now. Currently on a train in Dresden, on my way to Berlin. Cheers.

Hotel Kolping - A Review

While I’m on the long train ride from Bratislava to Prague, I’m getting more hotel reviews in. Next up, Kolping in Vienna, Austria.

Kolping was a hotel of contrasts. It had some very good qualities and some rather poor qualities. Let’s start with the good.

The room I was in was much, much larger than any other room that I had stayed in up to this point in Europe. It had sort of a full-size bed, two twins pushed together, and also had a balcony. Let’s face it, the bathroom was almost the size of some of the rooms that I have stayed in here. The room also had a stove, a microwave and a refrigerator. That’s not even counting the balcony, which again was a first for me in Europe.

The hotel was also in a very good location. It was walking distance to the downtown shopping area as well as close to public transportation on a few lines of the metro. I eventually learned that unlike Paris, this was not always the case in Vienna, so having the easy transport close to the hotel was very beneficial. Also, there was a small grocery store just next door, which came in handy with a microwave and a refrigerator in my room.

Another plus was the free breakfast. There were tons of options – eggs, bread, cheese, ham, salami, cereals, yogurt, etc. And of course, Nutella because it wouldn’t be Europe without Nutella. Also, the dining room was ginormous, so there was always a place to sit and eat.

Now, the bad. The staff was only semi-friendly and not particularly helpful. Most importantly, there was no wifi or other internet connection. Free or otherwise. I like to keep in touch, so this was a major pain in the butt. Fortunately, there were a handful of places close by with free internet access – thank you McDonald’s.

Also, I could have foregone having the cleaning staff knocking on my door every five minutes beginning at 10:00 when I was trying to get over a hangover from going out the night before to watch (European) football with some German folks I met the night before. Eventually, I just had to leave, get some grease in my system (I had slept through the free breakfast) and return to get some more sleep.

Overall, it was not a bad hotel for the price – around $90/night, but it really needs to get some web access. I mean seriously folks. In Bratislava, I had free wifi on a boat, ON A BOAT FOR PETE’S SAKE. They really need to hook the place up. Otherwise, it was a pretty good experience – but like Vienna, generally, not all for which I had hoped.

Prague: Paris of Eastern Europe?

I think I’ll break Prague into two posts for obvious reasons. Those reasons may not be obvious to you, but that’s beside the point. I am currently sitting in a train that has been stuck in Bad Schandau for over an hour, meaning that I’m going to get to Berlin a little late. (Bad Schandau is not an opinion, it’s the name of the station.) Maybe I’ll get both posts in while I’m on the way to Berlin.

First off, let me say that the street sausages are not nearly as good in Prague as they were in Zurich or in Munich. They were gristly and not particularly tasty. It’s takes something for me to complain about a sausage, but so it goes.

Other than that, I really loved Prague. I’m sure I’ll rank the cities that I’m visiting when I finish, because I do things like that, but other than Paris and London, it’s pretty much been my favorite. Certainly, it’s the most picturesque city I’ve been to since I left Paris a few weeks ago. (Has it really been that long?)

I’ll get into the hotel in another post, but I stayed on a side-street just off of (Good King) Wenceslas Square. Along with some museums, hotels and other older buildings, its is also an area with tons of restaurants and shops and about four dozen McDonald’s. (I exaggerate, but they are freakin’ everywhere.) Also, within a 2 km radius of my hotel were four sports bars and three strip clubs. Needless to say, there were mostly men in my neighborhood.

Since I didn’t know too much about Prague, I trusted my guidebook to tell what I NEEDED to see. My first morning was spent hopping on the subway and heading in the direction of the Prague Castle and St. Vitus’s Cathedral. Like the Bratislava Castle, these sat atop a hill and gave great views of the city. The Prague Castle was much more impressive that the Bratislava Castle, but Prague was just impressive, generally. From there, I walked down to the Loreto, but not knowing much about it’s history, it was just a cool-looking building to me.

I also went to the Strahov Monastery, even though my guidebook didn’t tout it too highly as a place to go. My guidebook was misguided. The monastery was interesting, but more importantly – at least to me, if not the monks – was that the area provided some of the best views of a great city that I’ve ever seen. As I was walking down, I tried to soak in as much as I could because I knew that the pictures that I was taking would never do justice to the beauty. The fact that it was a picture-perfect day just added to the effect.

I also walked down to the Charles Bridge while I was in that part of town. I knew I needed to rub the brass relief on the statue of St. John of Nepomuk for good luck, so I did. The problem is that I don’t know if I used the correct hand. I remember Samantha Brown saying that it only worked if you used the correct hand, but I don’t remember which hand that was. It rained for the first time since I’ve been in Europe on my final night in Prague, so that might have been bad luck. Or good luck for the people there. Hell, I don’t know. I used the right hand, if not the correct hand, and that’s all I’m sure about.

I went to the Jewish Quarter because I wanted to visit the Old-New Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery. Unfortunately, because of the timing of the trip, the only time I could have visited would have been during holidays that would have precluded me from making such a visit. It didn’t stop me from going, but it did stop me from touring. I did take a picture or two, however, for your viewing pleasure.

The Jewish Quarter is close to the Old Town Square, so I went there as well. Like other Old Town Squares that I’ve been to in Europe, it’s a square surrounded by old and/or impressive buildings, shops selling souvenirs and restaurants selling “authentic” “fill-in-the-ethnicity” food. There also was some entertainment, in the form of a ragtime band, and beer stands. It was the beer stands, selling relatively cheap Gambrinus beer, that made it special for me. Also, some of the food stands. I tried a food stand selling “potato pancakes,” but they were hash browns to me.

Okay. That’s it for this trip down the Prague road for now. More later.

Minotel Hauser (Munich): A Review

It’s time to work my way back and talk about some hotels, so I’ll do that now. The next on the list is the Minotel Hauser in Munich.

After the easy time I had getting to my hotel in Zurich, the Minotel Hauser was a little harder to locate, but that primarily was because the Munich train station was much more difficult to maneuver through. It’s separated into separate buildings. Once I found my way onto the U-Bahn (subway), however, the hotel was not that difficult, though I did have to switch trains to get there.

The hotel was in a little bit of a strange location. There were plenty of restaurants and bars and stuff around the hotel, but most of them seemed strangely empty much of the time. Granted, this was during Oktoberfest and most of the tourists were there, but I expected to see tourists everywhere else in Munich and that really wasn't the case, especially in the neighborhood I was in.

Check-in was easy and I was able to get straight to my room. Returning to the world of free wi-fi made me a happy puppy. The room, once again, was small but it wasn’t too bad and the bathroom was a little larger than I had gotten used to in Europe. I believe that the hotel had a lift, but I was on the second floor, so I didn’t have to use it.

As mentioned above, the hotel was close to public transportation, but also was close enough to Oktoberfest – about a 20-25 minute walk – that I walked there and back a few of the days that I was there. It also was very close to several restaurants as well as to a few grocery stores, so provisions could be picked up. Also, because of the mini-bar refrigerator, picked-up provisions could be stored for future use, in case you’re a squirrel or something.

The breakfast was free. More importantly, it was nice to be back in a culture that gave you meat for breakfast. (I hadn’t had this since London.) One problem with breakfast was that there was a limited dining area, so it wasn’t always easy to find a seat, but the selection of German breakfast items was impressive. I even go to try some blood sausage.

Money-wise, this is the most expensive hotel I’m staying in during my trip to Europe – around $210/night – but it being Oktoberfest, that was unavoidable. All-in-all, I was very happy with the hotel, just not particularly happy with the price. Also, it would have been nice is the neighborhood was a little livelier, but liveliness (is that a word?) was close enough, so that didn’t matter too much in the end.

Finally, check-out was as painless as check-in. The staff was very friendly and, overall, I had a very good experience at the hotel.

Bratislava (and it takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry)

At the moment, I am on a train from Bratislava to Prague. I have to say that this is the first even semi-unpleasant trip I’ve had on a train while in Europe, but even it is not that bad. I like trains.

One thing that I keep noticing on the trains is that every time an announcement comes over the speakers, it starts in the native language – here, Czech – and lasts for about three minutes and then the English translation is given and inevitably, it’s something like, “Ladies and gentlemen, our next stop will be Brno.”

What? There’s no way that the three minute Czech soliloquy translates into “our next stop will be Brno.” What aren’t you telling me? My fear is that the part in Czech is something like, “Ladies and gentlemen and Czech comrades, if you understand what I’m saying then you speak Czech and should be proud and angry at those around you who are too ignorant to learn the language of a country before they come to visit it. You do not deserve to be punched in the nose. Everybody else, however, does deserve such a fate. When we get to our next stop, place your right thumb into your right ear. If somebody sitting close to you does not do this, then they obviously do not speak Czech, so you should punch that person square in the nose. Our next stop will be Brno.” For this reason, every time the train stops, I stick my right thumb in my right ear. Nobody has punched me in the nose yet, thus proving my theory.

Now, about Bratislava. Other than London and Paris, Bratislava was the first town in which I really wanted to spend more time. Part of that is that I only spent a day here – so maybe three days would have been too many – but one wasn’t enough. I did try to make the best of it, though.

I got to my hotel, and there will be more on this in another post, but the hotel was actually a botel, sitting on the Danube in the shadow of the Bratislava castle. The view from outside my window, with the water flowing by at sunset and again in the morning, was terrific, though I’m pretty sure that at some point during the afternoon, we hit an iceberg or something because the whole room jerked several inches. We didn’t sink, though, which is something I always look for in a hotel room.

The first thing I did after leaving my hotel was make it up to the Bratislava castle, which sits on top of a hill and is the focal point of the city. From what I think I remember reading, though I do make crap up a lot so take it with a grain of salt, when the Turks forced the Hungarians out of Budapest, they fell back on Bratislava as the new Hungarian capital and much of the castle derives from that time, though the site also has ruins dating back to the period when the area was dominated by Rome. It’s very beautiful, though it does look like a coffee table sitting upside down, and it gives fantastic views of the city.

I also spent some time strolling through and shopping in Old Town, which is similar to Zurich’s Old Town except much cleaner, much nicer and larger. There aren’t as many historic buildings as in Zurich, but the area has a ton of cafes with diverse culinary options. I ended up stopping at one café for dinner and had Wienerschnitzel and Slovak potato salad. (That’s what they called it; I just took their word for it.) I thought the veal was a little dry, but you rolls the dice and you takes your chances.

I didn’t really have a chance to do much else in Bratislava. I’d like to do more Eastern Europe, including Hungary and Poland, which aren’t terribly far away. Perhaps I’ll get to Bratislava again and spend a few more days here. For now, it’s on to Prague.

Vienna: It Waits For You

With no internet connection in my hotel while in Vienna, I haven’t been able to post much from here – only what I’ve managed to get done at McDonald’s. Gotta love the golden arches. They are like little American embassies located all over the world.

So what have I done in Vienna? Surprisingly little. One of the reasons is that I am only here for three days, ending on Thursday morning. The other reason is that I spent half of one of my two full days here in bed going through detox, but we’ll get to that.

When I first got here and connected with my hotel, I, as I usually do, dropped my stuff and walked around the neighborhood trying to see what I liked, what I didn’t like and getting ideas of places to go. You know who else lived in my neighborhood? Ludwig van Beethoven, who evidently lived here for a couple years shortly before he died. There’s a “Ludwig slept here” sign on one of the buildings and underneath the sign is a bar/restaurant named Ludwig Van’s. I don’t know about you, but I can’t hear the name Ludwig Van without thinking about A Clockwork Orange, so I just pictured the inside of it like the “bar” from the opening scene of that movie. I didn’t go inside to test the theory.

One problem with being in Vienna right now is that the city is under renovation. There are a few places that you need to go when you’re in Vienna and inevitably, when I got there, parts of places were covered in scaffolding and/or hidden from view. I had heard that one of the places that I needed to see was Stephansdom, so I went there first. It’s a church from the middle ages. I went inside, took some photos and walked around it for a while. I hope that underneath the scaffolding somebody is doing some cleaning because the outside could really use it.

Not too far away from Stephansdom is the complex known as the Hofburg Palace. Again, much of this was under construction or maintenance. Part of the complex, the Neue Burg, contains a museum, but not being in a museum mood at the time I was there, I didn’t go in. (As an historical aside, Hitler proclaimed the annexation of Austria from the balcony at the Neue Burg in 1938.) Again, I walked around, took some pictures, and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon.

I finally came around to being in a museum mood, however, and ventured over to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Like many of the museums of Europe, this one contains your standard Ancient Egypt wing and Ancient Greece wing, etc. The highlight of the museum, and the area in which I spent most of my time, is the art collection. The museum has a tremendous collection of art from the Dutch Masters, as well as others, of course. I took lots of pictures and will post them on Facebook in the coming days. With respect to the one I selected to accompany the blog, I chose it because I liked it’s name. It’s Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s “Sommer.” (I assume that the actual name was whatever the word for “summer” is in Arcimboldo’s native tongue, but since the museum is in a German-speaking country, the name is “Sommer.”)

As all of you know, and are excited about I’m sure, Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week saw Champions League action in European football. Since I had to watch, I went to a bar called Die Bibliotek down the street from my hotel because I saw a sign outside saying that it would be showing various matches. I met a few Germans who were there to watch the Stuttgart match and we’ll just leave it at a good time was had by all. Because of the good time, however, I spent most of today recovering, so I did nothing in the morning.

In the afternoon, I went to the Belvedere Palaces, which were built in the early-18^th century. The buildings truly were magnificent, as was the courtyard in between the two main buildings. Again, I took lots of pictures, but they aren’t going to do justice to the botanical garden on the premises.

Okay, I suppose those are the highlights of my time in Vienna. As I write this, it is Wednesday night. Tomorrow morning, I check out and hop a train to Bratislava for a brief, one-night stay. On Friday, I head north for Prague. I’ll keep in touch.