Or perhaps like me, you are more familiar with these great cities by their western names - Munich, Vienna and Prague.

 

I left Fussen and entered Munich from the mountains in the south.  It was an impressive road alongside Germany's highest mountain draped in early morning fog and sunlight.  And quite quickly I was out of the mountains in flatter lands and entering Munich.

 

I bought a map of the city and used it to navigate to the large BMW dealership.  I needed to get some work done on my bike and buy a few parts.  I found my way through the city and pulled into the dealer's lot around 2PM on Friday afternoon.  Amazingly they said they had time to take care of me right then!  They pulled the bike into the workshop and changed my oil/filter and synced my carbs in a couple of hours.  While I was waiting I talked with the service manager about my trip, and sat on the new bikes.  I'm happy to say that the new R1200GS fits me perfectly, and feels like it could be a good bike for me!  I don't think I would take it on an RTW trip like this, but it looks like a great bike for the canyons and mountain passes at home.

 

It was about 4PM when my bike service was completed.  I told the service manager that I wanted to visit the nearby concentration camp in Dachau.  He suggested that rather than stay in Munich itself, I would enjoy myself more if I stayed in Dachau.  So I rode the 20 miles to Dachau and found a hotel. 

 

The service manager was right - Dachau was very nice and much more peaceful than the city.  Old town Dachau is located on the hill above the city and is fortified by a wall around the town, and there are several rivers running through the city.  I enjoyed the peaceful setting and quiet dinners. 

 

The next day I visited the concentration camp at Dachau.  This was the first German concentration camp and the others were modeled on it.  It was a very powerful experience to wander around the site and see the recreations of the dorms and halls, and the original gas chambers, as well as the numerous memorials.  The audio guide was very good as well, giving me a lot of history and details on the camp.  And the interpretive museum was so large that I couldn't see it all.  After 3 hours at the camp I was worn out - physically and emotionally - and I went back into the quiet town for a reflective dinner.

 

The next day it was raining quite hard when I left Dachau for Vienna.  I had planned to ride through the Alps in Austria, and I figured perhaps the rain would let up before I got there.  But halfway through my ride it was still raining and all the mountains and passes were in the clouds, and it was getting colder!  So I gave up on the mountain roads and took the autobahn the rest of the way to Vienna.

 

I found a hotel about 5 kms outside the city center and on the subway line.  This hotel had underground parking for my bike, to keep it safe and dry.  Over the next couple of days I rode the subway into the center and explored Vienna.

 

I had already explored several extravagant and amazing cities in Italy - Florence, Bologna, Milan.  And yet I was still blown away by Vienna.  Every block on the loop around the center had an amazing cathedral, palace, or museum crowned by huge statues and spires.  I was blown away at each turn.  And it was fascinating to stand in the palace courtyard where Hitler had addressed the people after annexing Austria - I could see the historical newsclips of that event in my head as I stood there.

 

Inside the loop around the center are more cathedrals and shops.  I wandered around taking photos of each new spectacle, until I had to put my camera away for fear of running out of film!

 

Vienna was also especially clean.  There was no litter in the streets, and all the white marble statues and buildings seemed to sparkle.  The whole city center seemed like a living museum.

 

One thing I found is that Vienna and Austria in general are expensive.  It cost me about $100 a night for a hotel, even outside of the city center, and dinners cost about $20.  Even a sandwich at the cafes in the center cost $5.

 

After my time in Vienna it was time to move to Prague, about 200 miles to the north.  Of course it was raining on the morning I left!  I plotted a route on secondary roads to the border.  Even though it was raining, these secondary roads were quite pleasant as they wound through fields and forest instead of the high mountains.

 

I wasn't sure what to expect at the Czech border.  I had heard that Americans need a visa for the Czech Republic, but I had also read that no visa was required.  And I wasn't sure if they would want to stamp my carnet, which would be the first time since India.  But when I got to the border, the customs officer looked at my passport, handed it back to me, and waved me through.  That was it!

 

As soon as I was in CZ things looked different.  It was obvious that this is a much poorer country than Austria or the other European countries I had visited.  The roads were still good, but the buildings and homes seemed to be in more of a state of disrepair.  And everything was covered in a coat of black.  I wondered what the black was and finally decided that it was the leftover effects of industrial pollution from the Soviet days.

 

A few more hours through more woods and fields and I was in Prague.  It was still raining and it's always a little tricky negotiating the traffic and slick streets in a new city.  Before I knew it I found myself in the city center, even though I intended to stop in one of the suburbs and find a hotel.  I stopped at a tourist information booth to see if they could direct me to a nearby hotel, but it was closed.  While I was standing there a gentleman approached me and asked if I was looking for a hotel.  I usually am very reserved when people approach me on the street and try to sell me something, but this was an older gentleman in a suit and he seemed quite sincere and pleasant.  So I asked him the deal and he explained that he rented an apartment upstairs in his home, and that it was nice and cheap and on the subway line.  I figured I didn't have anything to lose so I followed him to check it out.  Sure enough, it was 3 rooms on the top floor of his house, with it's own entry and bath and refrigerator, and all for about $50 a night.  And he had a garage for my bike, so I took it.

 

During the next days I took the subway into the center and did my tourist thing in Prague.  I visited the museum and several cathedrals and forts and the Charles Bridge.  I was a little underwhelmed by the museum.  The building is grand but it didn't give much history of the area which I was hoping for.  On the other hand, the cathedrals and fortress were grand, and the Charles Bridge was quite the scene with its huge statues and crowds of tourists.

 

The weather was partly cloudy and cool - about 65 degrees.  If felt good when the sun came out but was a little chilly when the sun disappeared and the winds blew.  Still, it was nice and cool for all my walking.

 

Like Vienna, Prague has some amazing buildings with statues and other art.  But unlike Vienna, everything in Prague is black.  Many of the statues look like they've been carved out of coal!  And there's a layer of soot over all the buildings.  Prague also has a much more "eastern" feel than the other European cities I've visited, with its onion domes and spires.  All this gives Prague an exotic and alive feeling, as opposed to Vienna's museum-like feel.

 

Another difference in Prague were the costs.  My accommodation was about half the price of that in Vienna, and I probably could have found cheaper.  And my dinners only cost about $8 for a full meal with a beer.  Subways and internet were equally less expensive.  A refreshing change from the sky-high prices in Italy, Switzerland, and Austria!  Maybe I should have stayed in CZ longer!

 

During my stay in the Czech Republic I changed my opinion slightly.  I first thought that it was a poorer country than the rest of Europe I'd seen, and this is true.  But rather than being stagnant, it seems to be a country that's growing and developing.  They seem to be throwing off years of neglect and ruin and improving.  I saw buildings being repaired and cleaned.  The subways were on time and reliable (more so than my experience in London in fact!) and accommodations for tourists were plentiful and quite good.  It was good to see such positive signs.

 

After several days in Prague I headed back into Germany.  Next, Western Europe.

 

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