Sauer Ladies' Adventures in the Czech Republic & Slovakia

Updated March 12, 2109

Day 5 – June 13, 2019

We must say “Goodbye” to Bratislava this morning and continue our travels.

We drive out of Bratislava, heading northeast towards eastern Slovakia. Our first stop will be Bojnice Castle, a 2 hour drive from Bratislava.

Bojnice (pronouced “boy-nitz-aa”) Castle looks just like a fairy-tale castle – a Cinderella castle – situated on a hill, with many towers and pink exterior walls.

After walking up a hill to the castle entrance, we find out there is no castle tour today in the English language. It is Children’s Day today at the castle, with a Slovak fairy tale performed by actors in several rooms in the castle.

The story told in the fairy tale is how important it is to be surrounded with good friends, who will help us along the way.  The ‘friends’ in the fairy tale are animal puppets..a dog, a cat, a horse, a goat. The actors are teenagers and do a great job with the animal voices.  After each scene, the children in the audience receive some sort of trinket before moving on to the next room for the next scene.

It is really fun to hear the little children gathered around respond to the actors and answer in Slovak to the questions the actors them.

In one of the last scenes the teenage guys who are actors really get into some sort of brawl with the animals, and another scene in a brawl with a witch. Lots of fast-paced action and the kids love it!

So, although we do not understand the Slovak being spoken in each of the different scenes, we understand the message being told to the children…of the importance of good friends.  

Updated 2/10/2019

Day 4 – Tuesday, June 12, 2019

We’re going to tour some of Bratislava today, starting with Bratislava Castle! 

We walk…trudge…up a large hill to the castle. Walking up hills will be daily experiences on our travel adventures!

Bratislava Castle, built in the 9th century and situated above the Danube river, has been a fortress in times of war.

Bratislava Castle is also a National Museum of History, so it seems as though we are touring a museum and not a castle.  The castle itself is rather plain inside…with white marble stairs and not a lot of decoration. The white marble bannister “balustrade” reminds us of a scene in “Beauty and the Beast” where Belle stands on the stairs and waves.

We observe the flag of Slovakia flying proudly over Bratislava from inside the castle. The red, blue and white colors represent Slavic unity and independence & are the most used colors in flags and national emblems of Slavic countries. The double silver cross on the flag is a Christian symbol and stands on the peak of three mountains – Matra, Tatra and Fatra.

Jessica climbs the many steps to the tower area of the castle where the crown jewels of Slovakia are displayed.

Near Bratislava Castle is the Slovak Parliament building..
Národná rada Slovenskej republiky

We stop for lunch at a restaurant with an outdoor table, overlooking the Danube River.

It’s so nice sitting on the outdoor patio under an umbrella with a nice breeze. The lemonade arrives at our table in a glass pitcher…with ice…and with mint leaves. We all enjoy the lemonade…and we keep adding water to the lemonade pitcher to enjoy the COLD refreshment on a warm afternoon.

After lunch we walk across a nearby old stone bridge and then through an outer courtyard and a gate to get to St. Martin’s Cathedral. Many kings and queens were crowned in the cathedral.

There are beautiful stained glass windows in the cathedral, as well as ornate altars

We meander around the outside of the cathedral and find some old stone steps, which lead us down to “Staré mesto” – the “Old Town” section Bratislava we also wanted to explore!

We soon walk by a tour company office and make a wise decision to take a bus tour of the city later that afternoon. We can see some of the highlights of the city in a short amount of time on a tour.

Let’s see what’s nearby. We find some interesting statues here in Old Town Bratislava.

Napoleon’s statue is in the Main Square. You can have your photo taken with him. He won’t mind…he’s been doing this for years! He loves having his photo taken, especially with the ladies!

We enjoy shopping in some of the many shops in Old Town Bratislava.

Time for our bus tour of Bratislava! We’re doing the Great City Tour – which combines two tours – the Old Town Tour and the Castle Tour.

We drive by the beautiful Slovak National Theatre – Slovenské národné divadlo – where the banner on the front advertises a ballet performance.

We also see the Slovak Philharmonic building – Slovenská filharmónia.

Another interesting building on our tour is the “Inverted Pyramid” – which is the Slovak Radio Building. The first broadcast from this building was in 1984.

After our tour we enjoy more shopping at the interesting shops in Old Town Bratislava.

We stop for a donair sandwich for supper. It’s getting dusk and we need to be heading back to our apartment. All we need to do is walk back to St. Martin’s Cathedral, go through the outer gate, and then cross the old stone bridge over the highway…the way we came in…and then our apartment will be close by.

We walk back to St. Martin’s Cathedral and find the gate…problem here..the gate is closed and locked for the night! Well, we know our apartment isn’t that far away…we’ll just look for a way around the cathedral.

It’s dark now and it’s starting to rain…a lot! We’re now walking on a very narrow cement path right by the highway, with cars speeding past us, just to the left of our path.

We need to keep walking…and praying that the cars speeding past us stay on the road and that we’ll be safe! And we also have to somehow and somewhere cross this busy 4 lane highway on a dark and rainy night…to get to the other side of the highway.

Jessica sees a hillside up ahead of us..which leads to a footbridge over the highway. We scramble up the hillside to the footbridge & cross over the highway. We are soon back in our apartment…PtL! Our clothes, shoes, purses & backpacks are soaked! That’s ok…we’ are so thankful to be safely in the apartment for the night!

Now we can say…what a fun day this has been in Bratislava, Slovakia!

Updated 1/15/2019 for Day 3 – we did a lot things this day on our trip!

Day 3 – June 11, 2018 – Vienna, Austria and then on to Bratislava, Slovakia

We awake to a sunny, warm morning in Vienna, with the streetcars rumbling by on the tracks below our window.

We have a delicious breakfast at Hotel Bleckmann, with an assortment of breads, meat, cheese, fruit, yogurt, juice, and fresh, hot coffee!

After breakfast, we talk to the hotel clerk about parking for the day. He tells us we can’t leave our car in the parking garage, but we can park on the streets nearby.  We will need a parking sticker, which we purchase from the clerk. He emphasizes that the parking sticker must be displayed on the dashboard so that it can be seen through the front window.  

We walk to the parking garage & Jessica backs the car our of that small parking space and drives to a nearby back street. She and Laura make sure the parking sticker is displayed on the dashboard.  

We then set out to explore some of Vienna. There are many beautiful buildings and churches in Vienna.

We tour the beautiful St. Stephen’s cathedral.

We take an elevator ride to an upper level of the cathedral, where there is an outdoor deck with beautiful views of the city.

We walk to the Spanish Riding School. The famous Lipizzan horses do not exercise or train on Monday, so we will not get to see them. We do see the popular horse-drawn carriages in the streets.

We’re getting tired and hungry and our water bottles are empty.  We stop at Café de l’Europe for lunch.  It feels great to sit down in the covered outdoor dining area after all the walking we’ve done this hot morning!

The cafe is busy with customers. A waiter arrives at our table, and we order 3 bottles of water for our beverages…we are so thirsty!…and decide what to order for lunch. We enjoy people-watching, as there are many people strolling by this busy area…some are dressed casually, and some are very well dressed!  

Our sandwiches are tasty, and our cold bottled water is refreshing. However, when we get our bill, it’s € 3 per bottle of water! Three Euros = More than $3 per bottle of water! From now on, we’re ordering soda…or beer!  

We do a bit more walking in the area & find a water station where we fill our water bottles…free of charge!

Our next and last stop in Vienna is Belvedere Palace, which has an art gallery with paintings by world-renowned artists The subway seems to be the fastest way to get there.  We find the subway and Laura determines what stop we need, so we buy our tickets and hop on the subway…and when the subway door opens…Belvedere Palace…we’re here!

We tour several rooms with artwork and statues.  One of the most famous paintings here is The Kiss …an oil painting with silver and gold leaf by Gustav Klimt, done in 1907.

Another famous painting at Belvedere is the portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte painted by the French artist Jacques-Louis David.

It is time to leave and make our way back to our car, parked near Hotel Bleckmann, where we started this morning.  We wisely take a taxi, and can enjoy a few more of the sights of Vienna on our ride back to the hotel.

We get out of the taxi near Hotel Bleckmann and walk to our car on a nearby side street. All seems in order…our carry-on bags are still secure in the trunk…but what’s this on the windshield?  A parking ticket! With a fine of € 36 Euros! € 36 Euros = approximately $40 U.S. dollars!

Why did we get a parking ticket, as we had a paid parking sticker for all day on the dashboard of the car!

Jessica and Laura quickly walk back to Hotel Bleckmann with the parking ticket, and Irene stays with the car.  The girls query the hotel clerk as to why there’s a ticket from the Vienna “parking police” when we had paid for the parking and clearly had a parking sticker displayed. The hotel clerk cannot determine why we were issued this ticket either, and gives Jessica and Laura information where they can further determine what needs to be done.

Eventually, Jessica and Laura will compose a letter and email it to the proper authorities, and the ticket will not need to be paid.

We want to get to Bratislava, about an hour away. We drive out of Vienna…out of Austria and into Slovakia!

We pass by the Border Control site and buildings, seamlessly driving out of Austria and into Slovakia. It seems strange…at least to Irene, who grew up in the Cold War era..not to be required to stop and show one’s passport and credentials to border officials in a country formerly ruled by the Communist Party.

Once we are in Slovakia, we stop at a gas station to obtain a tollway sticker needed to drive on the roadways in Slovakia.

Our destination tonight is “The Apartment Under the Castle” at 36, Zámocká, 811 01 Bratislava, Slovakia. It is very near Bratislava Castle, a well known landmark in Bratislava and Slovakia.  

The apartment building is on the downhill slope of a hilly street!  Jessica maneuvers the car into the small remaining parking space near the apartment. .

We call the landlord several times and finally connect with him. He soon appears and gives Jessica the key. We are able to leave our car where it’s parked for tonight, but tomorrow we’ll need to get a parking sticker from a central parking meter. 

The apartment is spacious…watch your step going up and down the stairs into and out of the apartment…there’s no handrail!

Hey, look…there’s a bright red refrigerator…and it works..and has an upper freezer compartment! This will be great for freezing our water bottles.

We decide to go to the bar/restaurant across the street for supper. It’s ok, but the hamburger is not like the Iowa corn-fed beef!

After supper, Jessica goes out to scout out the area around the apartment and finds a small convenience store just up the street!  So she buys several items for a good breakfast for the next two mornings.  Thank you, Jessica!

We are tired and ready to call it a day. Looking forward to exploring Bratislava tomorrow.

Day 2 – Sunday, June 10, 2018 – Visiting the Jankovsky and Kratochvíl families, & then traveling to Vienna

Hana and Stanislav prepare a delicious breakfast for us…meat, cheese, breads, eggs, yogurt, juice & coffee…and we also enjoy more of the marble bundt cake…mramorová bábovka!

Hana and Stanislav offer to keep our large suitcases at their home, as we will be staying with them again before flying back to the U.S.  This will give us more room in our rental car as we travel to Slovakia and then back to the Czech Republic.

Later in the morning we travel to Marketa and Tomáš’ home in a nearby village, about 15 minutes away.  Marketa and Tomáš have a new ranch-style house. It is a beautiful home, and we are amazed that they have done almost all of the building and finishing work themselves. We admire their skill and knowledge in building their own home!

They have a large backyard and a fence constructed of rectangular cement block sections around their property. Matouš is quite the outdoor 3 year old boy as he runs around his yard, and we enjoy seeing him run and play.

Marketa, Hana, Stanislav, and Vojta prepare a DELICIOUS lunch of chicken schnitzel! This will become our favorite food on our travels!

Vojta fries the chicken schnitzel in a covered electric fryer outside…Marketa says this way her house doesn’t smell like fried chicken schnitzel!  We sit down in Marketa & Tomáš’ outdoor covered patio to a good lunch of chicken schnitzel, mashed potatoes, sliced cucumbers and shredded cucumber salad.

Tomáš gives us helpful information about traveling in Austria and Slovakia. Toll stickers are required on all vehicles on Austria’s and Slovakia’s motorways and highways. We will need to stop at a gas station upon entering Austria & Slovakia to purchase a toll sticker for the Skoda. The rental car already has a toll sticker for the Czech Republic.

Our wonderful Czech friends prepare extra chicken schnitzel for us to take on our travel today to Vienna, Austria.  Hana also sends snacks, cookies, and several bottles of water and soda with us. She knows what we need for our trip!

We say good-bye for now and drive south towards Vienna, Austria, our destination for this evening and tomorrow.

The scenery is beautiful in early summer colors as we wind our way through the green hilly countryside and picturesque small villages. We pass bicycle riders in the opposite lane pedaling up steep hills.

As we drive through a small town we see that there is some sort of tourist market with tents set up and vendors & small touristy stores along the road. We must stop and see what treasures are to be found! Well, we don’t find any treasures…but we did find a vendor with a LOT of either Christmas elves or Christmas gnomes!

We continue our journey. It is a long drive to Vienna, and we are thankful for Hana packing the extra chicken schnitzel, snacks, water, and soda for our travels.

As we arrive in Vienna, Jessica and Laura consult the GPS as we find our way to our lodging for tonight, Hotel Pension Bleckmann Währinger Straße 15, 09. Alsergrund, Vienna.

Jessica parks the car in front of the hotel. We then find that the front door to the hotel is locked! We call the hotel to hopefully get someone to answer. Thankfully, someone answers and unlocks the door. Jessica and Laura go in to register us for the night & Irene stays with the car. We can’t leave our car in front of the hotel, however, the hotel had guaranteed that we would have a place to park. Our parking space is in a parking garage down a narrow side street. Jessica has to make a sharp left turn into the parking garage, and then another sharp left to fit the car into a very narrow parking slot.

We grab our carry-on bags & backpacks, and hurry up the side street in the dark to get to the hotel.

Our room is simple, but clean, and has a big french door opening to a tiny balcony overlooking the street. The tracks for the streetcars run right in front of the hotel, and it seems we hear streetcars rumbling by most of the night.

We are thankful for arriving safely…and for Hana’s generosity in sending along the extra chicken schnitzel & snacks! After our supper of the remaining chicken schnitzel & some of the snacks, we are ready for a good night’s sleep!

Day 1 – Saturday June 9, 2018 – flying to Prague & visiting Jankovsky family

As Jessica and Irene’s flight continues east over the Atlantic Ocean and then over England and western Europe, the nighttime turns to daylight outside – and it’s now early morning in Europe!

Happy Birthday, Jessica – 33 years today!  

We are served breakfast on the plane – yogurt, breakfast bar, dried fruit, & hot coffee – the coffee tasted fresh-brewed, delicious with 2 creams! ☺

Soon the pilot is saying “Welcome to Prague!”  Once in the airport, we are thankful when the Czech Republic police official stamps out passports!

It is interesting…and also challenging… hearing the Czech language being spoken all around us….and other languages, too…and not being able to understand what is being said.  Even Czech words are difficult to understand, as it seems the words are being spoken so fast! Now we can claim our baggage – Irene knows hers is at the 50 pound weight limit!  

And then we see our Laura Sauer! Such as delight and joy to see Laura!  We haven’t seen her – in person- for a year! It was just wonderful for Jessica and Irene to hug Laura, and appreciate the blessing to be together!  

We walk through the airport to get a new Sim card and use the ATM to get our Czech koruna for currency – 100 Czech crowns is approximately $5 U.S. dollars.  

We then walk to the rental car area – we have a nice Skoda SUV for our travel adventures! Its seemingly large trunk wasn’t so roomy after our 3 large suitcases were loaded into the trunk.  Laura was so nice to say she’d sit in the back seat, where there were also 3 carry-on suitcases and 3 backpacks!

Jessica drives us out of Prague and thankfully the Skoda has a GPS, which Jessica programs for English!  We’re on the road towards Haje, to the home of Hana and Stnaislav, parents of Markéta and Magda, who were Jessica and Laura’s Czech host family from many years ago through the Czech Heritage Foundation in Cedar Rapids.  

We drive into more rural areas, with the large rolling hillsides, and the trees and fields are a beautiful green color.

When we arrive at Jankovsky’s home in Haje, we are warmly greeted by Markéta & Tomáš, Magda & Voijte, Hana & Stanislav.  Markéta & Tomáš’ little 3 year old son, Matouš, is taking a nap, and Markéta tells us to enjoy this time before he wakes up!  Markéta & Tomáš’ littlest son, Šimon, is so sweet, and only 2 months old…a beautiful baby!

We all sit around a table on the Jankovsky’s covered outdoor patio and visit, with Markéta’s help as translator.  We enjoy delicious Czech cookies, some with jam in the center, and a delicious bundt cake with chocolate center – mramorová bábovka…and we also enjoy some Czech beer and wine-české pivo a víno!

It is so good to be here, and see and visit with these wonderful Czech friends.  Thank you so much, Jankovsky families, for your kindness and hospitality!

Laura has brought a perfect gift for Matouš …a blue airplane toy that is very popular with the children in Laura’s neighborhood in Wuhan, China.  
Matouš is soon playing with his new toy, tossing it up in the air to see how high and far the plane will soar, and running around the yard having fun with Laura!

Irene, Hana, and Magda take a tour of Jankovsky’s beautifully landscaped backyard and Hana’s well-kept garden.  When Jessica first visited the Jankovksy’s in the summer of 2004, the Jankovsky’s had recently moved to their new home… a home they built themselves! Hana and Stanislav have done a lot of work over the years to add many trees, bushes, flowers, and landscaping to their property.

Hana and Stanislav’s house has a sloped tiled roof so that when it rains, the rain water will flow down to a drainage pipe and into a round underground storage tank. The water then goes through another pipe to the garden area for Hana to water the garden.  

It is the afternoon and the Jankovsky’s know we are a bit tired from our overseas plane rides, and tell us to go upstairs and make ourselves at home and take time to rest before supper that evening.

Once we are upstairs and get settled, Laura and Irene quietly sing “Happy Birthday” to Jessica and give Jessica our birthday gifts to her.  Then we all do a bit of unpacking and take a nap!

For supper that evening Hana, Magda, & Markéta prepare delicious chicken baked in the oven, with Magda’s recipe for sauce – which we all liked and we all would like the recipe, Magda!  

After supper we enjoy visiting with the Jankovsky families.  Hana and Stanislav have a beautiful outdoor covered patio, with a large table we are gathered around.  The Jankovskys brought out wine and strawberries to celebrate Jessica’s birthday, and we had a wonderful time recounting many fond memories with the Jankovsky family from our homestays with them. How fortunate we are to have these friendships that have spanned many years, and what a wonderful way to start our traveling adventure!

The journey for Irene began in December 2017, when her daughters, Jessica and Laura, gave Irene a notebook with information about a trip to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which Jessica and Laura had already arranged…for the next June, in 2018.

What a surprise for Irene!  Jessica and Laura told her they had been wanting to do this trip…taking their Mom to her ancestral homeland…for a long time.  Jessica and Laura would ask Irene from time to time over the years…”If there is anywhere in the world you would like to travel, Mom, where would it be?”  And Irene would say that she’d go to Slovakia and to the Czech Republic.

Slovakia…because that is where Irene’s grandmother and grandfather, Anna Grosko Kurovsky and John Kurovsky, lived before immigrating to the United States in the early 1900’s. Anna missed her family and her homeland in the Tatra Mountains area of present day eastern Slovakia, in what was then Czechoslovakia.

The Czech Republic…to meet the Jankovsky family…who hosted Jessica and Laura when the girls traveled to the Czech Republic years ago as student ambassadors for the Czech Heritage Foundation.  The Jankovsky daughters, Marketa and Magda, came to the U.S. as student ambassadors, and spent some time in Jessica and Laura’s home in Marion, Iowa. Jessica and Laura always commented on how nice the Jankovsky family was and how much they enjoyed their time with the Jankovskys.

The Czech Republic, also because Irene’s grandmother, Agnes Michalek (maiden name), was of Czech heritage. Agnes’ father was born in Svidnice, Bohemia and came to the U.S. when he was a young child. It would be so interesting to visit the area he was from.

So, along with the notebook about the upcoming trip, they also gave Irene a travel book for the Czech Republic and Slovakia so that Irene could read about the different areas of the countries to help determine where we might want to travel on our trip. So many beautiful and interesting areas of each country!

On to a new year with the adventure of a lifetime to look forward to!