Author Topic: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague  (Read 44075 times)

Offline A European

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #80 on: August 11, 2013, 11:35:44 PM »
Just WOW!!!
Moish you are amazing!!
GR8 TR.

Offline chuchem

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #81 on: August 12, 2013, 12:52:05 AM »
Moish
Nice tripreport

When staying at the St regis in beijing i had him unpack and pack my suitcases. Saves alot of time, especially if you are only there for a little. They press clothing, that dont look good and really do it perfect.
My flight left at 2 and i got to enjoy the morning shopping, knowing when i am back everything is packed and ready to go.

Offline moish

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #82 on: August 12, 2013, 05:55:35 AM »
Moish
Nice tripreport

When staying at the St regis in beijing i had him unpack and pack my suitcases. Saves alot of time, especially if you are only there for a little. They press clothing, that dont look good and really do it perfect.
My flight left at 2 and i got to enjoy the morning shopping, knowing when i am back everything is packed and ready to go.

i had them press some stuff too before shabbos.

my wife actually gave them a skirt to press and they on their own decided to wash and press without charging

Offline moish

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #83 on: August 12, 2013, 06:01:42 AM »
Moish, what camera did you use for these pics?
i mostly use a canon rebel t2i 18-135mm f3.5-5.6

but sometimes the canon s95

Offline moish

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #84 on: August 12, 2013, 06:02:22 AM »
Just WOW!!!
Moish you are amazing!!
GR8 TR.
thanks! i'm glad to see  someone appreciates it...

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #85 on: August 12, 2013, 09:10:02 AM »
thanks! i'm glad to see  someone people appreciates it...
FTFY :)
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline AMZ450

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #86 on: August 12, 2013, 12:14:26 PM »
Moish- you did it again, great tr.......

Offline moish

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #87 on: August 12, 2013, 05:47:30 PM »
Moish- you did it again, great tr.......
thanks, are you the one i met in the Vienna shtieble?

Offline moish

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #88 on: August 12, 2013, 05:47:57 PM »
Friday evening we taxied to the Chabad house, where I had prepaid for the Shabbos meals on their website through paypal. The meal was very nice and enjoyable, though more of a restaurant’ish experience as opposed to what I’m used to at Chabad houses around the world where it’s more “heimish”. After the meal, one of the gentile workers walked us back to the hotel where I had a 200 CZK waiting for her that I prepared before Shabbos (Disclaimer: Not all situations are the same, so speak to your local Orthodox rabbi).

Shabbos morning I davened at the Altneuschul for the ‘chavaya’ and unfortunately was a bit of a letdown for reasons I won’t go in to. The highlight of the service was the Kiddush the Rabbi sponsored after davening, in celebration of his birthday. The meal at Chabad didn’t go too well either. Although a new, modern building, there was no A/C on this sweltering day. To make things worse, they had supposedly run out of soft drinks and served only room temperature water (and later beer), even though the menu clearly states that they provide “unlimited soft drinks”. While that in itself might have been excusable, the fact that some tables were still able to get while others weren’t ‘zoiche’ is what made me upset. (There’s more to this story, but not appropriate for a public forum). Though the cholent was delicious…

Our flight on motza”sh was scheduled for 12:05am. Being that Shabbos only ended at 9:42pm, we had our stuff mostly packed from before Shabbos. By 10pm, we were already in the taxis on the way to the airport. With the airport located a half hour away, it appeared to be smooth sailing from there.

How wrong I was.

In the taxi ride to the airport, I switched on my phone to check my emails. I had an urgent email from my brother back in Israel who told me that 2 men were caught trying to break into my apartment on Friday night and were chased away. It was not clear if they had succeeded in entering, since the neighbor who had a key was also away for the weekend. So that already put me on edge.

Upon arrival at the airport, I looked at the departures board and could not find my flight. I asked around and was directed to the Travel Service ticketing office that thankfully was still open. They looked at my ticket and flight number and informed me that my flight was at 10:45pm. Apparently, there was a schedule change, and no one notified me. Not the airline and not the agency I booked it through, Israir. There was another flight at 11:20pm, but there were only 2 seats available, and I needed 4.

The agent called the local Czech representative for Israir who asked me, “Can you please explain to me why you arrived at the airport at 10:30 for a 12:05 flight? You had to have been at the airport minimum 2 hours before flight time!” Instead of apologizing for not informing me, he laid the blame completely on my shoulders. Had I arrived at the airport at 10:05, I would have made the 10:45 flight. At least that’s what he said. The earliest flight was the following day, Sunday, at 11pm, but he wasn’t sure he could get us all on. He told me to book 2 rooms at the airport hotel, but couldn’t confirm that he would cover it. I instead opted to go back to the Hilton Old Town, where I had already paid for the second night (it was cheaper to do cash + points for the second night than to do 10pm late checkout).

On Sunday about noon, he called me and told me that the only thing he could do was to put my wife + baby on the Travel Service charter, and I would fly with the 2 older kids on the Czech flight leaving an hour later. With no other option, I accepted his offer.
« Last Edit: August 12, 2013, 05:54:09 PM by moish »

Offline moish

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #89 on: August 12, 2013, 05:49:19 PM »
With a half day left in Prague, we took a taxi up to Petrin Hill and the Petrin Observation Tower there (the Czech Eiffel Tower), for amazing views over Prague. There are also gardens and a nice mirror maze the kids enjoyed. There’s also an observatory up there, but during the daytime only sunspots can be viewed so we skipped it.

"The Czech Eiffel Tower"


Vltava River


Charles Bridge


Prague Castle


We took the funicular down the hill and walked along the river, over the Charles Bridge and to the Old Town Square, where we relaxed and had some local beer in one of the many seating areas. As I was finally out of excuses, I reluctantly “ponied” up (pardon the pun) the 800 CZK for a horse and buggy ride around the Josefov area that my kids had been asking for the whole time.

Funicular


We then ate dinner at Dinitz, checked out of the hotel, went to the airport with the Israir supplied van, submitted our VAT refund receipts and checked in for our respective flights to TLV. (To my delight, Israir reserved us in Business Class. Although it was only coach seats with an empty middle, it proved to be invaluable as my kids were able to lay out and sleep the whole flight)


And that’s how we did a “light” one week trip to Europe 3 weeks after having a baby. THE END!!

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #90 on: August 12, 2013, 05:54:34 PM »

We took the funicular down the hill and walked along the river, over the Charles Bridge and to the Old Town Square, where we relaxed and had some local beer in one of the many seating areas. As I was finally out of excuses, I reluctantly “ponied” up (pardon the pun) the 800 CZK for a horse and buggy ride around the Josefov area that my kids had been asking for the whole time.


And that’s how we did a “light” one week trip to Europe 3 weeks after having a baby. THE END!!
How old are the kids that they are drinking beer :)

Really great TR. Having all the pictures throughout, definitely makes it a much better read and is much appreciated.
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline moish

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #91 on: August 12, 2013, 06:00:55 PM »
How old are the kids that they are drinking beer :)
They had apple juice (looks like beer)


Really great TR. Having all the pictures throughout, definitely makes it a much better read and is much appreciated.
thanks

Offline Chaikel

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #92 on: August 12, 2013, 06:10:30 PM »
They had apple juice (looks like beer)
Yup, my wife buys that story as well.

Great TR. Hopefully will inspire me. I'm now dying to stay in the Imperial.
Create professional looking itineraries.
Check out eliteitinerary.com

Offline penina

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #93 on: April 10, 2014, 05:52:28 PM »
Thanks for the tr. its very helpful as we are planning a trip to Prague this may.
Was just wondering how the SPG Sheraton was. We do have SPG points but we can pay for a hotel if its much nicer and use the SPG for something else. From the reviews online the hotel does not appear to be 5 star or anything special and staying in a nice hotel is important to us.
We will be staying there for 2 days. Which of the attractions you mentioned are a must see?
Thanks for the help

Offline Jkhein

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #94 on: April 10, 2014, 06:43:05 PM »
Thanks for the tr. its very helpful as we are planning a trip to Prague this may.
Was just wondering how the SPG Sheraton was. We do have SPG points but we can pay for a hotel if its much nicer and use the SPG for something else. From the reviews online the hotel does not appear to be 5 star or anything special and staying in a nice hotel is important to us.
We will be staying there for 2 days. Which of the attractions you mentioned are a must see?
Thanks for the help
nothing special

Offline steve L

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #95 on: April 13, 2014, 08:43:04 PM »
Did you do a light trip bec of the kids or there is enough to do in bit countries for 7 -8 days

Offline sky121

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #96 on: April 13, 2014, 08:44:34 PM »
Did you do a light trip bec of the kids or there is enough to do in bit countries for 7 -8 days

You can go from Vienna to Salzburg and stop at some places on the way.  Def can spend some time there.
"Not all who wander are lost"

Offline Emkay

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #97 on: April 28, 2014, 11:37:54 AM »
is it just me or the are the pictures from page 4 and on not showing up?

Offline moish

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #98 on: May 07, 2014, 07:59:29 PM »
is it just me or the are the pictures from page 4 and on not showing up?
works for me but they seem to be bigger than when i originally posted them, and the vertical ones got turned on their side. no idea why

Offline Emkay

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Re: “Light” Trip to Vienna & Prague
« Reply #99 on: May 08, 2014, 08:26:42 AM »
works for me but they seem to be bigger than when i originally posted them, and the vertical ones got turned on their side. no idea why
works for me now, Dunno why it wasnt before