European Family History Trip: Day 10 – Prague, Germany, Austria
We took a morning boat tour on the Vitava River in Prague. It was a gorgeous morning, and I was able to photograph some cormorant (birds) with my telephoto. As soon as the tour started, I had a flashback to my college days. They were playing Smetna’s Moldau over the speaker system and it reminded me of the music class I had my freshman year at BYU. Our instructor taught us about the lives of the composers, had us listen to lots of music, and learn the styles of each composer. For our final, we listened different pieces than the ones we studied and had to say who composed each piece. I did very well in that class and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Smetana’s Moldau (aka the Vitava River in Prague)
It’s been at least 40 years since I had heard Smetana’s Moldau, but when I saw his name as someone buried in Prague, along with Dvorak, I instantly thought … “Smetana … wait, Smetana’s Moldau!” Sure enough, when the tour started, they started playing Smetana’s Moldau. (The name of the Vitava River in German is Moldau.)
The Prague boat tour was one of my favorite things we did in Europe. It was a perfect combination for me: boat on the water, birds to photograph, excellent music, incredible scenery, and great company. Can’t beat that, in my book.
Using Credit Cards in Europe
After our boat tour, we headed for Salzburg Austria. As we got into Austria, we stopped at an Aldi that had a Diskount gas next to it. Dave went to pump the gas, and the machine wouldn’t take any of his cards. Normally, he can use an airline Visa card without a problem in Europe, but the pump kept insisting that we give a PIN number for credit cards — which none of our credit cards have. The machines also kept telling us our pins were wrong for our debit cards. We were running low on gas, so obviously, this wasn’t good!
Finally, I pulled out my bank’s business Visa and it worked just fine – didn’t even ask for a pin. Thank heavens! We went in Aldi afterward and their register took Dave’s credit card without a hitch.
One of our biggest hassles on this trip was getting places to take the method of payments we have. For example, Dave went to get our car out of the long-term parking in Prague this morning, and it wouldn’t take any of his cards. Finally, an attendant came along, and Dave was able to use some Euros he had on hand. Good thing he had them!
Word to the wise, if you travel to Europe, get some Euros before you leave the USA. With credit cards you pay a small fee in Europe, but more importantly, you never know when a European gas station or parking lot won’t take your credit cards.
Berchtesgaden, Germany
We checked into our lovely apartment in Anger, Germany (on the border of Austria) this afternoon. The colors are gorgeous here and we took a drive up to Berchtesgaden, Germany. This is somewhere my mother and her first husband went with a couple of their friends back in 1953.
The black and white photo of the group of people going down into the salt mine in Berchtesgaden is my mother’s photograph. The last two people in the picture are Roger Williams (my mom’s first husband) and my mother. Their friends Billy and Phyllis are in front of them. They also went to Mozart’s birthplace in Salzburg. We visited Mozart’s birthplace on Day 11.
We didn’t eat much during the day and saved up for one big meal. When David goes big, he goes big! 😆
We had to check out Berchtesgaden because my mom went here after WWII. The German dictator’s “Eagles Nest” up on the mountain is visible from this village.
Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for a free copy of “Gateway to Joy” and to be notified of next segments on our European Family History Trip and other blog posts.
