2025 Central Europe Photo Journal

We walked to our Airbnb, about a mile from the train station, which transferred us from the airport. It was close to 90 deg today... warm and humid 😅

A stop by yarn store #1! I bought 3 skeins... just to demonstrate my CC works here 😉

Our Airbnb is a small apt in a 5 story building near the historic district

We spent late afternoon at the Swiss National Museum to stay awake and keep cool. Neat place! Also had dinner here.

museum display

walk near Lake Zurich

selfie near Lake Zurich

yarn store #2!

Our first stop was Interlakaen which has a giant park used as a landing pad for paragliders.

Cool mural featuring a classic scene for the Swiss Alps

Our next stop was Grindewald. We had 2 crepes for lunch - local cheesse and chocolate /carmel. Yum!

After lunch we headed up behind the town via a hiking trail that leads up to some amazing views!

Love the views!

The top view was fantastic - 3 mountains!  we met some interesting locals who offered us drinks 😀  

The 3rd stop was the town of Lauderbrunnen,  which had amazng waterfalls...

...  and a particularly beautiful cemetary. Wow!

3 times per day the City Hall Clock Tower puts on a quite a show with mechanical music and life sized moving figures!

City Hall, features prominently in the plaza.

City Center Market with all sorts of food and other items

Yarn store  #4! ☺️

So interesting! Rick Steves says this church is only 30 ft wide and owned by a couple of brothers...

... who decorated the chapel in the mid 1800s in classic rococo as a show case for their business. My favorite was the gold leaf grim reaper!

Another beautiful church in historic city center

We finished up our day in a beer garden close to our hotel, with  a giant mug of beer and a giant pretzel! :)

Nice traine! on time amd crowded (lots of use)

We stay at the Mooons hotel, a quirky fun boutique stay close to the train statiom and about a mile from the historic city center

The walk to city center was so clean! bikes, scooters and cars are all electric

Pretty church! we visit later in the week. We never did learn what the plastic octopus thing was in front.

We learn a lot about the Hapsberg family who ruled central Europe for hundreds of years... underbite shown in this statue is due to inbreeding 😳

Hapsberg Palace (just one of many buildings in their realestate collection!)

So many people out and about. Lots of outdoor cafes!

Mozart lived here most of his adult life. so many classical music concerts available!

Budapest is made up of 2 cities - Buda on the west bank of the Danube and Pest on the east side. This is the Parlement buildimg in Pest.

A shoe memorial to Hungarian Jews murdered in this spot by the Nazis.

Looking at the Parlement building from the Buda side of the Danube

The castle district in on the Buda side - very festive!

Bratislava is about an hour east of Vienna. Our first stop was a fort on the hill to get this lovely view.

Near the fort is a historic city center. It has beautiful buildings and several fun statues

Beautiful architectural detail!

We stayed for dinner and enjoyed the more laid-back vibe 🙂

Our airbnb was beautifully updated, but retains its historic charm

The architecture in Prague is amazing!

Prague is a popular tourist destination for Europeans, and beautifully lit in the evenings

The classical music concern we attended was in a large chapel with a rounded ceiling and amazing acoustics.

Ther Berlin train station is state-of-the art. It is an impressive example of modern architecture in the city.

Our Airbnb apartment is at the top of an old (i.e. very plain) soviet style building.

The apartment itself was fantastic! It included a small outside patio on the roof, a cute kitchen and dining space, a living room, a bedroom, and a big bathroom. It also included bonus space in the loft.

After choosing a place to eat, we headed out in that direction. The picture along the way is an example of more historic pre-Soviet occupation architecture.

Neighborhood craft brewery and Pizza!

The restaurant was just a block away from the Berlin wall memorial - so we headed that way.  This is a great example of graffiti art that is around Berlin.

We found that the graffiti art wall surrounded a unique cemetary! This place is butted up against the former Berlin Wall and has quite the history.

After exploring the cemetary a bit, we found the Berlin wall next to it.  Not much of the wall is still standing, but this Memorial Park area has a section.

Random wall art

Yay!! Yarn Store #6!

one of three historic Water Towers - this one houses apartments

Former Brewery complex turned retail space - lots of shops, restaurants and even a DDR (communist era) museum

We learned this is a classic neighborhood pub in the corner of a residential building - run by the same family since 1913

Cafe Marlene! tables are under scaffolding decorated with ivy plants

Konnopke's is a local favorite stand selling Currywurst (spicy sausage) and more under the light rail line since the 1930s - privately owned even during communist era

There are not many beer gardens in Berlin (it's more of a southern Germany thing) but Rick helped us find Prater Biergarten (roots back to 1837)  for lunch!

This mural is in a park that is actually the courtyard of a residential building - Rick says the street access opening due to a WWII bomb

Loved the tree and art lined streets!

A particularly interesting shop with graffiti / mural art. Free tattoo anyone?

Rick says this trift store specializes in stuff from the communist days of DDR. We didn't go in, but looks interesting from the outside!

We ended our tour back at the Wall memorial Park, which is long and thin since it is the space between the inner and out Berlin wall. This was a no-mans land heavily guarded by communist guards.

The park is well over a mile long and now vibrant with people. 

We were able to climb a viewing tower across the street. This section of the wall has been left like a time capsule to preserve the wall complex.  It is closed to the public at ground level but offers an interesting to view from above.

The poster board describing the different parts of the wall complex.