I am an avid traveller who believes that travel means participation. Whether it be observing traditional cultures, eating native delicacies, or drinking local drinks, one must fully immerse oneself to truly understand and enjoy a destination.
Fantastic Diving starts here in the Red Sea! Coral gardens, wrecks, abundant fish and warm water. Master Diving Center in Makadi Bay welcomes you!
SCUBA Dive School Name: Master Diving Center Address: Serenity Hotels, 36 Km, Safaga Road, Makadi Bay, Hurghada, Red Sea, Egypt
Note: This is an independent dive base review based on my personal experience.
Dive Center
The Dive Center: Founded by Instructors; offering PADI and CMAS courses, SCUBA diving and snorkelling. The center itself, located on the shores of the Red Sea in the Serenity Makadi Beach hotel, has a professional, inviting look! Equipment
Traditional Food in Wien, Vienna Austria – Dog Friendly
Gösser Beer
On our recent visit to Vienna, Austria, we went in search of traditional Austrian Kitchen which allows dogs. Gasthaus zur Stadt Krems welcomed us with big smiles and friendliness.
They have an old fashioned dining area and a simple seating bar area with large wooden tables. We chose to sit in the bar area, as we were dressed for walking and sightseeing, not for dining.
Zur Stadt Krems
We each had the Schnitzel Weiner Art with potato salad and washed it down with 2 Gösser Radler (a wonderful beer lemonade mix). The schnitzel was nice and crispy with a wonderful flavor. The potato salad was delicious – good old fashioned style, creamy and slightly tangy.
Schnitzel in Vienna
Our total was €28.40 (Schnitzel €10.50 ea., Beer €3.70 ea.)
Do I recommend it? Definitely. Next time we will delve into more of the Viennese Cuisine!
Address: Zieglergasse 37, 1070 Wien
Telefon: 01 – 52 37 200
Open: Monday – Friday, 11:00 – 23:30 Uhr
Website: Gasthaus zur Stadt Krems
Scooting past Dresden, past…
Wake up at 5 am, shower, finish packing, walk the Fritz dog and be on our way by 6:15am. It is early enough to get through Berlin within 1/2 hour without any traffic problems – direction Dresden.
Highway Sign to Wien
We pass through the Spreewald of Brandenburg, making note to stop at the Schloss Lübbenau next time, a royal palace castle on an island which is now used as a hotel. Next we fly by the cutoff for the famous domed indoor beach themepark Tropical Islands.
As we pass by acres of beautiful sunflower fields, many points of interest are suggested with the brown roadside signs, but we do not have sufficient time this time; we will break them into short trips in the future.
There are lots of rest areas where you can take a bathroom break, rest, snack and or picnic. Our dog Fritz loves these breaks! As you saw from my last blog, we took a trunk full of groceries – water, sodas, breads, pastas, fruit, carrots, and 2 small coolers with cheeses and meats.
One of our earlier stops, we had a fruit breakfast, drank some water and of course let Fritz go for a run.
Also noted as we flew past is the Schloss Schönfeld, known as Germany’s magical castle in the Saxony area of Dresden, followed by the baroque Schloss Moritzburg. Yes, this could be a castle tour coming on a trip near us!
At 8:14 am we veer off towards Dresden, Germany and Prag, Czech Republic. By 8:35 am we enter through the highway tunnels and wave bye bye to Dresden, vowing to come back some day and see the city and all of her attractions. Past the Schloss Wessenstein and Schloss Pillnitz (more castles!), the Saxon Baroque Gardens dated 1727 and then entering the beautiful rolling hills of the Swiss Saxony known for hiking.
Rest Area, Prag Sign in Background – Road Trip
As we pass the picturesque town of Pirna, we see a sign indicating that Prag is just 117 km away. We stop at rest area Am Heidenholz to get the obligatory vignette (highway permit) for the Czech Republic – Cost: €12.50 for 1 to 10 days (30 days €17.50). They accept payment in Euros or Czech Koruna / Crowns and give you the choice of either as change. Pretty much immediately leave Germany ?? and enter Czech Republic ?? ; it is 9:30 am.
All road signs are in Czech only. We stopped at the first gas station we came to, but it was over full with people so we left and went to the next petro station (9:51 am) which was much more relaxed; although we did not go in, there is also a McDonalds here and wifi in the bistro. Gas is slightly cheaper than in Germany so we filled the car which needed 26.6 l at 31.20 CZK (€1.20/litre or USD$1.40/litre) for a total of 829.90 CKZ .
Line Up to Buy Vingette, Highway Permit for Czech Republic
At 10:15 am we hit our first traffic jam of the trip due to construction / lane closure, but it quickly opened up again 9 minutes later, however that was short lived and we drove right into the next jam as we realized we were on the outskirts of Prag. At 10:44 am as we were still making our way slowly through Prag, it started to rain. We stopped at a McDonalds where we ordered 2 clubhouse menus (sandwich, soda, fries) for a total of 312.00 Czech crown / €12. By 11:32 am we were on the road again with full stomachs!
Reminder – Need Vignette – Czech
11:57 am and we are finally exiting Prag – destination Vienna (Wien), Austria!!!
