European airfare discounts allowed me to travel from Los Angeles to central and eastern Europe at a lower cost than a simple business trip to Boston. My brother-in-law mentioned that Prague is the most beautiful city in Europe, and I wanted to see Vienna and the Danube, so I seized the opportunity. I met a former colleague and friend there, John Carter, with whom I had traveled to the Netherlands in December, 2000. Click on the map links on the right to see more of Vienna, Austria, our drive along the Danube and Prague, Czech Republic.

Travel Notes: A strong US dollar made everything inexpensive all through the trip, especially in the Czech Republic. German is spoken in Austria, but my five years of high school German provided little help. The Czech language is not Latin-based, which made it incomprehensible to us. However, throughout the trip we found that almost everyone spoke English, which seems to be evolving in Europe into a universal language. The weather in early May was nearly ideal with highs in the upper 60s and lower 70s (F), and just one afternoon shower in Prague. 

Several travel books were useful in planning the trip. Rick Steves' Germany, Austria & Switzerland (with Prague) 2001 was the most focused. We had a lot of trouble getting a good map, especially for the drive from Vienna to Prague. The Austria Roads & Recreation Mapsource software for my GPS provided detailed help in Austria, but was less useful once we crossed the Czech border. Our best map was from a gas station in Austria near the Czech border.