One Week to Go!

It’s warming up! We’ll certainly experience Spring in Europe.

Vienna’s Hundertwasser Down Under

While in Vienna we will be visiting the Hundertwasser Museum (Kunsthaus Wien) and the Hundertwasserhaus to see the amazingly organic and brightly coloured architectural designs of Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Hundertwasser also has one of his designed buildings in our own backyard - just across the Tasman Sea. In Kawakawa in the northern region of New Zealand, Hundertwasser spent the latter part of his life from 1975 until his death in 2000. He designed a public toilet block in the town in 1999, which is seen as an international work of art. It is the only structure in the Southern Hemisphere designed by Hundertwasser. Trees removed for the construction of the building had to be replanted on its roof. It is the most photographed toilet block in New Zealand.

Easter at our European Destinations

While we have been celebrating the Easter holiday break with melting Easter Eggs and unusually sweltering heat for this time of year, Berlin, Prague and Vienna have been nice and chilled experiencing temperatures ranging from 2 - 15 degrees C.

In Berlin, it is common for people to have 'easter nests' around the house. The easter nest is a colourful decorated basket or bowl padded with fake or real grass from a flower shop and stuffed with candy, chocolate and sweets shaped like eggs, chickens, bunnies and flowers. The most popular Easter custom in Germany is decorating eggs. They are painted in various colours, drawn on or patterns scratched into the shell. The eggs are then hung from a tree placed in a basket or in a nest made up of straw or napkins.

Easter in Prague is like a second Christmas or New Year. There are lots of customs and parties with national dishes served with special green beer. In the Old Town Square, they hold Easter markets, much like the famed Christmas Markets. Important days during Easter in Prague include Ugly Wednesday, Green Thursday, Good Friday and White Saturday.

In Vienna, decorated egg shells are also a popular custom. Egg shaped decorations are also made from other materials such as wood. In the weeks leading up to Easter Viennese flower shops sell thin tree branches mostly made from willow. People buy the branches to put in a vase from which they hang ribbons and decorated eggs. The Easter Tree is called Osterbaum.

On Easter morning Viennese people eat hard-boiled eggs that have been individually coloured. They are bought coloured from supermarkets or people still make their own at home by boiling the eggs in food colouring. The colouring of eggs is called Eierfarben.

A quirky Easter tradition is Eierpecken (egg pecking) where two opponents hold an egg each and then 'clash eggs' by knocking them together. The idea is to crack the opponents egg - pointy end to pointy end or flat end to flat end - without breaking your own.

The Osterhase is the Easter hare who brings all the eggs. Austrian children receive a large chocolate rabbit rather than an egg.

Two weeks and counting....

Two weekends left to pack! Its still pretty cold over in Berlin and Prague so pack winter woollies.

Current temperatures and weather for this Easter weekend:
Berlin: -1 to 3 degrees C with snow and rain (a real cold snap, brrrrr!)
Prague: 3 to 9 degrees C with showers but feels like -3 to 5 (brrrr!)
Vienna: 6 to 12 degrees C with showers

Long range forecast for when we are in:
Berlin: 3 - 12 degrees C - sunny with some clouds
Prague: 2 - 13 degrees C - overcast and cloudy
Vienna: 4 to 15 degrees C - overcast and cloudy

Pack layers of clothing (t-shirts, long sleeved shirts, jumper. jeans/pants, a warm jacket, a hat/beanie and some gloves).

Visiting Vytopna Restaurant in Prague will keep us on track!

The Vytopna Restaurant at Wenceslas Square in Prague has a very unique attraction....400m of miniature railway runs around the entire restaurant and down the centre of dining tables. The trains deliver drinks to the table, travelling from the bar area through tunnels, across drawbridges, past ponds and railway stations right to you! The technology used to do this is very complex. The restaurant owners are passionate about traditional railways and miniature ones, in particular, developing their own railway networks over the years.

https://youtu.be/_EsTs3MxJl8

Final Art Tour Meeting Prior to Departure

Date: Monday 19 March 2018
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: MFS at school

Important information regarding travel money, mobile phones, luggage, clothes to pack, adaptor plugs for Doha and Europe etc. will be discussed. Katerina from Worldstrides will be there to answer any questions.

Final Payment Due

The final payment of $1239 needs to be paid by 2pm, Thursday 8 February.
All payments need to be finalised and received by this date so payments to airlines and operators can be made on the same day.