Spain Planning

Ok, so I am making my birthday trip this year for Spain and I already had booked the flight before I even flew out to Prague but I had nothing else done. Over the past few evenings I have managed to make some decisions on the itinerary of the trip and book some more.

I have actually booked a flight to Ibiza straight after I land in Madrid. This is an hour long flight to the island that should be about 3 hours after I land. I would have preferred to be closer together but it will probably work out for the best if there are any delays. It really means that first travel day is going to be very long. I realize Ibiza is not an October destination but something about it is calling to me and I figured that was reason enough to book it.  I am staying at Hostal Europa Punico that is cheap but appears to have good ratings from guests for the price and is in a good location until the Wednesday when I will hop back on a plane to Madrid and then stay at the Best Western Atlantico which is a touch more expensive but also has good ratings and is supposed to be in a good location.

I expect I might try to make some day trips out of Madrid while I am there. Well at least one anyway. I am torn between trying to get to Valencia, Seville or Barcelona. I think the first two are more what I would like. A lot of people have said Seville is a really good visit so that might take some weight over Valencia. I haven't done enough research yet to sell me on Barcelona. It is there on name recognition alone. In any event I am going to make those calls later on. I am unlikely to rent a car or buy a rail pass for this trip as I do not think I will do more than one day trip. I can buy one round trip ticket for less than the pass will be I am sure.

I'll be flying home on Halloween this time. I had wished not to but the fact I needed to be home on Halloween to work on November 1st made me do it.  I also didn't want to travel the day after my birthday thus cheapening the day.  So Halloween was my only choice. If I didn't have the schedule issue I would have come home on the first.

Czech Republic Day 7

Today was of course the transit back day. I woke up at 6am because I had a 9:55am flight from Prague to Frankfurt. I got cleaned up and finished off packing and checked out of the hotel around 6:30am. The hotel has a taxi service and I used that to get to the airport. The driver was basically 95% psychopath and 5% criminal but he was also very funny so while I probably should have been scared for my life I actually enjoyed the ride. He told me since I was flying to Frankfurt I could have left much later and he was right. The check-in took a few minutes but the security line was quick and I was in the terminal by 7:30 which gave me two hours till boarding time. I had to find where the gate was but even that didn’t take long. Prague’s airport is 2 terminals and the one that I was in is apparently not that big or busy. The driver said the other is a mess with security and lines.

Inside the terminal I couldn’t find someplace reasonable to get breakfast so I just bought some stuff from the Relay store to snack on. Mainly a chocolate bar, a can of cold espresso (in concept like the canned coffee from Japan but not as good) and bag of potato sticks. I started with the sticks and coffee and that gave me something in my stomach well enough. Later on I had the Aero bar but it had been damaged and was very difficult to eat. The thing about Aero bars is they crumble real easily. It was sort of disappointing. I also spent a few minutes spending the remaining Czech crowns I had left, well most of them anyway. Eventually the plane arrived, maybe about 10 minutes late and disembarked and maybe about 10 minutes late we were able to board. I had a window seat but was next to a very narrow British (I think) woman and her husband was on the aisle so I had plenty of room. It was a short hop flight and not much bother at all. They gave us some Muesli for breakfast as the in flight snack which was odd but ok.

Frankfurt is a large airport and I had to make it from terminal gates B to A63 which was a lot of walking and a couple floors difference. Being insane I took the stairs up to the gates I needed. It was very fast work to go through passport control and be on my way to the gate. No security rescreening at all. I was surprised at that. I had basically 50 minutes to kill before the unofficial boarding time. I chose to just hang out at the gate. I had used my Euros for the cab on the way in so really didn’t have anything to spend except a couple hundred Czech crowns which I am sure they wouldn’t take.  The plane did board basically on time and I found myself seated way in the back in seat 53C. By the way, the first plane was an Airbus A320-200 and the second a Boeing 747-400. The flight started off really bumpy when we took off and remained very bumpy for quite some time before it finally seemed to even off around an hour to an  hour and a half in. They served drinks and snack first then the meal which I chose turkey with potato wedges. It was on the edge of not bad  which I guess is a triumph.   As the meal finished I worked on some documentation from work for a bit then they started to show Rio the animated bird movie and I watched that.  It was typical animated bird movie stuff but it wasn’t bad. I laughed a few times anyway. After that they showed Just Go With It but I don’t like Adam Sandler so opted to do some more documentation work rather than watch it. When I was tired of that I decided to watch a movie on the computer which was Kick-Ass. I am not fully sure what I think of it. I’ll have to digest it for a bit. It certainly was not typical in any way shape or form and that should be commended.  By that I mean that risks were definitely taken in its making.  By the time it was over we were about an hour out from landing and I just relaxed while the served the scary pizza I never eat.

We landed basically on time but I think my bag was amongst the last offloaded from the plane. The passport control guy was not in a good mood but I got outside without any hitches. I had figured he had set me up to be inspected by customs but fortunately that was not the case.   I had to wait a few minutes for my van and there were 5 people to be driven somewhere on it but fortunately I got split off to a separate van at Ballardvale and was driven home solo which definitely got me there a lot quicker. The traffic up 93 on the first van was fairly rough all the way past 129. I expected it to end at 128 but it continued for some reason. In any event once we turned off to 125 it got a heck of a lot easier.

All in all I liked the Czech Republic a lot. There was good beer and reasonably good food. Things weren’t too expensive and the city of Prague is beautiful. Pretty much everyone there speaks English. I never had an issue with that. My hotel was in a great location. The tour company I used was convenient so I didn’t try any others. I’ve used a lot of Grey Line otherwise but Premiant was closer. I don’t know that the experiences would have been that much different. They all sell the same basic tours. I am sure each company has its own spin on the same motif.

No pictures for today as it was a purely transit day and I didn’t feel like unburying the camera for the couple snack foods in the airport.

Czech Republic Day 6

The last real day of the trip I didn't have anything planned but had an idea of what I wanted to do. I got up at 6:30 and got cleaned up and had breakfast then walked into town and headed over the Charles Bridge to the Lesser Town and the castle. I had sort of intended to find the castle gardens and visit those along with another garden that had some fake cave walls in it but I did not really manage either though I did wander around the area and see a large park and a couple monasteries and/or churches. Being so early not much was opened yet and I walked around for a couple hours before I started to see the gardens open. I couldn't tell which one had the fake caves in it so I basically saved my Czech Crowns for another use. Most of the gardens looked quite small and I am not sure they were worth paying for. Besides, I thought a guide had said they were free which definitely threw me off.

After basically deciding I had given up on the gardens I walked back across Charles Bridge and into the Old Town and considered trying to get up the Old Town Hall tower to take some pictures but it wasn't opened after 10:30am so I feared it would not open for the day and decided to skip on it. I couldn't imagine it would open any later than 10am. I had sort of thought of doing the Kutna Hora tour the night before and decided that I would just go ahead and do it. A lot of stuff in Prague is closed on Monday and I wasn't sure I could fill up the whole day with stuff being closed. So I walked to the tour starting point and booked the tour for a 1pm start.  That meant I had a couple hours to kill so I walked back to the room for a few minutes then headed back out and bought lunch at the McDonalds. McNuggets meal. Nothing spectacular but basically what you'd expect. After that I walked around the corner and bought a two scoop ice cream cone, one called cookies and one called caramel, and ate that for what was the majority of the time left before tour while walking around. I quickly bought some water and waited for the van for just a few minutes.

Kutna Hora was once a very wealthy town due to some very prolific silver mines in the middle ages. The town housed all sorts of miners and even a mint to make silver coins. It appears it should be about 45 minutes out of town but apparently the roads are wicked bad and the ride was a bit over an hour by the route the tour takes. The guide was named Ysa. The first stop of the tour was the Ossuary that was decorated in human bones. If I understood the story correctly, the church housed a very popular cemetery because someone brought back some soil from the holy land and thus everyone wanted to be buried there. The cemetery housed people from all over Europe and not just Bohemia. As time went on the town's silver mines became exhausted and apparently the monastery/church was closed down. A wealthy family bought the church after some years and in order to renovate it they opted to use the bones of the people buried there to decorate it. The idea being that it was a reminder that we all will die one day. I am sure I am missing some of the finer points of the story but that was the gist. So inside the church is decorated with thousands of bones of humans. I can say it was a bit creepy I suppose but it didn't really bother me much. I will say for certain that it was strange and felt like it should have been out of an Indiana Jones set. All the same, they allowed you to take pictures so I took a bunch.

The next stop was the Church of Saint Barbara, patron saint of miners. As I said it was a mining town and apparently the church was built by the wealth of the miners and minters instead of the church or a wealthy king.  It was a large church originally built in the Gothic style then later made to the Baroque style. It fell into disrepair after the mines went dry and was rebuilt to suit the Baroque tastes of the times when it was renovated. It was certainly a large church and had unique decorations in it. Again we were allowed to take pictures. Some of the miner oriented artwork was definitely unique. It had nothing to do with the Bible or Jesus or anything other than mining. Not something I've seen in a church before.

After the church we walked a bit over to the Italian Square with a couple informative stops along the way. The Italian square housed a meeting hall and mint if I understood the tour correctly. At the least it was currently a museum dedicated towards the mint along with the stately rooms. We had a local guide who seemed quite young and self conscious but she did a good job other than she needed to speak a bit louder. The chapel in the building was quite impressive but we weren't allowed to take pictures of that.

After the Italian Square it was over to a small restaurant to take a break. Food was not included in the tour and I just opted to have a beer and speak with a Texan couple along for the tour too. That took about half an hour until the bus arrived and we headed back into town again. I sort of conked out for a bit of the ride back so at least it didn't seem as long as the way out. When I got back into town I headed to the room to use the facilities then quickly headed back towards the square with the intention of getting dinner. The funny part was the Old Town Hall tower was open so I decided to go up. They have installed lifts to the top but I trudged my way up the stairs then ramps because I don't see the fun in an elevator in a middle ages building. The view up there was nice. The town is not very tall in the region around the Old and New Towns and you can see right up to the lesser town quite well too. The modern parts of the town are not easy to see. I really only passed those on the various tours I took and went nowhere near them in walking. I managed to be up there as the clock chimed 7pm so I got to see the guy play the trumpet to sound off the hour up at the top of the tower.

After that I trudged back down and walked across the square to the Jazz and Blues Restaurant Bily Konicek.  It was outdoors seating and they served Gambrinus beer which was one I hadn't yet tried but had seen around town a bit. I ordered a yellow beer and they only came in .3L so I drank it sort of quickly. For food I had the beef goulash and this was much better than the first goulash I tried. They had 3 different sorts of dumplings to accompany. The beef was not overcooked and the sauce was not too salty so overall it was a very enjoyable meal. After I finished the yellow beer I tried the Gambrinus dark and liked that one a lot. When I finished eating I settled up and headed to the room to start the preparation for the long day of travel just ahead.

Pictures are located here.

Czech Republic Day 5

Today I didn't have a tour set when I woke up and I afforded myself an extra half an hour of sleep. After I got cleaned up I headed down to breakfast and mainly had coffee because I wasn't hungry that much for some reason. I did keep the stomach settled with some toast over the coffee.  From there I decided I would walk a little bit of the local area until 8am when the tour place opened. It hadn't made sense to keep getting rides for less than a kilometer of walking so I figured that it would be easier to buy a tour right at the starting point. This time I opted for Terezin which was a Nazi concentration camp though not one built for exterminating the Jews. Instead, this one was a staging area where most of the prisoners were eventually shipped off to Auschwitz for extermination.

The tour started at around 9 and there was about an hour drive to the town of Terezin. The guide was Helena, same as the day before. Her voice seemed bit stronger today but she was still struggling a bit with annunciation as I had expected. Nonetheless she seemed more confident in her knowledge about this tour and the material within so probably she had done it more often. She spoke some about the camp on the way in and a little bit about Reinhard Heydrich who was a Nazi official in Prague, the leader of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Hitler, because we passed the monument that marked the location where he was assassinated by the resistance.

Terezin was built in the 18th century as a gun fort to protect the region but it was never attacked and never used. It is a serious multipointed star shaped fortress with many ramparts and at the time a fully floodable moat (that again was never used though it did flood twice in 2002 and this year due to heavy rains). I was actually really interested in the location as a gun fort but obviously the majority of the tour consisted of the explanation of the Nazi concentration camp. The tour started out with a small museum in the center of the large fortress (there were two, the large and the small) where the majority of the Jewish prisoners were kept. The roads there had some great views of the ramparts and other parts of the construction of the fort but unfortunately all of our stops brought us no where near those points so I failed to get any good pictures of the large fortress. I won't take pictures from cars, vans, buses or trains because it just frustrates me. By the time I see it it is already too late to take a picture. The first museum involved some of the culture that the Jews had in their camp. Since this wasn't a death camp they were allowed to sing and have theater and write and paint. Though some of the paintings had to be hidden because they were anti-Nazi. There must have been other stuff as well.

The next stop brought us to the museum that was the house where the Jewish children were kept. We saw a brief movie on the location and saw some of the drawing the Jewish kids made while in the house. It was also a brief stop.  After that it was on to the Crematorium. Though the Jews should not be cremated the Nazis had to start burning their bodies because they were dying so fast of disease and starvation. The crematory was an interesting stop and a small cemetery was erected next to it where exhumed bodies were given gravestones though of course they are generally anonymous.  This also was a fast stop but probably more interesting than the first two museums to me.

After the Crematorium we made our way to the small fortress which was the prison used for important Nazi prisoners. The political and rich were brought here rather than just to the large fortress. The small fortress was all original as the Nazis left it. As with the large fortress it was all constructed in the 17th century and is part of the same fortifications. The small fortress housed the Germans who ran the town as well as the prisoners. Ironically that bit of World War I history hit here as well as the men who assassinated Franz Ferdinand including the primary Gabrielle Princip were imprisoned here and died before the Nazis took it over. There was a plaque explaining this in the dark solitary cell he was imprisoned in. The small fortress was a tour guided by a local guide named Eva who had a good strong voice and was very interesting. She knew a lot about the camp and the town and we got to see all aspects of the prison from the registration area to the large cells that housed hundreds of people each to the smaller cells that house around 70 each to the solitary cells for prisoners who were to be tortured and sentenced to execution. There was a lot of information packed into the hour long tour. We saw where the 3 men who successfully escaped were able to escape. The base commander had the ledges torn off so no one else could do it again. They did it in winter when they had 2 meters of snow to jump down onto.

We also saw the execution location after we got to walk through some of the original underground tunnels that were sealed up and never used by the Nazis. I liked the tunnels a lot. We did maybe 500 meters or so. The base commander had 3 other like aged prisoners killed in retaliation to the escape.  Eventually the Nazis realized they were losing the war and they started to build a gas chamber but in truth just about all the prisoners of Terezin died because of typhoid anyway. Most that should have been freed after the liberation still had to remain quarantined or they could spread the disease. Many also died from eating too much when they were finally allowed to eat again. Their bodies couldn't handle it.  It was certainly not a death camp but in many respects it did amount to one. It was the last camp that was liberated and also was used as a propaganda camp for the Red Cross to pretend Jewish prisoners were being treated well.

After the tour we made our way back to the van and the hour long drive back to town. I took a quick run to the hotel and then headed out to find lunch which I had at an Italian restaurant. I had a Pilsner Urquell and lasagna.  The food was good but it was a tad late for lunch for me being already past 2pm. I was starved so maybe I liked it more for that (put starved into perspective after visiting a concentration camp I guess). By the way, the tour consisted of 4 Aussies who didn't speak outside their own much, an American couple in their mid to late 40s who did the same and an around 40 year old guy who was an English teacher in Turkey for a very prestigious school there and was in Prague for a course on Czech literature. His name was Andy and I talked to him about literature for the majority of the ride back into Prague.

After lunch I headed towards the new town and found the New Town Hall and the Dancing House and then on to the Vysehrad which is an old cathedral that was built on the grounds where the other castle in Prague was built. That castle was destroyed many centuries ago but the fortifications remain and it was cool to walk through the park where the fortifications were. Well, it would have been if it wasn't over 30C (it was probably near 90F). I enjoyed walking around there though and even visited the cathedral for 30 Czech Crowns.  After that I headed back towards the old town and did some souvenir shopping to get it out of the way and then headed to the hotel to drop it off and back out to find dinner.

For dinner I found a place called Vasele Basy not too far from the hotel. I ordered the 1/4 duck which I knew would be leg and hindquarter meat. This was accompanied by Czech dumplings and red and white cabbage. I had a couple Staropramen to round out the meal. The duck was a touch overcooked but tasted good and the skin was crispy. The dumplings were very similar to others I have had in Prague already and were good as was the cabbage.  Overall it was a mid-range enjoyment meal that probably cost a bit too much money for what it was worth. Food here is still cheap by European standards but since I have gotten better for cheaper I will have to rate the place lower on the list. When I finished that I found an ice cream place and had a single scoop of coffee ice cream on a cone.  It was definitely good.

From there it was back to the hotel and time to crash for the night.

There are a lot of pictures and they are located here.

Czech Republic Day 4

Today was also a day I had booked a tour that would take up the entire day so I got up at 6 and was out the door to breakfast by 7.  After breakfast I had enough time that I didn't want to just sit around so I walked up to the National Museum and the monument to St Vacislaw in front of it and took a couple pictures and then turned right around and headed back to the hotel to be picked up by the van. The real irony is that I passed the starting point for the tour twice but since I had booked from the hotel I didn't want to cause any confusion and not show up for the van ride. Of course, all the van did was drive me around the corner to the starting point again. If I had realized where it was when I booked my tours I would really have booked them right at the office instead of the hotel.

After sorting out the tours we departed for the Konopiste and Karlstejn Castles tour. I think we kicked off at about 9am and we had approximately a 45 minute to an hour drive to the first castle Konopiste. We didn't run into any traffic, nor did the driver have any issues with the car. He drove like a Bostonian but other than that things were fine. The British couple obviously didn't trust him much but I thought he was safe.  We had 2 American couples, from Virginia and Las Vegas and one British couple. The oldest were from Vegas and obviously retirement age. The other two couples were probably in their fifties. They were all nice people but the Vegas folks were the loudest.   Our guide was named Helena and she struggled with annunciation in English a lot so it was difficult to understand her at times especially when it appeared she was going on a set speech given by the company.  When she was off script she seemed to speak a bit easier but she also had a difficult time following what people were saying or asking. In any event she did well overall and I liked her.

Konopiste Castle was owned by Franz Ferdinand. Those of you who are World War I buffs might recognize his name because he was assassinated by Bosnian terrorists and that kicked off the events that started World War I. The Castle it self was built in the 13 century originally but then redone several times right up to the 19th century where Franz had it redone for the modern including modern plumbing, electricity and an elevator among other amenities. He was also an avid hunter so the decoration has a lot to do with hunting as well as having a collection of his trophies. There is also a sizable weapon collection that he inherited as a child of 12 or so that is on display in the upper floors. The inside of the castle is quite impressive. The main guide turned us over to a tour inside the castle. The castle guide was a younger girl who was actually very good at English and very knowledgeable about the subjects at hand. She spoke about almost everything we saw in the castle. I liked her a lot. Of course they didn't allow us to take pictures so I had to buy the book at the end. The main issue with this castle was that the outside was hard to photograph. There are no good angles to it from any distance as it is on a hill surrounded by trees. The guide said the best spot was across the lake but we didn't get a chance to see that. I took what pictures I could of it but it was not easy.

After Konopiste it was about an hour drive overland to the second castle Karlstejn.  The drive was mainly through country roads and though a bit windy it was not the sickening experience of the day before. It was however a bit hot and I am sure it was in the mid to high 80sF during the course of the day and also humid. The AC in the van was not the best in the world but it did take some of the edge off. At the end of the drive we had dinner at a restaurant near Karlstejn Castle. I didn't get the name of it but surprisingly we had roast pork and potatoes with a cabbage soup for starter. I ordered a beer and got a Pilsner Urquell. The food was good but it is a bit repetitive to have pork each day for lunch.

After lunch we walked the short path up to Karlstejn Castle. This one is very impressive from the outside. It was a bit more easy to take pictures of Karlstejn than Konopiste. We arrived with a few minutes to spare before our tour started. Again our main guide would hand us off to a castle tour. I took a few moments to scout out some picture locations and then bought a Magnum Gold ice cream bar and ate that. That about took up the time and we were moved in with a much larger tour this time than Konopiste. This guide was also a younger girl that spoke English well and had a good sense of humor. She had a very good knowledge of the subject matter and was, well, smoking hot.  The inside of Karlstejn is not much to look at. It was built in the 13th to 14th centuries and was meant to house the crown jewels of the Austria-Hungary Empire. It was renovated a few times and the most recent had all of the Renaissance period decorations removed from the interior and exterior. It for all intents and purposes feels more like a functional castle than a royal palace though Charles IV did actually stay there at points.  The castle is made up of 3 towers and one housed the crown jewels. Apparently the castle was attacked several times and the Swedes came the closest but did not capture the main tower where the jewels were housed. For the record the Czech Republic is one of the only countries that does not commonly display its crown jewels. They are only shown every 5-10 years on special occasions, and then to only 10000 people and are put away again. So even though the insides of the castle were a bit dull I quite liked listening to and looking at the guide so it worked out well to me. This tour took approximately an hour or so because we did see several rooms as well as a courtyard.

After the tour was over we walked the long way down and around the castle rather than back the way we came. This afforded me the chance to get several different angle pictures of the castle and also to find a reasonable magnet though I couldn't find a book for it. I will probably look when I search the gift shops of Prague before I leave. The walk may have taken 45 minutes or so the long way around with the couple stops for pictures and shopping. After that we were back on the van and driven into Prague to the starting point again. I am fortunate that it is no difficulty to get back to the hotel from the starting point and I tromped back through the heat to drop off the stuff I bought and use the facilities before heading back out to dinner. It was an earlier return than Cesky Krumlov.  I did use the opportunity to crank on the AC in the room too.

I trudged out into the heat and wandered around in circles for probably 45 minutes before deciding to eat at Mama Lucy's Steakhouse which was just a corner off the Old Square. I was indecisive before this point and I guess I took it as a good sign that the restaurant was displaying a poster from the NHL premier in Prague between the Bruins and the Coyotes. Unfortunately it was signed by the Coyotes and not the Bruins but Chara and Krejci were featured more prominently in the picture so that was nice.  I ordered a dark beer which had a really awful name like Velpopovicky Kozel. It was a decent beer and I enjoyed it and had two during the meal. For dinner I opted for a the bacon cheeseburger which was many times better than the McDonald's version if a bit more expensive. The waitresses were really cute if hideously under-aged so overall it was a reasonably good experience. Their light beer was just a Pilsner Urquell and I'd had that before a couple times now.

After leaving that place I opted to have another beer or two at a place right on the square whose name was difficult to find. They served Krusovice beer and I enjoyed that enough to have two after all. It was a simple Pilsner style but it was tasty enough. That carried me past the point where the sun was visible over the buildings any longer and I really had to use the bathroom.  So I raced back to the room to call it a night.

The pictures for today are found here.

Czech Republic Day 3

Today started with a 6am wake up and quick shower and breakfast in the hotel. I stuck to pretty much the same food as the day before and probably will for the rest of the trip.  I had already purchased the night before a tour to Cesky Krumlov (Chesky Kroomlov for easiest pronunciation) and had to be in the lobby for 8:30am which I had time enough to relieve myself of the excess coffee before the required time. The real irony is that the main starting point for tours with the company that my hotel uses (Premiant Tours) is literally a 3 minute walk from the hotel yet I have to get picked up in the morning. It might have been easier for me to book the tours right at the starting point but I didn't realize at the time how close it was.

Cesky Krumlov is a Unesco site. It is basically 16th century and earlier through a lot of it and most of the buildings are original if modified for modern use. It was the Unesco bill that sold me to try the trip. The town is basically about 2 and a half hours or so drive from Prague and the tour starts with a brief explanation of some of the city of Prague as we drove through and exited the town. The guide was named Janna and was a retired school teacher who gave the tour in both English and Italian. There were 16 of us on the tour. More than half were Americans, there were 3 Italians and 3 from Barcelona who figured they could follow along with the Italian because I guess their dialect is close enough. Of the Americans I was the only east coaster, the rest being from California. 3 were college girls in Prague for a course they were taking over the last month. There was an older couple just touring Europe as well as a couple of guys also touring Europe for a couple weeks and a mother and son who didn't really speak to anyone.  The college girls reminded me why I regret not doing all this at an earlier age... ouch.

The tour started with a long drive to the town of Cesky Krumlov where we got stuck in traffic a couple of times and the driver appeared to have issues with the van stalling or not shifting properly or something where he kept restarting it mid-drive. That said we did make it to the town but where typically the tour gets to walk through the gardens of the castle instead we had to rush straight in because we were late arriving. The guide traded us to a castle guide who ran the tour inside. I think the tour lasted about an hour or so and took us through the various parts of the castle. They did not allow pictures inside so I had to buy a book. The castle started in the mid 13th century and was added to over the years. It is a large complex. Not as big as Prague castle but the second largest in the Czech Republic after it. The castle is built on two large rocky platforms and they built a very decorative bridge between the two parts. Inside the castle was probably rebuilt several times and it was obvious by the styles, most of which was Renaissance or Rococo. Since the castle is older than those period it was obvious a lot of it was redone over the centuries. The castle is quite impressive if more of a palace in style than a castle at this point as with Prague Castle. The guide was nice and knowledgeable and I enjoyed the tour quite a bit. This castle is not as impressive as Versailles and much of the paintings could use some restoration but it was still a very unique and interesting place.  They had 3 bears as the Rosenberg family that owned it considered themselves related to the Italian Orsini family and that basically means bears. I did manage to get pictures of one of the bears. For some reason he had a keg in his habitat.

I should point out that the day was basically cloudy and below 60F with sprinkles so far and continued so as we exited the castle. The Premiant guide walked us down out of the castle and through the town to where we would have lunch, in a restaurant that used to be the local jail originally. I am sure it had not been used for that for quite a long time. Their specialty was roast pork and that was what I ordered. The place was dim and had a lot of medieval furnishings that included weapons and animal furs. I ordered a beer and got the Budweiser Budvar we've all heard about. This is the Czech beer that the American company bought the recipe from. The agreement was that the US Bud would not alter the recipe but that fell through many years ago. There must have also been an agreement that this Budweiser could keep its name because obviously the other one never tried to sue them to drop it like most gigantic corporations would. It is a reasonably good beer. Certainly better than the Bud of the US. I could not mark it amongst my favorites but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The lunch was roast pork and a baked potato and I really enjoyed the meal a lot. It was basically a pork chop but it was properly cooked and quite tasty. They served it on a wooden plate as a representation of the fact we were in a prison. We finished with some tart like pastries that were called wedding cakes by our guide.

When we stepped outside from lunch we were told we had about 50 minutes to wander the town. Somehow the grim and grey had turned into about 80F and sunny.  It was nice because I got to walk around the town and retake some of the pictures I took with better sunlight than the grey overcast we had before. Mostly that was what I did with my free time only stopping to get a magnet and castle book. The town is actually bigger than it seems at first and the river that runs through it has several bridges to cross and lots of different points to take pictures from. I managed to find the local church but there was some sort of service going on so I really just ran in and out.  I was the first to arrive at the allotted spot at the correct time and then the rest of the tour slowly trickled in.  We were walked further through the town where our guide explained a few more features and then marched our way to the van where we loaded up and then started the long drive back into town.

They did not take the same route out as they took in. This direction took us through a national park that the Czech Republic shares with Austria (again I was very close to Austria) and then on to the major roads again eventually. This would have been an ok thing but the driver was moving very fast and the roads were very windy and up and downhill a lot. I actually wanted to shut my eyes but I was getting motion sick from it all and didn't get to do so until we got back on the major roads. There I probably catnapped for 20 minutes or so and then woke up with a stiff neck as to be expected. The remainder of the drive in was relatively uneventful and we made it into town a some time after 7pm. This was a long tour but a lot of it was really on the road. Still I enjoyed it. They dropped us off at the starting point rather than our individual hotels which works out best for me of anyone on the tour because of how close my hotel was. I was ready for dinner it being close to 8pm already and opted first to make a quick pit stop at the hotel and drop off my book and use the facilities.

I wasn't sure what to do for dinner but decided to walk slightly askew to the main throughway and found the Restaurant Templar (in English) which was actually an Italian style restaurant. Not really sure how Templars translate to Italian food but who am I to question these things. I didn't even realize the name until I had already ordered. I had another Budweiser Budvar or two and penne aglia i olio. It was actually quite good and I am glad I ordered it. They had red pepper in it to add some nice spice to it. After I finished dinner I had an Irish coffee (not sure why I ordered it but I did) and their ice cream plate which had a berry compote, whipped cream and some chocolate sauce accompanying vanilla and strawberry ice creams. I liked both quite a bit.  When I finished I took an indirect route back to the hotel to hit a couple souvenir shops because I was in the neighborhood then headed back in to crash for the night.

The pictures from day 3 can be found here.

Czech Republic Day 2

While I went to bed early I slept fairly well throughout the night and woke up at 6:30am which is a half an hour later than I normally do. The bed is small but comfortable. I got showered and dressed and went down to the included breakfast which was a typical European breakfast buffet. I didn't really eat more than a sandwich made of brown bread with ham and cheese and then accompanied with some apple juice that didn't have a lot of flavor and some ok but not great coffee.

After breakfast I went down to the front desk and booked the Grand Sightseeing Tour: Prague Castle and Boat Trip. The tour pickup was at 9:45am at the hotel so I had a lot of time to kill and decided to just go out and walk around the town sort of trying to get lost and see what I could see. I did this for around an hour and a half and had some reasonable luck seeing things I hadn't on day 1.  I set my phone alarm for 9:15 and headed back to the hotel for the pickup then. I got back at say 9:20 and used the facilities and drank some water before heading back down. I got to the lobby just as the van was arriving to pick the tour up. Along with me there was a Norwegian woman and her granddaughter that left from the Meteor Plaza.  The van took us to a starting point location and we were separated off to our respective tours. Ours was not too full having half Spanish speaking guests and half English speaking (including the Norwegians). There was a couple from NYC Ahmed and Beth around their thirties and a couple from South Carolina Delton and Cindy who were retired age for the English speaking group.  Our guide was a tall Czech man who said his name really fast though I think it was Michael (or the Czech equivalent). He spoke both English and Spanish and said everything on the tour twice.

The tour started with the van ride through the old town and some of the new town and then over the bridge into the lesser town.  Old and new are relative as they are talking 13th and 14th centuries I believe he said. The lesser town is 16th century. As we crossed into the lesser town we came up past the royal gardens to the back side of Prague Castle where we disembarked and started a walking tour of Prague castle. The walking part carried us to the castle and the scenic overlook then had us see the changing of the guard which was not terribly filled with pomp but still was neat and then into the castle courtyards and into the cathedral which dated back originally to 12th century but was added too over the centuries. From there it was through the rest of the courtyards and down to meet the van again. A lot of this was recap walking from day 1 for me and I didn't take tons of repeat pictures but tried to take new angles when I found them. The van took us down to the river and actually to the boat where I saw something being filmed for TV (it looked) on day 1. The guide didn't know about the filming.

The boat tour basically takes you up the river to the locks and then spins around for a little while and then back to the starting point. Along the ride the guide explained features and all of this was recap visuals for me. i found that the huge metronome was a symbol of the national government after communism was removed and that a statue of Stalin was originally up in that location. The boat ride was pleasant and I ordered a beer named Bakalar (pronounced Bah-kah-lahsh) and enjoyed it. Along the boat ride guide had set us up in English and Spanish tables to make it easier on him and that's where the batch of us got to talking and even though he spent a lot of the ride talking to the Spanish we didn't really mind. They were all very nice people and it was fun to talk to them. Everyone had traveled quite a bit and seen different things and it was fun to compare notes. 

After the boat ride was over we walked through the Jewish Quarter and then on to the Old Square where the guide finished his tour speaking about the Old Town Hall with the clock. In all the tour was about 3 and a half hours and was fairly pleasant. The guide was a fast walker which was fine by me but a lot of the tour was not happy with trying to keep up with him. I guess he was worried about time schedule. I am sure he had to be back to the starting point for a 2pm departure as well.  Before we left him we asked him to suggest someplace to eat for lunch and he sent us to the Red Peacock which was less than a five minute walk away. We Americans had decided to stick together to talk and eat because we were having a good enough time. The Red Peacock (I won't try to type in or even say the Czech name) was apparently an expensive bordello a long time ago and had some famous customers including Otto von Bismark according to the menu.  This was not a touristy place as it was around 2 corners in a back alley. I ordered a dark beer which was served in a Pilsner Urquell glass but was not that brand (the menu just said dark beer) and I had the roast boar with dumplings and cabbage. I liked the food a lot. The dumplings were more bread-like than I was expecting but they were still very good especially with the sauce from the boar meat. The boar meat was very dark and sort of looked like beef but still had a pork flavor to some degree.  I am glad I ordered it and cleaned the whole plate including the cabbage. Apparently everyone else liked what they ordered because they all ate what they ordered too. An odd note to mention was the noose hanging right next to the table where we ate. 

After settling the bill we decided to walk around the town a bit together some more and talk and the women did a little bit of souvenir shopping as both groups were heading home on Saturday. We all had maps but I had the best understanding of the land and we steered ourselves around a few more streets I really hadn't visited (which had a lot of shopping stores) and then eventually around to the Old Town Hall again to watch the clock go off for 6pm. From there I guided them to the Charles Bridge which is the large walking bridge across to the Lesser Town that I had crossed already a couple times. Delton and Cindy had to go to a hotel up past the castle and it would have been a long walk so I guided them to the bridge and then showed them on the map how to get to a tram that would take them near their hotel. With that we all parted our ways. Ahmed and Beth were going to visit the bridge as well and take some pictures as they hadn't yet. 

It was basically 6:30 or so by this point and I just started wandering again not sure what I wanted to do for eating. I realized that staying off the main thoroughfares would be cheaper and I tried to see what I could find off the beaten path but I guess I didn't choose my direction well and eventually decided to eat at the McDonald's up heading toward the National Museum. It was already past 7pm and I was tired and didn't feel like putting a lot of effort into dinner at that point anyway.  I make it a point to hit a McDonald's once per trip anyway so this was it. I ordered a Big and Tasty Bacon Cheeseburger and it was big and not terrible tasting. I think the meal cost around $7 US equivalently. Since it was a large burger I can live with that. I think I was more anxious for the drink than the food as I was more thirsty than hungry by that point. The weather had cooperated quite well on the day being sunny and warm to hot most of the way through. I got a bit of a burn again as I forgot to sunblock up before I left though not anything terrible. After dinner I headed back to the hotel and booked my next two days' tours at the front desk then headed up to the room to relax. 

Overall it was a fun day. I met nice new people and had a good time. The guide was reasonably good though didn't answer a ton of questions off topic and I am sure he spoke Spanish better than he did English. I heard him speaking Spanish and though it was slow by their standards it was clear and he didn't pause to think what he wanted to say near as much as he did in English. I don't speak Spanish but I could understand about 50% of what he said.

The pictures for today are located here.

Czech Republic Day 1

I was picked up from home by Flightline at about 1:40pm for a 5:05pm flight on Lufthansa. The ride in to Logan was not bad. There was very little traffic and I was checked in and waiting by 2:30pm.  I opted to walk around the terminal a bit then ended up in O'Brians for a couple beers until it was time to board. I talked with my neighbor at the bar for a bit about the Casey Anthony trial which I had paid no attention to but watched the verdict of being not guilty discussed on CNN right there. It meant little to me really but a lot of people at the bar were appalled that the jury came to that decision.  Oh well.

The flight boarded a touch late but pulled from gate on time. I was fortunate in both flights because I was in an aisle sit with no direct neighbor. Just someone at the window. I had a glass of red wine. Nibbled at some of the food and then when it was obvious they weren't going to play any movies I liked - it was a 747 with only the overhead screens - I went to sleep. Unfortunately to get to that point wasted probably 2 hours and it was 2 hours more sleep I could have used. The flight was a tad bumpy but I did sleep through most of it. 3 and a half hours or so anyway, plus some catnapping during the descent.

In Frankfurt it was easy to go through passport control and get to my gate which was still in Terminal A this time. An easier transfer than last time. I had to wait a while to board because that one also boarded a bit late but pulled from the gate on time. I slept through the majority of this flight too. It was uneventful. I didn't even get the snacks or a drink.

After exiting the plane it was a fairly quick bit of work to get the luggage and basically walk straight through customs with nothing to declare. No passport control at all.  It is not a very big airport in Prague and I was quickly outside and getting a taxi to the hotel. I was tired and I didn't feel like finding the buses or trains. Plus it is relatively cheap compared to other European cities. The taxi dropped me off right at the hotel and I was able to check in directly as my room was ready which was a relief because I desperately wanted to take a shower and was able to. After getting settled in I cleaned up and then dressed for the weather, which included shorts as it was probably just near 80F and sunny.

I took a quick look at a map and realized to turn left out of the hotel and then basically it is a straight line to the old square, on to the old bridge and up to the castle. I walked that path and then through the castle area for a while. Before reaching the castle I stopped and had lunch at a roadside cafe named the Golden Star. I had the Czech beef goulash with potatoes and a couple of Pilsner Urquell beers - one large and one small. The food was reasonably good if a touch on the salty side for my preference.

After lunch I hiked up the hill to the castle and around through its grounds and back down the hill. I came to the river at a different bridge and crossed there and then turned back towards familiar ground before taking a couple extra detours just to see the neighborhood. I walked around for about 4 hours before heading back into the hotel to hide from the heat which had grown stronger. Fortunately the hotel has AC and wifi. I picked well on that count. The location is quite good too. I can also book tours with the front desk and will be doing that I am sure especially for a couple that go outside of town.  The bed is a small one but I've grown used to that in hotels. I have to say this city is beautiful. I really like the architecture and the really old feel it has. The streets are a tangle rather than a grid and I like that so much better. Planned cities are really boring to me.

After resting for a short time to cool off I headed out to do a bit more walking and get some dinner. I decided to walk out to the bridge across the river but not cross and instead turn right and follow the river. I did that for a while and found a lot of the river boat tours depart from that area. There was a park with a huge metronome at the top of a hill that I could see also. Along the way I saw a boat load up with a bunch of Danish kids in a marching band. I assume they were Danish because they had a Danish flag and were all wearing the Danish flag as an insignia.  Further up I saw some sort of TV show being filmed and they had a local music band play something. It was sort of neat. On the walk back when I figured, with the aid of a map, that I was exiting the region of anything interesting I decided to go up to the park with the metronome. It was a lot of steps and it appears the park has been taken over by skateboarders mostly. Still it was neat to get up there. Wish I knew what the metronome was about.

After that I headed back up towards the castle after following the river to the pedestrian bridge. I should get the name down before I leave here I bet. I did a basic climb up the hill and turned right back down and over the bridge again. It had gotten to being 6pm and I was ready to eat so I found the Hotel Zlateho Stroma in the main alley leading back towards the old square (and eventually my hotel). There I decided to order a beer and got a Staropramen which I like better than Pilsner Urquell and to look at the menu. I had Staropramen in Sweden way back when.  I decided to get the meat skewers which had beef, chicken, pork, bacon, peppers and onions along with a baked potato side. The meat was not individual flavor chunks but all the types except the bacon rolled into one. It was good though a touch dry. I think it probably needed one minute less cooking. Still the flavor was good and I ate it all. I opted to have a beer for dessert too as I people watched. A wicked lot of foot traffic passes that restaurant and sitting outdoors in the nice weather it was great. There was no one wearing jackets or scarves now. They must realize it is actually summer around here. I was impressed.   We definitely got into the low 80sF today but that hasn't stopped Europeans from wearing jackets before. It makes me sweat thinking about it.

I was exhausted after dinner and just decided to head in to the hotel and crash for the evening. It was early by most people's standards but I only had the 4 hours of airplane sleep and the brief bit of rest on the day. I was ready to crash and start off a more full day on day 2. Still considering how early I got in on day 1 it was also a very full day besides.

The pictures from day 1 are located here.

Leaving for Prague Today

Flying out for the Czech Republic this evening. Here's hoping I get to see the Stanley Cup with some of the Bruins players.  Maybe I'll be lucky and they'll take their 24 hours while I am there.  Has to be soon I think.

My flight is with Lufthansa and I will be styaing at the Hotel Meteor which is a Best Western. Never stayed at one of them before. The price was reasonable though. Probably won't mind the airplane for the air conditioning considering the temperatures around here.