The Pellet with the Poison

I decided that since we'd all been at the palace yesterday, Walt must have gotten the pellet with the poison. 

(Actually, this picture was taken at the Lobkowicz Palace yesterday.  We had been given these glasses and when I asked the man giving them out what was in it, he said "liquor."  When I asked what kind he said "Czech liquor." It was kind of sweet and had an apple taste to it, as if an apple liquor had been mixed with vodka.  I didn't like it much, and didn't finish mine. Walt did. I rest my case.)

He was so sick last night, throwing up more than he'd eaten in two days.  The vomiting finally stopped around 1 a.m. but he was still feeling rocky in the morning.  We went down to meet Mike and Char for breakfast, but he stuck to water and a tiny bit of cereal and announced that he was going to stay in the hotel today.  

In truth, though I would have loved to do more exploring, I was just as happy to stay with him to give my feet a day of rest.  I knew I could not keep up with the pace Mike and Char usually set and I didn't want to hold them back, so Walt and I settled in to our hotel room and put a "do not disturb" sign on the door.  He changed out of his breakfast clothes and back into pajamas and we both went back to sleep.  I wasn't surprised that Walt went right to sleep, but I sure was surprised when I fell back to sleep right away and slept until noon.  I guess I needed the day off too!  

Walt felt a little better when he woke.  Mike called with details of their escapades and, after talking with Char, I know I made the right decision to stay here in the hotel!  But Walt was ready to get out and walk around a little, so we went to a tiny mall across from the hotel and bought some post cards, then he wanted to investigate the metro system...his favorite thing to do in a new city, especially in a foreign country.

and then we came back to the hotel, where Walt was asleep again within minutes and slept for another two hours.

By 5 p.m., when I finally decided I needed SOMETHING in my stomach, since I hadn't had any lunch, and went down to the bar to get a small "pub grub" snack, Walt eventually woke up and joined me.  We figured if he were well enough to sit up and drink beer, his whatever it was was finally over.

This was one of the nights I love best about these trips--the chance to see some cheesy local group do folk dancing for the tourists.  In Russia we had Cossack dancing, in China we had Peking opera. Here we had "Folklore," which is a faux log cabin decorated with plastic fruits and vegetables, selling local jewelry, and a troupe of singers, musicians and dancers performing for an entire crowd of tourists, each with a digital camera. It just doesn't get any cornier, or more fun, than that.  I live for these optional excursions!

On the way to the dinner, we passed The Dancing House, one of the most intriguing pieces of architecture I've seen.  If you were to see this in San Francisco, you'd think it had been an earthquake.  But no, this was actually designed like this as a tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (incorrectly described several times by Hannah yesterday as "American movie stars of the 1920s" ... it was the 30s, but I didn't correct her).  Apparently the supports at the bottom of the building represent Ginger Rogers' ball gowns.

 

The building was designed by Vlado Milunc and American Frank O. Geary and was built between 1992 and 1996.  Apparently the top floor contains one of the city's leading restaurants, Celeste, and our tour guide tonight told us that her boyfriend works in the exclusive bar at the bottom of the building (and gets cheap drinks as a result!)

When we arrived at our destination, there were several tour groups from other organizations there, and our table was marked with the American flag.

This is our tour guide, Jane, or Janna (her name tag says Janna but she introduced herself to us as Jane).  Isn't she adorable?

We sat with Barbara and Ron, a retired couple from Canada.  When Char found out they were from Canada, she insisted that they have to have their own flag, which Janna was somehow able to find.

Ron, who was actually born and lived in Brasil until he was 10, is another person on this trip with a cane.  I felt a kindred spirit!

The liquor was unlimited, starting with honey wine, and then beer and/or wine and/or juice and/or water.  Walt figured he would discourage any lingering bugs by trying all of them at once.

The entertainment started and was lively, with lots of Czech folk music and, inexplicably, songs like "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" and "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," but it was great fun, with singing, dancing and audience participation (one nice thing about having a cane--nobody begs you to get up and dance!)

(I don't know who this kid was--he wasn't with our group, but he was having the best time taking video of whoever he knew who was on stage dancing!)

Walt tried to surreptitiously take a picture of the wall of photographers behind me, but ended up getting only two, but there was a wall, trust me!

Even Walt, who almost never takes pictures, was moved to get out his cell phone and snap a shot or two.

The entertainers took a break for dinner and our meal was served:  potato soup (quite different from the kind of potato soup I would make, but delicious), and then our main meal was a huge pot of ham, pork, and chicken, on a bed of mashed potatoes (with lots of onion...I warned Walt not to have any), and something called "American potatoes" which look like cottage fries with some sort of special seasoning on them. I actually saw a package of American Potatoes seasoning at a store we went to this afternoon.

For dessert there was strudle.

We got back to the hotel around 11 and are now packing up to have our bags out by 7 tomorrow.  We get on the coach at 7:30 and make the 8-9 hour drive to Budapest and board the ship.

 

I have kept this computer on since I had my "trouble" a couple of days ago and so it has worked fine.  I'm going to put it to sleep mode instead of turning it off and hope that when I get on the ship I can set up without problem.  Keep your fingers crossed!  At least on the ship I sort of have options, but it's never as easy as it is with my own computer and my own software.

I have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Prague (Walt may feel differently!) and  realize it is just the aperitif...the main course of the trip begins tomorrow!

Old Guys, Old Stuff

Today feels like Master Course in Czech History meets Marathon Man.  I was better equipped to handle one than the other.  I am remembering back to our first day in Helsinki when I hit the wall after 3 blocks and dragged myself through the rest and am contrasting that experience today with using my cane (best thing I ever did was to buy that cane!) and being able, if not entirely to keep up with the group, to at least not be all that far behind, to handle cobble stones OK, and to thoroughly enjoy the day.

As for the "master course," we had so many names, facts, figures, dates, and I don't know what else thrown at us that all I can remember for sure was that a lot of guys named Charles and other guys named Frederick or William or Jan did a lot of stuff between the 8th century and today, and they left behind a lot of buildings and statues and other stuff.  I also remember some woman who was killed by her daughter-in-law and I hope Marta and Laurel don't ever come here to take this tour.

We walked for about 2+ hours in the old town, then picked up the bus and went to the Prague Castle and Lobkowicz Palace for lunch, a concert, and more walking, ending with a walk down a bunch of steps--not quite like those in Cinque Terra, but a challenge none the less...and with all that, I feel great.  Oh my feet hurt and I don't know how my knees are going to be tomorrow, and I certainly don't want to walk anywhere else today, but I did it.

Life started around 5 a.m., waking up from a good sleep of some 2-3 hours.  I spent SO much time frustrated by this computer, that there really wasn't much time to actually sleep.  Also I had my usual bed problems, so I rigged up this thing which really was almost, but not quite comfortable.  (I'm sitting in a chair, covered by the quilts partly pulled from the bed, with my feet up on the bed.)

We checked the weather prediction for the day.

So after breakfast we prepared for rain (and miraculously didn't have any!) and joined our group on the bus--the first time we were meeting most of them.

We were dropped in Old Town...now there is Old Town and the New Old Town (which probably dates to the 1400s) and I can't keep anything straight, but this was the old Jewish ghetto and I'll tell ya, for a people who have been so hated, reviled and persecuted, they certainly have come out as the stars of Prague, at least for this tour.  

The building on the left, by the red X, is the "New Synagogue," built in 1270, which is the world's oldest active synagogue. It also is the oldest surviving medieval synagogue of twin nave design.  (I confess to having to look this information up, because after a day of facts, dates, and figures thrown at me, I had completely forgotten what was special about this synagogue, except that it was very old!)

Anyway, I do remember that part of Yentle was filmed in this neighborhood and also one of the James Bond movies. 

Signs of Jewish occupation are everywhere in this now upscale and desirable part of town.

One sad fact I do remember from this part of the tour was that 10,000 children were taken from here and only 240 returned.  That makes me want to cry.

I did like the street sign, however.

We made our way over to the city center, which is spectacular.

I was more taken with the horse-drawn carriages, though:

When I saw the horses maneuvering over the cobblestones, I noticed that they had specially designed shoes that kind of caught on the edges of the stones and prevented them from slipping

And I especially liked the poop bags attached to their backside.  I wonder if I can make one for Polly...

Around the corner from the horses is the famous astrological clock and we stood there watching it chime the hour (video coming after I get home)

Then we got an half hour's break, so we went to a cafe for coffee, water and, for me, some ice cream with hot raspberry sauce.

Next, we wended our way through more tiny streets to the famous Charles Bridge, the first bridge in Prague and, for centuries, the only bridge connecting the two sides of the Vltana river.

It is strictly a pedestrian bridge, and a home for musicians and artists....and lots and lots of tourists.

This is our tour guide Hannah, explaining that this piece of art is dedicated to the memory of a St John Nepomuk who was thrown off the bridge for refusing to tell the king what the queen had revealed to him in the confessional.

This guy's hurdy gurdy is beating out "Lara's Theme" from Dr. Zhivago.

This is the end of the bridge, but we turned left and went down stairs and into a park which had some unusual artwork.

 At this point we reconnected with the bus and our tour was half over.  Awaiting was Prague Castle.

The guards stand at attention for an hour at each of the many entrances to the castle, but they lack the British unmovable precision. I caught one of these guys scratching his nose while on duty.

The top of the hill on which the Castle (which seems to be surrounded by several smaller palaces) sits gives a glorious view of this part of Prague.

We got an extensive tour of all four courtyards including a brief tour inside the spectacular Cathedral of St. Vitus, in which is held, among lots of other things, the shoulder of the saint (they liked to cut up dead saints to spread them all over the place, I hear).  St.Wencislaus (of "good king" fame) is also buried here. These dates I remember.  Construction n this cathedral started in 1444 and finished in 1929 (not in any great hurry to complete, I guess!). 

We went inside briefly but it as so jam packed with others of us that it was impossible to get any good photos.  However, I do like this one of Mike, Char, and Hannah!

Hannah left us at this point and turned us over to another Hannah, who was going to be our guide for our tour of the Lobkowicz Palace.  We started with lunch, which was goulash with gnocci, which was delicious though Walt, who later lost it all, and several previous days' food, said it didn't taste nearly as good coming back up the second time.

Then we were treated to a concert by a piano-violin-cello trio, which played music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, and Dvorak.  The Beethoven was the Allegretto from his 8th symphony, my favorite of his works, so I enjoyed it very much.  I was sorry I didn't get a chance to take a picture of Mike and Walt fast asleep.

Then we took a tour of the art collection in the Palace.  I'll tell ya, that cane was invaluable.  When they saw me limping around the place, they gave me my own special ride in a tiny 2-person elevator.  By this time in the day, I wasn't about to argue. I was happy for the ride up, but when I tried to walk down, this little lady who spoke no English wasn't about to let me and firmly insisted I take the elevator, so I ended up with my own private backstage tour of the Palace.

The Lobkowicz family have long been patrons of the arts and sponsors for several musicians, including Beethoven and Mozart.  They had an original manuscript of Mozart's orchestration for part of Handel's Messiah (sadly, no pictures allowed to be taken on this floor).

We finally ended the tour and walked down a l-o-n-g hill to the bus and then back to the hotel.  I was amazed that I didn't even mind the walk down the corridor to our room.

None of us wanted to go out for dinner, so we just met in the hotel bar and had pub grub--fish 'n' chips for Mike and me and a Czech sausage for Char (Walt just had coke...and later lost that too).  Mike, who really likes to try to speak the local language when we travel tried to ask for fish and chips in Czech, but the waitress grew impatient with his efforts and told him to just ask for fish and chips!

So it is no 10 p.m and time to start the lengthy process of posting this very long entry. I had to take a break in the middle because we did so much it was exhausting just writing about it.  I don't know what we are going to do tomorrow, which is a free day for us.  It depends on how my feet and Walt's stomach feel, I think.

Prague

The sun is setting on our first day in Prague.

It is amazing that we are here at all.  Walt got the car all packed up, I gave the dogs treats, we got in the car and were one block from getting on the freeway when I realized the pouch with my passport in it was sitting on the table at home. I don't know which guardian angel was hitting me over the head to remember that.  I remember when we went to Russia and got to the airport in San Francisco before I remembered that my credit card was at home. But fortunately we were able to return, get the passport and get on our way. We picked Mike and Char up in San Ramon and headed to the SF airport.

We flew a United 747.

It was not the best of planes.  I have become spoiled by all the airlines that give you TV monitors in your own seat and programming on demand.  Not only did we not have a choice of movies to watch, though this is mid-July, they only had the June magazine, which listed the movies being shown last month.  But none of us watched the TV.

The first thing they do is ask you to shut your blinds so the people who want to watch the TV screens can.  This negates, of course, any benefit of getting a window seat, as it's "night time" the whole 10+ hours, even if it is bright sun outside.  And then there was the food, served at odd times.  First it was a bag of pretzels, and then an hour later I had pasta with infinitesimally small meat balls (which were actually quite good).  Then a few hours later they served rock hard ice cream sandwiches.  I never knew ice cream could crunch before! Finally we got 6 melon cubes and the world's smallest croissant.

But the flight was very smooth--one of the smoothest I can remember--and we arrived in Frankfurt with 2 hours to spare before our Lufthansa fight to Prague.  The Frankfurt airport actually has a smoking room, a big box like thing in the middle of the concourse with people huddled together in a smoky haze.  I was rushing to catch up with Mike and Char, so never got a photo of it.

When we got to our gate and settled down to wait for the next flight...

...Mike suddenly realized why his shoes didn't feel right.  When he put them back on in the plane when we landed in Frankfurt, he put them on the wrong feet.  (The people to Walt's left in this photo are also on our tour, but we haven't officially met them yet.)

We had a 40 minute flight to Prague, during which we were served an odd thing that looked like a very very large untwisted pretzel.  It was the size of a small salami and when you bit into it, it was filled with what was like a tube of butter.  Not sure how they got it in there, since it was solid butter, so it had to have been introduced after the thing was baked.  I'm still not sure if I liked it or not.

Viking transported us to the Hilton Hotel and we were happy to note that it was sunny.

I took an hour nap while Mike and Char were waiting for their room to be ready and then we were ready to hit the streets of Prague and find food.  First Walt and Mike had to check to see if their respective cell phones were working...

 ...and then Walt had to check with the Viking people, because he realized he had left his jacket on the bus when we came in from the airport.  Fortunately they had it there at the desk for him, but we finally were on our way.

We wandered the streets near the hotel and I loved the old buildings, and especially the adornments on them.

Though we did find perhaps the skuzziest KFC in the world!

We were looking for a specific restaurant, Kolokovna, that had been listed on Viking's recommended restaurants sheet.  The guide said it offers "traditional Czech cuisine.  You can taste homemade Pilsner goulash, succulent duck thing on cabbage..."  We just knew we had to find out what "duck thing" was.  But with all their expertise in map reading, our peerless guides could not find the place, though thought they had found the place where it was supposed to be.

Walt suggested we eat at a pizza place we had passed, and I declared I was NOT going to eat pizza my first night in the Czech Republic.  The skies had turned black and the wind started to blow very hard and we needed to find any place quick.

We ducked into the first place we saw, when it started to rain.  And while it wasn't a pizza place, it wasn't Czech either.  It was a French place called La Gare Brasserie, but it was lovely and quaint and while we couldn't read much on the menu...

...they did have an English version (I was intrigued by "sauteed pig's ear from Chablis."  We all decided on duck a l'orange and it was fabulous.

We even had a wandering accordion player, who was playing old Edith Piaf tunes, among other things.

The whole thing was very French, not Czech, but it was so much better than pizza would have been!  And best of all, we took long enough with our dinner that the rain had stopped by the time we left the place.

And along the way back, I was able to get this now-traditional photo.

(the sign reads "Vychutnej si Fajn menu")

I think we all felt like this when we got back to the hotel.

So now to see if the wi fi works.  It is going to cost about $35 a day to post these entries, but what the heck...we're on vacation, Walt says, (and when we get to the ship, it will be free).

NOTICE:  I have had a devil of a time starting my computer.  In case there is no entry for a couple of days, it is a problem I can't correct, though I will be able to use the ship's computer.  I'm just hoping I've managed to solve the problem for tonight and that I can keep this running for the next two days!!!