Grand and Glorious Curmudgeon

We went out for dinner this afternoon. I saw several places along the way that offered Goulash in a Bread Bowl”. Since I was a fan of clam chowder in a bread bowl from Cannon Beach, OR and also beef stew in a bread bowl at Johhny J’s in Casper I had to try the trifecta.

The bread bowl was brown bread which makes sense in the context. The goulash was very hot, but once it cooled slightly was quite tasty and the bread was very good. Of course, now I’ll have to compare it to actual Hungarian Goulash in Budapest tomorrow.

I was a little stiff waking up in the morning, we did a fair amount walking yesterday – by Kate’s smartwatch 7.4 miles. Again, we had a leisurely breakfast about 8:15am and headed back across the Charles bridge and down to the town square.

This was interesting because it is an atypical way to show a halo. Rather than circular, it’s more of a helicopter-ish view. We continued on to Town Square. but we had to wait a little until the Easter Fair and Municipal Ticket Office opened. The tickets for the lift up the tower were half-price before noon, and we got a subsequent discount for the hop-on/hop-off bus pass. The elevator up the medieval tower was shiny new and modern.

The round completely glass elevator is descending. We rode up and the view from the top was amazing.

A slightly out of focus view towards the mini-Eiffel tower created after the one in France, but as our tour guide proudly noted, 3 meters higher than the original (due to the hill it sits on).

The view to the far ridge with a TV tower on it, probably a great view for next time. After we rode back down se strolled back towards the river to pick up the Hop-on/Hop-off bus for a ride around the city.

We passed a car that apparently was severely overparked. Apparently, there is no active over-parking enforcement. I want to mention the sidewalks. Like the streets, they are cobblestone, but with small dark grey and white blocks about 2-inches square.

These sidewalks are all over the city, there is very little poured cement, just endless varied patterns of grey and white brick. As we were walking down to the ships last night, I saw several spots, a foot or so square, where the stones had come up and I snagged one.

We hopped on the trolley and rode all around the city while listening to the commentary on an app in the iPhone. It was interesting and easy on the feet. Fortunately, there was a stop just 2 blocks from the hotel, so we avoided the hike back across the Charles Bridge. Tomorrow, we get up early for the van/bus ride to Budapest, about 6 hours or so. (Link here)

After a nap, about 3:15pm we headed back out on foot. We walked back across the Charles Bridge and turned right along the bank and followed the river for about a mile down to the boat docks.

This sculpture was along the way. I didn’t see any description, but I think it’s clearly contrasting the rusted orthodoxy of the communist system with the vibrant capitalist economy.

Here’s the late afternoon start of our cruise before Kate moved back to face forward.

Here we are approaching the Charles bridge from the water. You can see the statues along the bridge. We crossed under the bridge and turned around and sailed back down river. It turns out the Vltava River connects to the Elbe River north of Prague and then continues up to Hamburg.

After the cruise we walked back but took a side trip back to the store next to the Old New Synagogue so Kate could buy a Prague Golem. We then walked back across the Charles Bridge and got some dinner.

We had dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel. It was founded in 1787, two years before the Constitution was ratified.

I had an Aperol Spritz for Jan & Mike. We had traditional Czech meals, Kate had Pork Neck and Dumplings, and I had Boar goulash with potato pancakes. They were both very good. and even at a high-end restaurant was about $70. It was just a couple of blocks back to the hotel. It was a pretty tiring day, but I think we really got a feel for Prague.

Kate has also established a Google Link for more photos at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFQh7Ypfb1WZgcDx7

Prague (or Praha in Czech) is one of the coolest cities I have ever been in. It was virtually untouched by WWII, other than an unfortunate bombing that was probably someone trying to bomb Dresden one night.

After a great breakfast (included with hotel) we had a walking tour from 9:00-1:00pm. They transported the four customers plus guide up to the castle on top of the hill behind the Augustine Hotel. The “castle” is actually a sprawling group of buildings, gardens, etc. covering 45 hectares (whatever metric BS that is).

Ok, we have this huge gothic cathedral tucked into an inner courtyard of the castle. It is dedicated to St Vitus, nice Sicilian boy from the 200’sAD. His relics moved around and were presented to Wenceslaus I, in 925AD by King Henry I of Germany. They were installed in a rotunda on the site of the cathedral. Finally, St Adalbert was born a good Bohemian son and went on to be Bishop of Prague but eventually was martyred in Prussia in while converting the proto-Prussians. (It is always the Germans).

Anyway, the present Cathedral was started in 1344 and proceeded apace until 1399 when work was stalled and proceeded in fits and starts until a revival in 1844. It was finally consecrated on 12 May 1929 just in time for the 1,000th anniversary of Good King Wenceslaus’s death. (he got a posthumous promotion to King from Duke). Note that 1929 was in the post-WWI period where Czechoslovakia was a real country.

After the castle, we were driven down to the Old Town section of Prague. We wandered through the streets, past the oldest Synagogue in Europe completed in 1270. In continuous use (except for the unpleasantness from 1939-1945).

We wandered over to the main square where they had set up Easter Market booths and spent about half an hour browsing and got some famous “chimney cakes” which are supposedly popular in Budapest.

We arrived just before noon for the exhibition of the Prague Astronomical Clock, of course the oldest astronomical clock in the world, from 1410. It was impressive, but there was quite the crowd in front of it. After the clock we wended our way through many of the back streets to the Charles Bridge.

The bridge (started 1357) is an amazing structure.

One of the Statues

After crossing the bridge, it was just several blocks back to the Augustinian Hotel arriving about 1:00pm. I will post this now and write part 2, the river cruise next.

(Revised and edited). Either I jinxed it by bragging about it, but Frankfurt is where karma goes to die. We landed, and taxied and taxied, but Denver is like that. Except when we were done the wheeled up a set of boarding stairs and we deplaned into what looked like a maintenance yard and all boarded busses for the ride to the terminal. Now I haven’t deplaned and walked in since the early years in Casper or flying Pilgrim Airlines into Groton. I really expected for Frankfurt to be better.

The bus took 20 minutes driving all around the airport to unload us near Gate C1. We knew that our flight would leave from A35; but wait there’s more. As we trooped thru terminal, we were herded into a set machines designed to read your passport, collect a photo and read your fingerprints to establish a firm bio-signature of you. Except it didn’t work very well. Kate’s machine read her passport and took a picture but choked. Mine had trouble even reading the passport. Since they failed so we all got herded through corridors over to a set of mazes feeding into booths with police officers doing regular screening and collecting fingerprints. We spent two and a half hours weaving back and forth like old school Disney lines. Now we had a 4-hour layover, but other passengers were freaking out. And this was still in terminal A. I counted that there were 14 booths with 4 of them occupied. They opened two more after our first hour in line. When we got to the boot the police had the usual questions, purpose of visit, how long we were staying (in the EU), etc.

Also, this fun event had taken us outside the containment area, so we all got rescreened and came back in at the end of terminal C. This only took about 15 minutes, so with all that done we followed the signs through terminal B, up and down to a long tunnel to Terminal A. We finally made it to the Lufthansa Longue where we’re waiting for closer to the boarding time. We boarded about 45-minutes late due to late arrival of our older Airbus-345 (think 737-ish).

One interesting thing was that to create a first-class section, the blocked off the middle seats of each 6-row section with a tray table like section bolted to the seat arms. On the 90-minute flight they did a full lunch and drink service. I discovered that I don’t particularly like hummus (I think it comes from the Akkadian word for “failed at the hunt”.) and I settled for water to drink. I did have a double gin & tonic on the big flight but by this time I was tired, numb and was basically done for the day. I regret to say I am no alcoholic, I will have to pass the baton to Jan.

When we exited the plane (at a regular gate) we got our luggage and walked out and found the Viking guide who has us step aside with the other guests while he collected passengers.

The driver he paired us up with was man about my age who spoke a reasonably fair version of English who was very ebullient and gave us a tour of the city as we drove to the hotel. Prague is a very historic city that apparently avoided much of unintended renovations associated with WW-II. It has huge 3-5 story ancient buildings that are still used. We even talked about the Prague Spring, which he and I both still remember.

The Augustinian Hotel (click the link, really) was named after the Augustinian Monastery that still operates out of part of the hotel. The before and after parts of the tour let you select luxury or more pedestrian hotels. I think by the time I booked it only the luxury selection was available. On reconsideration, I think I’m glad I booked the Augustinian, like with airfare at this age of my life, if it’s worth going, it’s worth going first-class. We are here for three-days, leaving on Thursday morning for the 6–8 hour bus ride to Budapest. There will be a couple of hour-long breaks for lunch, etc. We have a 4-hour walking tour of Prague scheduled for this morning, we’ll see how we do on it and maybe schedule other events, dinners, etc. later.

In Amsterdam we also have three days after the cruise. Right now, we are scheduled for the Van Gogh Museum and a walking tour. I also want to stop by the Nieuw Kirk sometime.

We’re due down at the Front Desk for our walking tour.

Well, this morning went exactly as planned. We got up and dressed without issue and Jan & Mike picked us up at seven. We drove up to Eggington’s, and we got the handicapped sport out front and walked in and were seated immediately.

After a great breakfast we drove to the airport with time to spare. The baggage desk wasn’t even open. After checking bags and waiting for TSA to open, we breezed through with no problems.

The plane boarded on time, and we made it to Denver uneventfully. We walked off the plane and when we got to the main concourse there was a guy driving one of the golf carts sitting there waiting. I elected to ride while Kate walked. We met back up at gate A27 and are currently ii the United Club waiting for the boarding time of 4:00pm

I am a little bit worried that I’m burning through all that good karma before even leaving the US, but thus far the trip is going perfectly. The next update should be on the flight to Frankfurt (assuming Wi-Fi is as advertised).

Amplifying info to follow.