Emily & Jeremy Blow Through Prague

Earlier this summer, my friend Emily from swim practice moved to Vienna, Austria to teach at an international school there. Before she left, we planned to meet up in Prague while I was on my trip. So this weekend, she and her husband Jeremy took the train over and spent about 23 hrs. exploring the city with us. It was a whirlwind! They had read through their travel books on the train and knew exactly what they wanted to see (none of which I had seen yet), so as soon as they arrived, we took off to get it done. Saturday afternoon we covered the Prague Castle, the Old Town Square, St. Charles Bridge,
and St. Wenceslas Square. Then we had dinner at the place that had the good Mexican food (can you believe we went twice!) where Frank introduced them to his favorite Czech beer - it was a hit. This morning we covered St. Nicklaus Church, the Jewish Quarter,

and Emily checked her Budweiser and goulash boxes. And now, so sad, they are on their way back to Vienna. The rest of us leave Prague tomorrow morning. I head back home - trip over - and Mom, Bertie, and Jeff head to Florence for another 5 days of fun before returning to the real world - lucky them!

Swimming - Czech Style!

On Friday we headed to the town of Karlovy Vary. The town is known for its thermal baths and spas and Bertie and I each got massages. Besides massages, you can also get any kind of plastic surgery, liposuction, oxygen chamber treatments? and any number of other things. The thermal water is supposed to cure all your ailments if you drink it.


My friend Martina had told me that the town was owned by Russians and was filled with "new Russian money." She was right. The only regular flight in and out of the airport is to Moscow and the menus in the restaurants - in addition to being printed Czech, English, and German - were also printed in Russian. As we walked around the town, the Russian presence was clear. Though the buildings in the town were clearly old, they all had a fresh coat of paint on them and looked bright and colorful and new.
We passed a statue of Karl Marx and a huge Russian Orthodox Church with turquoise turets with gold trim that looked like it was straight out of Moscow.

We also went to a "pizzeria" for dinner where the walls were covered in gold leaf.

By far the highlight of the town (for me, anyway) was a visit to the thermal swimming pool! An outdoor, heated, 50 meter pool filled with thermal water! As I asked two different hotel receptionists indpendently about the pool and how to get there, and they each looked at me with this look of surprise and said in broken english "You know it is not covered?" I said that yes, I realized that, and verified that it was in fact heated. So off I went at 9am this morning, after a full breakfast, in search of the pool. After a 20 min hike and negotiating the process for paying my entry, finding the changing room, and securing a locker, I headed to the pool. It was awesome! You actually enter the pool indoors, so you don't have to stand outside in your swimsuit in the below 50 degree air! Then you swim under this wall and you are outside! A thermometer above the pool read - air temp. 9 degrees C, water temp. 29.5 degrees C (about 84 or so degrees F I think.) It was warm!

I sat at one end for a moment, trying to observe if there were any rules I should be following. There were no lane ropes and about a dozen people were already swimming. None appeared to be circle swimming or anything close, it was more of a free for all. So I grabbed a spot along the wall hoping to stay out of people's way. I was clearly the only person in the pool attempting anything other than a breaststroke/float to the other end. Such a waste of a 50 m pool!!! I was also the only person, in my bright uglies swimsuit, wearing anything other than black! Despite the fact that I only had time to squeeze in 1500 m, it felt great! My arms had forgotten that they once had a purpose other than pulling suitcase around and moving food from plate to mouth!

I felt so great after the swim and the 20 min hike back to the hotel, the 2 hr bus ride back to Prague was bearable. And shortly after arriving back in Prague, Emily and Jeremy arrived! Yay!

Prague

Well, Jeff has described Prague as "a cross between New York City, Las Vegas, and some really old European city --- and we're staying in Times Square." That sort of captures it. There's a cabaret every 100 ft. and nearly as many casinos - all mixed in amongst some truly stunning architecture.
Despite being a math major, I continue to have difficulty with the currency translation, which is roughly 20:1. I swear, I can do calculus, I just can't do simple math! I keep taking 2000 kc out of the ATM, thinking it'll be enough, and it barely lasts me a day - despite the fact that a glass of wine is only 15 kc (<$1). Frank has been our tour guide extraordinaire, taking us to the Strahov Monestary for specatular views over the city and then along the key shopping streets back to our hotel at St. Wenceslas Square.
He continues to help me with the correct pronunciation of Dekuji (thank you) and keeps telling mom to quit with the German, as English is looked more favorably upon. Tonight we went to a place for dinner that had mexican food (among other things) and I have to say, shockingly, the Czechs make good enchiladas! And the .5 L Tequila Sunrise was good too!

The Real Photographer - The Real Jeff Hopkins

Ok, so I quickly realized on this trip that we are traveling with a real photograher. None of this point and shoot and move on stuff - this one has to set up a tripod, adjust whatever - allow for 30 sec. exposures - and oh yeah - its only worth taking a picture if its foggy or dark out which means driving to the Schloss at 11pm to get pictures. I suppose someday - maybe - if we're lucky - we might eventually see the pictures he's taken.

Apple Streudel is Worth Blowing the Diet For

Today we visited a walled city not far from Heidelberg called Ladenberg. It was charming. The old buildings with their shutters, crooked lines, and overflowing window boxes make every building in the U.S. seem boring.

We also visted the Schloss - or castle in Heidelberg. It was huge! They built the walls 21 ft. thick to keep out the enemys, and if that didn't work, they emptied the toilets on them (seriously). We also got to see the largest wine barrel in the world, in the basement of the castle. It holds something like 50,000 gallons of wine, unfortunately its empty today. Apparently in the days the castle was occupied, they didn't know you could boil water to kill the germs, so they only drank wine. It must have been a happy castle!

Ok, so there might be a trend developing here. I told my mom when we arrived that if I found good apple streudel, the kind I remembered from my last trip to Germany (8 yrs. ago), that I would be blowing the diet. Tonight was our last night in Germany, and like the eclair, the streudel was worth blowing the diet for. Its a good thing I only have 5 more days of vacation left. Also probably a good thing I don't live in Europe. :-)

Next we're off to Prague to catch up with Frank.

Chocolate Eclairs are Worth Blowing the Diet For

Today we took the autobahn south into France. Past Strasbourg is a small charming town called Colmar, that we heard had good food and good shopping. And I would get to use some of my long forgotten french! I really need to refresh my memory on it and go back for a more extended visit.

We quickly realized once we arrived in Colmar that half the shops in France are closed on Monday (oops), but we found a few that satisfied our need to spend our euros and also found some delicious food. I told my mom when we passed the first patisserie that if I found chocolate eclairs, I was blowing my gluten free diet. And shortly before leaving town, I found the BEST chocolate eclair I have ever had. Worth it 100 times over again!

Willkommen zu Heidelberg!

Heidelberg is beautiful! I really should have learned some German before I came - where is Frauke when I need her? Thankfully mom's German is coming back (with a little Spanish mixed in) and the shop owners are humoring her!

We are staying on the Army post in Heidelberg with Mom's friends Cindy and David. Yesterday we went into the city and walked around, just trying to stay awake until 8pm - harder than it sounds after all night on an airplane. We had a great dinner at a local cafe and excellent gelati at another shop.

Today we went on a Rhine River cruise booked through the USO. It was a long day, but lots of fun. The boat first stopped at St. Goar, where we had a tour of immense castle ruins. We had an awesome tour guide Gunther that had us crawling through dark tunnels that were only about 3 ft wide by 3 ft. high for the full experience of defending a castle from attacks.


We then cruised further down the river to Rudesheim where we did some shopping and had dinner, including the traditional Rudesheim Kaffee. First the waitress poured Ausbach licquor in the cup and set it on fire. Then she poured in the coffee, and topped it off with whip cream and chocolate shavings. It was great!



Tomorrow we're off to Colmar, France - about a 2 hr. drive.