Swan song

Wow, it's really all over but the flying. Last day in Vienna. Farewell dinner was goulash soup brought home from the market. Now just trying to make sure we're ready to go.

Yesterday and today, we spent a lot of time just walking around as if filling up our eyes and memories enough to last us until next time. Walks in the morning, walks in the evening. We're not snapping photos of every statue anymore. Now we find ourselves taking pictures of ordinary things to remember them - the Japanese Market below our apartment, signs on buildings we thought were funny, Jerry buying a sandwich.

While we had lunch outdoors today (rain threatened but didn't materialize) we watched some people make a movie. Not sure what the deal was, but there was  a lot of singing. First two young women singing like the Andrew sisters, and dressed like them too, and an Italian tenor singing opera from a balcony above the street. Then a group of young men singing acapella in the street. They were all great!

We managed to work in one more museum and made our way home by walking past all the major sights and then collapsed. I think I have worn myself out!

Our taxi is due to pick us up at 4:30 tomorrow morning! Wonder if we'll get any sleep at all.

I'll probably do a wrap up of the blog when I get home, but first I plan to sleep for a very long time.

Back in Vienna

Train ride from Prague to Vienna left 45 minutes late, (Amtrak like?) but otherwise was uneventful. We lucked out and had a compartment to ourselves most of the way. The other seats were reserved, but no one showed up. Yea!

It kind of feels like coming home to Vienna. We're back in the same apartment building, but in a different unit. This one is a little bigger and with a better view, but was actually a little cheaper. Go figure! And also back to the noise of being in a downtown area. Anyway, we didn't need to spend a day getting our bearings or figuring things out, we just went for it.

A day at the Museum of Natural History. It's one of those old-timey ones, built in the 1800's specifically to house the exhibits. The building and the display cases are every bit as impressive as the displays themselves, sometimes more so. There is very little interactive about it. It's the old style of static exhibits, meant for you to look at and admire. But there is so much of it, you don't really have time for much else. We spent the whole day, even having lunch in the museum cafe. With beer!

Not a bad place for lunch, eh?

Jerry and friend at the museum gift shop

Spending the evenng at "home" planning our LAST TWO DAYS! I can't believe its coming to an end. I think I will sleep for a week when we get back. We're both kind of running out of gas. Planning is a better option than TV anyway. We only get one English speaking channel - CNN. Although it is kind of amusing to watch American sitcoms and reality shows where they are all speaking German!

And because we didn't see one today, here's the 2nd bride from Saturday night. Can't do without one now!

Last Day in Prague

We took a final walk around Prague this evening. They really light up the buildings and you can see them almost  as well as in the day. We just strolled around window shopping on Prague's version of Rodeo Drive and watching the people. To demonstrate the fact that this is a city, not an amusement park, we saw several cars on the fancy shopping street getting "booted." Last night, we saw two cars towed next to our building. Well, towed is not really the word. The truck came, hooked up the cars and basically lifted them up with a crane, right over the cars next to them and onto his truckbed! They are serious about parking rules here.

This morning, we did something commpletely different. We took the subway way out to an industrial area and went to the Kolbenova flea market. The subway was quite full, and nearly everyone got off at the same stop. They were all going to the flea market, too. Reminded us of a swap meet back home, but pretty down market. They charged a buck to get in (20 crowns). It was pretty crazy. There were some that were obviously commercial operations, but most seemed to be just folks trying to make a buck by selling their old stuff or stuff they'd found at probably other flea markets. We settled for photos rather than buy any of it.

Afternoon found us wandering the city again. We followed another of those walks outined in our guide book. Went through tiny winding streets and through a nice hillside park. At the top of the hill was an impressive white building with an American flag flying over it. It was commpletly surrounded by chain link and razor wire and "Keep Out" signs, even though it looked like just a portico or memorial of some kind. The government is running again, isn't it? It's not a shutdown thing. Hmmm.

 Marionettes on Charles Bridge

Jerry at lunch

Today's bride! 

(there was a second one this evening, but I didn't get the photo downloaded)

Observations

I've been keeping a kind of list of things we've learned/observed on this trip. Not history or culture so much, but just things we've noticed. 

But before we get to that, today's rundown of events.  Jerry has been getting up at 5 in the morning for some reason, so he has been enjoying walks at that hour with no crowds around to get in the way of his photos. Me? I'm sleeping.

We went in the other direction today, away from Old Town, across the river and up the hill to the north to a large park. It goes steeply up the hill - who needs a Stairmaster?! At the top is a sculpture that is an enormous metronome, swinging back and forth all day long. You can see it from all over town. And also, our destination, the Technological Museum. It contained examples of transportation of all kinds - balloons to aircraft to cars. Reminded me of the Smithsonian, the way they had the aircraft suspended from the ceiling. Interesting! No photos from inside because although they allowed photography - even encouraged it - you had to pay extra for it. Really! There were guards everywhere enforcing the rule. Weird! I also got yelled at for trying to see the exhibits going counter-clockwise instead of clockwise. Whoa! I could understand if it was crowded, but not the case today. There are still some remnants of the Communist era here, I think.

 Jerry wanted to get in some farming

Fish and chips for lunch! Actually, salmon and chips, and calamari. The calamari was among the best I've ever had, The rest was good, too. We really haven't had a bad meal here.

This afternoon, we did three museums in quick succession. It helped that we didn't go in the first two. We saw enough of the Chocolate Museum and the Cubist Museum from the outside and the gift shop to make paying the admission fees unnecessary. We did go into the Museum of Communism. It increased our appreciation of what the people here went through during that era and how the Velvet Revolution came about. Makes you wonder if you would have enough courage to stand up to the oppression. We would like to think we would.

The US was definitely the bad guy!

So to the observations.

• Which would be better for your clothes, drying them on schranktrochen or bugeltrocken?
• Do you think starocesky hostinec is good to eat?
• Three pages of instructions was left for us on using the oven. I'm not touching that thing!
• Women do seem to dress more fashionably here. But we have always been in the heart of big cities. That may be case in the US, too.
• Scarves are still BIG - literally. Most are large and wrapped around the neck in big loops.
• Shoes are very stylish and new looking. No stilletos, though. There may be a corolation with the cobblestones, not sure...
• We are usually addressed in Czech when walking into an establishment. And when we say Hello, they seamlessly switch to English. We are so lucky!
• When you start to think you know your way around, that's when you really get lost.
• There's no ADA in Europe. Most buildings have many stairs, and few have elevators. Pushing the correct button is a challenge, too. The ground floor is zero, then comes one. We won't even go into the minus ones. 
• You get better at division in your head when you have to divide all prices by 18.76 to come up with a dollar equivalent.

And here's today's bride!

Easin' Down

We are either really relaxing into this travel thing or else we're getting tired. Couple of days of doing not too much. And how good it felt!

Our apartment is in the old Jewish quarter of Prague and so we spent some time yesterday exploring it. One of the most unique features is the old Jewish cemetery. For centuries, Jews were confined in a ghetto here as in many other places. They had very little space, and lots of land for a graveyard could not be justified. So they set aside what they could, and began burying people in multiples in the same space. There are some graves where folks are stacked up twelve deep! As a result, the gravestones look like they were arranged by someone deranged, and the level kept getting higher. It is no longer in use with the demise of the ghetto. We didn't go inside (had to buy a multi-ticket we didn't want), but workmen were repairing the wall outside, so we peeked in.

We walked across town to see another landmark, this one only a decade or two old. The locals call it the Dancing House, but the guide books call it the Fred and Ginger House. You can see why!

We had dinner at a newer restaurant a block away from our place called Lokal. Supposed to have fresh, authentic Czech food. They refused to have an English menu until about a year ago. Thank goodness they changed their minds. It was so good, we went back Thursday and got takeout. Breaded chicken cutlet and goulash. And the mashed potatoes with onions were fabulous!

Today we split up to cater to different interests. I went to the Mucha museum (he of the Art Noveau poster fame) while Jerry went to the Medieval Torture Museum. No comment. I also stopped in at a few places our "landlady" recommended and they were great - no tourists either. One was a beautiful glass store in an old traditionally styled building. The other was the Ex-pat center at her bank! Gorgeous building. She told me to just walk in like I owned the place and walk up to the 2nd floor, so I did. Worth it!

 How do you suppose they do this?

More Prague beauty shots.

 Wait! Another bride?! It really is the Year of the Wedding!!!

Cobblestones

Really so glad I didn't bring my Danskos! Literally every street here - and sidewalk - is cobblestones. Big ones, little ones, smooth rounded ones, sharp edged ones. My feet are sore in the evening here as they haven't been anywhere else. Or maybe I'm just reaching the stauration point.

 Menu translation can be fun!

Today we took the hill up to Prague Castle. Bit of a misnomer, since "the castle" includes several buildings, squares, gardens, museums and churches. It is easily worth a day all on it's own, but we did an abbreviated version. We did have lunch up there on the terrace of a restaurant overlooking the city and river below. Pictures didn't really show it, but it was quite lovely.

On our way back down, we stopped in a little shop and bought a print of a watercolor painting that caught our eye. Further on we saw the same one being sold in a little street-side niche. I asked the young man there if he was the artist and he said yes, pointed to the signature and said that is my name. We told him we had just bought his painting up the street. He seemed less thrilled than we thought he'd be. Jerry is skeptical.

Also at the castle was yet another bride! Everywhere we go, people are tying the knot. Yesterday, we saw a couple in a public square, but we figured it was a magazine shoot because they didn't really look too smitten with each other between photos.

We went by the John Lennon Wall, where during the Velvet Revolution, people wrote words of freedom and against the government.Every time it was painted over, they came back and wrote more on it. Today, it is mostly standard grafitti, but it has become a symbol of freedom of expression.

Everywhere you go in Prague, there is public art, mostly outdoor sculptures. And it's not all Baroque. When you least expect it, a scupture pops up, many leaving you not sure what to make of them. I was especially taken with the juxtaposition of the swan boat being peddled by some Japanese tourists and the purple finger in the middle of the river - yes, it's that finger.  Hmmmm...

And to top off the day, we found these musicians in Old Town Square. Contrast these guys with the concert from last night (4 bands, went till midnight, we found out). Prague is full of surprises.

Corrections and Additions

OK, you Pragueophiles. You may have noticed I misnamed the square pictured in yesterday's entry. Can I blame train lag? Maybe not. At any rate, it is Old Town Square we walked around yesterday, not Wenceslas. That will come soon.

Today, we learned a new subway system, pretty much like Vienna's. We took it to the main train station and bought our tickets back to Vienna for next week. We are already wishing we could just stay here. This city is indeed wonderful. After our productive morning of chores (train tickets, cash machine to get Czech crowns, groceries) we had lunch at a French cafe across the street from our apartment. It's owned by a friend of our landlady. I had pork belly for the first time - and was not all that impressed. It's just roast pork, a little on the dry side ( ! ), but so filling, I haven't been able to work up an appetite for dinner. Is that good?!

 Restocking.

We're rich! Czech crowns are about 20 to the dollar, so bills look astronomical. A simple lunch is in triple digits!

Chilled for the afternoon, and went for walk after dark to take some photos. There was some kind of rock concert going on in Old Town Square (I don't know - loud, incoherent, smoke, strobing lights...) We walked to one of the bridges and got some nice shots of the city at night. Lots of people out and about.