Author: khsabatier

Apologies that I haven’t blogged in so long! Between the time we spent in the US and our first weeks abroad in Scotland, I feel as if we’ve been running all the time, leaving little down time for blogging…

The Nomads are starting the next chapter of our adventure.  We spent 5 weeks in the US – 2 weeks in Baltimore visiting family and friends, including these two cuties (Emma & Clark, Rick’s grandchildren)
and 3 weeks in Chautauqua, our very favorite summer place. This unique community in western NY state has been our home for all or part of the summer for the last 10 years.  We were SO happy to return and to be reminded of how special it is to be intellectually and culturally stimulated in a beautiful and cool place surrounded by old friends.

The weekly themes during our time there included: Geopolitics Today; The Supreme Court: at a Tipping Point?; and Comedy and the Human Condition. But the added bonus was that my grandson, Owen (and his parents…), came and spent a week with us…such a joy!

On August 7, we flew overnight to Edinburgh. There we stayed in a B&B, because we could not find an Airbnb accommodation. Once we arrived, we discovered why rooms had been so hard to find. August is Festival Season in Edinburgh!  The Fringe Festival (catalogue is as thick as a small town phone book!), the International Festival (classical music & theater), and the Book Festival were all happening at the same time.  In addition, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo – a military performance including bands from around Scotland and the world – was held every night on the esplanade of the Castle.  Everyone we met seemed to know what this was and many came just for this.  It was, of course, sold out by the time we got there, so I guess we’ll have to come back…

We did enjoy touring Edinburgh, though.  The buildings in the city are rather monochromatic- most are made of Victorian sandstone – except in August when festival posters and revelers provide lots of color! The Royal Mile, which stretches between the Edinburgh Castle and the Parliament was a mob scene!  And such a scene – hawkers selling all sorts of performances – theater, comedy, music of all genres, and some strange hybrids of all.

Our walking tour began at the Edinburgh Castle,

continued down the Royal Mile ending at the new Parliament building.
Designed and built by a Catalan architect, the Parliament is a beautiful and functional work space for the new Scottish Parliament (re-established in 1998, 300 years after it was dissolved) and a welcoming public space for locals and visitors.  Works by Scottish artists line the walls.  One very striking example (no picture-taking was allowed) is entitled Traveling the Distance (porcelain) by Shauna McMullan.  This artwork is made up of 100 handwritten sentences. The artist collected the sentences from women on a journey throughout Scotland. Each woman was asked to write a sentence about another woman whom she felt had made a significant contribution to life, culture or democracy in Scotland.  The artist then rendered these sentences in porcelain. It’s beautiful and meaningful.
We were shown a typical MSP’s office where we were allowed to take photos.  Each small office has a window ‘thinking pod!’ What a concept…lawmakers who think!

We couldn’t leave Edinburgh without a stop at Catenhead’s Whiskey Shop, where we sampled and bought a small bottle…labeled on the spot for us…

We took a train to Glasgow, where we spent one night and picked up a rental car for the rest of our Scottish adventure.  We got a quick but thorough tour of the city on one of those Hop On/Hop Off buses. The most notable thing that happened in Glasgow is that Rick got a terrific haircut!
       
BEFORE                                                     AFTER

From Glasgow, we drove northwest to Oban, on the coast.  This lovely fishing town

is a gateway to the islands of Mull and Iona, part of the Inner Hebrides.  We took a day trip by ferry-bus-ferry through Mull to Iona.

We were told that Mull gets 4.2m (165 inches) of annual rainfall, while Iona gets the most sun in the UK. Iona has a rich religious history.  It is the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland, and still supports a disbursed ecumenical community of people devoted to worship, peace and justice.


We took tour of the Oban Distillery before setting off to our next destination. We tasted and spat, though, because we anticipated the tricky roads that were to come.

Our next stop was the Isle of Skye, farther north along the western coast.  The Isle is accessible by a bridge (opened in 1995) and is rugged and beautiful. We stayed about 7 miles outside of Portree in a B&B run by a lovely family, Peter & Marina Gordon. Since we weren’t cooking for ourselves, we had made dinner reservations for both nights in town. But once we saw the roads, we knew we couldn’t have dinner and wine and make it back safely (especially driving on the left!).  We asked Peter to call us a taxi, but he offered to drive us in both nights.  When we got a taxi back, all we had to tell the driver was that we were staying at Peter Gordon’s place and he knew where to take us.  These are the appealing things about small towns…

This is the view from our front door…

We made a driving tour of Trotternish Peninsula, the northernmost part of Skye. This took us along a  rather desolate but beautiful coastline on a ‘single track road’ (one lane with pullouts to allow oncoming cars to pass…yikes!!)
This driving tour included a stop at the Skye Museum of Island Life. Here we saw original crofting houses that are over 200 years old – made of stone with thatched roofs. Three are original to the site and several others brought here and rebuilt.  One was set up to show how a family of 14 (!) lived and others contained interesting displays of tools and crafts used by these hardy farmers.

We retraced our drive over the Skye bridge and continued north to Durness on the northernmost part of the mainland of Scotland.  We only spent one night here but were impressed by the beautiful beaches.  My only question, ‘Is it ever warm enough here to really enjoy the beach?’

Clearly, many people enjoy the weather, though.  The campsites are FULL!  And these camper vans are fun to meet on the single track roads…

We have another week in Scotland, but I’ll save that for the next post.  Thanks for following along.

NOTE:  This post is longer than my usual and for that I apologize. It covers 16 days in Switzerland where there was lots to see and experience. Take it a bite at a time if you need to, but some of the pictures are pretty wonderful…

We began our time in Switzerland in Luzern, a charming city situated where the river Reuss flows out of Lake Luzern, a huge lake with the Alps as backdrop.  Not part of the EU, Switzerland has its own currency (the Swiss franc) and is probably the most expensive place we have visited so far.  The river is spanned by a series of pedestrian bridges, two of them wooden, dating from the 14th century and once part of the city’s fortifications.

There are two mountains near Luzern, and we summited both. Our visit to the summit of Pilatus was one of the highlights of our time in Luzern.  We took a boat along Lake Luzern to Alpanchstad – an hour-long trip with a few intermediate stops that took us past some beautiful scenery.

Once off the boat, we rode a cog-wheel train up almost to the top of the 7000 ft mountain.  The short hike to the summit from there was cool (on an 80º day in town), and very scenic.  There were opportunities to look down from almost every side.  One unusual sight was this tiny little church perched alone on a mountain just below the summit. They must have very hardy and dedicated congregants!!

To descend, we opted to take a cable car followed by a long gondola ride to the city of Kriens, and then a 15-minute bus ride back into Luzern.  More great views of the other side of the mountain.

Mount Rigi was a similar round trip – boat to Vitznau, cogwheel train to the top and then cable car back down to Weggis.  Notable was that the train was the first mountain railway in Europe (1871) and was a less steep climb…more ’round the mountain’ with views from many different angles.

An unusual museum experience in Luzern was our visit to the Glacier Garden. Here you can view grounds formed by the grinding of glaciers over centuries, with dramatic ‘potholes’ and interesting fossils.

The guy that discovered this spot in 1872 was trying to construct a wine cellar under his house! The museum adjacent to the glacier garden features interesting displays of how glaciers are formed and how they disappear, charting the several ice ages that impacted this area 20,000 – 10,000 years ago.  A crazy Hall of Mirrors is the final attraction, although it’s unclear what this has to do with glaciers!

Downhill from this museum is a famous Luzern monument depicting a slain lion that represents the Swiss Guards (mercenaries who were killed defending the Louis XVI during the French Revolution). The inscription reads “To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss.”

Our train trip from Luzern to Interlaken was spectacular! The route took us alongside several large and beautiful lakes

and through mountains that were snow-capped with dramatic waterfalls.

Interlaken means ‘between lakes’ and the city straddles the Aare River that connects Lake Brienz and Lake Thun.  It`was the original alpine resort in the 19th century when leisure travel was first popularized and is surrounded by dramatic mountains The Swiss have built a network of trains, gondolas and cable cars to get visitors to the most scenic spots.  These various modes of transport are well coordinated and scenic in themselves (unless you’ve landed in the dead center of a cable car crammed with one of the many tour groups that comprise a large segment of the tourists here…).  Our preference is always the trains.

It took us two tries to get to the top of Schilthorn. On our first day, we took a train to Lauterbrünnen followed by a cable car to Grütschlap, and another train to Mürren.  After a stroll through this ski resort town to the cable car station

we intended to go to the top until we looked at the real-time web cam that showed the mountaintop was completely socked in by clouds.  So instead, we took a cable car to Gimmelwald, a lovely alpine village for which we had a Rick Steves walk to guide us.  We saw charming wooden chalets

and farmers working hard in their hayfields.

And since we were up 1400 meters, we could take advantage of the cooler mountain air. There are waterfalls everywhere, even in the middle of town!

The following day, we awoke early and caught the 8:05 train back to Lauterbrünnen, followed our previous route and made it to the top before the clouds! We had a good view of the three major mountains – Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau – before the clouds rose up from the valley and enshrouded them all.

We took a different route down, stopping at Birg, where we were below the clouds, and then rode a funicular to Allmendhübel, where we had a nice walk through the flower fields

followed by a bowl of hearty soup. As we descended, the train paralleled a rushing river of snow melt that would have challenged the most expert kayaker!

This seems to be a favorite location for paragliders and base jumpers.  We haven’t witnessed any of the latter but the ‘kites bearing passengers’ are everywhere!  Here are a couple coming in to land…

And , of course, we had to have fondue!

Rick even flirted (!?) with the waitress before he knew how much he was going to enjoy the food (which he did!)…
It had been unseasonably hot during our time in Switzerland. Fortunately, we can escape to the mountains or the lakes for some respite.  One day we traveled by train to Thun, at the far end of Lake Thun. We enjoyed exploring this quaint village on foot with the help of a map provided by the local Tourist Information Office.  We saw Thun Castle that contains a five-floor historical exhibit and provides spectacular views of the town, lake and Alps.

As we walked along the river, we noticed a young wetsuit-clad couple with a baby and two surfboards.  They had figured out a clever way to ‘surf’ in the waves created by a dam in the river. We watched mom try it while dad stayed on shore with the baby.  They had fixed a water-ski tow rope to the bridge. Mom then climbed over the fence and down a ladder; dad handed her the surfboard and she swam out to the rope.  She then used it to stabilize herself as she stood up on the board. Then she let go and ‘surfed’ for a few minutes before falling.  She then was carried downriver by the current to another ladder. When she returned, it was dad’s turn…

After a nice riverside lunch, we took a boat the whole length of Lake Thun back to Interlaken.  It was nice and breezy on the lake and provided us with some nice views.  In every town along the route, we saw people swimming in the clear blue waters of the lake and we determined to do that ourselves the following day.

So we took a bus to Neuhaus where we found a private ‘beach’…no sand but a grassy expanse for sunbathing and a tree for shade.  The water was icy cold, but felt wonderful on a blazing hot day.

The day before we left Interlaken, we went back to the mountains for a hike. After getting to Lauterbrünnen, where many things seem to connect, we took a smaller train to Wengen and then a cable car up to Männlichen (7300 ft).

From there we took a (mostly) level 2.5 mile hike along the ridge line to Kleine Scheidegg.

It was beautifully scenic and peaceful and even chilly (!). The wildflowers were incredible as were the views both down the mountain and up.

Our last home base in Switzerland is Biel/Bienne, a bilingual city (the street signs are in both German & French and the locals seem to speak both interchangeably) on one of three connected lakes near Bern.  In our three full days here, we spent one exploring the city, one traveling to Murten and one in Bern.  Biel has a quaint old town that was filled with a ‘family festival’ the day we visited…no extravagant rides, just a person-powered merry-go-round, pony rides, face painting and free popcorn.
   
We took a funicular almost to the top of a mountain above the town – 900 meters…a hill by comparison to where we’ve been recently.  We then hiked about half a mile past many sports complexes to an area called End de Welt (End of the World), where we had an espresso before heading back down.

The second day we took the train to Murten, a small village on another of the three lakes. The ride took us past lush farms and vineyards. Here we are in the foothills of the Jura Mountains (that separate Switzerland from France).  The hillsides, with lake breezes, are apparently ideal for growing Chasselas, a white wine grape that we don’t see often the US because of its small production.
We took a (Rick Steves) guided walk through Murten. It is a beautiful medieval town with some of the best preserved ramparts in Switzerland.

Views across the lake

and of the uniform rooftops were lovely.

On our last day, we trained to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. It is situated on the Aare River.  Most of the buildings are made of locally quarried greenish grey sandstone, giving the city a rather monochromatic tone.

The city is known for its fountains, each of which portrays a different character – some historical and some hysterical, like the Ogre eating (?!) a plump child…

At the entrance to the cathedral, we got to see one more depiction of The Last Judgement, just to keep us on our good behavior as we move on.

A highlight of our walking tour of Bern was a visit to the Einstein Museum.  We spend two hours here and thought that it provided a complete picture of Einstein’s personal life, science and politics.  No audio guide needed because everything was well presented in German, French and English.

When we returned to Biel/Bienne, we had just enough time to get to the Omega Museum.  This small museum presents the history of watchmaking in Switzerland in a very interesting way. The entrance was free and they didn’t even have a gift shop!

So…on Thursday we head to Paris and the next morning, we’ll be winging our way back to the States.  We hope to see many of you while we are there.  And, again, apologies for the length of this post…

 

The location of our Airbnb in Munich is a great one.  We are a block from the Viktualienmarkt, an open air market with a beer garden in the center.  You can buy almost anything here and it’s open every day but Sunday.  We’re very near a tram stop and a bit farther away is an underground station.  We’ve bought multi-day transportation tickets that make it easy to get around.  And, just down the street, is another Eataly, even bigger than the one we found in Florence with a great selection of meats, cheeses, produce and…oh yes…Italian wines.
      

Marienplatz, Munich’s main square is just on the other side of the Vikualienmarkt. Here we found the New Town Hall, that looks older than the Old Town Hall that was rebuilt after WWII. In the tower of the NTH is a Glockenspeil that ‘performs’ three times a day.

When we did our overview walk through Munich, we visited Michaelskirche (St Michael’s Church), an impressive baroque structure with a large barrel vaulted interior, which Rick Steves said makes the acoustics wonderful.  I noted that there was a ‘sung Mass’ scheduled for 9:00 on Sunday and decided to go.  The church was jam-packed…all seats totally full and people standing five or six abreast in every aisle.  Some people had come prepared with their own camp stools!  It was well worth standing for two hours, though, to hear the choir and orchestra perform Gounod’s St Cecelia Mass.  It was on par with the best concerts we’ve heard! But this was not a concert, it was a full Mass with sermon and communion…the works! I agree, the acoustics are fabulous!

(This photo was taken after the Mass when the church was beginning to empty out.  It seemed inappropriate to take pictures during the Mass…)

We rented bikes and spent a half day riding out to Olympic Park on the north edge of the city.  This complex, built for the 1972 Olympics, is impressive.

While there, we came across a memorial to the Israeli athletes (and one German police officer) whose deaths at the hands of Palestinian terrorists marred the games.

From Olympic Park, it was a short ride to BMW Welt (BMW World) and Museum.

This impressive complex showcases the role that the Bavarian Motor Works played in the development of modern transportation and serves as an enormous showroom for the current crop of BMW models with plenty of opportunity to touch and feel the cars…

In keeping with the car theme, on another day we visited the Museum of Transportation (Verkehrszentrum). This branch of the Deutsches Museum focuses on the history of transportation and houses examples of bikes, cars, trains, buses and everything else on wheels you can imagine.

Almost as much fun was watching the little kids outside the museum trying out all sorts of locomotion devices…
        

Rick’s Beaver Creek skiing friend, Alfred Watzinger, met us in town one day and took us on a walking tour that included the lovely Bürgersaalkirche, a two level church that has wonderful frescoes in the upper sanctuary.

Alfred, who has lived in Munich for more than 3 decades told us that he has only recently made time to learn more about the historical buildings in his city.  And he loves showing them to friends who visit.  That evening, we shared a great meal of Weiner Schnitzel with Alfred, his wife Edith and their daughter Stephanie. And later in the week, they invited us to their home for a barbecue in their lovely garden.

It was so nice to get together with friends so far away from our home who would share their home with us!

We rented bikes another day to explore the Englischer Garden, the largest city park on the continent, along the west side of the Isar River.

The guide book said we should expect to see nude sunbathers here but, much to Rick’s disappointment, the only unclothed body in sight was that if a five-year-old boy… There is also a ‘wave’ in the river for surfers, but they were not out during our visit either.

It seemed fitting that our visit to Dachau (concentration camp) was in a drenching rain.  We were part of a tour with a dozen Americans and a very knowledgeable tour guide.

Even though it might have been more pleasant to see this admittedly horrific memorial on a nice sunny day, the fact that we stood in the rain while our guide explained what happened here gave us some small appreciation for the conditions that the unfortunate people who ended up here had to endure for years on end.

This statue of ‘the unknown survivor’ bears a legend that should make us all think…”To remember the dead and warn the living.”

Rick & I have been fans of Reidel wine glasses for a long time. This is the company that has developed a specific glass shape for almost every variety of wine. (I know, we’re nerds and we admit it!) When we discovered that the Reidel Glass Factory in Kufstein, Austria was only an hour south of Munich, we decided that we’d go for a factory tour.

It was a really interesting afternoon.  First we watched the goings on on the factory floor – precise addition of stems and bases to already prepared bowls, and fashioning of a mouth-blown decanter.

Then we walked through a cool multimedia presentation about sensation and taste – there was a gigantic nose in one room and a huge tongue in another!

After this, our guide took us to the Glas Haus (Glass House) built to recall the company’s original factory (1756) in Czechoslovakia and filled with historical displays, and then to the newly constructed museum (that won’t officially open until June 23!) that houses Reidel products from the beginning of the company until today.

Of course, Munich has palaces, and we visited two of them.  Germany’s royal family, the Wittelsbachs,  had an in-town abode now known as the Residenz and a summer place with hunting lodge, the Nymphenberg Palace, just outside the city center.  The Residenz Museum consists of 90(!) palatial rooms, a Treasury and and ornate opera house, the Cuvilliés Theater that was rebuilt after WWI.  Someone had the foresight to dismantle the ornate wooden boxes and store them safely before Munich was bombed!

We saw the Nymphenberg Palace on our first bike ride (out to Olympic Park).

Of course, this account would not be complete without a mention of Munich’s Beer Gardens.  Like all tourists, we ducked into the Hofbräuhaus.  It’s quite a scene!  And there are many beer gardens throughout the city, even two in the Englischer Gardens.  But our favorite was right in our neighborhood in the middle of the Viktualienmarkt.

On Sundays, when most everything else is closed, the locals come out in traditional Bavarian garb to grab a beer, listen to bands, and watch young people dance.

Is this the biggest pretzel you’ve ever seen?!  You need lots of beer to wash this down…

So now we are on to our last three stops (all in Switzerland) before coming back to the States for 5 weeks.  We are doing this segment of our adventure (April-June) all by train.  I wanted to share the picture below to illustrate the comfort of train travel (and no one hassles us when we bring our own wine…).  And, you will note that Rick has brought the beard back!

Well, we are back in the land of the Euro, and the mental conversion is much easier than it was with the Czech Koruna (1Kc = .042USD).  Our Airbnb apartment in Vienna is just outside the Ringstrasse, very close to the old town and its many attractions.  We bought a multi-day transit pass and signed up for CityBike

a free bike system with more than 100 pick-up/drop-off stations around Vienna.  If you use a bike for less than an hour, it’s FREE! And central Vienna is really flat.

As we sought out local food specialities, we discovered Tafelspitz, reputedly the favorite dish of Emperor Franz Joseph.

It’s basically boiled beef, served with a marrow bone, horseradish and apple sauce with sides of fried potato rosti (kind of like hash browns) and creamed spinach.  Rick ordered a special (rib) cut of beef that was much better than mine, but my favorite part of the meal was the broth.  I’ve never had such tasty beef broth!

Of course, we’re checking out the local wines.  Again, the whites are better than the reds.  We had one six-course meal with Austrian wine pairings that gave us a good overview and, with the help of our Airbnb host, we found a really good local wine shop where we could stock up for our home-cooked meals.  Interestingly, the German name for Vienna is ‘Wien,’ while the German word for wine is ‘wein.’
      So I guess a Viennese wine is a Wien Wein!

Rick arranged for us to visit Weingut Mayer, a winery located on the outskirts of the city. Paul Kiefer spent a couple of hours with us.  He drove us out to the vineyards, which are within the city limits of Vienna on the edge of the Vienna Woods, the foothills of the Alps.

He educated us about Gemischter Satz, a field blend of white grapes that is unique to Vienna, and explained the difference between a field blend (various grape varieties grown together in the same plot, harvested and fermented together) and a cuvée (various grapes grown on different plots and then blended after fermentation). He then tasted us through a generous sampling of their Mayer and Rotes Haus wines, including Reisling, Grüner Veltliner, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and, of course Gemischter Satz.

Music is important to Vienna’s history and culture.  After all, many of the most familiar classical composers (Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Strauss) either hailed from or spent time in Vienna. We took a wonderful (though packed) tour of the Opera House, a landmark most of which had to be rebuilt after WWII.
The reconstruction kept the style of the outside (and much of the inside) the same but added in modern acoustics and elevators. The only tickets available during our stay were SROs, so we passed.

We did hear a Strauss waltz playing in the Opera Toilet in the Karlsplatz U-Bahn station, however…

The Vienna Philharmonic is back in town and played their annual free concert at the Schönbrunn Palace (the Habsburg’s summer getaway palace) on Thursday. It looked like a great program and we made plans to go. When I asked for advice about getting there and getting in, our host replied that, to get in, you should be in line by 5pm (the concert started at 8:30) and expect 100,000 people to pack the grass (chairs only for VIPs).  Sadly, we reconsidered and, again, passed.

But we did go back to Schönbrunn the next day and toured the Palace and grounds without the crowds. One of the most interesting buildings housed an incredible collection of royal carriages.  Those Habsburgs really traveled in style!

Of course, the Habsburgs had a residence in town, also.  We toured the Imperial Apartments (no pictures allowed inside…)
and the Treasury, which houses the tableware used for their dinners for thousands!  I’m certainly glad I don’t have to polish all that silver!!

One day, we took the train to Bratislava, adding one more country to our itinerary.

This capital of Slovakia is situated on the Danube and is very picturesque and walkable. We happened into a ‘wine museum’ that contained some old wine tools and vessels, and offered a tasting of some of the worst wine we’ve had so far.  But we did find a lovely Asian restaurant, Sasazu, where we had one of our best recent meals (accompanied by a New Zealand SB…)

St Stephen’s Cathedral is the heart of Vienna, located exactly in the center of the city with a tower that, by Habsburg decree, was the tallest in their entire empire. Its roof is covered with ceramic tiles and the interior is majestic.  But, I know, all these churches must be starting to run together so I’ll share a single gem from this one.  The architect added a self-portrait (actually more of a sculpture) that peers out from the wall on the left side of the nave as if he is checking up on his creation…

In our last couple of days, we visited the Naschmarkt, a multi-block affair that is filled with market stalls, and cafés; and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, a lavish building constructed by the Habsburgs to house their extensive art collection.  The walls are covered, sometimes three huge paintings high, with an impressive collection of Northern European, Italian, Spanish and French art.  But the building is a work of art in itself!

Next stop Munich!

Prague is a beautiful city! Because it was not bombed during WWII, many of the lovely Art Nouveau buildings from the 18th and 19th century remain and have been well preserved.  The ornate doorways could certainly rival Paris!

We are staying in the heart of the Jewish quarter, the preservation of which has a darker story.  Hitler intentionally preserved the buildings and the synagogues – even storing looted Jewish artifacts from other places here – with the intention of creating a Museum of the Extinct Jewish Race after he won the war. But his sinister intention leaves a trove of beautiful buildings

and synagogues.  We followed Rick Steves’ walking tour of the Jewish Quarter that took us through five synagogues, some very plain and some quite ornate.

The most moving was the Pinkas Synagogue where every inch of wall space is covered with the names of 77,297 Czech Jews sent to the gas chambers. The names are carefully organized and grouped by hometowns. As you are walking around inside, names are being read aloud interspersed with a cantor singing psalms. Very poignant…

One last stop in our dive into Jewish history was a day trip from Prague to Therezienstadt, a concentration camp where many Prague Jews and political prisoners were sent before being sent on to Auschwitz. This camp, located in a garrison town (Terezin) built in 1780 by the Habsburgs, was presented by the Germans to the Red Cross and other outside observers as a ‘model ghetto,’ deceiving the west into believing all Jews were treated well and were living happily.  We saw parts of a propaganda film made here that presents a very different picture than what was really happening (both here and elsewhere).
        

On our first Saturday in town, we took a tram up to the Prague Castle, the largest castle complex in the world (according to Guinness).  We unexpectedly arrived on the opening day of the Summer season.  The good news – admission was free. The not-so-good news – the place was mobbed!!  We did some walking around but decided that since we have the luxury of time, we’d return on a weekday and be happy to pay to get in.

We did go back and, even though there were quite a few large tour groups there, we felt almost like we had the place to ourselves.  St Vitus Cathedral is beautiful, especially the stained glass window designed by Alfons Mucha.

Speaking of Mucha, we had hoped to see his monumental Slav Epic (20 huge paintings that trace the 1500-year history of the Slavic people). Unfortunately, the whole collection is out on tour, so we settled for a smaller Mucha museum, where we saw his more famous, and lovely, lithographs and advertising posters.

We try, once every few months, to treat ourselves to a fancy meal at a Michelin starred restaurant.  Since the last time we did this was New Years Eve, we thought it was time.  Prague has three one-star restaurants and we chose La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise. We were seated at a table near the open kitchen and had fun watching the meticulous preparation of the many dishes.

We chose a 6-course meal, each course paired with a different Czech wine. We’ve enjoyed learning about Czech wines.  The best are white, but we’ve found a couple of very respectable Pinot Noirs, too.
     
Early on, we found a nice little wine bar, Vinoteka U Mourenina. The lovely and knowledgeable proprietress, Marina, tasted us through a range of wines and really gave us an education!

When John Lennon died in 1980, Czechoslovakia was still under communist control.  Several young people, who wanted to memorialize Lennon and his “Give Peace a Chance” message found an obscure wall and began to, surreptitiously, write messages on it.  Today, it is still a place that people visit and write new messages next to and even over the old ones.  We were there on Mothers Day, and I felt like my kids had channeled a graffiti artist to send me their greetings…

One of the most famous sites in Prague is Wenceslaus Square, with a great statue of ‘Good King Wenceslaus,’ a 10th century duke who united the Czech people when this land was known as Bohemia.

This square, which is actually a 10-acre boulevard, has been the site of many important events in the history of the Czech people – the jubilation in 1918 as WWI ended and modern Czechoslovakia was born, the Nazi occupation during WWII, the (unsuccessful) ‘Prague Spring’ uprising in 1968 to drive out the Soviets, and finally in 1989 when hundreds of thousands gathered to reclaim their freedom once again in the ‘Velvet Revolution.’  Just below the statue is a small memorial to two students who burned themselves to death in early 1969 to ‘stoke the flame of independence.’

Wenceslaus Square is in what is referred to as the ‘new town.’ So, of course ‘old town’ has its own square.  The statue in Old Town Square is of Jan Hus, the religious reformer who has become a symbol of Czech nationalism. Here also are the Old Town Hall with its astronomical clock that ‘performs’ at the top of every hour and, of course, several churches. Curiously, newer buildings block the front entrance to this fine old church.

In another of our fortunate timings, we are in Prague during their International Music Festival. While I think you can always find concerts here, most are performances in churches or synagogues of very familiar works like The Four Seasons and Pachabel’s Canon aimed at tourists. We were lucky enough to get two of the last tickets to see the Toronto Symphony play a real concert in the beautiful Municipal Hall.

On  our last full day in the city, we ventured upriver to a good Saturday market and then walked to the building the locals call ‘The Dancing House.’  It is a curious structure that was designed by a Frank Gehry and has been nicknamed ‘Fred & Ginger’ by American architecture buffs. The solid structure on the right could be Fred Astaire, while the airy glass structure attached on the left might be Ginger Rogers dancing on the banks of the River Vltava… (I don’t remember Fred’s hair being that wild, though!)

On to Vienna…

We’re continuing to venture out to numerous Western European countries, traveling by high-speed trains and staying primarily in cities.  From Amsterdam, we have come to Berlin.  We’re staying in Mitte, a neighborhood in what was once East Berlin.

Once we figured out how to find a transit stop  (it’s not nearly as obvious as in other cities), we’ve gotten a lot of use out of our 7-day passes. On our first day, we rode the #100 bus around the city to get an overview. It was a nice sunny day, and Berliners were out enjoying it.

On May 1, Germany observes Labor Day with demonstrations and most businesses are closed.  We spent the better part of that day on a “Discover Berlin” walking tour.  We learned lots of history, and realized that, because of both the destruction during WWII and the decay that ensued during the time that it was divided by the Wall, Berlin is really a ‘new’ city.  The architecture, except for the buildings left from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is uninspired…blocky, heavy, and just pretty boring.

But some Berliners have figured out how to dress up a boring building!

Major sights in Berlin include a number of museums and memorials related to the Nazi atrocities during WWII.  I’m impressed with how straightforwardly these are named – Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and Monument to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism rather than calling them Holocaust Memorials. Both of these are abstract representations and quite moving.

Then there is a museum built on the site of what was once the nerve center for the Gestapo and the SS, called Topography of Terror. This museum – adjacent to a remnant of the Berlin Wall – focuses on the perpetrators of the Nazi terror and is chilling to go through.

After the terror imposed by the Nazis, Berliners suffered a second round of horrors when the Soviets occupied the East and divided the city. Imagine living in a city where drastic measures were taken by the government to keep people IN!  A park has been built near a section of the wall in what is referred to as the ‘death zone’- the area between the inner and outer walls that was guarded 24/7, and those trying to escape to West Berlin were shot on sight.
This was written on the inside of the death zone…

Pictures of some who died trying to reach the West…

There is a double strip of cobblestones that runs through the city exactly where the wall stood, so you’re always reminded of the price of freedom.

But Berlin is not all doom and gloom.  It is filled with young people who know how to have a good time.  Look at this novel way of touring the city…pedaling away with a beer!

One afternoon, while walking in our neighborhood, I came across a lively swing dance party in a nearby garden.  So I grabbed a beer and watched some great dancers.

And one Thursday evening, we went to the Markthalle Neun, where you could get almost any kind of food you wanted, accompanied by lots of beer and, surprisingly, good New Zealand wine!

We made a day trip to Potsdam (about an hour outside of Berlin). Best known for the conference following WWII where the fate of Germany was decided, it is also home to two pretty fabulous palaces built between 1745 and 1747 by Frederick the Great, Sanssouci and the New Palace.  One of the most unusual features of the super-Rococo Sanssouci is a large room decorated completely with shells depicting sea creatures.

The floors were equally remarkable. Look at this flower inlay…

Despite the continuing chill in the air, Berlin has some of the largest chestnut trees I’ve ever seen and they were all in full bloom just for us!

Next stop Prague…

Whenever I think of Amsterdam, I can’t help but recall this children’s song and how naughty (and liberating) it felt to sing that bad word over and over!

Well, here we are in Amsterdam and having a wonderful time. Despite the cool April weather, we’re enjoying this very walkable city where one has to beware of the thousands of bicyclists zooming along and sometimes seeming to come out of nowhere!  Bikes are parked everywhere including a huge free bike garage at the train station.

We’re staying in a ground floor apartment right on one of the many canals, a short tram ride from the train station.  This time, our oven is on the floor rather than the ceiling (like our last place!).

We are here during peak tulip season and the flower markets are booming!


But this is nothing compared to the splendor of the Keukenhof Garden!  More flowers than almost any garden in Europe, we’re told…7 million tulips on 79 acres of garden! And it is only open for two months during the year.  We are lucky to have come at this time.

The Dutch also grow (and freely distribute) cannabis.  We saw this ‘starter kit’ in the market but doubt that it would pass customs.  But the distinctive scent of marijuana is ubiquitous as you stroll through town.  If you breathe deeply as you pass a coffee shop, you could almost get high!

One of the main attractions of Amsterdam is its museums.  The Rikjsmuseum houses an enormous collection of Dutch masters, especially Rembrandt.  Here are two of my favorites:

The Van Gogh Museum is wonderful! We wisely bought timed tickets on line and were able to walk right in!  The museum houses a huge number of Van Gogh’s paintings and drawings, but also includes work by painters who influenced him and those whose work he impacted.  Photos were discouraged inside the museum, but I did get this snap of one of his self portraits…

One disappointment was that we did not get to the Anne Frank House.  We learned too late that their timed tickets (the only way to get in without standing in line for hours!) go on sale 2 months in advance and sell out almost immediately. Next time…
We did see the Dutch Resistance Museum, though, which gave us some insight into what it was like to live here during the Nazi occupation.  This museum is less well-known and not crowded, but worth a visit.

On April 27, the Dutch celebrate King’s Day, the birthday of their King, with a country wide street party that is best experienced in Amsterdam.  We had no idea that we were going to be here for this festive occasion…just lucky timing, I guess.  Look at these young men hoisting each other and their flag!

We even put on some orange to get with the locals.  There was an endless parade of boats on our (and every other) canal…boats full of young people dancing and drinking and enjoying themselves.  I can’t imagine how much Heineken was consumed in that 24 hours!!

Now we’re off to Berlin by train.  We’ll post from there…

IT LOOKS LIKE THERE WAS A PROBLEM PUBLISHING THIS POST, SO I’M TRYING IT AGAIN…

We have returned to our favorite city and are settling in like locals.  Our apartment this time is in the 17th Arrondissement, near the Arc de Triomphe and close to where our friends Anne & Jeff live. We’ve been keeping very busy taking advantage of all that the city has to offer.
We, along with Anne & Jeff, attended a very interesting panel on the upcoming French presidential election at the American Library, and a lovely chamber music concert another evening featuring a string trio (piano, violin and cello). Our favorite piece was the encore, a slow tango – Milonga del Angél by Astor Piazzolla – that featured the cellist. (Click on the link to hear a lovely version on YouTube.)

We’ve so enjoyed just walking around. The weather is lovely and the Spring flowers are in bloom.
     

Of course, we still have touristy wanderings to do.  We returned to Shakespeare & Co to buy a few English language books, and stopped at Berthillion for take-away glaces before settling in the shade to read.

We made a day trip to Château de Fontainebleau and Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, two marvelous examples of French opulence outside of Paris. Fontainebleau is larger and state-supported, while Vaux-le-Vicomte is still in private hands.  According to the guide, both suffered during the French Revolution but continue to be restored and represent important parts of French history.
       

On the drive back into Paris, we saw field after field of yellow canola flowers…a sure sign of Spring!

I don’t often complain about my short stature, but in our current apartment it poses something of a disadvantage. In our small kitchen, the oven is located above the refrigerator necessitating the use of a stool for me to use it!  Precarious cooking requires sobriety and balance…

I’ll end with picture of Rick standing amidst a rather neatly arranged array of bottles at the local  glass recycling drop spot.  Only a few of these are ours…

IT LOOKS LIKE THERE WAS A PROBLEM PUBLISHING THIS POST, SO I’M TRYING IT AGAIN…

We have returned to our favorite city and are settling in like locals.  Our apartment this time is in the 17th Arrondissement, near the Arc de Triomphe and close to where our friends Anne & Jeff live. We’ve been keeping very busy taking advantage of all that the city has to offer.
We, along with Anne & Jeff, attended a very interesting panel on the upcoming French presidential election at the American Library, and a lovely chamber music concert another evening featuring a string trio (piano, violin and cello). Our favorite piece was the encore, a slow tango – Milonga del Angél by Astor Piazzolla – that featured the cellist. (Click on the link to hear a lovely version on YouTube.)

We’ve so enjoyed just walking around. The weather is lovely and the Spring flowers are in bloom.
     

Of course, we still have touristy wanderings to do.  We returned to Shakespeare & Co to buy a few English language books, and stopped at Berthillion for take-away glaces before settling in the shade to read.

We made a day trip to Château de Fontainebleau and Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, two marvelous examples of French opulence outside of Paris. Fontainebleau is larger and state-supported, while Vaux-le-Vicomte is still in private hands.  According to the guide, both suffered during the French Revolution but continue to be restored and represent important parts of French history.
       

On the drive back into Paris, we saw field after field of yellow canola flowers…a sure sign of Spring!

I don’t often complain about my short stature, but in our current apartment it poses something of a disadvantage. In our small kitchen, the oven is located above the refrigerator necessitating the use of a stool for me to use it!  Precarious cooking requires sobriety and balance…

I’ll end with picture of Rick standing amidst a rather neatly arranged array of bottles at the local  glass recycling drop spot.  Only a few of these are ours…

As we begin Chapter 2 of our adventure, we want to share our upcoming itinerary and encourage any of you who have the notion to come to Europe to join us in the city of your choice.  We don’t have a chalet to share with you, but we can help you find accommodations if you like.  And it would be great fun to see old friends in new places…

April 1-22 – PARIS
April 22-29 – AMSTERDAM
April 29-May 10 – BERLIN
May 10-21 – PRAGUE
May 21-June 1 – VIENNA
June 1-12 – MUNICH
June 12-18 – LUCERNE (Switzerland)
June 18-24 – INTERLAKEN (Switzerland)
June 24-29 – BIENNE (Switzerland)

We’re serious!  Think about it.  And continue to follow us as we venture on…