Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Wednesday, September 2, 2015

A busy last day started with packing – obviously I was not involved in this technical procedure, so I was sent out into the, surprisingly, cool Prague morning to find the makings of breakfast. I returned with croissants and yoghurt to find very little packing accomplished !

Anyway, we packed, left the arpartment and dropped off the keys by 10:30 and then joined our Castle and Cathedral tour that was starting at 11:00. This was, as the others have been, superb. We took the tram up the hill and wandered around the huge castle complex being entertained by the guide, Pistis. He had been a stained class maker in Isreal, a yoga instructor in the UK (before he was deported for working without a visa) and was now a tour guide in Czech. He repeated a story we had heard a few times of the Swedes stealing things from the Czechs at the end of the 30 years war, and to this day refusing to give them back – but when we viewed the cathedral he pionted out some empty plinths where statues would have stood “When the cathedral was completed” he said “the builders didn’t put statues at the front, since they said that if they did the Swedes would probably come and steal them !” – there is still quite a lot of ill-feeling.

At midday the noise started. The drone rose over the castle, the cathedral, the city as the air raid sirens wailed over the whole of the Czech Republic. The first Wednesday of every month is the time for the testing of the civil defence warning system, and has been for years. It was eerie and strangely uncomfortable but it didn’t seem to bother anyone else, I guess familiarity breeds contempt. It has only been used in anger once in the last 20 years when it sounded at about 4am just before the river Vltava burst its banks and flooded the low lying bits of the city.

After the tour we went back down the hill and had lunch in a street-side cafe. The fried cheese was excellent as well as Belinda’s sausages and Lucia’s duck. A walk over Charles’ Bridge was followed by a leisurely stroll through the old town watching the entertainers in the main square before we picked up our taxi for the trip out to the airport.

The flight home was uneventful other than some grumpiness by the EasyJet staff, but ho hum… 🙂

Prague, Czech Republic
Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Today is our “Free Tour of Prague” day so we awoke, showered and scurried out in time, we hoped, to grab a bite to eat before the start of the tour. We ordered a simple breakfast in an Italian Cafe, but after 20 minutes it still hadn’t arrived, so we abandoned the place and joined the beginnings of the tour. The guide, Ashley, directed us first to the famous Astronomical Clock of Prague, and told us to watch that since it was due to strike at 9:00am and then come back and the tour proper would begin.

Well, this famous clock is reputedly Prague’s #1 attraction and to say we were underwhelmed would be an exaggeration. It was, not to put too finer point on it, pathetic ! Anyway, the tour started properly and the first stop was back at the Clock. Ashley explained how it displayed lots of detailed information and why it was the pride of Prague 600 years ago, but did admit that it has been voted the 2nd most over-rated attraction in Europe, only being beaten by The Little Mermaid!

We moved on, following him around the back street of Prague ( which are nearly all cobbled ) and seeing the important places of interest on this side of the river. He told a good story and was highly entertaining. If you only have a limited time in a city these tours are an excellent way to learn a lot and see a lot in a short space of time. Interestingly, in Berlin the bicycle reigned supreme but in Prague, even though it is basically flat and seemingly perfect cycling country the cobbled streets prove, we think, too much of a barrier to comfortable cycling. The most common method of sightseeing, other than walking, is …wait for it, wait for it…. The Segway. There are dozens of them milling around everywhere, zipping hither and thither and generally looking a lot more fun than plodding along on weary feet !

After the tour we grabbed some lunch in an art gallery cafe and then had a self guided ( that means me and a badly folded map ) tour of some of the other famous parts of Prague. The girls soon tired of my map reading skills and decided that we were to go to the Hard Rock Cafe so Luce could add to her extensive T-shirt collection ( Berlin, London, Rome, Budapest to name just a few ) anyway, she is now the proud owner of a Hard Rock Cafe shot glass, thereby killing two collecting birds with one metaphorical stone.

Note for Robin : The stools in the Jewish Museum were just that, stools, for use in the education rooms. I just liked them because of the very simple design, the varying veneers and the linking mechanism – which cannot be seen from the photos. They were nothing special 🙂

Belinda and Lucia had a 25 minute foot massage curtesy of a thousand little fishes. They sat with their feet in a fish tank and let a myriad of tiny fish nibble at the dry and dead skin. It supposedly cleans and refreshes the feet, so I left them to it and had a beer next door.

We returned, tired, to the apartment having booked another tour tomorrow of the Cathedral and Castle. The meal this evening was Italian in a rather nice, busy place away from the main square. The restaurant next door, which to all intents and purposes looked just as nice as the one we choose, remained steadfastly empty while we were there, only getting their first customers as we left. I wonder why some get full and others stay empty – maybe it is a cascade effect where people follow everyone, assuming that it must be good food if everyone else is there – wish we had gone to the empty restaurant now !

It has clouded over and rain is threatened tonight but for the moment it is still very hot and very humid. We are sitting in our apartment with the windows open listening to the sounds and music from the square. Tomorrow we tour the castle and then return home .. 🙁

Prague, Czech Republic
Monday, August 31, 2015

had breakfast, unknowingly, in the Volkswagen cafe which was efficient and pleasant with superb orange juice. We then promenaded back to the hotel to complete our packing and check-out; although, to be honest, my part in the packing was minimal and I was told to go and have a shower and stop getting in the way !

Anyway, the taxi arrived and transported us swiftly to the train station, and what a station it is. Multi-level, multi platform, multi everything. It even had a fish and chip shop !!! Everything worked to plan and once the train arrived we boarded, found our seat and began to sweat.

Now, the sweating wasn’t because of fear, nervousness or worry, the sweat was simply because the inside of the train was at about 35C; it was absolutely boiling. The air conditioning didn’t work and when quizzed, the guard simply shrugged his shoulders and indicated that what it is is what it is ! So the 5 of us in our compartment sat and sweated, smiling occasionally but basically slowly roasting. The chap next to me was going to Dresden to see some old friends who he visited every year since 1957.

We continued to sweat…

Once he left we chatted to the other occupant, an American girl called Ashley who was touring Europe in between jobs at the US senate. She was both interested and interesting, and we spent a couple of hours comparing and contrasting Europe and the US and learning some facts about the US capitol. She was off to Budapest, Istanbul and Barcelona after Prague. One day, it is possible she will rise to the highest echelons of the US government… And we will be able to bore people to death telling them how we met her on a train 🙂

We sweated a bit more…

It was around this time that we crossed into Czech Republic. The station names changed and the new guard brought around free bottles of water to cool us down ! We eventually reached Prague, said goodbye to Ashley and found our way to our apartment, our home for the next 2 nights.

The apartment is perfect, situated on the Old Town Square with two bedrooms, kitchen, etc. We had much needed showers, then zipped down to meander around the square for a short time before hunger drove us to a restaurant just under our apartment window.

The food was nothing short of stupendous, and we merrily filled ourselves to bursting point on the beef, salmon, pasta, etc that was served. Two Czech beers and two coffees later we return to the apartment to cool down a little and then retire …

The square outside our windows is one of the central hubs of Prague and is full of “tired” young people from many different countries although at first glance the UK seems to be most common. Some were sitting on the pavement looking rather exhausted at 7.30pm, somehow I don’t think they were going to make it to Prague’s famous nightspots 🙂

Tomorrow we plan a tour of the city then some shopping, but that is a story for another day.

Berlin, Germany
Sunday, August 30, 2015

Another late start saw us miss breakfast as we walked in the bright morning sun to the Jewish Museum. It took us about 20 minutes of meandering down the back streets of Berlin, crossing the path of the wall twice ( marked by a double row of cobblestones ) and pausing to buy a doughnut from a small cafe.

We enter the museum, our bag being scanned by a very pleasant Turkish lady, purchased our tickets, Lucia getting a student discount after she was quizzed by the ticket lady, and stopped first at the cafe to supplement the doughnut with other pastries and a yoghurt for Belinda. Then we entered the museum proper. It was a strange mix of architectures and designs, the initial part being sparce to the point of emptiness whereas the second area was packed with a rather random ( to me at least ) collection of artifacts, stories, rituals and histories of the Jewish people in Europe and especially in Germany. I’m please we went, and some of it was interesting and moving, but I really get the feeling now a days that museums have moved a long way away from the ones of my youth and are more confusing than educating. My favourite things were a number of simple stools in the education room. I thought they looked brilliant. … Ho hum again !

After the museum we walked to Potsdamer Platz where we had lunch. It is an impressive collection of modern buildings and the food isn’t bad either ! We didn’t stay long though, so once Lucia had picked up her frozen yoghurt drink from Starbucks, which turned out to be quite an important occasion. Let me digress here; one of Lucia’s friends is a Starbucks obsessive and is a real-life gold card carrying member of the Starbucks appreciation society. Now it turns out that the frozen yoghurt drink she chose is unavailable anywhere else in the world and this required a “selfie” and an email to basically gloat over her yoghurt to the friend. Anyway, back to the day, we walked over to Berlin Zoo.

Walking ….

Walking …..

Walking …..

OK, once we arrived we decided immediately that we would be getting a taxi back to the hotel. We were hot, sweaty, tired and foot sore and we hadn’t even entered the zoo yet !! However the zoo itself was lovely. It is old and you can tell that from the size of some of the exhibits but it was, for the most part, well kept and tidy. The animals seemed, well, like animals, and spent most of their time lying around doing nothing. The hippos and the orang-utans were the stars though, for us at least, and we eventually left the park when it was closing. We gratefully jumped into a cab and were back in the hotel within 15 minutes.

Dinner tonight was a classic German affair of meat, fish and potatos. It was excellent and the service was superb. We were delayed for about 10 minutes, waiting to cross the road while at least 300 roller bladers steamed down the street. The police had blocked the road and they zoomed down happily – you would never, ever see this in the UK ! Brilliant ! (Picture to follow)

And for the benefit of my Sister-in-law, a beer bicycle is a strange contraption that involves about 7 people pedaling a sort of bicycle while drinking beer; they are very popular in Holland ! Check out google, it is the first thing it pulls up !

It was a later than planned rising, and it wasn’t until about 10:00am that we ventured out into the Berlin suburbs in search of breakfast. We found a cafe that did various choices and we each picked a different option, Lucia going for croissants and Belinda and I chose eggs, scrambled and omletted. Other than the wasps it was an excellent repast and we may well visit there tomorrow as well.

Following from the morning meal we picked up a day ticket on the tour bus which which would transport us in a huge circle around Berlin via the Raddison hotel. The hotel had a HUGE fish tank holding over a thousand tropical fish. Unfortunately the lift that rose in the middle of this circular tank was only available to paying guests, rather than any old waif and stray from the street, so we were unable to appreciate it fully – still it looked pretty good !

Our first stop was a flea market which was like any flea market in the world other than being rather subdued and rather expensive; still, I managed to buy a couple of dinosaurs for my desk at work which will cheer me up no end !

We then hopped back on the bus and zipped around to a very posh shopping street which housed our target for the afternoon – The Hard Rock Cafe. We had a nice cheese cake and coffee as well as buying a pair of pajama bottoms, so it was a successful trip. We then visited the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which is basically a ruin, left that way after the 2nd World War, but was a very significant symbol of the city and is still a powerful one now. The spire is cut off at about half way and most of the church is gone, but what is left is bracketed by two newer places of worship which are wonderful in their own right and act as a centre for the city.

We then wandered aimlessly through the Tiergarten and after an ice-cream we ended up at Potsdamer Platz. Famously once the busiest square in Europe, it is now a modern gleaming glass edifice, with towering skyscrapers in mirrored glass rising from the shopping malls and restaurants – we didn’ t spend much time there, but it is our lunch stop for tomorrow.

Then we tried to board the tour bus to take us back to the hotel but a passing demonstration blocked off the road for 20 minutes. We never did find out what was the cause, but Berliners seemed to take it in their stride and eventually the road was cleared and the bus arrived.

After a shower in the hotel we meandered out to a German/Italian resturant where we had pizza, rissotto and pasta. The food was excellent and the service was lovely, which is not what we have always encounted here. Occasionally people have been, seemingly, needlessly rude and we cannot work out why; it is not that we are doing anything wrong ( or at least we hope we are not ), but people do, sometimes, seem rather off-hand and lacking in manners. Ho hum, never mind, it is still a fabulous city !

On the way back to the hotel we popped into a clock shop and it was stunning. Hans, the owner, was more than happy to show us clocks costing tens of thousands on Euros even though we said we were just looking – a lovely man and a lovely shop !

Berlin, Germany
Friday, August 28, 2015

The blue LED light from the TV shone like a beacon all night, everytime any of us woke we made a promise to cover the light next time, but of course no one did and it blazed like a lighthouse all night. Combined with the snoring and general “hotel bed” syndrome, no one slept well. So at 5:00 three grumpy souls awoke and made their sleepy way, via checkout, passport control, baggage check and gate onto the aeroplane which flew us remarkably quickly to Berlin.

It was at the airport that the queue was discovered. A plane from the UK full of EU citizens still took over 30 minutes to get through passport control – its a disgrace I tell you, all these foreigners coming here taking out jobs, eating our pies, drinking our tea ! (sorry, may have got carried away there); anyway we eventually got a taxi which deposited us at the hotel superbly. The driver was very keen for us to phone him to take us back to the airport on Monday and we had to tell him we were planning on becoming railway enthusiasts at that time.

After checking in and unpacking we wandered to the Brandenburg gate where we joined our tour of the city tour. It was excellent with Mark, the guide, amusing and informing us in equal measure. We saw Check Point Charlie, the Berlin Wall ( or at least what is left of it ), the Jewish memorial… A ton of interesting places.

We had lunch in the Microsoft version of the Apple Store, full of “Surface” PCs and trendy young things selling hip coffees and cakes – we fitted right in !

There is a lot of building works in Berlin, a heap of new ones are sprouting up everywhere, some of them are quite magnificent and much more impressive than most modern buildings. Eventually we left the tour and settled for a cool beer outside the central concert hall.

The evening was spent wandering around a rather lovely area of the city only a few minutes from the hotel and then eventually deciding on a place to eat. We had previously tried a couple but they were full so we ventured into a less popular place.

The food was fine if a little bland but the desserts were nice and the espresso was excellent but the whole ambience of the place was rather dull. Still it filled us up and gave us enough energy to meander back to the hotel and collapse into bed. Tomorrow is planned to be a museum day, but plans change and ideas vary, so no chickens or indeed eggs are currently being counted.

Liverpool, United Kingdom
Thursday, August 27, 2015

Preparations are afoot, currency is being purchased, bags are being packed and passports are being found … for tonight we venture forth into the world of queues, passport control, over priced coffee and uncomfortable beds; but that is only the airport hotel, tomorrow we fly to Berlin – city of culture, city of sights, city of bratwurst and beer – we can’t wait !