October 2, 2015

 

 

Prague in the Rearview

Not much to do this morning but get packed up and ready to leave.  We manage to make sure we get enough to eat in case we are held hostage for about a week.  John has no luck looking for the plum cake he fell in love with earlier in the week.  Our buffet is a pretty good, certainly not unusual European breakfast, but sure enough there is a Japanese lady shooting a video of it.  Make them stop.

We think we should leave by 10:30 to have plenty of time to catch our 11:42 train but we are standing around looking at each other at 10:15 which means it is time to go.  The manager is in the lobby when we leave and we take a moment to compliment him on the staff.  Everyone from front desk to housekeeping to breakfast has been first-rate.  When we get checked out we try for an Uber cab and think we have one when we lose the connection.  John goes outside to try again just in time to see her pulling up.  What took you so long?  She is patient while we lug luggage down the few stairs from the lobby and then she decides to help out.  She has been an Uber person for a couple months and has been working hard during that time to learn English.  She works days and her husband works nights and she loves it.

It takes about the same amount of time to Uber to the train station that it took us to walk yesterday so our new Uber driver may not have the route down quite yet.  It is still less than $5 when we get the bill so she wasn’t being piggy about it.  She has some sort of confrontation with a cop when she pulls up at the station but she ignores him while getting our luggage out of the trunk.  She says “bye-bye” to us before starting in on him and they’re still going at it as we go into the terminal.  Wish we spoke the language.

Our platform number hasn’t been posted yet but we have scouted them out and know how to move once we see it.  We have 300CZK (about $12) left and Mary is determined to spend it.  John guards the luggage while she goes in search of a lunch for on the train.  The platform is posted as Mary returns with 2 sandwiches and 2 “original Budweisers” for our picnic later.

We have reserved first class seating on the train and while each compartment has 6 seats ours are the only ones pre-reserved in ours.  Other folks with first class tickets could still join us but we cover the compartment with our bags and legs so we look full and then slam the door. We don’t like to be unsociable but after our last cramped train trip we feel the universe owes us some space on this one.

Compared to our last train trip this is a breeze and in fact enjoyable.  It is a pretty day as we travel through some changing terrain in eastern Bohemia and into Moravia.  We go from rolling farm land into higher hills and forests and then back into flat farms.  As we pass south of Brno there are vineyards, obviously the source of our Moravian wines of the last few nights.

We’re a half hour late pulling into Bratislava for no reason that was apparent to us.  We try for an Uber but no cars are available.  We can call for a cab and pay 6 euros for the ride to our apartment but, recognizing there will be communication issues we opt to pay 10 to the cab at the station.

We have a one-bedroom apartment here and our host, Josef Zeman is waiting for us.  We’re in sort of an industrial (read communist) apartment building and down a level from the street.  There are plenty of windows on one side however so we’ll be fine.  Josef is a computer security worker who spends part of each year in San Diego.  For us that means the he speaks very good English and the Wi-fi is the best we’ve had so far.  He gives us the routine of how to work all the stuff and where to go and where to eat.

The fun things will have to wait until tomorrow.  Mary throws in a load of wash and we go out to the Tesco store for some groceries for breakfast and some crackers and cheese for our dinner tonight.  We have CNN on the TV and not much else although there are a lot of old American movie DVDs. We opt for CNN, our crackers and cheese, some bad Slovak wine and the continued use of the washing machine. Sightseeing will start tomorrow.

What did we learn today? When Uber lists their presence in cities of the world that doesn’t mean they really have a presence—maybe they have a driver or two.

October 1, 2015

 

 

The Jewish Quarter

We have a 4:47 am email from Pat telling us she in on her way to the airport.  Apparently the 30-40 minute drive takes 17 minutes that time of day.  We do a leisurely breakfast and try to get enough to eat to last until dinner tonight (well, maybe a snack later).  This is not a problem.

We start with a walk along the Vltava under sunshine and bright blue skies.  Mother Nature is rewarding us for dealing with the last three weeks of rain.  Our mission today is the Jewish Quarter, a site we missed on our last trip and almost missed now because of the Jewish Holidays.  There are plenty of tour groups and individuals roaming around near some of the areas of interest.  I would like to say that the late great Yogi Berra came up with the line, “nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded,” but I somehow know that it was actually Yogi Bear.

The Prague Jewish Museum is actually a collection of historic synagogues spread throughout the quarter, each with a different theme focused on a particular period of Jewish history in Prague in particular and Bohemia and Moravia in general.  There is a single $15 ticket that covers admission to all of them as well as the Jewish graveyard that was first used in 1412.

We sort of start in the middle and once we get in the flow the crowds seem manageable.  We have ample time to read the very informative English Language descriptions of the displays and events of significance.  One of the synagogues honors those Czechs murdered in WWII with the names of each person, their hometown and dates of birth and death handwritten on the walls.  Over 77,000 of them.

Another synagogue outlines the rituals and holidays of Jewish life which we find informative.  This is pretty new stuff for us and while the terms are familiar the details have somehow escaped us during our decades on the planet.  We complete the morning tour with a stroll down Pariska Street which was modeled after the styles of Paris (duh!).  All of the fancy shops and restaurants make up the storefronts on this tree-lined boulevard.  Oui!

It’s after 2:00 and if we’re going to have that snack we better get to it.  We find an outdoor table on the Old Town Square for a beer and a shared sausage and French fries.  Everyone is in high spirits, the square is packed (It’s 2:00 on a Thursday!!!) and we wonder if Prague ever shuts down.

Our last mission of the afternoon is a practice walk to the train station to see how it all works for our departure tomorrow.  Our arrival was a blur and we think we had better be prepared.  It may or may not help us since we don’t and won’t know where our departure platform is until right before we leave, but it was a nice walk anyway.  Back to the hotel for an hour rest and an hour cocktail before dinner.

Dinner tonight is at Emy Destinnove.  It was recommended by Jeff when we were in Krakow, and Jeff is a pretty good foodie so we pay attention.  It is about a 20 minute walk from our hotel and we are breaking a little bit of new ground away from the touristy areas.  The place is deserted when we arrive which always gives us a little trepidation but we’re eating at 6:30 which is early for many Europeans.  We again find a nice Moravian Pinot Noir, our server/hostess is welcoming so we begin to warm up to the place.  Once we order she brings us a couple coffee-table books about Emy Destinnova, an early 20^th century opera singer and obviously the namesake of this restaurant.  Not exactly a sports bar.

John stays with the swine, a perfectly done pork tenderloin crusted in black pepper in a brandy cream sauce with an assortment of wild mushrooms and grilled vegetables.  Mary has the shrimp and scallop risotto that is in our top five restaurant meals of the trip so far.  We have both had meals like this in the past and have maybe even cooked a few, but the execution is excellent.  We chat with the chef for a moment on the way out.  He is a New Jersey guy who opened this restaurant seven years ago and thinks it is doing pretty well.  He gets a lot of good press and is well respected among the U.S. expats who live or work here.  And we thought we had a lot of nerve.

After a couple anxious moments walking back we emerge back onto Wenceslaus Square for our last evening walk in Prague.  The shops are all still open and the streets are crowded with seemingly pleasant people.  There are no large groups of surly youths standing around on corners or people sleeping on the sidewalks and the whole effect is pretty civilized.  We’ll miss you Prague.

What did we learn today? The sins committed against or for religion are the source of some of the great atrocities of the world.

September 30, 2015

 

 

A Beautiful Day in Prague

We’re well rested and ready for action this morning.  A few words about our hotel.  This is a real hotel and J&M have a nice room with separate sleeping area on the second floor while Pat is in a single upstairs.  The name is Cloister Inn relating to its religious history while its history as a jail would make less of an inviting name (Inn Jail?).  We are located in the middle of a triangle formed by Wenceslaus Square, Old Town Square and the river.  There is breakfast this morning on the 4^th floor with a nice selection of meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables and pastries.  There is a plum cake like John’s mother used to make that is melt-in-your-mouth perfect.  The staff is energetic and three ladies are running around clearing plates as soon as the last bite is gone.  This is also the first time we have had horseradish and pickles on a breakfast buffet which is quite popular with some of our little band.

We’re going to split up for a while, Mary and Pat go back to revisit some of the sites we walked past on our tour and John to try to catch up with some computer work.  We agree to meet “under the bell” at 1:00 for lunch.  Mary and Pat want to see an exhibit of the top photographs taken by Czech photographers during 2014.  Most moving were shots taken of the flight downed over the Ukraine with the casualties among the debris.  The Sisters spent the rest of the morning strolling the great little streets of the Old Town.

John was perched under the bell as promised at 12:55 and we all remarkably came to the same place at the same time.  We did the 1:00 show at the astronomical clock and then made a quick getaway out of the square and towards New Town (Nove Mesto).  Our Hotel Manager recommended two great traditional restaurants yesterday and we did one last night.  We’re close to the other, U Pinkasu, alleged to be the most Czech of Czech restaurants, and figure that’s the place for lunch. It is about a 5 minute wait for a table to clear and we sort through a lot of things that seem like they will kill us before supper.  Mary goes light and has a spicy sausage with mustard and horseradish, Pat has the goulash (surprise) with dumplings and an order of fried bread with raw garlic, and John has the sparrow of baked pork with two cabbages and mixed Bohemian dumplings. Beers all around.  We do enjoy a light lunch.

We’re 7 minutes from the hotel and make the call to go back to get our walking tour map with narrations for New Town.  We take the long round trip popping out near the top of the square and at the Wenceslaus statue.  Wenceslaus Square is the site of much of the political history of the Czech Republic.  This is where the Revolution of 1968 was put down by Russian tanks and two young Czech students set themselves on fire.  It is also the sight of the Czech Spring of 1989 (the Velvet Revolution) when 300,000 Czechs gathered here to announce to the world that they were back from the decades of communist control.  It is a celebratory place and you can feel the vibrancy of a country that has come of age.  The Czechs we see here are walking around with their chests out and rightly so.

It is another ten minutes back to our hotel before gathering once again for yet another meal.  We promise to meet in an hour for our ritual cocktail and a walk across the Charles Bridge to Mala Strana for dinner.

We’ve made reservations tonight at U Maltezskych Rytiru (“By the Knights of Malta”) which is a restaurant we enjoyed 11 years ago.  The key feature is a basement dining room that is carved out of the side of the hill and couldn’t be more romantic.  Yesterday we mentioned the floods of 2007 and 2013 which were not kind to the basement rooms.  There is still an odor of mold/mildew and after 5 minutes of candlelit romance we opt for the upstairs dining room.  We pick a nice Moravian wine while Pat pours down a B52 featuring a generous portion of Absinthe, much to the amusement of our waiter.  She was bound and determined to try it and good for her.  She doesn’t stop smiling for the rest of the night.  John is growing a curly tail and “oinks” when he hiccups but still opts for the fried pork steak with grilled vegetables, Pat has the “Old Czech” goulash and shares Czech mashed potatoes with Mary.  We all share an apple strudel for dessert with ice cream.

This is Pat’s finale—she heads out at 5:00 AM tomorrow morning—which requires a long slow walk back across the Charles Bridge and a final pilsner in the Old Town Square.  It is a beautiful but chilly night so we huddle under heat lamps until we overheat.  Our first visit to Prague was the third stop on our first trip to Europe.  We were driving, still scared, lost and nervous, but our memories were of a magical place that felt the way we always imagined Europe would feel.  We have found things to enjoy about all of the stops on our trip so far but Prague remains special to us.  We especially enjoyed sharing Pat’s first impressions which rekindled the way we felt 11 years ago.

It is hugs all around when we get back to the hotel (if you know Pat you know how unusual that is) and good-byes until we get home.  It was fun having another point of view, another set of eyes and a biting sense of humor with us for the last two weeks.  We’ll miss that but will now have to step up our games to fill in the holes.

What did we learn today?  11 years is too long to think a restaurant will still be the same when you revisit.

September 29, 2015

Prague revisited

Well, quite the night.  When we got to our train compartment it was all made up and ready for bed for three of us.  That is three bunks, one over the next up the right side of the compartment with a 2-foot walking area, a small sink and a small luggage closet on the left.  We had to take turns bringing in our luggage while the others waited out in the hall.  Since the room was already claustrophobic it was determined that sleeping in a bunk with 4 inches of overhead clearance would be unendurable.  We folded back the bunks and restored the three-across seating with padded but uncomfortable chairs.  That will now be our sleeping mode for tonight.

The train moved VERY slowly through the first fifty miles in Poland with frequent stops.  There were lurches, howls, whines, thumps and bumps.  At one point there was a long pause while some of the cars peeled off for Budapest and some for Vienna while we did the train version of the chicken dance.  The good news, there were no long train whistles at every stop.  Once we got into the Czech Republic the train picked up speed and the stops were fewer which enabled us to grab some naps.  To Rick Steves, who advocates night trains as a way to save money as well as arriving rested at your destination, the three of us are, in unison, raising hand gestures.

We hesitantly made our way through the huge train station in Prague and out onto a side street.  This was the perfect place to request an Uber taxi and we had one in about 5 minutes.  No streets in Prague go in a single direction and we whipped left and right through early morning (7:00 AM) traffic to our hotel.  Our Uber bill showed up later for $4—what a blessing.  Too early to check in of course but the desk person stored our luggage and directed us to the coffee machine and the ATM across the street so we could get some Korunas (conversion rate 25CZK = $1).

Knowing that we couldn’t get rooms this early, we scheduled a private guide for this morning.  Eva arrived right on schedule at 9:00 and the first order of business was to explain to her that we were tired and crabby and she better be really good.  She was not intimidated.  We did the whirlwind “get acquainted with Prague agenda” starting along the Vltava, through the Jewish quarter (like Krakow, shut down for the holy days), back to Old Town Square and the historic sites in the old town.  Next was New Town with a quick pass through one end of Wenceslaus Square and then back to the river and across to Mala Strana (little quarter).  Eva is in great form and suggests that we do the 15 minute walk straight up hill to the castle rather than taking the tram.  She is in Beast Mode and we are in Least Mode.  There is a brief stop at the Church of the Infant of Prague, a Catholic shrine of sorts. A service is in session, but the irreverent Eva plunges down the main aisle and waves us into photo-taking position.  Perhaps the worshipers are used to this although we’re not and hesitate before inching our way up a side aisle.

We survive the climb and the views are everything you have ever heard about Prague.  Our pictures won’t do it justice. We do a walk-through of the castle grounds and into St. Vitus Cathedral.  A guide on a previous visit told us that this area is akin to combining St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York with all of Washington DC.  The Changing of the Guard is scheduled for a few minutes from now so we join the crowd.  We like to snap a few pictures as much as anyone, but this obsession with the camera phone has gone beyond any common sense.  Mary gets hit in the head twice by the same guy as he is swinging his phone around (she mentioned to him that he might not want to do that again), and a woman behind John is reaching around his face with her camera to take a video.  She is also the recipient of advice. We’re already crabby ya’ know.

The next step is to sidle along the hilltop to get some different angles of this best view of Prague.  Eventually we arrive at a long looping path back down to Mala Strana passing a new statue or memorial every few steps.  There was a major flood here in 2007 and it would seem that most of the Lesser Town was underwater. The city has now installed an in-ground series of metal beams to which portable aluminum flood walls can be attached whenever floods threaten in the future.  We end the tour at the Charles Bridge back across the Vltava.  This was a whirlwind little-bit-of-everything peek at one of our favorite cities in the world.  We wanted to do this to give Pat an overview and us a refresher.  Having a different guide gave us a bit of a new perspective that was helpful.

Lunch time!  We move to the Old Town Square and find a street-side table at U Prince Restaurant.  Our waiter hands us our menus and asks for our order, and then returns every minute to see if we have decided.  We didn’t mention that we’re crabby but he starts to get the idea.  Pat has a goulasch soup with bread, Mary has a panini and John has a Duck Rillette and the goulasch soup.  It’s all so-so but we’re in the heart of tourist land and we want the sidewalk experience so we play the game.

One more quick walk around and it is 2:00 PM, time to check in.  We run to our hotel, get our rooms and all head for either showers or bed.  The last 18 hours has been busy.

Our hotel manager gives us a couple restaurant recommendations, one right around the corner.  After a quick cocktail in the room we choose the closest option, Restaurace Stoleti.  As promised, the service is good, and the food is terrific and very reasonable, the wine is Moldavian and ok and an overall good experience.  Listen to the locals.  Pat had the grilled chicken with mashed potatoes, John had the cheese stuffed turkey steak with red cabbage and potato risotto and Mary had a spinach soufflé.

After dinner there was a walk back to the river and Pat got her first look at the Castle over the Charles Bridge at night.  This has to be one of the best views in the world, and if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen it a million times.  It never gets old.  Our crabby time seems like a distant memory.  We’ll all get a good night’s sleep tonight.

What did we learn today?  An overnight train may or may not be a good idea, but you had better know what you’re getting into.