We're Home

As much as we all love a grand adventure...it certainly is nice to be home. The final leg of the flight home was 12 hours. Lufthansa is a wonderful airlines, but 12 hours is way too long.

We're planning for next year and it looks like Spain won.

Special Olympics Torch

We're walking around in the Market Square in Krakow and we hear sirens......it's the Special Olympics Torch! They're running and chanting.....some are holding hands. We almost cried.....

Auschwitz & Birkenau

Sobering.......

Bottled Water

Why pay $8 for water? Because we have too. Sometimes it comes to the table in sealed bottles, sometimes in pitchers. Straight from the tap? Especially when you can buy 1 liter of beer for less than $2 bucks? We keep trying to order tap water, but we end up with the expensive bottled water on our tab. We even had someone write it out in Czech for us so we could show it to the waiters.

We've asked this question of various people....assuming they're just ripping off the tourists....but then we're told that the water isn't good...but we're drinking the hotel tap water...and using ice cubes with tap water. What's up?

Weddings in Poland

Another thing that seems really odd to us.....we see many bride and groom photo sessions. We asked and were told that they take their photos...in full dress.....prior to the wedding. We told them that in the US the groom shouldn't see the bride in her dress prior to the wedding, and they said it is the same in Poland......but that they like to take all the photos before while the dress is still clean! Seems odd to us.....

Krakow...Day 1

We left Warsaw and headed to Krakow by train. We prefer the train travel. We get a private car (for about $12 total for four)....... One free coffee, water, or tea for free...served by this lovely Polish young woman....

Funny sign in Krakow letting you know they sell alcohol.....

And then we had another wonderful dinner. Here is what a $4 one liter bottle of water looks like. Do you think they fill it up with the tap?

The restaurant was an Italian/Polish mix. This is a $3 Caprese salad

This is a $4.25 Greek salad with chicken.....

And this is what 36 pierogi's look like...for $20. We split this between the four of us. Michael says that since the Polish money is 3 for every 1 dollar, that we can do the same conversion with our calories....what would be a 2,000 calorie intake in the US can now be 6,000 calories in Poland! Therefore we are all getting slimmer every day! I LOVE Poland!

Random Photos, Now that we have fast internet

This is what it looks like when people rush to board Polish Airlines....it was smooth and they served a snack with drinks and chocolate....all in one hour and 15 minutes. This is our Prague to Warsaw trip.
Dave touching the right side of the statue on the St. Charles Bridge in Prague....your wish is suppose to come true. None of us touched the left side, that means you're coming back and I don't think we will.

Sabrina with Lucky (before he changed in to his uniform).....he was so helpful and the best server anywhere.

The John Lennon Wall in Prague....Peace Out

Warsaw photos

We don't have tons of photos in Warsaw because quite frankly there is not a whole lot that is photo worthy:

This is our hotel, Le Meridien Bristol, which is a great locations, very good breakfast, and the best place to stay in Warsaw.....
Houses in the Old Town Square.....

Peacocks roamed all over the park...and the squirrels are red.....

This is the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth so they have 15 benches throughout the city that play his songs when you push the button.

Somethings Translate Well......

Oh, and another thing

It is VERY clean here and we feel VERY safe......but there are TONS of smokers....and many women wear nylons, which is very odd to see. The people do not have a sparkle to them (probably after all those years of people beating the snot out of them and ruling over the entire area) but will light up when you smile at them.

Not a chance of any of us speaking to them (thank you is too complicated for our mouths) in their native language. And probably not a chance of us ever coming back.

We're leaving Warsaw

Okay, so we have been remiss in updating the blog...that's because we are in Eastern Europe. They have only been out from under the Soviet rule, communism, for 21 years. They're making some headway, but they have a ways to go....especially in internet access in the hotels. Uploading photos is so very painful. Being here is like watching a teenager grow up...entertaining but with a few winces.

It began sprinkling last night and we did break out the rain coats and umbrellas, but it wasn't too bad. The local food is piergo (sort of like a potato potsticker), beer, and something like a glazed jelly donut.

The artisan work is a bit crude, which the guys like because we aren't really buying anything....much :) We have plenty of postcards and some momentos.

English is not as prevalent...or in a form we can understand. We think they learn it in school but are not confident enough to speak...sort of like our Spanish. But of course Sabrina, who thinks she is multi-lingual, speaks to everyone in English...and they speak in Polish...and it all seems to work out.

We're headed to Krakow on the train. This is touted to be the new jewel in Eastern Europe...we'll let you know how that goes.

We're glad we came here, will never return....but all agree that anyone who thinks the U.S. and capitalism have failed should come here....they'll change their minds....quickly.

Kunta Hora

Coat of arms in bones.......
Chandelier of bones......

Met for breakfast....Sabrina is planning on how she's going to bring our waiter, Lucky, back home with her...he anticipates her every desire. Then we went on a tour with 13 of our new best friends, plus the driver (who will not be receiving any safe driver awards soon) and the tour guide. We're generally not tour people, but this is really the only way to get out of Prague to this area. And Rick Steves says that 90% of the tourists never leave Prague, so that's a dare to us.

We got to experience the slow ride out of the city to the highway. You can really tell that this country was beaten up by years of communism. These are hardy people....hard workers, very friendly, and they loathe large institutions and politicians. But they have a history of gruesome kings that do horrible things. They lost many people during the plague, so they decided to take the bones from about the 40,000 who died and piled them up in their church....not something we would of thought of...

Typical Prague Evening

This is what we do at night....we go out to dinner. But here in Prague the restaurants also have live music with people all singing. We got a tip from Blanca, our tour guide, for a local place. I think she took pity on us because of our 8,000 Korun. So here is what we got for 1,200 Korun tonight:
Three mixed green salads....these are so fresh and the the veggies were crispy. It was wonderful
One Greek salad for Dave, which is didn't finish because it was really big

Michael's goulash (beef which was so tender) with bread dumplings

Sabrina's salmon with fries

Dave's salmon with boiled potatoes (that Michael ate)

Edie's ham (which was extremely moist and tender) with sauerkraut and potato dumplings (which Michael helped consume)

And we all helped with dessert. Sabrina and Dave say that Michael and Edie have a food addiction but they're in there with fork and spoon too. This is warm raspberries, vanilla ice cream with real whipped cream.

The whole time we were dining they had live music (an accordian player) and the tables all sang songs. Most were old American songs. For instance, Delilah by Tom Jones....we sang too. And there was dancing. As we were leaving this man grabbed Sabrina and they took a few twirls around the floor. He had her all over the restaurant and the rest of use laughed so much it was all we could do to take this photo.

Computer Lesson

Michael just bought himself a new Mac....Sabrina wanted no part of it because she thought it a frivilous purchase.....so far, Michael is having a tough time ripping it out of her hands! But he's getting some personal tutorials from Dave and Sabrina. Some of the trouble is that when you log on in a foreign country it comes up in the native language the first time! And can I just say that we thought German had too many letters in their words, but Czech is out of control....I mean they are not even letters, but symbols! And we can not even make our mouths move to say the words.

We're having real trouble loading photos...we'll see what we can do to give you visuals.

Prague

Left Berlin around 10:45 am....after spending all of our Euro...which turned out to be a bit of an error....we had no funs for lunch on the train! All we had was enough for one bottle of water....which we split between the four of us...along with the almonds we had in our backpack.

We had a private 1st class cabin...until the couple from CT showed up...but that is okay because they were really interesting, funny, and told us to just walk from the train to our hotel. Which was a real help because we were totally freaked about the taxis after reading Rick Steves' warnings.

It was a nice ride throught he countryside and the couple that joined us in Dresden had a lot of stories to tell us...and they pointed out things along the way from their guided tours the day before.

Arriving in Prague was really easy...the station was very nice and modern. We felt very safe, and even lined up to get cash from the ATM. The money is pretty, but in huge denominations. For instance, it would have been 300 Koruns for the taxi ride. but we did the 20 minute walk rolling our bags behind us for free....which is good because we spent it on our most delicious dinner ever! It was 7,500 Koruns!

We love our hotel. The young woman that checked us in was warm, professional, and very good looking with tight clothing...just ask the guys about that one. Our rooms are European size (cozy) but elegant and they have Michael's favorite soaps, L'Occitane.

We were starving so we thought we'd have a quick meal before our night tour. Well we walked in to the casual pub like place for some traditional Czech food....we walked out because they were all smoking. We went to the next place, and well....it turned out to be one of those places that take 3 plus hours and have 11 courses! We asked them if they could go only 3 courses and get us out in an hour, they said yes, but it didn't go quite that way.

We missed our tour, but we called them later and it's all going to work out even better for us. We made friends with the other diners as they came in and really rocked the house....much to the chagrin of the wait staff!

Let's just say that we really spent a lot of money...but it is not a crime to be good to yourself!

Got to go...we're all hovering over the computer looking at all of Megan & Jason's wedding photos!

Berlin - Potsdam day

Our soup lunch...delicious....
We've seen a few of these hot dog vendors. They carry the whole thing, including the umbrella, attached to their bodies. The dog w/bun is 2 Euro.

Two handsome old dudes we think we'll keep

Last night in Berlin

We're trying to get up to date since our internet connections have been so poor:


So tonight we went French and had the most delicious dinner yet. We were exhausted from our big tour to Potsdam and long walk back to the hotel, so we just went down the block for dinner. We started out with wine for the guys and water (without bubbles) for everyone. Along with a basket of perfect bread.

Then we had salads.....with sheep cheese (very mild) and chopped tomatoes (almost like a salsa) and Dave had grilled goat cheese on little breads.

For the main course the guys had filet mignon with match stick potatoes, and the girls had sole with the most wonderful spinach (it had vinegar and perhaps butter)....oh, and the girls ate most of the guys potatoes.

Salad with sheep cheese



Fabulous dinner and then we leave for Prague in the morning

Berlin - Tours, etc.

We've been on three tours. The first day we went on a city tour which was awesome. Mostly because we had the best tour guide ever.....Machine Gun Mike from New Zealand. He has several degrees in history and is married to a woman that lived in the former East. His father-in-law was jailed for being in the Stassi and his mother-in-law pines for the days of socialism. He brought an understanding to the human side of what Berlin has been through.

We drove a Trabi car for an hour which was like an E ticket ride. And then today we went on a tour to Potsdam and the summer palace of Frederick the Great.

Potsdam is in the East and you can see the old, gray, and delapidated homes that have yet to the renovated next to the lovely "newer" homes. And all this is very recent since the wall just went down in 1989.

After we got dropped off from bus tour to Potsdam, we walked around the area, found a soup place and a toilet (we have a great technique to using toilets for free), and then walked over 4 miles back to the hotel. We did walk through the bad part of town....through the hookers (it's legal in Germany)...I guess that's part of the tourist experience.

Berlin - Food

We are not going hungry. We're in to our routine where we meet at 8 for our breakfast. This is a really huge part of our trip. We make sure we have this meal included with the hotel. We were a little concerned about this hotel because it had a "cold" breakfast. We were really excited as we were on our way for the first breakfast and could smell good things on our walk there. It does include hot foods. Among other things, Dave is enjoying the salmon, Sabrina loves the sausage and salami, and Michael and Edie like the Musli (grain cereal).

We've about had our fill of Italian food, even though the food is good. We've had two Italian dinners and one Italian lunch. The last Italian dinner included a light and fluffy Tirama. su.

We had Austrian food at Lutter & Wegner, which was fabulous. Three of us had the veal weiner schnitzel and one had Sauerbraten. And for dessert, the BEST apple struedel ever.

Today we found a tiny little soup place that was an excellent value. Good thing we had a young woman in line behind us because she was out interpreter. Otherwise we could be an episode of Seinfeld, the Soup Nazi.

The great thing about Europe in general, is that they've mostly missed the American style of stuffing your face on the run. Meals take hours and we can sit and eat and then stay and talk as long as we like.

Berlin is really a good value, things are reasonably priced. Does this sound like an advertisement for Berlin?

Berlin - We LOVE this City!

We have been having some real trouble getting internet connections, so sorry the blogging has been lacking. Now we'll try to remember the last three days....

Our hotel is located in the heart of all the attractions...we're in the old East Berlin. The city is very good value and not crowded. They've had a very tough time with the Unification of East and West. The West has poured tons of Euro in to rebuilding the East side. The motto is "Poor but Sexy" for the city.

There are only a few parts of the wall left up, just for tourists and to remember. But they have left the double brick visible with a plaque commemorating where it was.
Our Trabi Safari tour guide showing the guys the engine....they were looking for the squirrels.
The four of us barely fit in to the "car". We almost got asphyxiated riding in the thing. And it almost burns more oil than gas.

Our German favorite, Veal Weiner Schnitzel

Michael picking out his Bugatti

Checkpoint Charlie, which is located two blocks from out hotel

The Brandenburg Gate

Part of the wall that they put up a fence to protect! People were taking chunks out and writing grafitti. You can see that it was reinforced by rebar and they put half of a pipe up on top so that people couldn't grab and pull themselves over.