Germany

We took the train from Prague to Munich where we were meet by my friend Andreas. I met him 50+ years ago at a youth camp bringing English and German youth together and we were pen pals for about five years before losing touch with one another. Six years ago when I went through Munich I decided to see if I could find him and was successful. Now, here we were at the Munich main station after so many years. It was a lovely reunion. We both recognised one another instantly.  We took another train to Andreas' home, a delightful little village about an hour away. He is now a retired orthopedic surgeon and lives here with his wife. His two children live elsewhere but his daughter and her two very small children came over to check us out.  

The whole family are absolutely delightful and they have a lovely home and garden. Andreas' wife could understand English but is reluctant to speak it. The conversations over two days switched between English and my rusty German which did start to improve.  I started a dreadful cold in Prague and Andreas immediately ran out to get me some prescription medicine.  On the first day he drove us around the small village showing us the local sights but most of the day was spent sitting on the sunny patio or at the dining table catching up on 50 years, reminiscing, exchanging political views and just laughing together. It was quite wonderful. The family bent over backwards to make us comfortable.  At one point I made a statement of opinion on something and Andreas' wife exclaimed that she couldn't believe how much he and I had in common.

On the second day they took us out to a local well known castle, a busy tourist place. Non of us had really been to touristy places for years so we were surprised at the absolute zoo these places have become.

Where once you could drive your car to the castle doors, you now have to stop half way up the hill and line up for tickets. This took 3/4 hour only to find out that the tickets didn't get us access for another four hours. We had to find something to do for that time and we certainly didn't want to spend it walking around souvenir stores teeming with tourists. This is where it helped to be with locals who knew where to go. Only a ten minute drive away was a delightful lake. The first picture of me was taken in a lovely restaurant at the Waters edge where we stopped for coffee and cake before boarding the little ferry that runs around the lake to various small towns.  We were close to the Swiss Alps and had seen high mountains on the drive up but those surrounding the lake were lower.

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It was ominously dark as we boarded the ferry that seemed to be full of locals taking their kids out for an afternoon.  Before too Long the thunder and lightening started in the mountains on one side while we remained dry and the sun continued to shine on the other side of the lake.  The light over the lake was amazing and we enjoyed every minute of it. Eventually we drove back to the castle ticket office from where we now had to take a bus up a very steep road to the castle entrance... Or we could have walked. The whole thing was a pretty disgusting money grab. Our tickets gave us access along with a group of others at a very specific time, down to the minute so we again waited at the top for our allotted time. On the way up in the bus it had been announced that the last bus down was 6.45 and our entry to the castle was for 5.35.   our group of tourists were provided with audio equipment but the talk was not under our control. We were herded from room to room and in each room the appropriate audio was made available. As soon as it was finished we were pushed on to the next room to make way for the next group.  The things in each room were n beautiful and interesting but often we could not see them because of the number of people and often we were not even in the room when the audio started. The whole tour lasted 35 minutes and as soon as it ended we had to walk the long trek back to where the last bus would pick us up. 

There were two castles on opposing hills. Here you see the step path from the bus to the castle entrance that first went down and then up again. We knew that to catch the last bus we'd have to hike first down and then up again to get to the bus stop so we didn't dare linger around the castle.

Andreas and his wife were so upset on the way home about the whole all aspects of this tourist attraction and the blatant money grab. Parking, the over booking of tickets, the bus up etc.  For us the whole day was an interesting experience and of course we loved the lake. We did our best to console our hosts but they would not be calmed.

On the morning of our departure we were told that Andreas' daughter, two kids, and husband were coming over for brunch with us.  It was really lovely. The daughter, a high school teacher in English and Spanish and her husband both spoke fluent English.  Andreas and his absolutely delightful wife had treated us royally and refused to let me open my purse even for a coffee.  It was very hard to leave them and because of Andreas' refusal to let me pay for anything I joked with him that he should save his money so that I could come again.

Prague and Terezin

Checked out of the very nice hotel in Karlovy Vary after one of their fantastic breakfasts and took the qStudent Agency bus back to Prague. My childhood friend Wally and his partner arrived a little after us and at six o'clock my friend and relative Carol and her partner picked us all up and we went out for dinner. Our hotel was in easy walking distance of many restaurants but we all wanted some good Czech food and were not disappointed with the goulash, schnitzel and mountains of Czech dumplings followed by apple strudel.  No dieting on this trip. The pictures below was taken through the bus window on the drive from KV to Prague. It was lovely rolling countryside.

The next morning we took a taxi to Carol's apartment to meet with the family history researcher.  Carol goes to the Czech  Republic a lot and had found a fabulous place that rents apartments. She had a lovely living room but the weather was so nice that we decided to sit out on her huge balcony to talk to Magda the researcher.  The view was absolutely wonderful and so was Magda. She'd sent me her findings of our family and I had studied her document on the plane over and was prepared with a bunch of questions. In the end it came down to a bit of speculation and some good guesses along with the factual findings. She'd done a lot of work for me and I was happy to pay her fee.  Wally was next up and she had a few surprises for him which delighted him.

At Carol's suggestion we decided on a trip up a local hill but first priority was coffee and cake. Below is the famous castle of Prague which we had all visited before.  We rode a funicular up the hill and walked down through the castle grounds.

The following day we had an air conditioned cab booked which picked us all up at our hotel for a trip to Terezin, formally called by the German name Theresienstadt.  Once a military fortress and town it was converted by the Nazis as a ghetto in which were housed all the Czech Jews as well as many others who were on their way to the extermination camps. Our interest here was the museum and the town as opposed to the military fortress and history prior to WWII which is why we didn't take the organised tour. With Carole as our guide it was a lot more pleasant and cheaper to go by taxi.

Some parts of the town are still in sad shape but much of it has now been restored and the town is now being inhabited again despite bars on many windows.  Although none of us had family who died in this place, we all had family who had passed through here and we thought it was a bit creepy that people were living here.

We visited two museums and thought the exhibits were very we'll done. Carole and I found the name of one of our relatives named on a list of doctors who administered to the inmates and Wally found a poster naming his grandfather who was the choir master for a period of time before he was shipped out. It was quite emotional for us and although we didn't have much time, it was quite enough for us to deal with.  We did try going for a snack but the smallest thing we could find was fried mushrooms or fried cauliflower which both came with large mountains of potatoe but were quite delicious.

On the way home I started to feel a bit ill and upon returning to the city we were all ready for the coffee and cake we'd missed at lunch time. The many potatoes had filled us up and we decided to forgo dinner.  Michelle and I had to go pack for an early start the next morning.  Sad to say goodbye to friends and family but we'd had a good couple of days.  Germany here we come.

Rainy Day

So tonight I asked Michelle to post some pictures showing the buildings in this town.  Where you see railings is where the river is running and at the lovely cream building with the orange decoration you see the stairs leading to one of the many Bridges. There are hotels and stores on each side and many places to cross back and forth.  The cream building with the green shutters and the red flower boxes is directly across the road from our hotel and the view from the dining area.

This morning we started at the museum which was excellent and provided a lot of information about the town since it's inception.  The second picture shows you a cross section of pipe and the  orange bit is the mineral build up.

It was pouring with rain when we entered the museum so we hoped for a better afternoon. The rain had stopped when we came out. It had been very hot and dry in the building so we had to go for a coffee and cake before moving on. We went to the restaurant below which has operated under this name since the days when my mum went to afternoon tea dances here as a teenager in around 1929 and her little brother Ernie was sent along as her chaperone.  We're on holiday so to hell with the diet.  I had trouble choosing but settled for the mandarins over a marscapone filling.  What could be bad?

As you can see from the photo below, it was a nasty looking sky but we decided to chance it and rode the funicular railway up to the top look-out. We've been through enough of the town now over two visits to recognize several buildings from on high.   The railway took us down again to the lower look-out.  We had considered riding up and walking down but thank goodness we changed our minds at the last minute due to the weather and the condition of our feet.  There seemed to be a lot of confusing trails and they were poorly sign posted.

The big building in the centre of the lower photo is the Imperial Hotel.  On our last visit here we rode a similar funicular up to it and had coffee there. The views are, of course, wonderful.  From the lower level today the houses look like dolls houses.

The photo below was taken by a machine called Cosmocard. It takes several pictures of you and you get to choose which one you like best. Then you pick which surround you want and then you select the wording you prefer. It puts it all together and you pay for the number of postcards you want. And that's not all. Then you provide your email address and they send you the digital version. Interesting that all the possible captions called the place Carlsbad which is the German name that was used before WWII.

We're saying goodbye to this place tomorrow and are taking the 11 o'clock bus to Prague where we'll be meeting with my relative and friend Carol as well as my lifelong friend Wally and their respective partners. The six of us will have dinner together so not sure if there will be time to blog tomorrow.

Karlovy Vary

We finally had a great night's sleep and at 9am we were ready for the first adventure of the day which was the free breakfast which comes with the price of the room.  The choices accommodate every nationality so  available in buffet format was everything from cornflakes to cheese and salami, yogurt and fruit, salad and cake.  Also a lady making eggs and omelette s while you wait in line. The food seemed to be spread around the enormous dining room and we had to tour around a couple of times before we even figured out our choices.

Michelle and I always rate restaurants by the coffee and the bathroom, and this breakfast would have rated poorly based on the coffee (very surprising) however the orange juice turned out to be a very yummy mango and OMG Steve, the bread was to die for!

After breakfast we headed out into the town for a stroll to the information centre. It was sunny and warm and we took our time and looked at all the posh stores selling designer clothing as well as the many jewelers selling gorgeous stuff at surprisingly reasonable rates. I'm very tempted and Roger doesn't know it yet but he may have to buy me a belated birthday gift.  Since our last trip six years ago, we noticed a couple of changes. The first is that the Asians have discovered this tourist destination and there were numerous groups of Chinese and Japanese. Even a couple of the vendor booths were Asian owned. Along with this fact, there are a lot of people who now speak English. Six years ago we had real difficulty here as people only spoke German or Russian along with their Czech.

The atmosphere here is so relaxing. People visiting to drink the spa waters are strolling the promenade along the river, their cups in hand. At intervals there are taps and you see them stopping to refill the speciality cups, a cross between a cup and a teapot.  The vessels are shaped like cups but have a spout which comes from the bottom of the cup.  This allows the person to drink through the spout while continually taking their exercise along the promenade. There are flowers everywhere, plenty of benches so you can stop to rest and the buildings are just gorgeous, renovated and painted.  Horses and buggies clip clop along the road adding an old world charm to the place.  It is delightful but for the times you get behind a smoker.  It seems a lot of Czechs still smoke. Have to say though the place is incredibly clean.

After enjoying our stroll we walked up the hill to a building that was once an old folks home.  It also happens to be the place where my mother got married. I wondered if perhaps they had some old records but it seems they were all lost during the war.  However, the lady there had the records of everyone buried in the old cemetery.  The list showed the location of each grave and so from there we took a cab to the cemetery and were able to locate several family graves including my great grandfather and mother.  We paid the cab driver $9 to wait half an hour for us as we had no means of getting back to town. We are using the hotel WiFi but otherwise are off line.  After the cemetery the cab took us to the famous Moser glass factory.  After all the previous activity we were more than ready for afternoon coffee which was so good , as was the European baked cheesecake with the chocolate swirl.

Although the many photos that we took came out better than expected it was really hard to do justice to these pieces of art.  This factory and the pieces produced here have found homes with Kings and queens of the world since the 1800s.  The first Moser started the business from scratch and found notoriety through his innovation of new techniques. To this day pieces are hand made and the artists who work here are still inventing new techniques for blowing and etching and decorating the glass.  Needless to say all purchases are way beyond our means but there were many pieces we would have loved to take home. When you see the real deal, you realise how much crap is out there today.

After a rest at home for an hour we headed out again later for a traditional Czech meal of roast pork, Czech dumplings and sauerkraut. We both had the same meal followed by apple strudel and ice cream and we shared a bottle of water. The bill came to $30 for all of it and you can't beat that!

Away We Go . . .

After our traditional pre-flight lunch at the Crow and Gate we headed for the airport with our new and matching suitcases. So glad we bought these. Not only do they just glide along but they stand out amongst the still many black suitcases. The flight to London was horribly cramped and certainly less space per person than the two Lufthansa flights we've taken since then.

Once in London we checked into the Sheraton Heathrow where we were less than impressed that they wanted 15 pounds,about$30 to get WiFi for 24 hours. At first we declined but later went back to sign up and complain fiercely but this time we got a delightful young lady who told us how to work around this rule and get it for free... As most other hotels.

Fortunately Michelle and I were both already awake at 5.15 am when the hotels alarm system went off followed by a speaker system telling everyone to go to the nearest exit and leave the building.  Most people took the time to throw on some clothes but there were about a hundred people in the parking lot when the one lonely little fire truck arrived. Thankfully it was light, reasonably warm and not raining as people in various stages of undress hung around for the all clear. Other than a faint smell of burnt toast in the air we are not sure of what happened.

As you can see we were non the worse for our early morning trauma as we started the next leg of the journey.  I have to say that there is a noticeable difference in the airports since we last visited these same places six years ago. London, Munich and Prague have gone through building renovations which have greatly improved them and the technology has all changed as my travelling friends will know. We were staggered by the sheer numbers of people at Heathrow at 7.00 am. And although we found it a pain to have to do everything for ourselves from boarding passes to luggage labeling and even getting your own trays to go through security, it is hard to imagine how airport staff would be able to handle the volumes if this hadn't happened. In some ways I find it sad to recognize the homogeneous nature of all these airports.  Gone are the cultural differences, replaced by the same duty free products, the same books and chocolate bars in every airport, the only difference being the exorbitantly priced soccer shirts depending on locality.

Tonight we have finally arrived in Karlovy Vary, my mum's home town. Wow, it is such a picturesque place and we'll post pictures over the next couple of days. 

The Last Few Days

In my last blog I forgot to mention that after our lunch in Tansley we drove into Chatsworth, one of England's stately homes but the entire front of the building was wrapped in scaffolding. We had planned only to photograph the outside as we wanted to move on to the small town of Eyam. This town was struck by the Plague in 1665 and decided to isolate itself.
As you walk through the town, signs in the front gardens of the cute little cottages provide information on the names and dates of the deaths that occurred within. Quite staggering numbers within just a few days.

On our last Tuesday we drove to Calke Abbey, an old English home once owned by an eccentric family who, during the early part of the century couldn't afford the upkeep of the house. Most of the rooms were abandoned with the furniture in place and eventually it was given over to the National Trust who decided to leave it almost exactly as they had found it. Aside from safety issues the house is therefore as it was in the early 1900s and provides a fascinating look into the times and the running of an estate of this size which covered many thousand acres. The nutbars who owned it had hundreds of stuffed animals...and I mean hundreds. The people who work there now to keep the place going, do not even know how many birds, deer, fish, and small mammals are part of the collection. Almost every room is full of cases with stuffed animals as well as furniture and tools of every kind that would be needed to run a place of this size. You can see the original kitchen, the wine cellars, the underground tunnels as well as all the rooms and miraculously a pure silk bedspread and curtains for a 4 poster bed, highly decorated, that was found in several crates. It had apparently been given as a wedding present and never used. There are stables and all the different vehicles, coaches etc that were used. There was also a walled garden for medicinal plants and fruit trees which is now given over to growing vegetables that were previously grown outside in the fields.

We had a lovely day wondering about this crazy place which now has a restaurant for tired feet to rest.

On Wednesday we drove for 90 minutes to get to York. They have a great Park & Ride system but the first parking lot was competely full so we had to drive on to the next one. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the second parking lot was at a designer outlet mall so we couldn't resist popping into the Marks and Spencer...just for a minute or two. An hour later we emerged and made our way to the centre of town to see York Minster. It is a wonderful building and we made it inside just as the heavens opened and the torrential rain was so bad that they closed some of the doors to the building. It wasn't hard to spend a few hours inside the Minster touring the many parts of the building including a basement museum providing information about the original buildings on this site and the treasury containing silver goblets and candlesticks etc.

Unfortunately by this point in our lengthy trip we were not in great shape and after the Minster didn't have much energy for a lot more. We did wander some of the cobbled streets for a while before heading for home.

On Thursday morning we had an appointment at the bank and from there we went into Nottingham to do a bit of shopping for Michelle. By Friday we were ready for a quiet day which we had planned as our repacking day. It was the last day that we could relax and enjoy the beautiful garden and patio of our friends in Ilkeston. Although we had been out and about every day during this last week, we still found time to relax in the evenings and the weather was good enough to sit outside and enjoy the sun, the flowers and the many visiting birds. My friend Maggie has adopted a stray cat who visits regularly and she regularly puts out food for the foxes who come for their dinner every night.

We were really sorry to leave but on Saturday morning we set off for our final visit of this trip to some friends in Wokingham who we met in Toronto before they returned to the UK many years ago. Their proximity to the airport means that we usually leave them until the end and Roger and I stayed with them for a night almost every time we visited the UK on those many visits we did for my mum and Aunty Lily. We arrived on Saturday in time for lunch with them and their son Steve and his family. My mum always said that you know how old you are by looking at other peoples children and I think of that whenever I see Steve. I saw him for the first time a few hours after he was born and now he is 41 and has a lovely wife and little daughter of almost two years. In the afternoon after "the kids" left we sat around and chatted for a while before dinner which was followed by a video showing that was walk down memory lane for me and delighted Michelle. Many years ago, B.C. (before children), Roger and I had a transvestite party and although we have photographs of this which our kids have seen, our friends in Wokingham have a few minutes on video. Michelle got to see her father, aged about 30, prancing around like an idiot in a mini-dress, and a large hat. Although all the women were dressed as men and looked pretty silly, it wasn't quite as funny as the guys dressed as women...especially if one of them is your dad and another one with a long wig and a maternity dress, a guy that you have never met before, is now at the wrong end of his 60s and is sitting across the room from you. It was a great laugh!!

And so we came to Sunday and it was time to take the car back and claim our hotel room at the airport for the final night of our almost 6 week vacation. We were both so ready to come home but we've had a fantastic vacation which I am sure we'll talk about for a long time to come. Michelle enjoyed getting a taste of England and even enjoyed meeting all my old friends. We both thoroughly enjoyed the sight seeing in England and the Czech Republic and of course the highlight of our trip was to Karlovy Vary, my mum's home town which I think exceeded all our expectations.

Thank you all for following our blog and the many positive comments.

Back in England

Hi Everyone...yes, we are fine but have just found it more difficult to post the blogs. The reason is that since returning to the UK and moving on to other places, we now come home in the evening to friends and so spend the evenings chatting and not blogging.

The Czech Republic was of course a wonderful experience for both of us. After Karlovy Vary we returned to the same hotel in Prague arriving at lunchtime and in the afternoon we wandered down to the astrological clock. The following day we took the bus up the hill to the monestary and the castle and walked down the hill visiting as much as possible along the way. We were both extremely tired and walked very slowly and really couldn't be bothered to fight the crowds. People had told us that Prague was the most beautiful city in Europe but we had been so taken with Karlovy Vary that it really didn't strike us this way. It is very lovely but I'm not sure that we would use as many superlatives. Michelle kept commenting on the huge amount of graffitti everywhere and was particularly upset when it defaced the beautiful buildings. While Karlovy Vary seems to have been totally cleaned up, Prague is a bit of a hit and miss affair with some things having been cleaned up and others looking pretty sad.

Michelle can post here pictures of two lamp posts. They are identical and stand within 100 yards of one another. One is completely rusted out and really grotty looking and the other has been cleaned and freshly painted and is beautiful. We particularly noted the famous bridge in Prague, the one with all the statues which has not been cleaned up at all. It seemed strange to us. Anyway we had a wonderful 6 days there and wouldn't have missed it for the world.

On our return to London we took the coach back to Victoria and passed the Natural History Museum. This building has been totally sandblasted (or otherwise cleaned up) and it is certainly as beautiful as anything we saw in the Czech Republic. London has certainly cleaned up a lot of buildings since I was last here, particularly the churches but other building as well. It is just that they aren't all in one location.

The next day we reluctantly said goodbye to the lovely apartment that had been our home for almost 3 weeks although I have to say that we were looking forward to getting the car and being kind to our feet! We went back to the airport to pick up the car and spent quite a while figuring out where everything was. On this occasion nobody even came to the car with us. They just gave us the key, pointed to the parking lot and waved goodbye. We thought we had found everything important ...the lights, the wipers, etc etc....until we came to buy gas. Some days have gone by since I wrote anything so I'll skip ahead and tell you what happened a couple of days ago when we thought we'd buy gas. We pulled into the gas station and looked for the button to release the gas cap cover. I couldn't find it anywhere. Michelle got in the drivers seat to look. She couldn't find it anywhere. We moved the seat back...still couldn't find it. So...feeling rather silly but thinking that there must be some new thing either with newer models or perhaps something specific to the UK we waited until another customer drove into the gas station. I was happy that it was a very young guy because I figured he'd just think I was some silly old lady....which he probably did, but I explained the problem to him explaining that despite my accent, I wasn't living in this country and had a hire car. As all you Brits will guess, he walked over to my car, tapped the gas cap cover and the thing opened. So...for the sake of you Brits I have to tell you that in Canada all our gas caps are locked and it never occurred to us that yours are not.

So back a few days, we drove the car to our next stop which was Olney, a delightful little village near to Milton Keynes. My school friend Carole has recently moved here from Cornwall so it was great to see her lovely new old place and then go out for dinner and to get caught up on all the family news since the last time we had been together. The next day we drove an hour across country to my old friend Moni(ca), emphasis on the friend not the "old" who lives with her husband in Baldock. They had just returned from vacation so were both still on holiday and we had a lovely lunch with them before returning to Olney where Carole had been joined by Bob,yet another friend from many years ago so we spent another evening chatting and recalling old times. Carole and I had fun telling Michelle all the naughty things we did together while we were at school.

The next day we wandered around Olney and had another lovely lunch before heading off for Ilkeston in Derbyshire. This was Friday and we are now with friends Maggie and Lew who have a lovely house and garden. We elected to spend Saturday around the house and realised that we were more than ready for a lazy day.

On Sunday we were off again to meet another friend with whom I made contact through Friends Reunited an English website that connects people who went to school together. Sheila and I were not really in the same crowd although we spent 6 years in the same class and it was really lovely to see her again and to catch up on our mutual friends and current lives. We met at a lovely pub that Roger and I have been to many times and which I wanted to show to Michelle. The place and food were as always excellent and after our meal we all took a lovely walk along the tow path next to the canal. Michelle even got to see a boat passing through the lock.

We had two more calls to do after lunch. The first was successful, a trip to see Aunty Lily's house, now sold. It at least gave Michelle a look at a place about which she had heard so much if only because Roger and I spent a lot of time there in the last couple of years of Lily's life.

Unfortunately the neighbours were not at home but that gave us a time, so we thought, to go to Asda (Walmart) to check out the clothes. Unfortunately British Sunday laws interferred with this trip as they closed almost as soon as we got there but we saw enough to know we have to go back.

Today Monday 1st August we tripped out with Maggie while her husband went golfing. We went to another place that was an old haunt of mine and Roger's but found the pub had changed hands and didn't appeal to me any more. It turned out to be a stroke of luck as we found an alternative place to eat and had an absolutely wonderful meal. Boy, have we been eating well on this trip but everywhere seems to provide much more meat than we are used to.

Our plans for tomorrow are to go to an old home (big old house) and on wednesday we are going to York for the day. One week from today is the day we will return to Canada so not much more time but still a few more places and people to fit in. Will try and write some more as we can and I hope Michelle can add a few more photos.

To all the "Novel Women", my bookgroup friends....I miss you all and part of me is looking forward to being back home. I'm bringing some goodies with me and will have to throw out a few things in order to get them all into the suitcase.

Thanks for your emails those of you who have written. I do check my gmail every day.

Sue