Poland and More in 2002

Well, we always said that when Lukasz got married some day we'd use that as an excuse to go see Poland and the nearby areas, so when we heard it was to be June 22, 2002 that defined an outing. A little closer to the end of a nearly 3 week excursion to southern Utah (slot canyons), Albuquerque (science meeting), and Salt Lake City (niece's graduation) than we would have chosen and also too much into summer weather and tourists, but so it goes. Returned from the Utah etc trip late on a Friday, cleaned everything (we had been camping and jeeping so things were quite dirty) and caught up on things over that weekend; and then had 7 days of working at the lab plus another weekend to get organized for traveling prior to heading off.

Wednesday/Thursday-1: Dick Weaver took us to San Jose for our 2 PM flight to Chicago. We were using up some United Frequent Flyer miles and unfortunately couldn't get a non-stop over the ocean from SFO.  Good seats, however - 3 for we 2 with me looking out the window on a clear day and seeing the country we covered on our drive back from Salt Lake City less than two weeks earlier. And, for the heck of it I started this trip letter. As on other foreign trips recently, I'm using the Palm Pilot with foldable keyboard. The combination is very small compared to even my PC, the battery life is much longer, and the recharger is lightweight and works on 220 volts just fine. Rather nice, although with the basic memo writing software it only does a page or less per "file" so someday I should get a bit better software for it without getting into Word or anything fancy. While speaking of the Palm, I also loaded in small dictionaries for Poland, Germany, and Czech Republic - so another nice aspect of having it along.  The top-level game plan was as follows:

Fly to Berlin, get a rental car, go to Wroclaw for the wedding and doing local things with the Sylwesters, and then make the "typical" tourist loop of Krakow, Prague, and Berlin; doing it slowly and spending a significant amount of time in villages as well as in these major cities as we're not big city tourists but also figure one has to "do" the famous ones.

Fine flight to Chicago, landed on time and thus made it easy to catch the (now Lufthansa) flight to Frankfurt. Oh, yes, we each had a full-sized carryon and had shipped through two other bags of carryon size. One was full of presents for Poland. Traveling heavier than usual but figured why not since we'd have a rental car right from the start. Taking some dress clothes for the wedding (like a sport coat for me) gave us more items that were needed on most trips. Arrived Frankfurt on time, having gotten some naps in over the short evening. The plane was full, our seats were the last in a section and thus didn't lean back as far as they should, and we didn't have a window. So, not great but we didn't do too badly. Quite a bit of red wine prior to trying to sleep probably helped. Overall the service was nothing special and the seats were quite narrow and close to each other; a disappointment for I thought Lufthansa would be better than United and it was actually worse. Oh, well - it got there on time which is what really matters. Had a smooth change of planes for our short (one hour) hop to Berlin. Nice seats on that plane albeit it was full. Got there on time too but then it took forever to get our bags - like the next to last one to appear on the belt was one of ours. Got some money at an ATM on the first try and then picked up the rental car. This took quite awhile for a variety of reasons but eventually we were in it, the car was quite nice (4 doors and air conditioning and rather new), and we were on the road. But a few minutes later we made a wrong turn and headed north rather than south. Figured it out, got turned around, and rolled southward across Berlin. Some of this rolling was on local streets so that took awhile as well. As usual, Dawna drove and I navigated. Finally were out in the countryside and on a freeway. After 45 minutes or so decided we were tired enough it was time to congratulate ourselves on getting out of town and find a place to sleep (and eat). Pulled off into a village and sure enough we found a classic looking German-equivalent to a British pub that also had rooms. Got one and then sat down under one of their sidewalk umbrellas to have a meal (and a beer). With book in hand I ordered venison and Dawna did chicken but when the food came we both got chicken. Oh, well, was a reasonable meal, good beer, and off to bed we went. Turned out to be quite noisy for trucks rolled by our opened window but our ear plugs made that not too terrible.

Friday-1: We had told the folks we'd have breakfast at 8 AM but we woke up much before that and after a bit of stalling decided to go for a walk. Fun, as it turned out this was somewhat of a resort town what with a lake just a few block from where we had slept. Went back and had breakfast and then hit the road. First down the freeway, then off on country roads for a side trip to visit a village named Gorlitz that sounded good in the book. As always, got to see the countryside and villages a lot better once we were off the freeway; but also the miles/kilometers went by much more slowly. Stopped at a grocery store and loaded up on items including water, wine, beer and fruit. At Gorlitz we strolled around the town center, which was having quite a bit of refurbishment being applied - a nice village wander. There was a fine clock tower there, which we climbed up enabling us to see the mechanisms at one level and then the city in all directions from the top.

Hit the road again and before getting back to a freeway we wandered around in a somewhat larger city, this time in Poland, both to see it and to find a bank. Success with the ATM again so we now had some Polish money. Oh, yes, Barbara had warned us it would take at least an hour to cross the border (on the freeway) but we crossed in a couple of minutes on a smaller road outside of Gorlitz. Rolled on to Wroclaw and followed our prior instructions - stopping at a shopping center at the edge of town, calling Janusz who then came along with Lukasz to guide us through the city. L went with Dawna and guided her while I rode with J. Settled into our "hotel" and after cleaning up and resting a bit, J picked us up and took us over to their house for dinner. The "hotel" had been arranged by Barbara after various e-mail interactions with us and was a room in an old house owned by the Math Institute; there are a dozen or so such room and they are mainly used by visiting professors. I sort of qualify. Very inexpensive, close to the lab that J and B work at, close to their house, and in a park setting. A win-win situation which we enjoyed for several days. Dinner was excellent with B cooking some very traditional items and lots of socializing. Part of this amounted to B & J and Karolina opening the large number of presents Dawna had brought and enjoying that aspect of things very much. Back to our house and to bed. Very quiet except for noisy birds in the early morning.

Saturday-1: Got up and had breakfast making use of stuff we had brought from the states (like instant coffee and granola) as well as a care package that Barbara had given us the night before. There was a central kitchen with a frig and stove so very convenient and relaxing. Especially since almost no one else was staying at the house so we had it basically all to ourselves. Then we took the local tram down to the town center to explore around a bit on our "free time." Quite nice with a lot of refurbishment in the last decade or too but sticking with a mideval look. In the late afternoon, J&B picked us up and we went to the bride's parent's house to witness a blessing but seems like it must have happened before we got there for we were hardly there before everyone was hurrying to the cathedral for the wedding. We were close to the action, being with the groom's parents.  For example, the two to-be-married kids were taken from Anna's (the bride) house to the cathedral in a decorated London taxicab and we were with J&B in the second car of the parade. The wedding was in the city's main cathedral, which was quite pretty. The service was in Polish so we just followed everyone else as they stood up and sat down etc. A tenor sang several songs including Ava Maria at the end and was quite good. Neat/fun. After the wedding we gave the tenor a ride over to the reception at the hotel, so we got there first and parked right in front in a reserved spot. Others, including the newly weds arrived shortly thereafter.

And the reception began. And it went on and on and on. Great fun. Two long tables and one short one forming a U with the wedding party at the short head table. Assigned seats with us being put near some of the family and some of the younger folks who got more and more interested in working on their English as the evening wore on. Lots of vodka toasts, plenty of wine, and an endless supply of food. I imagine there were about 100 folks there --- mainly relatives. The tenor was now a guitar player in the entertainment group which included a singer and another person (I think but Dawna doesn’t). Music, dancing, eating and drinking and then doing it all over again and again with no real order it seemed to me - like every once in awhile I'd think we were having desert and then some major main course would come out again. The room was hot and humid, especially for those dancing, so we'd break up the evening with walks out into the city, the town center being just around the corner from the hotel. As Dawna befriended more and more folks she also ended up dancing more and more --- the vodka helping her ability I recon. We had been told the reception would go on until like 4 AM (it started a bit after 6 PM I think) but our jet lag, old age, and lack of Polish began to catch up with us so around 1:30 AM or so we took a taxi back to our house. J&B left around 4 AM I gather and some young folks hung in until it was declared truly over at 6 AM.

Sunday-1: Got up eventually, had our breakfast and went for a slow, check-it-out walk back to the cathedral and surrounding area. I had purchased a local map the day before so we were now able to maneuver easily. Checked out all manner of things on our feet, Then took a tram home. Dawna had a small headache so rested to get rid of it and I took an additional walk near our house. We were then picked up to go to another next party, which was at Anna's parents house. Basically a back yard bbq-like affair with lots more good food and drink. Many of the wedding couple's friends were there and boy did they go through lots of beer and have a fine time. As did we. Much more casual "of course" and after awhile Dawna was invited/pushed into one of the groups to chat and interact for quite awhile (not that they could understand much English or her any polish, but smiles and hand/body movements accomplish miracles. It was a great/relaxing one-of-a-kind evening that emphasized why we had taken advantage of this wedding as a time to visit Poland and see it "up close and personal." Highlight in the food department was a sauerkraut dish that had come from the prior evening and (for me at least) wonderful pickled herring (both this evening and at the wedding); but there were lots of other good things both timesb as well. Other highlights, in addition to Dawn's social group situation included a (neighbor?) chap who played the accordion. Oh, yes, also an episode concerning a very expensive Mercedes that belonged to the brother of the bride. It was sitting outside the house but incapacitated - the story being that someone had tried to steal it, failed because the alarm system was so fancy and good that it prevented this but now it was impossible to get through the safeguards to get the car running again. Actually, it turned out that no one tried to steal it but that his wife had done something bad/wrong with the alarm system - but that's not the point of the story. The point is that rather than someone coming out from the dealership to fix it, they send a truck which is able to literally pick the car up with a strap and put it onto the truck bed and then take it to some shop where all is made OK. This is all done "routinely" as part of the insurance/service policy one buys/gets along with the car; and routinely used since (expensive) car theft is so common in Poland where the cars are then moved to Russia and sold to folks like the Mafia. Well, my description may be lacking but it was quite an event to watch this car get swung up into the air and then onto the truck bed ..... and I have some pictures to prove it. PS - we had many warnings about being careful with our rental car in Eastern Europe.

We had a neat experience earlier in the day as well, and this is as good a spot as any to relate it. After coming back from our walk we were having a little lunch in the kitchen and a young chap came by with his groceries to store and seemed to note with interest that we were talking in English. Dawna invited him to join us at our table and he accepted, although he wouldn’t accept any food. Turns out he was a second year Ph. D. student in mathematics, was staying in the house because it was so inexpensive, was from the Ukraine, and had never talked with a native English speaking person in his life. His English was just amazing given this fact and boy did he concentrate to get the right words out. Our chat ranged from hellos to the philosophy of science (about then Dawna left to rest her headache), to being a doctoral candidate in the US versus Poland or the Ukraine, about his future possibilities, and then politics. What a great opportunity for both of us. Now back to the main story flow.

Monday-1: A relaxed get up and then we walked over to the lab. Janusz showed us both around including getting to see some very neat old astronomical equipment. Then, Dawna went home and I played the role of “important visiting scientist” as a couple of their students presented the status of some of their research activities. One of them involved working with TRACE data so it was even more reasonable for me to comment upon. This finished a bit after noon time, I took advantage of the situation to use one of their computers to check (and send) e-mail, and then went back to our house. We then did a moderately long walk to see more of the surrounding area, including getting down to the main river that runs through the city. According to J, Wroclaw has more bridges than Venice (I think that was it) and I can almost believe it. That evening it was our treat to take J&B&K plus the newlyweds out to dinner at a restaurant of their choosing. Turned out to be Italian and fine but not great; however, the outing was great from a social point of view with a highlight being going to Lukasz's (now their) apartment after dinner for a drink and really to see what a fantastic job he had done on fixing it up in a very modern and upscale way (the apartment complex itself was quite drab).

Tuesday-1: This was a day to do some sightseeing with Karolina as our guide (and Dawna as the driver). We did this after a relaxing wakeup and breakfast. The key items were (a) nice countryside, (b) a castle, where her translations helped, and (c) a hike up an old volcano, but we didn't get to the top for were running out of time. An enjoyable time and probably the highlight was just getting to have Karolina to ourselves to chat about things. Another nice meal at B&J’s after we returned from our outing. Actually, we let K off at their house, drove home, freshened up a bit, and then walked over to the Sylwesters (and eventually walked home). It wasn’t very far and we enjoyed seeing more things by walking, although it took some convincing for B&J to let us do this. A neat aspect of the meal was that Anna’s father had learned that we were disappointed in not getting to try a second sort of sauerkraut dish at his backyard party because something had gone wrong when cooking it; and we loved the one dish we did try. So, he made some more and sent it over for us to try. The truth is we didn’t like it nearly as well as the first/excellent one; but hey, the thought/action was super.

Tuesday-1: Janusz was our guide (and driver) for this day of sightseeing; and we covered a lot of territory. The stops included (a) an old monastery whose prime item was an amazing carved “alter” (declared a UNESCO special item) but the entire layout was worthwhile; (b) a village with a fine medieval wall where we strolled around a bit (and bought some wine for that night's dinner); a cave (which after waiting awhile we never got in because it was booked and the tour group showed up at the last minute to use their booking but it was an interesting experience to walk up to it and also to see all the prehistoric stuff associated with it); and then (d) a national park which was on the border with the Czech Republic. We were late getting there due to some wrong roads but still made it in time to do the hike that first went up some 660 "steps" in granite and then around the top of the plateau (great views) and through amazing rock and tight spaces and such ... a very impressive place. A super outing but we were late (say 8:30 PM) getting back to town so dirty as we were we just went right to the S's and had a meal that B had been holding for us. Excellent as always and the beer she had purchased especially for me really hit the spot. Meanwhile, the wedding "kids" came over to say good bye and give us a gift (a wedding photo) and show us a whole bunch of their wedding photos. Boy, did we feel special with the effort they had been going to for us given that they had just gotten married, etc. J drove us home that night, with a quick stop at the lab for an e-mail fix as it was just too convenient to pass up. Oh, yes, I might mention that we had excellent piroskies at a roadside stand for lunch that day.

Wednesday-2:  Headed out of Wroclaw on some back roads. Fun to now be on our own, although we had thoroughly enjoyed the stay. Tried to see a castle in one town that J had told us about but never found it, did go to a rather neat different village where he had recommend we see the town square, church, rathouse, etc. Then it was onto the freeway to make some time before getting off again to go to Oswiecim, the village where the Auschwitz (actually Auschwitz and the even larger Birkenau) Concentration Camp was. Got mixed up on roads a bit so it took longer to get there then planned and then we couldn't really get oriented until a very cute young girl helped us out with her rudimentary English. No hotels in town so went to a spot in the literature (Lonely Planet "of course") that was like a retreat for folks who hope to make use of the terrible Auschwitz past to better mankind's approach to the future and rents out rooms .... of which we got one. It was built by the Catholic church, is right across the street from Auschwitz, and caters primarily to groups. Had dinner in town at a beer garden where one could also get broasted chickens (and of course watch the locals) and then a quiet sleep.

Thursday-2: Spent the morning seeing Auschwitz. Impressive/moving although either not as dramatic as the famous camp in Munich we had visited a couple of decades earlier or maybe we've become more used to the atrocities of the whole situation having gone through the very dramatic Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Still, we were impressed/moved and spent the morning there. Then we headed into Krakow, with rain beginning. Our LP maps enabled us to go directly to the first choice for hotel considerations (again from LP) with our bias being something quiet and close enough to the old town to make it easy to visit. The place fit the bill quite well and we took a room immediately. Considering it was pouring by now and thus rather hard to get around it was nice that our first choice worked out. In fact, I’d highly recommend it for “our type” of travelers – Bursa im St Pigonia is the name and it is somehow operated by the University. After settling in we gathered our umbrellas and went out for some sightseeing. Nice old city and "the finest remnant of the medieval fortifications, the Barbican … is one of the very few surviving structures of its kind in Europe, the largest and arguably the most beautiful” according to LP; and it was quite nice. The old town is excellent and we went through a bit of it although it is hard to see things in the rain and even harder to look at my map without it getting wet.

Friday-2: Not raining. Walked to and through old town checking everything out as we went of course, including a visit to the Visitors Bureau and to the post office. As noted a second ago, the old town is nice and the market square is outstanding. It contains a fine hall that is now filled with stands selling stuff (like lots of amber items) and we even made some purchases. There are some outstanding churches (of course) one of which has amazing stained glass windows. Once again, having binoculars was the ticket. I won’t go through all the items we saw (basically all the ones listed in guidebooks) but another spot we liked a lot was Collegium Maius that “is Poland’s oldest surviving university building and one of the best examples of 15^th century Goethic architecture in the city.” Contains lots of astronomic instruments and other good stuff and we got inside by going on a tour (albeit in Polish but we could still see everything and some of the time one of the folks did some translating for us). That afternoon we had tried to go to a restaurant in the book but it had changed hands. The lady convinced us they still had some of the food we wanted, however, so we stayed and had some fine items. Maybe we actually had dinner there that night and lunch the next day – or vice versa, but it doesn’t matter other than to say we liked one dish well enough to return a second time just to have it. Krakow is basically The Place in Poland for a tourist to go to as it has much history and the old town was not destroyed in the war so is compact and very interesting to wander around in. By the time we had been there two days we probably hit every street and the central square a few times ...

Saturday-2: Primary activity today was to do the number one spot in Krakow - the Wawel Castle. Got there at the start of the day and spent plenty of time seeing it. Quite enjoyable with items ranging from museums to a huge cathedral to the grounds themselves. Guess this is as good a time as any to mention that although I can “accept” the immense cathedrals in places such as this castle I will never get used to how every village has a non trivial one. True throughout much of Europe I guess but still not something I can relate to. Anyway, the castle (which is the most visited tourist item in Poland) lived up to its reputation.

Sunday-2: Had breakfast; we were pleased that the breakfast that came with the room was more than a typical Continental breakfast as we remembered in France (for instance). Then did a few more items in the town, including a museum about the history of Krakow, after which we hit the road. The first stop/attraction was only 15 km away (we had no trouble getting out of the city but a little trouble finding the exact attraction) in the village of Wieliczka. The attraction is a salt mine that “has been operating uninterrupted for at least 700 years” although now it really doesn’t function much as a salt mine but rather as a (again on the UNESCO World Heritage list) tourist attraction. Took a couple hour tour with an English-speaking guide. Not many Americans or Brits on the tour but we realized that since the options were Polish, German, and English it means that all manner of folks (French, Italian, Asian) choose English. You do a lot of walking, see a lot of things that are like in “any cave”, see many sculptures (usually religious) out of salt, see chandeliers and altarpieces out of salt, hear a small band, etc. In fact, everything is either made of salt or wood. Pretty amazing/interesting place; partially just because it is so enormous. At the end of the tour, while still down some 500 feet below ground, we had a rather good lunch. We had basically walked all this way down as part of the tour but got back up on a fast, crowded, and dark elevator – not Dawna’s favorite due to her claustrophobia.

Then we headed onward through excellent countryside. Having now done one of the three legs of the triangle of tourist cities we were generally working our way towards Prague with a stop in the Tartar mountains of Poland at a resort town named Zakopane. Everyone there has a room to rent as it is the key place for this national park and after getting oriented we picked one to checkout and it was fine so we took it. Then we walked into the main part of town and had a meal in a garden spot that did BBQ like stuff with me having a sausage, Dawna some shish kabob like item and of course beer. And boy, was the town full of Polish tourists - wonder what it is like in the real high season (August).

Monday-2: Ate a few things in our room for breakfast. Oops, that doesn't do it justice. When cruising toward Z along a ridge of foothills all of a sudden there were folks selling something at stands so of course Dawna hit the brakes and ended up buying a batch of blueberries. Well breakfast was all the blueberries one could handle (and we handled all of them) with a bit of yogurt being used as creme). Excellent (and I've never eaten blue berries before .....). Then we headed out for a hike in the mountains; the plan being to take a very long tram (2.5 miles) to the mountain top and then hike down. Wasn't really sure how far we could drive toward the tram starting point and ended up being illegal (I decided later) the last mile or so to the parking lot where minibuses take people to the bottom of the tram - but didn't end up with a traffic ticket. Had to wait 30 minutes  or so to get on the tram even though we were fairly early. But the wait had its enjoyment too as Dawna made friends with a kid who ended up doing a drawing on one of our pieces of paper for her. Great views out the tram and then at the mountaintop they were spectacular. It was also extremely windy. Had purchased a map at the bottom and used it to define a non-trivial but also not enormous hike, first along the ridge top (basically separating Poland from Slovakia) and then down. Spectacular scenery, nice stop for a snack (from our pack) at a place where folks can stay overnight while hiking these mountains, and then more downward. The bad news was that the entire way was on large/difficult granite rocks and hard on one's feet (and knees) with it all being downhill (we had gone up about 3000 feet via the tram). But we thoroughly enjoyed it. At the bottom we were now able to see how we had driven too far, so snuck down the road without seeing a police person and then headed out of town. New and tiny roads out of Poland and into Slovakia. Great countryside to drive through, a no sweat border crossing, picked up a bit of local money, and continued onward. Stopped for a fun meal at a pub-like place and then were into the Czech Republic. Eventually decided it was time to get a place to sleep. Pulled off the major road a time or two without finding something but eventually found an out of the way (could read quiet) spot that was rather fun because of the old lady that was running it and all the deer and other game trophies around. We ate dinner there as well after she convinced us they had venison of various types on the menu. Was good although could also have been beef. Also very inexpensive (as was the room here and the room at the house in Z).

Tuesday-2: No breakfast at this Penzion, however. In fact no one was even up yet but since we had deliberately paid the bill the night before we just took off. Down the road a bit we pulled off into a village and found a spot for coffee --- which turned out to be coffee, then some cake with poppyseeds and then some hot chocolate. We thought we had ordered a second cup of coffee but hey the lady was being super friendly and we took what she gave us). Headed for Prague but first stopped at a village (Kutna Hora) which is one of the most typical day trips out of Prague because it is old and totally preserved. Did our usually strolling around including a visit to a very impressive cathedral and then had a fun lunch down in a cellar that the book had recommended as "romantic and candlelit." Neat and relaxed and I had some absolutely excellent duck while Dawna had something good but not as good as mine. Then it was into Prague, using a map J had given me to zero in on the spot we had selected from LP as our first choice for staying .... a little bit out of old town and quiet (our high criteria) and connected to town and other things easily by public transit. Again it was raining and thus a bit more tricky than otherwise but we found the place, they had a room and we took it. After unpacking we, at their suggestion, put the car in a nearby garage for safe keeping. Then we did a bit of walking to get our feel for where we were, where the trams were and things like that and then hit the hay. The lunch had done us for a major meal so we just snacked a bit in the room.

Slight aside, both this day and on many of the prior days the countryside was quite pretty and very productive looking. The fields of yellow mustard and those of sunflowers added quite nice color to the fields of hay and oats and such. Another aside, I was doing so well directing Dawna into this major city (Prague) that I took a shortcut at one point and we found ourselves (illegally) in a no-car but plenty of people and trams area. No one yelled at us and we got out of there and used the more major streets after that.

Wednesday-3: Walked to old town. What a place. We had been told it was a great city and it sure is. Neat architecture every where you look and for 3 days we sure did look. A fantastic main square. People hawking music performances the way they would hawk souvenirs in some other city .... and it worked, we bought tickets for a performance at 5 PM and one at 8 PM! Walked and enjoyed. If I recall correctly, relatively early we suckered in for some coffee at a place serving terimuso (which got Dawna in and she says it was good) and later on we had a quite interesting/Czech lunch in a pub like spot. Eventually came back to our hotel (via tram) to rest up a bit. Then it was to our first performance (in some non-special church), a quartet that I’ll say was 3 violins and a cello but probably the violins deserve some adjective to describe them better. Maybe only 40 people or so in the audience but an excellent performance. Stolled toward the next concert checking out highlights from the LP for that part of town. Decided we had time for a pizza (different from ours but quite good) in a nice place (where a piano player entertained) and then off to the next concert/church. But all hell broke loose in terms of rain and we not only got wet but couldn't see the map nor the street signs well and hid under overhangs with locals a few times and couldn’t find our spot. Finally grabbed a cab to get there even though we felt we were only a few blocks away. By now we were pretty soaked and also late. The cab seemed to go around in circle and finally dumped us not too far from the church but also not at it ... not sure if he was lost too or just taking us for a costly ride. Someone there gave us better directions, however, and we got to the performance about halfway through it. This time it was a pair of guitar players doing classical works and we enjoyed it but not as much as the first one (also dried out a slight bit); lightening and thunder in the background. When the concert ended it was still pouring out but we made our way to the same tram stop we had used earlier that day and got home soaked but no worse for wear really. Luckily it wasn't cold out. Hung everything up to dry and hit the hay.

Thursday-3: After another fine breakfast we grabbed a tram in the opposite direction and went to the Prague Castle. A huge place, sort of a small city, and a "must" for a tourist. Grand rooms to visit, another amazing cathedral, interesting grounds, good views, etc. Had a rather fun lunch which although stated as goulash was more like a heavy (and excellent) soup in my opinion. And all in sunshine! Oh, yes, this is another good time to make my usual pitch for the greatness of having binoculars along to see things well and to also comment upon the fun we were having with the digital camera - taking lots of photos. Then walked from the castle back down to town, across the primary tourist bridge (drizzling by now), around stores, etc. Checked out a few more listed and many unlisted items and eventually took a tram home. During our walking we had purchased tickets for an 8 PM performance and selected a nearby cellar restaurant for dinner. So, after a bit of rest and cleanup we were off to do those things. The cellar was neat (albeit not as neat as in K-H) and Dawna had a strange item of chicken with blue cheese in it and I had an excellent pigs knuckle meal (like ham really). The concert was organ plus flute plus violin and excellent. More folks (maybe 100) this evening as well. One could spend a long time in Prague what with the great buildings to look at, infinite musical performances to go to, inexpensive food - have I mentioned that the routine price for a 0.5 liter of quite good beer at a restaurant was under $1! We'll likely go back some time.

Friday-3: Having hit two of the three major cities we were on the road again; but slowly. Took a couple of very scenic backroads (many folks biking and camping in the “mountains”) to a tiny village (Krivokiat) with a modest but authentic old castle and did the tour of it. Although the tour was in Polish they had handouts of English script, which were quite explanatory and we had a fine tour. It even has some advantages because by reading what the highlights are you can go see them before the tour director talks about them and all the other people go to that spot. Then drove onward stopping at the city of Karlovy Vary, which is a famous spa near the Germany/Czech Republic border. Millions of people but we found a place to park and did our walking around. Dawna even did the right thing of buying a little cup-like thing and then drinking some of the healing (almost religious) spa water. Found a spot that had lots of folks at it for lunch so gave it a try and (a) it was good but (b) it took forever - a penalty of the large crowd. I think this spa town is usually filled with (mostly German) tourists but in addition they were two days into a week-long International Film Festival so I'm sure that added to the crowd. It was fun to see but also rather nice to get out of town and the crowds ..... and onward towards Berlin. Our plan was to see Meissen but not Dresden on the way. Got a bit lost and ended up in a no name village at a quite modern hotel (the name "Solar Parkhotel attracted us) plus we were close to Meissen and it was time to stop. Took a nice room and since we were still full from our late lunch we just had a beer/wine in the bar (plus some snacks) and went to bed.

Oh, but before leaving this sequence .... a couple more anecdotes. One - it was 5 July and we saw signs about an American professional rodeo in one village/city and sure enough drove by where it was happening, with good attendance. Didn't stop. Two - there had been lots of hitch hikers in Czech but now many of them were dressed basically like prostitutes and were rather aggressive at trying to get rides. Weird/interesting. More and more of them as we got closer to the border and my theory is they have more risqué girlie shows in Czech than in Germany because we began seeing several bars/showplaces along the road and I think these hitch hikers were on their way to work. PS it took 20 minutes or so to get through the border this time; not bad but long compared to all our other border crossings. Now back to the main story line.

Friday-3: Rather extensive breakfast buffet and then down the road a bit to Meissen. Walked the town and it is a fine German medieval village/city with neat crooked and steep streets, architecture, etc and a nice small town square. Went up the tower of a church on the square and had a great view over the city. Plus the wooden support system inside the tower was outstanding to see. Seems like this hold trip was one of climbing stairs be it those of town halls, churches, or mountains.

Then into Berlin; again with the fine LP maps guiding us. We had selected one spot for our first choice hotel and others as backup and drove right there. They had a few rooms left, none with private bath but we don't really care and in fact I think the ones with just a wash basin are probably larger since space hasn't been used up for a tiny add-in shower and toilet; and they are certainly cheaper. I had figured Berlin would be pushing New York or SFO prices but instead it was $65 or so (and remember that includes tax and breakfast), yet very adequate and at an excellent central location. Next door to our room were about 4 toilets and 3 showers so it was never any problem having facilities and they were closer to us than in our own house. Checked in and then drove a mile or so to where the car was to be returned. No one at Avis but there were instructions on how to leave the car in a nearby garage with the paperwork and keys being given to the garage entrance person; and we did just that. Went next door and celebrated having driven 2500 or so kilometers with no major problems and now being foot loose and fancy free until we flew home. Dawna had duck that was good but not as good as that which I had had a couple days earlier and I had a different sort of pig thing that was quite good. We then walked back to our hotel realizing we really were in the center of things but not taking much time to look at specific items because it looked like heavy rain was on the way and Dawna had neither a coat nor an umbrella.

Sunday-3: Our room was noisier than some we'd had but pretty reasonable considering we were in the middle of a major city. With the windows open it was adequately cool/comfortable for sleeping; albeit those same open windows are what let the noise in. Since the majority of the museums in Berlin are closed on Monday we headed out for our primary museum right after a fine breakfast in the hotel. The museum of choice was the Pergamonmuseum which has an outstanding collection of items from Greece, Turkey, and the Middle/Near East. We got there by subway (although most of it was actually above ground) combined with walking and were in the area well before it opened so did some general exploring on foot first. Then we hit the museum and staggered out 4.5 hours later. Had audio guides that added much information at a large number of the displays. Just plain great. The only negative is that we probably spent too much time with the Greek and Turkish stuff prior to getting to the outstanding Middle Eastern items such as the Gates of Ishtar so we were a bit beat for some of this great stuff. On the other hand, we thoroughly enjoyed the Greek (& Turkish) items since in Greece especially we so often were seeing ancient sites whose archeologist were Germans and hearing how much of the good stuff was in this Berlin museum. Oh, yes, part of our being worn out at the museum was because it was rather hot and muggy in there even though it was cool outside. The layout of the major and huge items within the museum was excellent by the way with rooms often built to house the enormous walls, alters, etc, etc on display.

Had some lunch and then took a very long walk home, checking things out along the way. A disappointment was that the Brandenburg Gate was all covered up as they much be doing major refurbishment. The walking was enjoyable but too long and our feet were worn out by the time we finished. Rested/cleaned up and then went to a nearby Italian place for dinner and the pizza Dawna had was useless (yet supposed to be the pride of the spot) while my spaghetti was quite good; as was the wine we both had.

Monday-3: Had our usual early breakfast and then walked in a different direction to where we took a tourist boat ride on the river (and some canals) back to and then through the main part of the city. Sunny and great weather. Lots of interesting architecture. Too bad the tour description was in German but some of the words were understandable and since we had previously walked around a bunch of the route plus I had a map I was pretty much able to keep track of where we were and what we were seeing. After the boat got to the end of the run and turned around to go back to where it started we got off and hit the road walking again. Deliberately went to an area where we were able to get some Donner Kebab (like in Turkey but different) from a friendly lady at a fast food sort of spot. Then went to the Museum at Checkpoint Charlie. Quite interesting but even hotter and more muggy than at the museum the prior day and that wears one down. This time we had no audio so did lots of reading (the descriptions were in three languages and also were "too" lengthy. The museum is a private deal that a person started way back when the Wall was still up and has lots of good stuff in it along with making a pitch for somehow solving conflicts in a nonviolent nature --- now if only that could happen throughout the world; sigh, it seems like just the opposite lately.