Category: Uncategorized

Prague, Hungary  Mon 21st to Friday 25th July.
Accom Hotel Rott
It was great that we got to polish our shoes at the hotel. Your runners are never shiny enough for  a train trip.

We got to the station early as it can be tricky getting trains. Only to find that the train was 45 minutes late.
This turned into 60 minutes, but we did see a monk – wearing a backpack!  
And Sarah had a run in with a big spider.


We finally did get on the train – for our 4 1/2 hr trip to Prague. The air cond was broken so it was a warm trip, so warm they started handing out bottles of mineral water.  
Now, when we buy mineral water – it is a fancy name for bottled water but not here – it was mineral water, as in the water they use in the Spas and it was disgusting – salty and horrid. But it was drink it or perish – maybe a slight exaggeration. 

We ran into a huge storm with lightning and really heavy rain, so they ran around shutting all the air vents which made it even hotter.
Then we had a few LONG stops – due to “operational issues”. Quiet warm.  Don’t think we will be there by 4.30!  
The country side was very pretty, heaps of wheat, corn and vineyards. The Czech Republic has certainly embraced harvesting solar power. We saw big solar farms many acres in size. And when a house had panels it was completely covered, many had the outbuildings covered as well.

The train was really crowded and we were travelling with a really lovely group of Indian people. They had been on the train since Budapest and were getting a bit stir crazy. They were all singing along to Indian music and it was lovely. Loud but lovely.
But we did arrive, only 100 minutes late, and had a look at Prague Train Station – pretty spectacular
 
then walked down to our hotel in Old Town Square past soooo many restaurants with little golden pigs turning on spits. Looking forward to trying one of them.
Dinner was at a lovely place covered in dead animal heads and was not for the vegan.
It was in an old tunnel/cellar about three stories underground, down the windy stairs to the dungeon.
 
The stone work was stunning.
 
Half and Half Beers. Half light half dark. In a bucket.
One of their specialties is Pork Knuckle, so we had to give it a go.

We shared it, and dented it. Basically we ate the crackling from around the edges and a tiny bit of meat. It was sensational. There was a band playing local music. 
We had a fun night.
22nd July   Andy’s Birthday.   Happy Birthday Andy Burke. 89 years young. You are a legend! Love you.
Starbucks Coffee – what a genius of marketing and planning. Anywhere you go in the world – there is a Starbucks with the four ingredients guaranteed to make you rich.
1) drinkable coffee
2) toilets
3) air conditioning and
4) free Wifi.

We wandered around the Town Square for a while looking at lovely things then saw the Segways.


This building represents Adam and Eve. The right hand one is taller – ’cause that’s Adam!
Wheeling around Prague.
The lure of Segways was too much to resist, so a one hour tour showed us much of the old Prague.



The bridge from the movie Mission Impossible. Tom Cruise runs along the bridge and jumps off as the car explodes.
 
We saw the National bank and we’re standing on top of 17 tonnes of gold! That’s a lot of gold! No samples given out though.

The famous “Lock Bridges” where lovers write their names on a lock and lock it to the bridge. (A bridge recently collapsed in Paris due to the weight of the locks).

The John Lennon Wall. During communist rule, Western music was banned. People started writing inspirational quotes from John Lennon on this wall. Each night it would be painted over and each day more quotes would come.
 
The busker was of course playing Lennon songs.

Then down to the Vitava River and over the bridge were we could see the Charles Bridge, built by King Charles IV in 1357, 621 meters long and now only used for foot traffic – “no wheels”
.
The “Two Guys Peeing” fountain was built by David Cherny, understandably a controversial Czech sculptor. Their middles spin around and they write words and patterns. You can send an SMS to the fountain and it will write your message in pee! 
Then the famous Astronomical Clock, built in 1410 and is now the oldest working Astronomical clock in the world.  
It is one of the main attractions of Prague and hundreds of people crowd in to watch it chime every hour, on the hour. The 12 Apostles parade past the window and the skeleton rings a bell. Watching the people is far more amusing than watching the Apostles parade by.The astronomical dial has a background that represents the standing Earth and sky, and surrounding it operate four main moving components: the zodiacal ring, an outer rotating ring, an icon representing the Sun, and an icon representing the Moon. You can tells lot about things from this!
YAHHHH!!!!  They have fixed the air conditioning in our room.  Last night was stinking hot. Raina slept under a wet towel. But they did give us a free dinner tonight!
Wednesday 23rd July.
Today we went on a bus trip to Kunta Hora, a small town 100ks east of Prague. This place is dripping with history and the whole town is a UNESCO site. 
Kunta Hora was the power-house of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the home of Good King Wenceslas.

One of the big attractions at Kutna Hora is the ‘Church of the Bones’.  Also known as The Sedlec Ossuary, it is one of the most bizarre things EVER.
In the 1400’s the monks had to build on a cemetery. One of the monks started stacking up the bones – and got carried away, so they call started decorating the chapel – with 40,000 human skeletons· 

Just a bit creepy!  And YES, they did need a sign.
“Don’t touch the dead people”, cause we may have been tempted otherwise. NOT!!!!!!
 We then moved on to Saint Barbara’s Church. It’s one of the most famous gothic churches in Europe, built in the style of s cathedral and Guess what ??? St Barbara is the patron Saint of miners!
 
It was spectacular, with it private vineyard and all. 
The area was developed around the silver mines that made the place so rich. They started mining in 1142 and of course the mine was owned by the monastery. The silver ran out in the 1700’s.  The mint produced all of the coins for Europe at one time.

This door was designed to allow Good King Wenceslas to walk through with his large crown on.  He was not a tall man!

There was also the biggest Jesuit Monastery in Europe. 

A quick stop in Kutna Hora for lunch – 2 pizzas and 2 drinks $12.
At one time we were sitting in the ancient Town Hall, looking at where good King Wenceslas sat and made important decisions.
Raina pointed out the painting of him.
“Who?” said Sarah.
“Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the …” says Raina.
Sarah chimed in with “they don’t grow Barley here. How could be look out on his fields of Barley”.
Raina was unable to explain that Sarah had mixed two songs up – a christmas song and Stings “Fields of Gold” as she was laughing so hard and trying to be quiet that her head nearly popped.
Back in Prague. Some of the horses working there are stunning.
And their Cobble Stone shoes are amazing.
The crowds gathered for the clock chiming.
Opposite our hotel is another hotel with a fancy cocktail bar and sensational views, so we had to venture up there. The views were sensational and the cocktails were small.
After a Czech Donut we went our separate ways.  
Raina for a cruise on the Jazz Boat the cruised up and down with a live Jazz Band. 
 
Raina’s boat went both ways down the river which meant the boat had to go through a lock. Fascinating and what an engineering marvel.
And Sarah, for a rage on the Party Boat. We both had awesome times. 
Thursday 24th July
Todays adventure was a visit to Strahov Monastery but first a walk over Karluv Most or Charles Bridge. The bridge was started in 1357 by King Charles IV to replace the existing bridge damaged by floods. It was originally called Kamenny Most or Stone Bridge and was the only way of crossing the river until 1841. It’s 652 metres long,10 metres wide, has 16 arches protected by ‘Ice shields’ and 30 statues.   
One of the statues has two gold images on it, if you rub them your dreams will come true. 


The bridge is protected by three towers and the one on Old Town side (near Strahov) is considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic style buildings in the world.

Next – Strahov Monastery, a Premonstratensian (a Roman Catholic religious order of Canon Regular) Abbey, founded in 1143 and was amazingly grand. 
First stop was the library – reportedly one of the most grand libraries in the world, containing over 200,000 volumes including 3,000 original manuscripts.
It is split into two halls – The Theological Hall and the Philosophical Hall.
The Theological Hall has amazing stucco work and contain mostly literature of a theological nature and thousands of editions of the Bible.
The Philosophical Hall has an amazing fresco depicting the Spiritual Development of Mankind.


There was also an amazing collection of weird things. Talk about an eclectic collection! 
And amazing manuscripts.  Some from the 1100’s. 
Next stop – the Strahov Monastic Brewery. Those good Monks started brewing beer here in the 13th Century. It is now operational again, brewing “old beers”, some with 16% alcohol.  It was good!
 
Then lunch with view. 
On the 3km stroll back – we met a Prairie Dog.
A Prairie Dog named Joel!
Between strolling, and meeting Prairie Dogs named Joel and looking at all the wonderful things we did find time for a massage!
Yet another great day.
Day 14 – Prague
Wenceslas Square’ or ‘Freedom Square’, a 750 metre plaza/road way, runs from near Old Town Square up to the Czech Museum building. It is the main shopping road but is also very important to Czech history. This has always been the traditional site of celebrations, public gatherings and demonstrations.

On International Students Day, Nov 17th 1989, police suppressed a student demonstration. This sparked a series of demonstrations with hundreds of thousands of people attending. On Nov 27th, ALL citizens of Prague went out on general strike against the Communist Party’s One Party Rule.
500,000 people gathered in Freedom Square for the rally, and were involved in such forbidden activities as being addressed by a priest, an artist and a rock star. To express their displeasure the 500,000 people took out their key rings and began ringing them like bells. Life changing for the people there and for the Czech Republic!
Today there was a folk festival with many different troupes performing traditional dance. The square (which is long and thin not square) was full of the usual thousands of tourists as well as hundreds of people in traditional dress, many carrying cellos. Some of the ladies wore headpieces that looked like they were made of teaspoons.  
And of course there were lots of buskers – music, mine, people making massive bubbles, giant pythons.

Then later we saw an add for something  – with a lady with a teaspoon headpiece.
Pilsener beer – is interesting.  Czech beer is famous world wide for its robust taste and its strength.  After the industrial revolution people found that they were not doing as much physical labour as they did when they were field hands, and the thick heavy traditional beer was not agreeing with them as it was in the past. Apparently it was more like Guinness.  So the Pilsner Company developed a light beer – the first diet/light beer ever. It is not a ‘light’ beer as we know it now, but compared to the traditional beer it was very light.
Bohemian Crystal Chandelier shop.
We put in a visit to the ‘Bed Bar’, a cocktail bar that has big lounges/beds with lots of squashy pillow and the best Mojitos ever. It was lovely. What a pity we didn’t make our way there earlier.
 
It was then a two hour flight to Norway – Oslo.
And now we are in Norway.
Click the Norway tab.

Hi,  These are some of my journey around this wonderful world.