Three countries, three rivers. #3 Vltava (Moldau in Germany) River/Czech Republic

We all went to Prague over Thanksgiving. We had a great time and really enjoyed the city.

If you would like some music to go along with this post try this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJJfEfP9JVk

This is a famous German song about the river. We went to a concert in this church where Chris was moved to goose bumps by the performance. Florrie wasn’t; but she enjoyed the people watching.

Nemo and I enjoyed the concert; it seemed that every where we went in Prague there was one coming up. We were happy that Chris let a persuasive young man talk him into this one.

 

Our hotel was right on the other side of this arch. We did a lot of walking. Well, Chris and Florrie walked we were carried.

 

 

 

Prague at night is beautiful city; however it is rather silly to go on a night cruise in a glass walled boat as all you really see is your own reflection! You need to be outside to enjoy the city.

Views of the city at night from the boat and from the land.

These are real birds.                        These are not.

 

We met this nice young man on the boat. He is from Italy and spoke more English then we spoke Italian. We managed to become friends.

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of young men; we met these two guys from Columbus Ohio.

One of them was in film school so we directed them to a very interesting film museum we had visited.

We spent some time relaxing, and speaking of films, we went on a movie tour of Prague.

See how many of these places you recognize:

The Great Wall?

Venice or Amsterdam?          

 

 

This bridge and the street you see from the bridge were both used in the first Mission Impossible move.

Do you remember the masquerade ball in Van Helsing? the one where all the quests but two were vampires? That was filmed in this church. While on the tour we came across a Soviet era train station in an extreme state of disrepair. Later we all went back and got some pictures.

 

Ever since Japan Florrie has been noticing manhole covers. There were at least three different designs in Prague.

 

 

This area is known as Saint Wenceslas Square; he is the patron saint of Bohemia. Bohemia is a historical area of Europe, and is now part of Prague.

 

The square is famous throughout history and was used as a horse market during the middle ages. Traditionally it’s the site of demonstrations and festivals. We enjoyed the square; there seemed to be something new every day. I took the bagpiper pictures for our friends the Weeks. This square along with more of the historical center of Prague is a World Heritage site.

This clock, according to our movie bus tour guide, is the second most over rated tourist attraction in Europe. The first is the one in Munich. We have seen both but haven’t hung around for the actual show when the hour strikes.

Prague itself is a cool city with lots of interesting buildings; Florrie took pictures of the ones she liked the best.

I don’t understand why she was drawn to this building, it’s kind of like her attraction to caves and small alleys.I keep telling her not to be so twisted but she doesn’t always listen to good advice. She said this building reminded her of one of her son’s favorite paintings. Can you guess which one?

One of the most famous sights/sites in Prague is the St Charles Bridge. Florrie got up early one morning so she could get a picture of each and every statue on the bridge with no people blocking the view. Rather than post them all, here is her favorite from across the way and then closer.

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Here is a link if you’d like to learn more about the bridge: http://www.aviewoncities.com/prague/charlesbridge.htm

Another famous place that  was harder to find is affectionately known as the “Lennon Wall.” In the 1980’s young people wrote grievances on the wall and at one time this led to a clash between students and police on the Charles Bridge. This was before the “Velvet Revolution” when Prague was still a communist country. Later people started filling the wall with Lennon inspired graffiti and Beatles lyrics. At one time the wall was painted over but within a few days it was covered again. Now it is allowed to stay this way. One of my favorite songs is “Give Peace a Chance”, Imagine that.

Here’s another manhole cover Florrie liked.

Well that’s it for now, until we meet again have fun but be good. You never know what might be against the law!

#2 Germany, Rhine River

 

OK, it’s definitely been more than a week but events in the world keep a person busy. Here’s the promised post about our visits to the Rhine River. Our friends Chris and Florrie took three trips to the Rhine, all within a months’ time. Nemo and I were not invited on one of the trips. That was a mistake, we were missed! At least Nemo was, reminds me of China when no one recognized me. The first trip was a boat ride down a section of the Rhine. As some of you may know, the Rhine River is loaded with castles, I guess everyone wanted a piece of it back in the day.

There was castle, after castle, after castle.

 

There were lots of grapes too, you all know how important they are for making

 

 

 

 

 

There were some typical but cool places. This spot made Florrie think about the book “Stones from the River”

There was some discussion about whether this was actually a boat or a stationary building.

 

 

 

 

And, of course, there were even more castles. Florrie and Chris were imagining what it must have been like when everyone wanted to be “King of the hill”.

Here you can tell where the builders carved part of the building out of the stone. Florrie wants to climb around in this last castle. As some of you may  know she has a thing for ruins.

 

One of the best things about this trip was that we met a nice couple from the west coast. Rod is a bagpipe playing. He is performing in Oregon this weekend with Jamie Laval who is a well known fiddler. I haven’t heard Rod play but I’ve read about him and Jamie in Google and they both have some rave reviews. Nancy loves to garden. She was actually born in Germany, not to far from where we live now. Her father was in the Army here. This was the first full day of their European Vacation. We all stayed on the boat for lunch rather than rushing off to find a place to eat. We were glad we did, it was beautiful, enjoyable, and relaxing.

Our next Rhine River trip was to the town of Rudesheim which is a wine making town in the Rhine Gorge and is actually part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This is where we discovered that even a Mini can be too small for some roads, at least if you don’t remember to bring in the side view mirrors, and are forced to back up once you discover you are on a one way street. I don’t know, would you all call the spot Chris is standing on a street?

Look at all the grape vines, have I told you all I love wine. Beer is good too. I think the things people can do with grapes and hops are just miraculous.

 

 

The town is very cute although rather touristy, we took a ride in a cable car. This is where a tragedy of possibly epic proportions occurred. In a scene reminiscent of the Exorcist, my head spun around and feel off! Luckily it landed in the cable car or my friends would have been hunting in the wine fields for days and days! My friend Chris was a savior and reattached my head! Poor Nemo was beside himself with anxiety but all ended well.

After that dangerous above ground expedition we all decided to play it safe and keep our feet on the ground.

We wandered around the delightful little town.

After a sumptuous German lunch where we were treated to an interesting musical performance we headed back home.

The last Rhine trip of the month was when Chris and Florrie went to meet a friend from Columbus who was on a Rhine River cruise.  Mary Ellen worked with Florrie at Independence High School. She was on a very interesting trip with a friend. After the trip down the Rhine they were picking up motorcycles and spending the next two or three weeks biking around Europe. Sadly we were left home. Almost the first thing Mary Ellen said after hello was, “Where’s Nemo”. I just don’t understand why she didn’t say “Where’s Jesus on a Surfboard”, I felt like chopped liver when I heard the story. But, I turned the other cheek and forgave her. Mary Ellen is the woman in blue, the woman in orange is her friend Dorothy. Chris and Florrie had a lovely time and hope to see both Mary Ellen and Dorothy in Europe again; next time we will go with them.

This is the end of the Rhine River stories. Next will be the Vltava River in Prague. In German it’s called the Moldau River and was made famous in the song My County by Smetana. You will have to wait more than a week but hopefully less than a month for that post.