Category: Uncategorized

Left Prague this morning.  Our driver took us two hours south to a town called Cresky Krumlov. It is in the Czech Republic close to the Austrian border.   It was a walled castle town which has been very well preserved.   The town had a combination of baroque and renaissance buildings.   Many of the foundations of the buildings were from the 12th century.

 

The Krumlov Castle is the second largest in the Czech Republic.  It even has a bears den and a baroque theatre inside.   We saw the bear’s den but no bears.  Probably too hot for them in the sun!  The town and castle are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I could have spent a whole day here.  it was like being at a Renaissance Fair on steroids!

The Vltava River makes and s turn here.  It starts here in the south and is  much smaller than it is in Prague.  You could rent kayaks  and rafts to go around the town.   I so wanted to do this but could not find an accomplice.  Could have used daughter Kate at a time like this.

We left the town around 2 and headed west along the river to get to our ship in Passau, Germany.

After settling in our cabin on the Viking Prestige, we found Judy and Lauren who were joining our group for the cruise.  We had a fantastic dinner.  I had mushroom dishes galore.  It is mushroom season in Germany.

To my surprise while we were enjoying coffee, the wait staff brought my a flaming birthday cake.  While I was talking to Malcolm, she whispered to our waiter about my birthday.   Of course by then I had a some wine and beer, so the deed was pretty easy to accomplish. Thank you, Joyce!  Fortunately it only had one candle so my age still remains a secret to the others.

All in all, we had another great day with lots of new experiences!

 

 

 

 

 

This morning we were off to see Terezin which is a Nazi concentration camp about an hour north west of Prague.  The Nazi’s took over Terezin which is  a town made up of two fortresses.  In the bigger one they housed Jews and made them work, gave them little food and separated families.  They put the children in a children’s barracks, and the adults in men’s  and women’s barracks .    There were not gas chambers here.  Many got transported to other camps  to be exterminated.   While they were in this camp, a lot of artwork, drama and poetry  went on.  It was so moving to go through a museum that displayed the artwork and  the poetry.  The opera Bundebar was written and performed by the children in the camp 53 times.

The smaller fortress was a prison before the Nazi invasion.   We got to tour this prison. Some Jews  from the concentration camp were sent here if the Nazi didn’t like something they did like finding the paintings of their life at Terezin which was deemed “horrifying propaganda”.   In fact, the Nazis themselves glorified the camp to use for a Red Cross inspection in 1944, showing the official how wonderful everyone was treated!

This just was not what I was expecting. It was a whole town.  Today people do live and work here.   We toured three museums.  This tour was unforgettable.

This evening we took a river dinner cruise.  It was a beautiful summer evening with incredible scenes of Prague from the Vltava River.  The cruise ended with fireworks in front of the castle.  What can I say?  This was indeed was a very memorable way to celebrate my birthday!

 

 

We saw so many interesting  sites in Prague today I almost don’t know where to begin.   All six of us went with a driver and a tour guide for a four hour tour.  We started out at the Vysehard Castle which had beautiful views overlooking the Vltava River.

We went on to the Prague Castle district and even saw the changing of the guard which is done every hour.

The Old Town Square withe the astronomical Clock from the 15th century was pretty impressive as well as the Charles Bridge.  We went back to the Jewish Quarter this afternoon.   In the Old Jewish Cemetary we saw old tombstones that were so crooked.  It was the only Cemetery Jews were allowed to be buried in.  So many graves were put on top of each other, sometimes 7 or 8 deep.  This went on from the 1400 until 1787.

Also in the Pinkas Synagogue were handwritten name of the 77,000 Czech Jews that were killed in the concentration camps.   I felt like I did when we toured the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Here are some other interesting sites from our day.

August 7th, 2014

Yesterday and today blurred together.  Out flight left Philadelphia around 9:30 last night.  It was a little over seven hour flight, but as soon as we were airborne we were instructed to move our clocks ahead six hours.   Easy to do on your watch, but not quite as easy to do with your body’s internal clock.   

After dinner on the plane, we were given a pillow, thin blanket, a blindfold and ear plugs.   All of the window shades were pulled down and the overhead lights were turned down    This was to give you the idea it was sleep time.  Out of the six of us, I was the only one who slept soundly most of the time to Paris.   We had about a three hour layover and then finished our travel with arriving in Prague around 3:30 pm.  All in all, we figured most of the group had been awake over 30 hours as we ate our dinner tonight.  Frank is already asleep and snoring as I write this entry.   

Our hotel is close to the Old Town in Prague. I am sure after a good night’s rest, we will be ready for our city tour tomorrow.   Can’t wait!  

This afternoon we head for the Philadelphia Airport to begin our adventure to Prague, a Viking River Cruise on the Danube and Budapest.   Who knows what adventures await us?   Follow along.   We hope you enjoy hearing about our adventures!