Prague, 9/3-9/4/00 UPDATED
We need to post more photos, but cant do it from here. Prague is beautiful, we will show you later today from Cesky Krumlov. The electrical outlets don't work very well here so battery life is scarce. We drove in to Prague through a wonderful Eastern Austrian region that has great landscapes, rolling hills, and lots of green green farms. We took pictures, but brilliant michelle taped over them (and some of Innsbruck, so now we REALLY have to go back to the bobsled!). As the navigator I got us lost only once finding our hotel in Prague- all of the streets here are one way, and halfway down a one way it will just turn into a one way the other direction! very confusing... we parked the car and took the hotel taxi.
Guys dancing along to classical music on charles bridge. This was one of Billys favorite things, we could have happily stayed there for hours watching them play. Well, go ahead and watch the iMovie of it - you need Quicktime to view this.
We wandered around Prague all day Sunday down in the old town with tiny cobblestone streets, and the Charles bridge. Cliff said the last time he was here in the 1950s it rained. So, guess what? it rained. We still got to see the sights and standing on the bridge is very nice. We made dinner reservations for "THE" restaurant in Prague (guide says when in Prague you must eat here) the Bellvue on the Moldau (VLtava) river by Charles bridge. We had a great 4 course meal and lots of wine - even Cliff drank a bit more that his usual. We finished dinner with Irish coffee and walked the Charles bridge at night. There is nothing anywhere in the US like this place, at night the buildings look like make believe buildings --speaking of, we are now heading for fairy tale town Cesky Krumlov so gotta go!
as you cant see,this tower has bells that ring on the hour, and a person rings it by hand! You can see him hard at work here ->
this is right by the charles bridge in prague looking over the moldau to the castle.
Cliff flirting with one of his many dolls..
wouldnt we all like to take her home
on the actual bridge, you know the name by now..
billy and michelle after a very filling good dinner at the bellvue.
Cesky Krumlov, 9/5/00
well here we are in cesky krumlov, the town is a throwback into medieval times. very much centered around castle and surrounding village life. the castle is one of the more beautiful ones we've seen yet. it is flanked by a river, essentially a moat, on three sides. it is perched high above the village on huge granite cliffs, with its large cylindrical lookout tower proudly situated above the townspeople. the castle is lit up at night creating an image cast against the black night that is like a two dimensional drawing in a fairy book. it's kind of hard to believe it really exists. the air at night throughout the village smells of ironworks, as blacksmithing is an active trade in the town. this morning we had our usual breakfast buffet and now we are preparing for our next leg of the journey, taking us north again through the agricultural landscapes of czech-republic to carlsbad. we hope to take in some hot-springs, and perhaps a round of golf. by the way, some of the big news here in europe seems to be the big petroleum protests and blockades. as we were about to cross the border into czech-republic we were stopped and had to wait over an hour as all the farmers in the region had a tractor parade to the border in a show of support for the truckers protesting fuel prices. literally hundreds of tractors. anyway, time to motivate. hopefully a few more pix downloaded too!.., later, billy, michelle, cliff
well here is krumlov----