Return today

Hi All,

This post, the last of our A-V-B-P trip, comes to you from sprawling Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Happy Thanksgiving! We are so excited to share dinner in 12 hours or so with Layne, Olivia and Rennell. Together, the kids are cooking their first turkey. We can't wait!

Our final 3 days passed in a flash. When I last wrote, we were on a fabulous bus, on our way to Cesky Krumlov (CK), a small city built on a sharp bend in a river -- a natural moat. When you look down on the city, if you squint your eyes so you don't notice the antennas and satellite dishes, it's almost possible to believe that you are back in medieval times.

The steep hills around the town were covered in seriously intense autumn colours, and altogether, the effect was stunning. For the 20th time, I find myself wishing we were able to post photos to the blog so you could see too (now you can....).

Our pace was leisurely in CK....in part because it poured icy rain our first afternoon there. The travel gods relented and granted us permission to have our first, last and only afternoon nap of the trip. Ahhh!

The food on this trip has been...well, "rib-sticking" is the glass-half-full way of describing most of it, though we have had a few really good meals (all in Hungary...there's a great pun opportunity here that I'll resist). I just don't "get" dumplings: great white slices of tough, chewy, tasteless dough. And there are only so many fatty variations of roasted pork a person's digestive tract can handle, as Frank discovered in CK, causing him to suddenly bolt from the lunch table without explanation! So, the vegetarian restaurant in CK recommended to us by some lovely American art students we met was just the ticket Friday night. The owner, David, was lots of fun. He sat down at guests' tables to take orders and settle bills. He has travelled the world, and asked us if we'd been to Newfoundland (we hung our heads and shook them...no) and was very persuasive that our next trip should be to Albania.

The highlight of our sightseeing in CK was touring an original Baroque theatre that was only used for about 20 years by the local royalty, then completely shut up, freezing it in time. But really, the best part was just being there, wandering tiny, winding streets and imagining the past.

Our final day, back in Prague on Sunday, was deliciously slow and unscheduled. Since we had quite a bit of currency left in Czech Crowns, we decided to treat ourselves to lunch in the most gorgeous Art Nouveau restaurant in the city. (Guess whose idea it was...)

They advertised  a 3-course lunch menu for about $25. Although that's very expensive by Czech standards, we figured it was a great deal. Except.... I didn't do the math properly on the glass of champagne I ordered when the waiter suggested it. Turns out one small glass of pink bubbles cost more than my whole meal ($30)! It's amazing how foolish and ashamed I felt when we got the bill. I said to Frank later that I would have felt far less bad if I'd just lost the money on the street! Frank was very sweet about it, just the right combo of teasing and reassuring.

Nonetheless, the day was gloriously crisp and sunny and the hills were blazing. We decided to take the Funicular (isn't that a great word?) to the base of Prague's version of the Eiffel Tower, the Petron Tower. Except the funicular was closed for servicing....so we hiked. Up and up we went, in the late afternoon golden-y autumn sunshine, with the views of the red-roofed old city getting better and better at each turn.

 

The day ended with Frank's favourite meal (remember, it involves sausage and bread and is preferably eaten standing up) in Wenceslas Square, the exact site where the Communist era ended peacefully in the wake of massive demonstrations in late 1989.

I was planning to end with witty reflections, bordering on deep, but thankfully our plane is loading. It's been a slice, but home awaits, and that's good too.

Bye for this trip,

Wendy and Frank