July 2nd To byl den plný smíchu

We have been excited to get to Prague and try the strudel that Samantha Brown raved about as one of her favorite foods she has ever had.  So after breakfast we headed out.

We finally got to see what is behind the wooden doors that we would pass by all over town.  Now we live behind one.

Pam's sees the upcoming hill.

So we hit the cobblestone sidewalks of Prague.  Now there is something you should know about this city there is no flat land.  You are either going up or down.  And as you know if you go down you must come up.  We felt well protected as we were walking because we saw police everywhere.  They were searching all the taxi's  which helps us decide not to take a taxi ride.  Sorry no pictures of that since we didn't want to get arrested either.

Every corner we had a picture moment.

We followed our fearless leader who had the map.

The problem was he was looking at the wrong map.  So here starts our great adventure.

When we headed down another empty street Pam and I started questioning our route.

But Roger had wanted to show Mike a new Picasso picture.

Which was fine but when he wanted to show us the junk yard art exhibit we really weren't sure what we were in for.

We weren't sure if we liked the art....or the neighborhood.  We also weren't sure if the rapture had happened because there wasn't a soul in sight.

But as good wives we continued to follow our men without complaint and the thought of an apple strudel kept us going.

But when we saw the stairs we had to now climb we had to decide if we really wanted the worlds best strudel.

Well we decided it was.

Mike wondered why the young kids could stop and take a break but we couldn't.

And there just kept being more

and more

and more

and more stairs.

Just bring me the strudel.  I'll wait here.

At least we did get some great views of the city, since we were higher than everything else in the city.  The Eiffel Tower was nothing compared to this.  We could have climbed the stairs to the top of the Eiffel Tower and that would have only been half way up this hill.  Strudel....Strudel....Strudel where are you?  Roger said that we were almost there.  We were beginning to question his sense of direction.

I decided that I was following the arrow to the strudel.

Only to get there to find that it was CLOSED!!!! Not to reopen until the day before we leave.  Why would a Czech take the 4th of July off.




Mike cried out to the Strudel man "Why, Why can't you open, we hear you inside".

This made me very, very, very sad.

But I have to say we had more laughs on our journey for strudel than I think we have had this whole trip.  Now the thing is we didn't need to go over that hill at all and if we would have looked at the right map we would have realized we had turned on the wrong street into the ghetto.  Pam and I have been laughing the whole time we were putting these pictures and blog together.  But that was only the beginning of our day.  We then walked in the opposite direction to Old Town.

Where we came upon a concert

and food booths in the square.

So we walked around trying to decide what we might want.  Mike kind of liked the potatoes.

Roger liked the roasted pork.  He asked for the cooking instructions for our party we're planning when we get back home for our dear friends that gave us the going away party.  We think they would love this.

But Pam & I got in line for.....

we really aren't sure what they are.

But it tastes yummy.  It felt funny handing over a 100 and only getting change back.

This place is beautiful and we have too many pictures to post them all.  You will just have to come and experience Prague.

Although there were things Pam wished she didn't see.

We walked across the Charles Bridge.

Crossing over the Vltava River.

We saw the castle but decided we would climb that hill another day.

Our Memories of Amsterdam

Feeding our feathered friends -  Pam & I even saw a piece of bread laying on the sidewalk and we both thought the same thing.  "I should pick that up to feed the swans", but neither of us acted on it.

Daily walk to Dappermarket - Loved walking through the market and feeling like a local.  Picking up bread, food and moldy tomatoes.

Boat parade - Every evening we would watch all the boats go by as the locals enjoyed the nice weather.

Shocking Pam - She got to see things she never wanted to see.  You'll have to ask her about that yourself.  Although she has tried deleting all those images.

July 1st Arrival in Prague

After a night of not sleeping very well we arrived in Prague and had to say good-bye to our new biking friends.  They had ridden their bikes from Prague to Amsterdam and were returning by train.

So we gathered our stuff.

And left our little train cabins.

To again walk with our luggage to our new home in Prague.

Of course I had to take advantage of the picture moment as we had to wait for directions.

So here is some pictures of our 4 bedroom apartment.

As you can see it didn't take long for the guys to settle in and relax.

This is the master bedroom which on one is using.

The dinning room with all of our luggage thrown down.

Mike & Pam's room.

Another spare bedroom.

Roger's and my bedroom.

The kitchen.

The breakfast table.

The bathroom.

After we got settled in and had some aperitifs.  We had to head back down to the train station to buy our tickets to go from Prague to Vienna since I could not purchase them online.  We then had to search out a grocery store.  Pam searched this one all on her own but decided it didn't have what we needed.

As you can see love is still in the air.

At least most of the time.

Let me just say grocery shopping is getting more interesting as this trip goes on.  We are never really sure what we are buying but it is fun to experiment.  But we did decide to go out for dinner tonight since we were all tired and didn't feel up to cooking and cleaning up.  We were fortunate that they handed us an English menu.

So it is off to bed because our Prague adventure starts tomorrow.  And all we can think about is getting some apple strudel that we heard about on Samantha Brown.  Dobrou noc dear friends!

June 30th Train to Prague

We needed to clean everything out of the fridge and we couldn't let anything go to waste so what we couldn't pack we had to eat or drink.

While Pam and I finished packing the guys headed over to Dappermarket to pick up our last sandwiches from our new fast food owner/operator friend.  He has risen to the #1 market food stand in the Amsterdam area, with the magazine article to prove it.  As most successful businessmen have there is a woman behind him ensuring his success.

Then it was time to leave.  So with saddened hearts we locked up the houseboat and headed down the road with all our luggage.

We had our first breakdown on our way to the train station.

So we had a pit stop to switch bags around.

Then we were good to go.

We stopped and ate lunch by the river.

Pam decided she would like to get a coffee.  If you look close you can see it.

We headed on to the station and then suddenly the skies opened up and poured on us and at that moment it became every man/woman for themselves.  Which left Mike in the back looking through the suitcase for his coat but what he then realized is that at the pit stop he had changed that one and now Pam had it and she was long gone.  The plan had originally been that Mike would sit outside and watch the suitcases while the rest of us went shopping but I decided I didn't need my ornament that bad.  So we went and sat at the train station.

We boarded the train for a 16 hour overnight adventure.  What we learned from this adventure is pay the extra money and get a bed not the reclining seats that really don't recline.

June 29th

We had another mellow morning but of course headed back to the Dappermarket.  Mike's new friend was passing by as he was making a comment about wanting the same sandwich that his friend had had the other day.  So his friend heard that and stopped so he could order the sandwich for Mike.  We then got another sandwich from the same place we had gotten the day before.  We then made a practice run to see which way we wanted to go with our luggage tomorrow.   We ran across another little market in our search for an ice-cream which we never got.

With two cruise ships in today the streets were very  busy.

There were lots of tour guides out with their groups so Roger thought he needed to make sure we could see him.

He showed us the Bjorn Borg design studio.  When our tour was done we had to get back and pack.

June 28th

Today we didn't do much of anything except hang out with our feathered friends.  The weather was warm and muggy.  We ventured out to pick up something for dinner and found a wonderful little sandwich place at the Dappermarket.  When we got back the wind picked up and it cooled down quick.    Later came the thunder and lightning.