May 26, 2017
Still working on catching up, here.
Left the Holland America ship in the morning of Saturday, May 20, and flew
from Amsterdam (4th country on this trip) to Prague on KLM. I upgraded the fare
to "business" thinking that would give us better seats and free
luggage, but once again I thought wrong!
We paid about $79 each for the upgrade and still had to pay $35 each for
luggage. We basically had coach seats
with one empty seat in the middle, but fixed armrests and maybe a little extra
leg room. Lesson learned! We did get
some sort of meal (sandwich).
Arrived in Prague, Czech Republic (5th country) in the
afternoon. After we settled into our
lovely room at the K+K Central Hotel we walked to a pub for a Czech dinner and
then to the Black Light Image Theatre.
The food was good and the show was amazing. Sort of reminiscent of the "Blue Man
Group" but also quite different.
Just 5 or 6 people in the "cast" and a couple of mimes
provided nearly two hours of entertainment, using a lot of white sheets and colored
(and black) lights to create very interesting designs and choreography.
Our Hotel and the Beautiful Elevator in Prague
The Tower about 1/2 block from our hotel
On Sunday we had a very long tour to Cesky Krumlov. About a 3 hour bus ride each way and another three hours in the village of Cesky Krumlov and tour of the castle there. Interesting medieval village, cobblestone streets, lots of shops, etc. We ate lunch outside on the river. It was a very long day. Involved a LOT of walking, including a long uphill climb to get to the castle. We came, we saw, we survived...
At Cesky Krumlov
Getting a local treat in Cesky Krumlov
Lunch on the River at Cesky Krumlov
On Monday we used the Hop On/Hop Off bus to get to the
Lobkowicz Palace. This was a fascinating
tour! The family owned the palace, it was taken by the Nazis, it was taken by
the State, and then after the communists left the family was able to recover it
and furnish it much as it once was. The tour was narrated by a member of the
Lobkowicz family, whom we understand is a Harvard grad. The family has always been into their dogs
(sniff, sniff, we miss our Marley!!) and music.
In fact, Beethoven's 5th, 6th and several other pieces were dedicated to
the family. The original scores of some
of this music were on display. Incredible.
The tour included an hour-long concert in the family concert hall. A lovely performance by piano, flute and
violin. It also included coffee and
dessert (yum!).
Inside Lobkowicz Palace:
Not THAT's a Long Gun!
The Concert Hall in the Palace
Dessert on the terrace at Lobkowicz Palace
The Hop On/Hop Off bus here was little disorganized and the people running it were a mix of rude and nice, but it got us where we needed to be and got us back and it ran to about a block from our hotel, and there were recorded narrations in 23 languages so we got a bit of a city tour. Another day and we may have given the "metro" system a try. For dinner we gave into our need for "ordinary" food and went to the TGIFriday's a couple of blocks from our hotel.
Arrived in Bucharest, Romania (6th country) on Tuesday. We
flew from Prague on a little airline called "Tarom"---highly
recommend it if you are traveling in this part of the world. It reminded us of
air travel in the US in the 60's and 70's. Nice, friendly attendants, they
didn't charge extra for luggage (as KLM did) and we actually got food (just
sandwiches, but still...) and FREE wine/beer, etc. We lucked out and got three
seats for the two of us with no one between us and armrests you could raise. Much better than the "business class"
we upgraded to on KLM. The drive from the airport to our hotel took about an
hour. Traffic in Bucharest is
horrendous!! We are staying at the JW Marriott Grand, which is an extension of
the pre-cruise stay through Tauck. The hotel is beautiful, big, new, with all
the amenities of any big city high-end hotel.
High end shops, several restaurants and bars, and a very busy conference
scene. Every day has brought a new group
of conference attendees, and as I write this there is a crown of beautifully dressed
college graduates in the grand ballroom celebrating their graduation. This may not be a wealthy country, but they
do know how to party and celebrate!
Obviously no expense was spared on this occasion, and we learned from
one of our tour guides that no expense is spared on the big weddings. Hard to
figure in a place where average salaries are in the $1000-$1500/month range.
Wednesday was a busy day.
We were picked up at the hotel by our local guide, Paul, for our private
walking tour of old town. The city is a mix of medieval, communist era,
modern architecture and everything in between, all in various stages of
disrepair/renovation. This is a government and infrastructure still in
"transition" since the fall of communism in 1989. It has been fascinating
talking to our various guides--all in their early 30's with very young memories
of communism, plus the input from their parents and grandparents of what it was
like before and during the communist era. Those young people in the US who
believe socialism is the way to go, need to spend some time in some of these
formerly communist countries talking to locals to understand what is at stake.
Memorial to Revoltionaries
Roman Ruins
T
Interesting Glass Building Built
Behind the Façade of an Ancient Building
Vlad the Impaler
Behind the Façade of an Ancient Building
Vlad the Impaler
The Parliament Building, "People's Palace"
Dave and Anita - - - - Lynn and Irina
Mihai
In the evening we met another private tour guide, Anita, who
took us to her home via metro and personal car, prepared a home-cooked meal
using ingredients from her grandparents' farm and food prepared by herself and
her mother. She lives in a communist-era apartment that she now owns. It is the same apartment her parents lived in
when she was born...it was tiny...and she and her brother were raised
there. One of our other guides referred
to these apartments as "commie condos". They reminded us of the
welfare "projects" in our country, but the people have treated them
better...there is actually very little crime in this city. The sense we got was that the police/courts
just "don't put up with" it. Any drug infraction results in jail
time, etc. Our dinner included vegetables, salami, ham and cheeses from her
grandparents farm outside the city, a pork and rice meatball soup prepared by
her mother, and two versions of a stew, one with chicken and one with pork. For
dessert we had creme caramel. We tasted
some local liquors and elderberry lemonade, and had a nice bottle of Merlot
with dinner. It was a lovely evening. While
we were there, Anita's upstairs neighbor, Irina, came by in her traditional
Romanian dress. After dinner Anita drove
us back to our hotel. These opportunities to talk one-on-one with the locals
are priceless!
Thursday our tour was a private wine-tasting at the
"oldest wine bar" in Bucharest.
Another fascinating, intelligent, entrepreneur tour-guide, Mihai,
treated us to a couple of hours of wine, cheese, and salami tasting
downtown. Some of the wines were called
"1000 Faces" and the labels featured photographs of the original
owners of some of the vineyards. After
the fall of communism, some 45 years after it was taken from them, if paperwork
was available, etc., the land was returned to the original owners. Of course, they had no money to bring the
property back to what it once was and the owner of the winery bought many of
the old vineyards, named the wines after the owners, features their photos on
the labels, and pays them a small royalty for each bottle sold. The original owners are too old to pursue the
business, anyway, so they got something for their land and a small on-going
income.
Thursday evening was the official start of the Tauck River
Cruise Itinerary. We had a wonderful
dinner at the huge parliament building, referred to as the "People's
Palace". This is a very controversial building built by the last communist
leader here, at a cost of $3 Billion in the 1980's. It is the second largest
building in the world, after the Pentagon. It was never used by the dictator
who built it (Nicolae Ceaușescu ) and today some
80% of it is vacant...but it is grand, as was the meal and free-flowing wine
served to some 90 Tauck guests and accompanied by live classical music from a
quartet of lovely young ladies.
Today was the first of our Tauck tours. Another bus ride to another castle. (Peles
Castle) Left at 7:45 am and returned
around 5pm. This castle was commissioned by Romania's first king, Carol I and
constructed between 1873 and 1883. It is a blend of Neo-Renaissance and Gothic
Revival styles. (and, yes, I just copied that from the guide book...). The tour
was followed by a buffet lunch at the nearby town of Sinaia, which is
apparently a popular vacation area and winter ski resort for the wealthier
Romanians. Today it was rainy, so not such a nice place for wandering...nor did there seem to be much to do/see in the town. By the way, the wealthier Romanians are the ones who work in other
European or Asian countries, where they can make at least 10 times what they can make
here, and then they send their money home to their families or spend it
conspicuously on cars, etc.
Tomorrow we will go by bus to the Black Sea where we will
tour the town of Constanta and seaside resort of Mamaia before boarding our
riverboat.
I'll be very interested in your opinion of Tauck. Linda and Ron Larsen (who worked for the court) have taken several Tauck river cruises and recently sailed with Uniworld. They enjoyed Uniworld but thought Tauck was a little more luxurious.
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