6 May 2010 – Departure
Departed Norfolk on time (1415). Traveling with one carry-on bag was fairly easy, but finding remaining overhead stowage as a late-boarding passenger was more difficult. Arrived Atlanta for connecting flight, which departed slightly late (20 mins) due to having to reprogram the flight computer to reroute us farther south to avoid volcanic ash from the volcano in Iceland. Flight path was illustrated during the trip by a GPS display shown periodically in the cabin on the TV monitors. We went northward up the US East Coast, through Labrador and Newfoundland, then across the top of the arc to proceed southward of the British Isles, and into Europe.
7 May 2010 – Stuttgart
Landed in Stuttgart about 20 minutes late (rerouting as described). With our single carry-on bag each, it was a breeze getting through receiving/customs. Brian was immediately outside to meet us. He picked us up in his Mercedes and took us to his home. He had been on overnight shifts at work, and we had been flying all night, so we were all a bit tired. Ended up napping from about noon until 4pm to recharge a bit. Then went out to eat a bite. Went to a (Turkish?) place for some donor kebabs, which were delicious. I had a Schwip-Schwap soda to drink. It is a mix of cola and orange. Tasty – like a “suicide” mixed at the fountain.
Went out to the base where Brian worked to make sure the exercise he was participating in had completed (it had) and to pick up the rental car he had arranged. Nice Ford diesel wagon. We also went to the exchange at the Panzer base, and exchanged some cash for Euros. Lynn bought a hoodie to make sure she had something to cover her arms, as it was a bit overcast and cool.
Went out for a late (European style) dinner at the hotel restaurant on the corner from Brian and Cindy’s. They had good German food. I had a filet stuffed with “sheep cheese.” Delicious! Lynn had pork cutlets with spatzel. Also delicious. We both had some very tasty German beer. Reorganized our stuff for the trip to Prague in the morning and went to bed.
8 May 2010 – Prague
Got up and got in the car for the trip to Prague. It was about a 4.5 hour drive, although it was advertized as being near 6 hours. The speeds on the autobahn were very helpful. Got to Prague and checked into our hotel (Crown Plaza), dropped out bags and car, and started looking for something to do. Found a quick Grey Line tour to take to get a quick familiarization, and booked it. Took the tram from the hotel to the pick-up point in town. Pretty easy, and was clean and well run. Tour was nice – small bus for a half hour or so, then some walking for a good while and finished up with a boat tour along the river. Beer was included as part of the tour on the boat. Mission accomplished – the tour got us familiarized enough with the geography so we could organize ourselves for the next day. Finished up the day by walking around the Old City quarter of Prague to find a good place for some local Czech food. I had red meat again – a local dish called “svickova” (pronounced SVICH-kova). It was a beef steak in a brown gravy which was sweeter than we would make in the States, and spiced with different things. Came on a bed of heavy potato dumplings and mashed potatoes, with asparagus. Good local wine to drink too. Lynn had a roast lamb knuckle (knee, we are told). It was very tender and tasty also. Went to bed after catching the metro from the Old City to the tram stop we needed, and then walking the rest of the way since we could see the hotel from there.
9 May 2010 – Prague
Got up and went out to the tram stop by the hotel, and took the tram to the Hradceny (hROD-cheny) area near Prague Castle to start our day. During our tour the previous day, Brian had left his ball cap at a cafe near the cathedral where we had stopped for a beer. We returned, and the staff knew right away where the hat was, and returned it. Brian was very happy. From there we continued out to proceed down the hill toward the Charles Bridge. On the way, we stopped for a breakfast at a little cafe. I had strudel (good) and coffee (very good, but small). Lynn had a hamburger and fries. The fries looked about as you would expect (Lynn said they were good), but the burger looked like some sort of meatloafy stuff, and it looked pink. She said it tasted fine, but wasn’t exactly what she had pictured. At any rate, we got fed, and continued touring.
Right near the cafe, Lynn and Cindy found a marionette shop, and we looked around in there for a while. Each got a puppet, since they looked very interesting and are among the things Prague is (apparently) known for producing.
Continued down the hill, with a stop in St. Nicholas Cathedral. It was the prettiest cathedral I have ever seen. It was Sunday and there was a service in progress, so no photos were possible. Believe me when I say it was stunning.
From there we meandered down to the end of the bridge and began a slow crossing. The bridge is covered from end to end with street vendors selling all kinds of sketches, watercolors and paintings of the scenes. Most were very good. There were also some street performers, including a 1920s era jazz band that was also very good. The views of the city on both sides of the river were beautiful.
Once on the other side (in the Old City) we proceeded to the Medieval Torture Museum and spent about an hour there looking at the various torture devices and reading the descriptions of how they were used to extract confessions. Whew! Needed a beer after that, so we went to find some beer and lunch. We ended up in the Old Town Square where the interesting Astronomical Clock is located. We found a seat at the street cafe directly across from the clock so we could watch it strike when the time had come. It was interesting, and its function can better be understood by looking it up online.
Lunch consisted of beer and schnitzel for me. It was very good, and quite tender. Brian had goulash which he said tasted like Dinty Moore beef stew. Lynn concurred after tasting it. The Czech beer was quite good – on this occasion, Pilsner Urquell.
While at the torture museum, we found a flyer for an underground tour of Prague, so we decided to do that in the late afternoon (it started at 3). In the remaining time before the tour, we walked around the Old City some more, and climbed up in the Powder Tower and took some pictures of the city from up on top. Very pretty place.
The underground tour was fun, and began by entering a stairwell beneath the old Clock Tower (where the Astronomical Clock is) to gain access to the underside of things. Just as in many places, the city was filled in to make it more flood proof over the years, so what was once the street level became the cellar. We got to see many old homes from ancient times which served as the cellars for several homes built later in the history of the city after fire or disaster caused the destruction of the wooden homes built on top.
Walked back across the Charles Bridge again to look for a place for dinner. Decided to try a place next to the river that we had seen the previous day during the boat tour. It was a very nice place, and had great Czech beer too. I had something local from the menu, which when produced turned out to be pretty much another schnitzel. Oh well – it was quite tasty also, so no tears were shed.
After dinner Brian and I decided to try some local drinks. First we tried the becherovka (bech-er-OV-ka) which is an herbal distillation of Czech origin. It was quite tasty and strong, and had a taste slightly reminiscent of Angostura bitters. Next (and finally) we tried absinth. It was brought to us undiluted in a double shot glass with a small spoon, some sugar and a butane lighter. The waitress assisted us in preparing it for the local means of consumption. First, the small spoon was filled with sugar. Then it was dipped in the absinth to soak it, and this wet sugar was set afire with the lighter. The alcohol was allowed to burn off, and then the sugar was dissolved in the drink. The the drink was consumed by sipping, as the waitress to us it was “not necessary” to consume as a shot tossed back. As might be expected, it was very strong, and tasted like licorice. All in all, maybe a bit anticlimactic, since neither Brian nor I suffered any hallucinations produced by the supposed effects of wormwood.
After dinner, we caught the Metro back to the tram stop, and since it had started raining (quite hard during dinner) we took the tram back to the hotel instead of walking as the night before.
10 May 2010 – Munich
Got up a little later and checked out of the hotel for the trip back to Stuttgart. We went back a little different way so we could stop in Munich for lunch and a short trip to the National Museum so I could see the German Protos car that finished the 1908 New York to Paris automobile race. First on the agenda was lunch. We found the Hofbrauhaus and stopped in. It is a large beer hall with plenty of good German food for tourists. Brian and I wanted to go to the Burgerbraukeller where Hitler began the famous Beer Hall Putsch, but it had been demolished in 1979 to make room for newer businesses. At any rate, we all found something delicious to eat. I had the “Crispy Roast Suckling Pig” and Lynn had some bratwurst with some amazingly delicious sauerkraut. Brian had a plate full of hotdogs (well,that’s what it looked like – menu said it was some kind of sausage platter). The pork was absolutely delicious, and the brown gravy with it could have qualified as its own food group. The dumplings were also very hearty – made of shaved potatoes and globbed together in a gooey mass. A big dab of that goo with a piece of pork dredged through the brown gravy was very fine business! No one left hungry. We were expected to wash this all down with a liter (well, a litre) or more of beer, so we did. Good idea, because it also was delicious.
The girls went shopping while Brian and I stalked off for the museum. Found it without too much difficulty and gained entry easily with a 5 or 6 euro bribe. It was filled with fascinating stuff – engines, airplanes, industrial machinery, drilling and mining equipment. We saw a couple of cars, and after wandering around for about about an hour, we decided to ask about the poor old Protos. Turns out, it is in a new annex to the museum on the other side of town. Been there about 3 years, it seems. Oh well, it was about 1630 by then, and the museum closes at 1700, so we had to call it off. Maybe next time.
Met the girls outside Hofbrauhaus at Starbucks and had a glass of wine before leaving. They had been shopping, and after returning decided they wanted some vino before leaving. Seemed like a good idea, so they headed across the platz (notice how easily I slip right into speaking German now) to a cafe to get a glass, but ended up going to the wine store next door, finding and buying a nice wine. The operator of the store, when asked, said it would be fine to drink it at the Starbucks cafe tables, and said he would have a word with the manager for them. So he did, and we drank our toast to Munich unmolested.
Went back to Stuttgart from there. Beautiful drive, which would have been even more beautiful if it had not rained. Once back, we stopped by another kebab (in Germany, kebap) place and had some tasty donor kebabs. Then home and unwound a bit (with good beer) and started the laundry before bed.
11 May 2010 – Friedrickshafen
Got up without alarm, and decided on the events of the day. Girls were to go to the spa for pampering, while Brian and I headed to Friedrickshafen to the Zeppelin Museum. It was a tough call, because I really wanted to sprint back to Munich for a peek at Protos, but decided I would rather cover new territory. The drive down was really beautiful, and got better as the morning wore on. It was raining when we left, but it cleared as we got closer to Friedrickshafen and was full-on sunny well before we go there. The town was simply beautiful, and we knew instantly, massage or no massage, the girls had been cheated. The views of the Alps across the Boddensea reminded me a lot of views across Lake Tahoe.
We parked and found a nice cafe on the water and had lunch. The daily special was schnitzel and fries. They were, of course, delicious, particularly when washed down with a mug of Zeppeliner Beer.
The Zeppelin Museum was about what you might expect – lots of stuff about zeppelins and other lighter than air craft from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was fun to see many relics and bits and pieces of such legendary dirigibles as Graf Zeppelin and some of the Count’s early craft from pre-Kitty Hawk powered flight. I took a lot of pictures while Brian yawned politely.
On our trip back to Stuttgart, we left the main roads and took some pretty diversions through some quaint old German towns. A bit of Black Forest and many smaller town castles. Then the quick view (too quick for camera) of the Hohenzollern castle. Very imposing structure!
After returning, we met up with the girls, who had not been able to get into the spa because all appointments had been booked. They had been shopping, and had a nice day, but were disappointed they could not get into the spa and maybe a little bit that they missed the pretty town and shopping opportunities in Friedrickshafen. We walked out to a steak place in Stuttgart for dinner. It was a nice little place, and the menu looked good, so we dived right in. I think we all left stuffed – salad, three rib-eyes and one filet. All delicious.
No energy left in the evening, so we all pooped out and went to bed before 11.
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