Greeting from Afar

[godfry n. glad]

Hey...Greetings from Sweinfurt. i have yet to find a single ball bearing in this town....

I'm off on one of my occasional peripatetic fits...floating the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers from Amsterdam to Vienna, then overland to Prague. We just finished our forced march through Rothenburg and have returned to the ship to relax before preparations for the forced march on Bamburg tomorrow.

I'm sorry I missed harassing Watser?, but I was indisposed in our short stay in Amsterdam and only managed to take part in a brief canal tour in a raging downpour. Online connections sux, so I'm not sure you'll hear from me again until after my return home.

I trust everyong is still acerbic as ever....

[ceptimus]

Afar is part of Ethiopia, so the ship must have taken a wrong turn in the rain.

[JoeP]

Greetings Jafar!

show spoiler

[Dingfod]

Bring some ebola home and share.

[mickthinks]

You may be Afar for some but you're awful Anear for me. LOL Relativism!

[Watser?]

Hmmmm, raging downpour doesn't narrow the date down I have to say...

[godfry n. glad]

From Wien...Vienna....Arrived last night and have whirlwind tour this morning, followed by 3-5 hours of 'free time'. We're headed for the natural history museum to see the Venus of Willendorf and other exhibits, and then just wander the streets as confused tourists. At this point, I've seen enough baroque expressions in architecture and decorative arts to last three or more lifetimes....I'm thankful for the impositions of Otto Wagner and Auguste Klimpt and their crowd for the 'fresh air' they introduced. One day in Vienna is not nearly enough to satisfy me, but...hey...I don't have the kind of money necessary to spend more time...besides, we're due in Prague the next evening, after an even more brief mid-day meander through Bratislava. Three full days in Prague, which is break the whole 'if this is Tuesday, this must be....' feeling of the tour.

I must admit, I'm now looking forward to the comforts of home.

[godfry n. glad]

Crap....Museum of Natural History is closed Tuesdays. Our intents were foiled. So, we were just confused tourists, wandering the streets inside the Ringstrasse. We didn't see much of works of Otto Wagner or the Secessionsists, but at least the overwhelming baroque stuff is a bit buffered by 'historicism' in some of the public buildings. Still, there is a strong Counter-Reformation Catholic influence in the Hapsburg sponsored public works.

Tomorrow, on to Prague, stopping in Bratislava for lunch.

[Ensign Steve]

Three days in Prague, that is awesome. Have you been there before? I have not, but it's my mom's favorite city in the world, and she's been to lots of cities.

Enjoy!

[Janet]

Are you on one of those river cruises? My sister is intrigued by them but I'm not sure I like all the organized activities on every stop. I'd love a review if you are.

[godfry n. glad]

Yes, we are on a Grand Circle River Cruise...originally Amsterdam to Vienna, with Prague as a 'post-extension' option. It's the same outfit with which we did the Canal du Midi barge trip in 2008. We liked that so much, we followed through with this one.

I've heard a lot about Prague, but actually know very little. We were offered 'optional tours' (basically side trips) into the countryside, but passed them up to have more time in city. After our 'info tour' to orient us, we'll be on our own for the rest of our time here.

2...4...6...8....time to defensitrate.

[godfry n. glad]

So...Off we went on a bus to Hrad Praha, the Old City, the Jewish Quarter, and promptly got lost. This was largely because our hotel is a goodly distance from the main sights, but on the Metro, with a stop right outside the hotel. We prepped ourselves with Metro information in case we did not make it back to the location to meet the group for the 'transport adventure' (learning to use the Metro) on the Old City Square. We had wandered toward Wensaslas Square, had lunch, and got turned around...ending up back at Wensaslas Square, instead of Old City Square, when we were supposed to be at the latter. No matter, we thought, we'll just take the Metro from Wensaslas Square, which has two Metro stations. Finding our way in and down....we ended up waiting....and waiting...and waiting. Finally, a friendly local informed us there were 'technical problems' and our line was not running.....and we had not prompted ourselves for surface transport. After confusion and disorientation, we resorted to the taxi. Ouch. But we got back to the hotel, tired of foot and soul. Swimmer is doing the in-hotel massage and I'm going back out to find dinner...probably donar.

[godfry n. glad]

Today's morning forced march took us to the Lesser Town, below the Hrad Praha castle, but on the opposite side of the river from the Old Town and Jewish Ghetto. We visited some 'hidden treasures' like the Wallenstein estate gardens, the Senat buildings, and the Lennon Wall. Then after the site of the Infant Jesus of Prague (which I avoided), we strolled the avenue leading to the Charles Bridge in search of tacky souvenirs...then it was a stroll across the Charles Bridge, which is choked with way too many character sketch artists and cheap jewelry vendors under the watchful eyes of the statues of the saints which line the bridge (and two bands and an accordianist). We identified a restaurant for dinner to which will will return this evening. We've mastered the Metro underground and I have tried on of the trolley cars.

Tomorrow, I hope to return to the Old City and visit the Mucha Museum...and maybe see some more Art Nouveau hidden amongst the older sites. The Town Hall with its astronomical clock is awesome and the Old Town Square is quite engaging, despite the ongoing reonvations of the St. Stephen church and the Jan Hus statue.

I will atest that Prague is indeed a worthy and interesting destination, as, it seems, thousands of others have discovered as well....throngs of tourists clog the streets at midday, despite the impending "end of the tourist season" come Saturday.

We fly out on Sunday, homeward bound via Amsterdam and New York. It'll be good to be back home and sleep in our own beds. Hopefully, I'll have some decent pix to post up, then.

[godfry n. glad]

Home again after a really annoying return trip through four airports, many of them at brisk pace. Combined with the overheated public spaces and overheated seated torture chambers which pass as airliners...7 am flight out of Prague to Paris to Atlanta to Puddle City at midevening....we arrived dead tired and robustly ripe.

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Janet

Are you on one of those river cruises? My sister is intrigued by them but I'm not sure I like all the organized activities on every stop. I'd love a review if you are.

A review.

We bought a package. That package was basically a river ship tour of the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers, where the ship serves as a moving hotel with a small room with shower, regular meals (three daily for us - this can vary by tour), lounge, planned events which can be avoided, including presentations by locals or one of the three tour directors along on the trip. The 120 or so passengers were divided amongst the three so that ashore, they were responsible for a set group of cruisers. So, on the tour, you rely upon the hotel manager on ship, and the tour director ashore. Our tour directors was a young Dutch woman who had taken her degree in travel industry. She was well informed in her material and confident in her presentation. She was a reasonbly good source of assistance and advice. In each docking city along the way, the tour directors provided information on the location, usually through an evening 'port talk' and an 'info walk' at the location. Each cruiser was provided with a 'personal listening device' which was used during the walking tours.

Keep in mind that at each location, each cruiser has the option of not participating in the guided activities. Any of them could take a boarding pass and go 'out on their own', with the requirement that they be back aboard by sailing time. Or, they could sit in their room watching the daily movie on the provided television, hang out in the lounge sucking up expensive drinks, or piss and moan about the crappy wi-fi connect. There was a cardio room, hot tub, and a massage attendant available. I used none of them, but my companion, a LMT herself, tried the massage the first night aboard and never returned.

Some locations have specific activities offered as part of the package....Glass blowing in Wertheim, or a 'country dinner' with a bus trip involved. Heidelburg was an included destination at some distance from our docking and involved a longer bus trip. Rothenburg, was an additional charge and also included bus travel.

We started in Amsterdam and then cruised to Cologne, Koblenz, Rudesheim, Wertheim, to where the Main River joins it, then on to Wurzburg, Rothenburg (an 'optional' - read extra cost - tour), the alternative to the regularly scheduled Schweinfurt. The Main River fed us in to the Main-Danube Canal through Bamburg, Nurmburg, and Passau. We passed through 66 river locks over the course of the entire tour, with the most impressive with 82 foot lifts occurring overnight during our passage from Passau to Melk, where we crossed in to Austria. The following day took us to Vienna and the last day on ship. While others stayed for the option extension tour of three full days in Vienna, we had opted for the optional extension in Prague. So we were packed up and bussed through to an afternoon walking tour, lunch and a wee bit of free time in the city center of Bratislava, and then on to hotel in Prague. We'd booked ourselves out of the optional extensions in Prague, but decided to take two of the three morning walking tours (comes with the package) in the hrad Praha, the Old City and Jewish ghetto, and Lesser City and the Charles Bridge.

All in all, I enjoyed it. The guide (aka 'tour director') was good to have because I was not really that familiar with the area being traversed. They provided much needed information and assistance in dealing with the differences and negotiating the culture (bathrooms, banks, culinary offerings and the like). We were never required to know the native language, but the natives themselves, aside from our guides, were usually more adept in English than most of us might have been in Dutch or German. The ship's crew, being the captain, his assistant, and three sailors, seemed effective at their jobs, but I'm a poor judge. I was impressed with the quality of the 'hotel staff'; the housekeeping staff was pleasant and effective, as well as unobtrusive, the galley staff kept us fed and served in fine style with a standing buffet augemented with daily menu options. My companion is gluten intolerant and was catered in style, with the waitcaptain working with her the entire trip. She liked the cook doing omelets to order each morning. We were overfed and overwined. Despite this, I lost nine pounds in the three weeks.

I was impressed when first boarding to note that there were handwashing stations at entry and in to the dining area. These are in addition to the regular wash facilities in each room and the lobby toilets. Still, some kind of upper respiratory infection got loose in the second week...a rhinovirus, I'd guess...and two cruisers went home in Austria, before reaching Vienna. This is a risk with this form of traveling; placing a group of novel viral clusters together for an extended period and spin the aerosols.

Mind you, most of the cruisers on these tours are retired folks, so the average age is in the late sixties to mid seventies. There were a couple of mother-daughter pairs, but I seemed to be the only male still in the workforce. One woman was health-limited and never went ashore, but seemed to enjoy herself. Being reasonably fit is a big plus, because the walks can be strenuous. Traipsing around ancient cities with lots of cobblestones is physically demanding. To a certain extent, the kind of tour selects those kinds of travelers, but there are exceptions.

I liked it. It's the second tour we've done with Grand Circle. We'll probably do the second end of this tour, from Vienna to the Black Sea, and select the "pre-trip extension" in Vienna to have three days traipsing that city. (My companion wants to get in to the Museum of Natural History there to see the Venus of Willendorf...it was closed on Tuesdays, and we were only there on Tuesday.) That trip would have a "post-extension' trip in Istanbul. We're also considering the Aegean small ship tour with Grand Circle.

The 'small ship' approach is better for me than the 'cruise liner' with a thousand passengers thing. I'm an introvert, for crepes sake, and the forced socializing of those scenes don't resonate with me. They don't bring out the best of my personality. It probably be better that I travel alone, but I am dependent. So be it.

Is that helpful? If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to try.

[godfry n. glad]

One thing about the trip was that I was exhausted with baroque, particularly baroque Roman Catholic shrines. Abbeys and Residenzes. I guess it's my protestant and skeptical upbringing cringing at all the evidences of greed and corruption. 'Prince Bishops'? With multiple castles? Bishops with castles? I guess I'm anti-Counter Reformation in outlook.

Anyway. Lots of wretched excess. Hapsburgs, Bamburgers, and the Roman Catholic Church...o my! Which is all fine and good, I suppose, but I got an overdose of baroque. The neoclassically inclined historicist stuff of Vienna was more to my liking, as was the nouveau stuff that is sprinkled throughout. I missed the captain's talk, which covered the usage of the ship and docking along the river as well as the process of passing through the locks and how the locks worked....66 locks. The size of the ship is determined, in large part, by these locks. I probably would have enjoyed that and willingly missed out on another RC cathedral. But then, the Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococco stuff led the way in the sweep across southern Germany and Austria. You would think that the multiple mentions of the Thirty Years' War would impress a bunch of Americans as to why it is that we have separation of state and church enshrined in our system....it left a mark on the psyches of our founders. But no. I did learn that the development of the Baroque stylin' was part and parcel of the cultural counter-reformation. 'Impress the rubes with all the beautiful altars', I guess.

I enjoyed the whole visit to Zepplin Field and the Documentation Center in the remains of the unfinished Congress Hall and then to Room 600 in Nurnberg. Those were offered portions of the tour.

I rillyrilly enjoyed going the the Alphons Mucha Museum in Prague. Once I got the information on location from my guide, we did this on our own. Prague is fun because of the mix of styles. The spires are emblematic. The hrad over the city and the tradition of the city itself...intriguing and lavish in a slightly variant manner, some how. I will atest, though, that the Charles Bridge, on a sunny November Saturday is not a place for an introvert like me to be. Too many people in one circumscribed location at one time.

English usage is widespread amongst those providing service to tourists.

Key phrase of German learned on this tour: "Wo ist toilette?"

[Angakuk]

Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch, aber ich weiß nicht verstehen.

This if very useful if you only speak a very little bit of german.

[godfry n. glad]

About 400 pix. Still downloading to Fotosquat.

[Janet]

I truly love Gothic architecture, so I would be in heaven with all those churches. My sister wants to take one of those with me when she retires, but three weeks sounds awfully long. I might get homicidal sharing a room with her for that long. But, who knows, maybe I'll mellow with age?

[godfry n. glad]

From what I remember, the Gothic structures were relatively rare, with the Cologne cathedral being a classic of the type. There may have been others along the way, but the next one which really caught my attention was St. Vitas in the hilltop castle (hrad) in Prague, which had an entire replacement stained glass window painted by Mucha. Otherwise, most of the religious structures tended to date from the 14th to the early 17th century, with Baroque predominating and Renaissance and Rococo examples from either side of the mass of Baroque building that followed in the wake of the forces of the Counter Reformation. The Allied bombing of the Second World War did a fair amount of damage to the existing historical resources and several of the cities have done superlative jobs of renovating their resources; you can still see some repaired damage, particularly in the structure of the rivers crossing the Rhine. Of the German cities, I believe that Passau was the only one we visited which entirely escaped aerial bombing.

During the cruise, we also passed through vintner regions and then barley and hop regions, alternately. The Mittlerhein is heavily wine-oriented, as it the region around Vienna and other selected regions along the Main River. There was plenty of beer-sampling, as well.

My experience is that traveling with ANYBODY can be a challenge and when it is over an extended time, the chafing becomes worse. Forced together with people you like on limited basis can try the relationship. But, the ship does provide multiple escapes to allow defusing. I would recommend that if you plan on traveling with your sister and she snores, then wait until she has a CPAP...that quiets things down, a lot, to allow for sleep. And, there is the possibility you could always take up heavy drinking aboard ship.

[godfry n. glad]

The ship. MS River Rhapsody



Our cabin. Vanity and closets to left; shower, sink and toilet to the right.

[godfry n. glad]

For Janet:



Inside St. Vitus.



Rose window -








Mucha window, St. Vitus Cathedral, Hrad Prazsky

[Dingfod]

No dancing?

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

No dancing?

I saw nun.

[godfry n. glad]

Some scenes from Prague...



Government buildings, including the presidential residence on Hrad Prezsky (the castle).



The Old Town Bridge Tower at night.



The Lennon Wall in Lesser Town.



Wallenstein Gardens in Lesser Town



On the Charles Bridge.



The Jewish Ghetto.



Our Lady before Tyn and the Jan Hus tribute in the center of Old Town Square.



Astronomical clock attached to the Old Town Hall on Old Town Square.