Prague - Around Town - Part 2

During my unexpected extra week in Prague I worked primarily US hours which gave me a bit of time during the day to continue wandering and exploring the city. It was interesting to walk through Old Town without the Easter Market - it seemed so big and so empty.  The Charles Bridge however was always jam-packed with vendors and tourists alike and I really had a great time visiting every vendor and checking out what they were selling.  I find that shopping is really a great hobby as it can done in just about any location in any language :).  Anyway, above are just a few more shots around town.

Views from the Gardens

I spent a lot of time in Prague walking through the gardens at the Castle. The gardens were divided into three parts - the Royal Gardens, the Lower Gardens including the Garden Stairs, and the Stag Moat. Below are pictures from all the gardens. They were really breathtaking and the pictures don't really do them justice.

The Jewish Quarter

Once the ash cloud had granted me additional time in Prague, I was able to explore some areas in more detail including the Jewish Quarter and in particular the cemetery and the Pinkas Synagogue.  The Old Jewish Cemetery is a small space crowded with 12000 tombstones piled one on top of the other and is really a site to behold. 

After walking through the cemetery I visited Pinkas Synagogue which has been turned into a memorial for the 80,000 holocaust victims from Bohemia and Moravia.  Inside the synagogue, on every wall, on every ceiling is written the name of the holocaust victims along with date of birth and death. 

For many there is no known date of death so instead is listed the date of deportation to a concentration camps which is the last known data on the person.  The impact of seeing all those names, a small fraction of the total death count, is overwhelming and heart wrenching. 

It's Déjà Vu All Over Again - Into the Ash Part 2

After a long flight from Stockholm, I found myself in Prague for one more night. There really wasn't anything left that I wanted to do so I just settled in to the airport Holiday Inn for the night.  When I woke, the first thing I did was check the latest ash report for Prague and my flight was on time.  I boarded the shuttle to the airport with two couples who had been trying to get home from their vacations for almost a week.  Every day they would go to the airport hoping that this would be the day they got on a flight.  They were worried about their kids and losing their jobs.  I got to the airport and stood in line to check my bags.  All around me people were sharing their stories. The were missing funerals and weddings, kids and spouses and jobs.  They were out of money and out of patience.  I was thinking of my coworker making her way to Oslo trying to get home to her own kids.

Finally it was my turn. I walked up the counter and without thought heard myself say "if you are oversold on this flight, I can wait". The man at the counter really looked like he couldn't decide whether to cry or to kiss me. He asked me if I was serious. I confirmed I was. He called his manager over who looked equally stunned. Before I knew it my hotel was paid for, I was in possession of a $1000 voucher,  an upgraded ticket in first class for my flight home, and my transportation and meals were being covered for the next four days or until I got out of Prague...whichever came first. It turns out that the flight I had just agreed not to get on was the first International flight to leave Prague since the volcano had erupted 6 days earlier.  No wonder the Delta employees were stunned that anyone was willing to take a chance on waiting.

So that's how I found myself in Prague for an extra fours days...on top of the three extra days I had ended up there after my original vacation ended and before I could get to Stockholm for the meeting; bringing my total time in Prague to 14 days and my total time in Europe to 22 days.  

Life in the Ash - Part 1.5

I really wish I had gotten a better shot of this.  This is the departure screen at the airport. 
Everything in red has been cancelled. 

Life in the Ash - Part One

My coworker and stranded by the Ash buddy Jacq and I at the Ice Bar

As many of you are aware, after my vacation in Prague, I headed to Stockholm for a week of meetings with my management team. Imagine our total lack of caring when a colleague told us that a volcano in Iceland was erupting. Little did we know that Volcano Eyjafjallajökull was going to become the driving force and focus of our lives for the next week.  European air space was closed.  It was a very bazaar sensation to know until further notice, you were now a resident of wherever you happened to be at that moment in time. 

For me the experience was a little different than for my coworkers because I wasn't immediately stuck in Stockholm as a result of the Ash as I had planned to stay in Stockholm for another 5 days after meeting. I was however stuck with them.  Fortunately, I really like them and while it wasn't the weekend I had originally planned, we did have a blast playing tourist (in between checking our Blackberry's for the latest Ash report).

Karl and his wife Pauline, on the right, (who he had flown into Stockholm for the weekend on a whim thus stranding both of them on the other side of an ocean from their 4 kids) were staying in a hotel with an Ice Bar so we headed there - and met an entire room full of other stranded business travelers.  After the ice bar, which I can check off my list and never do again, we headed to a great Irish Pub the Dubliner for some great live music and dancing.  Where we ran into our boss.  Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world...

The next two days were spent visiting museums, shopping, strolling, and eating.  It was great.  Except for the knowledge that there was a huge cloud hanging over your head somewhere and you weren't going anywhere!  On Monday, after three days, an Ash hole opened above Stockholm (and no I didn't make that up, it's just what they called it), and my boss got out. 

My coworker Judith, from London, hopped in a rental car with a Senior VP and a consultant and drove to Copenhagen, then on to Brussels where the SVP drove on to Paris and she and the other person caught a train to London.  It was a two and a half day adventure for her to get home.   Tuesday Karl and his wife finally got out.  I flew out that evening to Prague.  People emailed and asked what the cloud looked like. To us in Stockholm it looked like blue sky with white fluffy clouds - until I headed to the airport where a really ominous continuous cloud hung right over it. Not actually sure it had anything to do with the ash cloud, but it was enough to make me nervous.

My flight to Prague took several hours longer than my flight from Prague as we ended up travelling North and East to get around the cloud before circling back to Prague.   It turned out we were the last flight out of Arlanda before it closed for several more days. Jacq got the worst end of the deal.  After four days of cancelled flights, she bought another ticket on a different airline, then got bussed for 6 hours from Stockholm to Norway, where she finally boarded a flight home.  And thus we all got out of Stockholm...but I wasn't home yet.  See Life in the Ash - Part Two for the conclusion of this sage...once I write it.

Krizik's Fountain

After Kristi headed home, I had three days in Prague before heading to Sweden for meetings. Not sure what to do with myself, I joined a night tour of Prague that included a stop at Krizik's Fountain.  Having done no research on it, I had no idea what it was or why I needed to see it at night but off I went.  As has happened too many times in my life, I found myself alone on the tour bus for a large portion of the tour before we picked a group heading just to the fountain.  We arrived and it was show time.  It turns out that the Krizik Fountain is a "water ballet set to music and lights".  I love a good water ballet!  I was very happy with my night tour choice :).

Prague - Around Town

These are just some random shots from a couple of the days spent sightseeing in Prague.

If There's A River, There Must Be A Boat Tour...

The Vltava River runs through Prague so of course we had to take a cruise on the river. We took a lunch cruise which was worth it for the excellent food they served. The rest of the tour, however, was really not the most exciting of tours. We had a beautiful chilly day and there were some great views of the city from the water but at least half of our tour time was taken with sitting in the lock. So, if you are headed to Prague, definitely do a boat tour but be prepared for the long waits at the locks.

A Dreary Day in Dresden, Germany

For the next day tour, we headed to Dresden Germany.  It was a rainy, blustery, cold day so rather than walk around like we had in sunny Vienna we instead headed to the hop on-hop off bus tour.  Dresden was completely destroyed during World War II in an allied aerial bombing and has slowly been rebuilt over the last 40 years.  It was very odd to see these beautiful old-style buildings and hear that they were built in 1980.  In addition to our bus tour, we also toured the Zwinger Art Gallery, ate a traditional German meal, and ended the day with hot chocolate and Eierschecke cake.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

When I was a sophomore in high school I was in the play "I Never Saw Another Butterfly", a one act play about a girls experience in a concentration camp (I am in the front row and yes that is my big brother Craig in the top row).  The play left an indelible impression on me and the opening stanza to the poem the play is based on has stuck in my head all these years: "I never say another butterfly. The last, the very last, so richly brightly dazzling yellow". 

As I was planning my trip to Prague I read that the Terezin concentration camp was located nearby and it didn't take long for me to realize that this was the concentration camp where the play was set, where the very real Pavel Friedman had written his heart wrenching poem before being killed at Auschwitz at the age of 23.  I couldn't travel all that way and not go to pay my respects; to honor the memories of the children who were imprisoned there and the adults who tried so very desperately to give them some measure of normal in a world gone mad.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

I never saw another butterfly . . .

The last, the very last,

so richly, brightly, dazzling yellow.

Perhaps if the sun’s tears sing

against a white stone . . .

Such, such a yellow

is carried lightly ‘way up high.

It went away I’m sure because it

wished to kiss the world goodbye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,

Penned up inside this ghetto,

but I have found my people here.

The dandelions call to me,

And the white chestnut candles in the court.

Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.

Butterflies don’t live here in the ghetto.

– by Pavel Friedmann, June 1942 (age 21)

A Day in Vienna

For a little variety Kristi and I headed to Vienna, Austria on a day tour.  I got the best end of the deal when we were picked up in a compact car and then proceeded to pick up two other people.  This was probably the only time being bigger than Kristi paid off as I had the front seat to myself while she had to fight for territory in the backseat with two "not small" people.  Once we got there we got a guided walking tour, then headed off on our own for lunch and a Sacher Torte.  We then took the train up to Schonbrunn Palace.  There was a great hedge maze, amazing gardens and the palace itself was beautiful.  Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Prague.  If I get the chance, I would love to go back to Vienna and spend more time there.

The Prague Easter Markets

Next up on my list of "Somedays" was a vacation to Prague.  Prague was really fun - it's a great city with lots to do. So much to do, that I had no time to blog. Now in an effort to get caught up, I am randomly posting pictures and events as they pop to mind.

First up, the Prague Easter Market which was held in Old Town Square as the main area with smaller areas in other parts of the city. There was Czech traditional fair food - the Trdelnik (kind of a churro shaped like a turtleneck), the Largosse (fried dough), potato pancakes with sauerkraut, and crepes.  Our success with finding good food was spotty so the crepes saved us :). 

The markets had lots of booths selling souvenirs and such.  The big thing were real eggs that had been blown out and then decorated.  They were amazing and apparently a very popular Czech tradition.  They also had live entertainment so we got to see musical performers, dancers, and other various acts.  The strangest though was a youth choir.  They were doing a medley of songs when they got to the theme from Mash.  I was stunned and couldn't believe they had a youth chorus singing this. For those of you that don't know, the title of the song is "Suicide is Painless",  I found it incredibly disturbing.  They then smoothly transitioned into a Beach Boys song.  Very odd. 

We stayed at the Intercontinental Prague which was very conveniently located to the Old Town Square so we spent a lot of time there on our way too and from other attractions.  It was great and the weather cooperated.  I would definitely recommend spending an Easter weekend in Prague.

Happy Birthday Carter

 

Carter turned 7 so we all gathered at the local recreation center to celebrate with pizza, cake and ice cream, and swimming for the kids.  Oh, and presents, can't forget those!  It was a fun friend and family celebration.  Happy Birthday Carter!