Atlantic and Europe

We met our group at 8:20 am on the lower lobby and a Viking representative told us that the trip would be delayed for a few minutes. When the Viking representative reappeared one Chinese-American man was furious that Viking did not do what they had promised. He had raised a stink a couple of days ago on the ship because we were told that it would be a good idea to buy water when we arrived in Prague. The rest of us thought the Chinese man was being a bit extreme. We were surprised to learn that the bus would be taking us to the historical sights. Our guide's name was Anna. We were led to believe that we would be walking for about five and a half hours. We went to the old fortress and palace, then to St. Vitus Church. We could've go inside because Sunday worship was about to begin, but the outside was beautiful. The bus brought us down to the old historic center of the city. We crossed the Charles Bridge and saw another beautiful old gothic church adjacent to the old town square. It was badly damaged by the Germans in World War II. I was pleased to find in the center of the square a big monument to John Huss, a pre-reformation reformer. One large Catholic Church on the square had been converted to a Hussite church until the Hussites were declared illegal after the Thirty Years War. After that all Protestants had to leave the city. The large emblem on the church was exchanged for a large ornamental chalice, a symbol of the Hussites, while the Protestant group controlled the building. Large storks nested inside the cup of the chalice, and would often deposit upon people standing below. Our guide thought this was especially horrible because storks eat frogs. She also mentioned that the Czech word for frog is "Jabba" and the word for snake is "hut." It is from these two Czech words that a villain the the Star Wars trilogy is named "Jabba the Hut." While we were there a jazz ensemble was playing such favorites as "Dinah," and "When the Saints Go Marching In," and "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." When they played Louie Armstrong's " What a Wonderful World," Glenda teared up. It is a wonderful world, and this has been a wonder trip through it, both for the last thirty days and for the last sixty-five years. Next we walked through the Jewish quarter, with a thorough explanation of the history of Jews in Prague. Anna, our guide, was cheerful and had a wonderful dry sense of humor. However, her English was so heavily accented that she was difficult, and sometimes impossible to understand. Our guide on the bus from Budapest, Judith, was even more difficult to understand, but she admitted that she had learned English during the Soviet regime, and that the learned English from books and in a classroom without ever hearing any movies or broadcasts from the west by actual native English speakers. We got back on the bus, and returned to the hotel, where we ate lunch with the Swim couple. I enjoyed a bowl of onion soup and a Reuben sandwich with fries. Glenda and I came back to the room to rest before going to the Italian restaurant for supper. As it turned out, at supper time neither we nor the Swim couple were hungry, so they went shopping and we went out people watching. I got a few shots as the sun set. As we passed Smetana Hall we were given brochures about a concert. I didn't pay much attention until we got back to the room, but by then it was too late. At 8:00 pm there was a concert of Dvorak, Mozart, Rubinstein and others, but by the time I read the brochure it was already 9:00 pm. We went to the little grocery near the hotel and got some chips, bread, cheese and a Coke, and called that supper.Read more