Cesky Krumlov in 20 hours

the castle

we had a snack sitting along this stream

seven story bridge connecting the castle with a theater

main square. Taking panorama shots tends to distort things. Sve used a wide angle lens a lot . I haven't gone through his photos. All my photos are with an iPhone. Convenient but has its limitations

Cave restaurant

me and Czech beer

view from our crappy room

the castle moat had at least three giant bears in in it.  Looks like a grizzly bear. Much bigger than our little Michigan bears. Would they import Grizzly's? No, they are European brown bears, more common in Northern Europe. The Apennines in Italy have bears but they are tiny. There was a sign in English that if we want the bears to eat, we must donate money. They look well fed. Someone had thrown pumpkins down for them.

one of the many 'bernstein' stores we encountered. I had bought a fairly expensive Mexican amber necklace in the US and always wondered if it is 'real. They had some amber here like mine. Baltic amber is different than mine though

pretty grill work

fancy soap store where I bought a lot in part because I made a huge math error in turning kroners into euros

I didn't discover my stupid mistake until I left the Czech Republik a few days later. Feel very stupid and bought much more thinking it was way cheaper than it was. Very dumb Sue

Steve in front of a synagogue The Czech had a huge Jewish population that was well integrated into their society but then Hitler....

castle courtyard Yes everything is painted

On the way to Cesky Krumlov, I was in the front seat of the van taking photos. This was the Rosenburg castle (Jewish???) about ten miles south of Cesky Krumlov

I awoke early our last day in Salzburg to go to the river a few blocks away. The bike path was lit, the pedestrian path not so much. I had a little light on me. I ran away from the city along the river. The sun didn't come up until I was almost finished. Alas I didn't take the camera. The sky was all pink behind the mountains. Breathtaking. It was the only day I could run.  Although Cesky Krumlov has a railroad station, it looked far way  and it seemed from the map we would have to switch trains numerous times. We took a shared van that theoretically would deliver us to our little hostel. Now when I booked this, somehow, I put in for 2020!! By the time I discovered my mistake, the initial van was filled so I would have to pay extra for a new van (which turned out to be full too). They were to pick us up at the nearby train station. Annoyingly the van appeared at a different spot than specified. Luckily we were not alone in this. We shared the van with a pair of Korean honeymooners. As it turns out Cesky Krumlov seems to be the number one spot for Asian travelers, so much so that the evil  communication giant Huawei is making a complete replica of the village in China. Who knew. It would have been a 2.5 hour trip but there was an accident in the ugly town of Linz (home of Hitler and numerous chemical factories) that delayed us an hour. I thought it would be cool to see the little villages of Austria and the Czech Republic. We were on a freeway most of the time in Austria though we did go by a beautiful lake but we could have been on I-80 in northern Pennsylvania for all I knew (a well worn path for us)  On to little mountain roads through cute towns in the Czech Republic..new country for us both. Our driver was from India having lived in Cesky Krumlov for 5 years. He tried to teach me a few Czech phrases. All that remains is 'pivo' beer. I have to stick to Germanic or Romance countries. So why does the Czech Republic have kroners versus euros when 1) its allegedly part of the EU and 2) the Slovak Republic has euros? He said (Czech resident of 5 years) the economy would crumble if they used euros. I soon learned that there is  a thriving, shady money changing industry in the Czech Republic. The official rate is 38 euros=1000kroners but they would give you only 20-22 euros for 100 kroners. Money changers were all over the place taking advantage of people's inability to do math. We got our kroners directly from the bank. but I screwed up big time thinking I should divide everything by 40 to convert to euros (1 euro = 1.1 usd). No. I was off by quite a bit and I bought so much stuff thinking it was cheap when it really wasn't.

He dropped us off near where he thought our place was. He was wrong. although the distance as the crow flies wasn't far, it was when I had to pee, steep hills were  involved and the cobble stones from hell. I went to find the place  leaving Steve at the bottom of the hill forever. He too had to pee. I wet to the wrong place, found the right place but she was too busy gouging tourists in her money exchanging to deal with me (had to pee) and then  the place was in yet a different building up numerous staircases with a key that took numerous tries to make work(have to pee!!). Peed some in the right place then found Steve (what took you so long!) The apartment was so ugly. But we weren't in it much. Once I changed clothes and washed up, we explored the city. so, so cute!!!!!

And we spent most of the morning touring the cuter than cute place. We used the same van company to go to Prague.

The dwarf garden, schaps tasting and giant bees

Steve in front of their modern art museum

Looking towards the castle

The Salzach river 

they have this funicular which brings you up the mountain in less than a minute but it is quite pricy. We climbed on foot

us

the devil is in the details

McDonalds. Extremely popular with the many student groups visiting. Had to say they had an impressive spread of desserts

biergarten in the old town that I stopped for a beer

inside a former monastery that housed numerous food stalls. We ate outside under huge chestnut trees

one of the 20 or so dwarves

they were just putting in their winter pansies. I think their climate is much warmer than Michigan and certainly more rain As they are at higher latitude, days are even shorter than ours Leaves had turned to about the same degree

we kept waiting and waiting for them to light up the buildings. Sunset was a bust due to no clouds

We had retired early the night before due to being up more than 24 hours. I didn't want to go out for dinner as I was so beat. I sent Steve to the store, a 5 minute walk, but as he gets lost so easily, this was risky though he did fine.The whole trip I was nervous about us getting separated. I had prepared a list of addresses of all our places. I wanted him to carry a map but he declined. He didn't bring his reading glasses so it would not do much good.
After our elaborate breakfast buffet, time to hit the hills. Most unusual item: elderberry blossom  juice We climbed both sides of the city their cliffs giving us good views of the city. Perfect weather too. We walked through lots of forests too though very little bird life or squirrels. At the art museum garden, they had a bee box. Honey bees, three times the size of ours, were going to and fro. The stuff of nightmares. Haven't found anything yet on giant Austrian honeybees yet. Somewhere in Steve's zillions of photos he has a picture of one of these monsters. We climbed down from the castle to explore the old town again. I ended up at Sporr's, an elaborate schnapps making place. Very pricy but I did taste some of their schnapps, blackberry being the best. I did bring home a sample. We rested in a biergarten before climbing the many steps up on the other side of the city.
We were staying in the new part of the city, sort of boring but convenient to the train station. We could go back in forth along the river which was pretty. We went by the Gymnasium (high school, not a work out place) just as it was getting out and was dismayed how many of these kids smoked, not e-cigs but real ones. In general, the city seemed fairly health conscious with bio this and that and the bike paths were heavily used so I was surprised.
We rested up a bit at the hotel before going up to a monastery that now was a bier garten. Our hotel said to go to Mirabel garden for great sunset views We did but trees block everything. Finally sat by the river to wait for the lights to go on.

A full day

Willkommen to the land of Mozart and the Sound of Music

outside of Munich

Mirabell gardens

they like their 'einhornen' too (all little girls seem crazy about anything with a unicorn on it)

this Pegasus served as a backdrop to a scene in The Sound of music

we ate traditional Austrian food at The Funky Monkey

the city is sandwiched between cliffs on two sides of a large river

in the 'alte stadt' of Salzberg

the castle high above

never saw iron grave markers before . Some graves were 500 years old

buildings back right up to the cliffs. One year (sometime back in the 1600s) the cliffs crumbled and their was great loss of life. Since then, they test these cliffs every spring

very old church

inside their gothic cathedral St Michael's

fancy expensive shoes

We flew into Munich overnight via Atlanta. Isn't Atlanta out of the way? Isn't there a direct flight from Detroit to Munich? Well yes to both but we were using frequent miles and the only flights we could afford made us go way out of the way (why, Delta, why)  I like the overnight flights, free booze, lots of food (though the exact same menu as flying to Amsterdam,..Airfrance and Alitalia have more interesting menus). I settled in watching movies Favorite: Rocca Verandert die Welt (Rocca changes the world, a German movie) Maybe I slept an hour despite getting up at 4 am EST so I could run on dark streets.  We got on a train to Salzburg with just one change. I tried to get hotels fairly close to train stations to minimize hauling suitcases long distances.
 though our neighborhood looked quite boring and could be anywhere. It was close to the river however where I could run on smooth paths and use as a reference point. The hotel was capitalizing on the Sound of Music. All sorts of decorations and scenes from the movie though Austrians in general hated the movie in part because of all the inaccuracies but we Americans don't know better.

After walking a bit, we soon were in areas of great beauty. We at outside in a Rick Steves recommended place (The Funky Monkey) and then explored the old city. Mozart was born here and lived here 25 years before moving on to Vienna. We went in the church where as a teenager, he was the chief organist. Every store sold Mozart candy, chocolate covered marzipan.

We retired early as neither of us had gotten much sleep. This was the only day in which rain was a threat but it had rained before we got there. Lucky as the city is known for its constant drizzle.

Leaving on a jet plane...

Hannah with her other grandmother. She spent last night in the ER

Her sister was doing somersaults and a heel ended up hitting Hannah in the  mouth causing teeth to go through the lip and chin. A plastic surgeon was called in the middle of the night

my witch  I put up Halloween decorations for the grandkids

How hard is it to plan a trip? I kept putting it off and off. We got fairly cheap tickets to Munich which is very close to Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Liechtenstein, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Can't see them all so we are doing a loop that includes Salzburg, Cesky Krumlov, Prague,Regensburg and Munich. We will travel by train though we will do a van between Salzburg and Cesky Krumlov. If it were up to me, I would do air b and bs but Steve was not happy with some of them last time. First snafu, I accidentally booked a van for 2020. By the time I got that settled, the price had gone up considerably unless I wanted to go much later. No,I wanted to be in Cesky Krumlov, which news to me, uses different money than euros despite being part of the EU.

New country for me:Czech Republic though we only walked across the border into Austria at the Brenner Pass so I don't know if that counts. We have been in the western part of Germany but not in Bavaria.

I think I know enough German now to get around. Czech however is a very difficult language. Even finding things on the map seem impossible but I look forward most of all to Prague. We are staying in the New City (Stare Nove) which Steve seemed disappointed but lots of Art Deco buildings, which I love. And it is not all that new being founded in 1350 or so. They have the Dancing building designed by Gehry. They call it Ginger and Fred. We will be staying near there.

Hope I have everything
Auf wiedersehen

Three years since my big battle with obesity

I pick up Maya at least once a week (this week twice). We go to the nearby apple orchard

My flower room. Buried among the fake flowers are real orchids. $6 a pot such a deal

This was a fancy chair in a resale shop I went to with my childhood friend. Very expensive and it really wouldn't match anything in my house. I did buy the felted purse on the left

Tessa is growing

the boys of the corn

my folk doll wall with some new additions

our local farm has corn pits too

but Maya likes the horses the best

Allie celebrated her 6th birthday in a trampoline palace. Her little sister jumped for an hour straight. She will be an endurance athlete

It was on the day of Allie's 3rd birthday party 3 years ago that I was struggling to snap some formerly loose jeans. Size 14s at that. I finally got them zipped up with several rolls of fat overlapping the waistband. What had happened to me? I used to be so fit and trim. Well I can rattle off a whole list of reasons (excuses) but this fatness had to stop then. I hated myself too much with it plus there are a myriad of health reasons for why the fat had to go. I developed a plan and pretty much stuck to it. Eight months later I was at my goal weight, which I thought would be impossible. I lost another 12 pounds in the next 3 months. Almost 80 pounds and down to a size 4. A miracle. Yep I went through lots of sizes but I was not going to buy new clothes every time I changed sizes ( I still had some size 10s and 12s around from my thinner days) so I picked up things at resale shops, some quite nice. As it turns out even now the only things I wear not from resale shops are underwear and shoes. I pretty much kept it off for the first two years but now I  am somewhat bigger (though less than my previous goal weight so that's a plus)  With my surgery limiting activity, this summer was hard. It is finally cooler so perhaps I can run further (though my speed is really slow)  And I really need to start limiting wine again.

One way we have amused ourselves was watching Ken Burns "Country Music' a genre which I really never cared for much especially that twangy blue grass stuff. The only country music album I ever bought was Johnny Cash's last one in which he sings modern pop songs such as Nine Inch Nails "hurt". Lots of Johnny Cash in almost every episode. Most of the people I never had heard of. Favorite song title?

It's hard to kiss those lips at night that chew your ass out all day long.