veracity editor

Ed. Note :- I've just read the first post from Rome and note poetic licence has been used to an abusive degree. I was not aware of the attention my juvenile daughter was attracting (except from one Vatican guard, who actually amused me, because he was about 1 foot shorter than Bella), but will now be more vigilant. By contrast, driving in Italian cities is much worse than Blogger describes. I'm not 'weaving' (craftspeople do that), I am dodging to the best of my 'force be with you' avoidance behaviour, and it is only good luck and kind fortune which has prevented our cute little black pig of a Peugeot being bingled or worse. My own contribution is that the food in Venice and Florence was excellent, however the Romans should be ashamed of themselves (I'm not surprised the Empire fell apart). Ciao, Ed.

Roma

There has been some kindly suggestions from loving readers of my blog that my posts are a bit long and wordy.  Lachlan is saving them onto a word doc to print out for Mum (who steadfastly refuses to have anything to do with new fangled technology, except her beloved mobile phone) and apparently from the start until Berlin it was 17 pages!  Well, to use a well known bit of Aussie vernacular, Tough Cheese.  I'm writing this for myself as much as my friends and family :-)  But I hope if you are up to wading your way through that you enjoy it!
On our last morning in Florence we went to the Uffizi Gallery - the oldest and, according to the Times, best Art collection in the world.  I have fond memories of this gallery but while it had some good works, it was not as interesting as I remembered - Greg felt the same.  However, the audios helped the kids get through.  Greg bravely made his way out of the city traffic while I prepared our car picnic.  I am getting so good at making sandwiches on a tiny chopping board on my lap!  It's not without difficulty, especially cutting the bread with my little knife as Greg has to dodge and weave down the road.  We all feel that the blurb we read in Wraclaw which claimed Polish drivers were the worst ever, really was doing themselves a dis-service.  Italian drivers are the worst, really DREADFUL in the cities - although at least they do tend to stick to the speed limit on the freeways which is quite novel.  However, we don't let bad drivers intimidate us.  We're French!  Well, at least our car and number plate are.  Whenever we see fellow drivers swearing or wildly gesticulating at us we all like to say "Bloody French" :-)  We find it highly amusing anyway!
All went well until we hit the heavy traffic on the outskirts of Rome.  Although there were only two marked lanes, all the cars were choosing to make it three, which made it quite hairy when it came to traffic lights (when it's like being in some mad car race) or turning.  And our room here is in the centre of the city.  We have three criteria for choosing accommodation: price (cheap as possible); location (as close to the centre as we can afford) and parking (our car).  We are staying at the Borghese Executive Suites which are a stones throw from the Borghese Gardens (apparently gorgeous, but we are yet to visit, I'll report on that later) and all the reviews commented on it's great location. They assured us that there was plenty of street parking, but if not, there was a car park next door to them.  Well, our GPS told us we'd arrived, and we couldn't see a single street park, so after doing a blocky we parked in the car park (20 euro a day).  I have to say that we have not seen a single park since, and quite frankly our Peugeot is way too big for any of the parks we do see (which are parks in the very vague sense of the word, more a small space and some pavement!).  We unloaded and walked out onto the road.  It was dark, and very cold, and no sign for the Borghese Executive suites stood out to us.  We walked up the road.  Asked for assistance, got sent down another the road (in retrospect, they were sending us to the Borghese gardens!), turned around, walked back to the parking place - and sure enough, it was next door.  Wasn't the little no. "15" three metres up the wall enough for us??  Apparently, no other signage is needed.  And needless to say, the "Executive" and "Suite" parts might be a bit exaggerated, but its a clean room with a bathroom (oh, that's my other criteria.  I'm too old to share a bathroom!!). Anyway - friendly hosts, and the location is really good!
Yesterday we set off to walk to the Vatican.  Apparently Wednesday morning is a great time to do the Vatican gallery as the pope is speaking and all the crowds are out in front of St Peters Basilica.  It was a great plan, but we don't get moving well in these cold mornings, and then when we finally set off we went in the wrong direction... so by the time we finally decided just to get on the metro, it was already 10.30!!  We made it past the gamut of hawkers offering us "tours" of the museum (they might be good value but we don't appreciate being hassled).  When I say we, it was Greg & I (that camera hanging around my neck marks me squarely as a tourist).  Bella, looking too cool for school in her black knee high boots and black fake fur swing coat, strode confidently down the street just attracting admiring glances from the men/boys (who seemed to easily ignore the snarly look coming from her father behind!).
Due to the season there wasn't a line at the Vatican Museum but there were still plenty of visitors!  I'd hate to see it when it's busy!  There is a lot to see and we saved the best until the last - the magnificent Sistine Chapel.  I was sooo itching to take a photo but there were guards everywhere. One bit of feedback we'd have is not to eat lunch at the cafeteria.  We all had different selections and it was without doubt the very worst food we've had on this entire trip!!  And expensive!  I really wanted to see St Peters Basilica and the gorgeous Pieta by Michelangelo, but everyone else felt that they were all museumed out.  Liam eventually agreed to come with me and thought it was worth his effort - it is a magnificent church.  We took the metro to the Colosseum as I had a restaurant recommendation there, and apparently the building is pretty impressive by night (it is).  The restaurant didn't open until 7pm, and it was only 5.30.  It was dark, and cold, and we were all a bit shattered (Bella and I are not 100% either, but not too bad thanks to Thomas' inoculation!) so we found somewhere else.  Average food, but after lunch it was fabulous.  Taking the metro back was hairy.  The trains were full to capacity, and all around us are signs saying: "Beware!  The worlds best pickpockets work here!".  We let a few trains go before bravely squashing in, clutching our possessions to our bodies, and made it back safely.  We still had a little walking - we have to work out the buses!!
So today we are off to the Colosseum to brave those thieves again and to do the tour!

Fabulous Firenze!

Yes, I love a bit of alliteration - sorry about that!  But Florence really has been fabulous.  We all felt that one day in Venice was enough, so we were happy to get on the road again to Florence.  It rained most of the way, but cleared up as we approached Florence.  It was a reasonably quick trip on the freeway - although it cost us 18 euro for the privilege.  The cost of tolls here makes the vignettes in Austria and Czech republic seem like good value!!  The roads are pretty good for a bankrupt country though.  This time we are staying in a one bedroom apartment - Bed & Breakfast Leopoldo it's called, but no breakfast is included, as it turns out the apartment is in a separate building!  However, its in walking distance of the old city which is important.  They didn't have any parking, but we were able to find free parking at the local COOP supermarket.  You have to be a customer to park there, so Greg happily bought up on gorgeous produce!
Yesterday afternoon we spent wandering around the city.  We realised when we arrived that it was a Sunday, which meant all the galleries would be closed on the following day - Monday (so annoying when you are travelling to have to remember what day it is!!) so quickly squeezed in a visit to the Galleria dell Accademia, to see the statue of the David.  That is really all that is there, aside from some highly stylized and decorated religious iconography. I sneaked a photo of the David which is ABSOLUTELY against the rules, but I saw heaps of other tourists risking it.  It wasn't easy let me tell you, with two guards on patrol!!  Hence the funny angle.  Still it is such an awe-inspiring statue, carved out of one solid block of flawed marble - Michelangelo did an amazing job.
We were hoping to catch up with Ainslie who is in Florence on her Contiki tour, but sadly she is still not ready to see me :-( The B&B manager had recommended a little restaurant close by - we were grateful that she did, as in Venice Mestre there didn't seem to be many trattorias in walking distance.  And, as a bonus, it was absolutely fabulous food and wine for very good prices.   I needed plenty of wine as I was feeling quite sad.
However, today was a new day, and we were thrilled to see a blue sky!  Greg was feeling the pressure of the never-ending report he's working on, so once again the intrepid trio set off to do some exploring without him.  We took the bus into town (3 minutes!) and walked through the city, across the Ponte Vecchio and up, up, up to Piazza Michelangelo which has superb views of the city.  We'd taken a picnic lunch (kindly prepared for us by Greg!) and found a spot out of the wind and in the sunshine to enjoy our lunch.  Despite the sun, the wind (straight off the snow capped mountains!) was quite fierce and cold. Back in the city proper, Bella decided she was keen to have a caricature drawn, and negotiated a price of 10 euro.  Unfortunately the artist she'd chosen was set up in the shade and wind of the Duomo, Liam and I were freezing our arses off waiting for her. I was impelled to buy us all very expensive hot chocolates to ward off the cold.  Liam said he understood me making the basic mistake of not asking the price first - my head was befuddled by the cold! Bella wasn't thrilled with the result.  It's a good caricature but not as flattering as she'd been hoping for! We had been planning to take a push bike tour but it didn't leave until 3.30pm.  We ran into Greg on our way to the rendezvous point and decided to forfeit our 10 euro deposit. It was just too cold and windy to get on a bike!!  Instead we walked back across the river to Palazzo Pitti, only to discover it too is closed on a Monday.... honestly, would it hurt to space out these closed days??
On the way back to the bus station I asked Liam if Europe had lived up to his expectations.  "No", he said, "I didn't think there would be this much walking, I thought we'd drive everywhere".  He also complained that the car was full of "stuff" - which it is, but I reminded him that he is the most prolific souvenir buyer of us all, and a lot of the stuff is his.  We need to find a post office and get some sent back!!  Tonight Greg is cooking, using up just some of his COOP shopping expedition :-)  Smells delicious!

Driving from Austria to Italy and Soggy Venice

Yesterday we left Salzburg and set off toward Venice with some pretty gorgeous mountains providing plenty of scenery.  The first part of the highway mainly took us through tunnels.  I'm no fan of tunnels.  I have a touch of claustrophobia and being a dark tunnel doesn’t work for me.  However I suppose it’s quicker than the alternative, which is climbing up and then down on winding mountain roads.  Greg and the kids think it’s quite funny, so I’m glad to provide some amusement for them.  Unexpectedly, our GPS seemed to take us off the bigger road and onto a two lane road – extremely scenic with snow showing at the top of the mountains.  I commented on how lucky we had been, not to hit ice or snow on our trip…. and of course, about 20 minutes later we hit both.  The trees looked so beautiful glistening with snow!  We passed several ski fields, one of them already in action with some eager early season skiers on the lift!  The GPS informed us the temperature outside was -2.  I did think it was quite cold as I was regularly unwinding the window as we sped along to get scenery photos!!  Liam, who was directly behind me, didn't appreciate my fearlessness of the cold in order to get a decent photo!

We made it safely through the winding roads, back onto the freeway, and into Italy.  Then the GPS took us off through a small village – again.  This time I checked the settings and saw I had not clicked “roads without tolls”.  When I clicked on that box we were immediately ordered by our bossy GPS to turn around and found ourselves on a very fast and comfortable freeway.  The predicted travel time was immediately reduced by 2 hours!!  It did cost us 16 euro for the privilege.

We couldn’t find anywhere affordable to stay in Venice itself – all the cheapie accommodation is on the outskirts of the city.  I chose our hotel, the Ambasciatori, because if was very reasonable (113 euro for two nights in a family room with breakfast and free parking) – but it’s 9km from town in an area called Mestre Venice.  Parking has turned out to be the biggest hassle with the car.  It’s hard to find free parking, and it’s expensive to pay for it. 

The bus into Venice goes right past the hotel, so it was very easy to get in this morning.  It was raining, and a bit grey.  We thought the best idea would be to get on the Vaperetto no 1 (the transit ferry) which goes from the bus station along the grand canal all the way to Lido, then back again.  It was 28 euro for the four of us, and the ticket is only valid for an hour!  In November and December Venice is often assailed with what they call “Acqua alta” – a combination of high tides and wind at this time of year mean the lower lying areas of the city, including Piazza St Marco, are flooded.  It was fascinating to see houses with water half way up their doors on the Grand Canal – they must have some sort of flood blockage inside the door.  We travelled to the end of the line, which was Lido, then back to Piazza St Marco, to join the big crowd of tourists either walking on raised board walks or wearing gum boots and wading through the water.  The guys selling plastic gumboots and rain coats were doing a roaring trade!  Bella was wearing her new knee length suede boots (bought in Prague) and couldn't bear the thought of getting them wet, so she bought some attractive aqua plastic gum boots to go over her boots.  Watching her pull them on was a hoot! Liam had to get a pair as well; he was so keen to walk through the water covering the square!  Much cooler than walking on the raised platforms!  We wandered for quite some time and managed to get a little lost, which is par for the course in Venice.  The laneways are a maze!!  I was delighted to see my new favourite tipple, gluhwein, on sale for just 1 or 2 euro.  I opted for a 2 euro one from a wine shop, thinking it might be better quality - and it was truly disgusting, like drinking horrible cough syrup.  I hope my next one is better or I'll be put off it for life!!  Back at the main piazza, we decided to get back on the Vaperetto to go back to the bus station.  Another 28 euro, thank you very much!  

By the way a gondola ride is 100 euro for up to six people – outside our budget on this trip!  And I don’t think it would have been that much fun in the rain.  Oh and Bella’s plastic rain boots (10 euro a pair) didn’t do a very good job, on the last wade back through the square she realised she had wet toes…!  Liam thinks his might come in handy in Scotland, we shall see!

It’s an interesting area, where we are staying – it’s very close to the port, and is semi-industrial; there are lots of clothes shops, plenty of chemists, and the odd doner kebab shop, but hardly any restaurants.  We went to one cafe tonight that Greg has seen was packed with locals.  It was, but it only sold tea and cakes!  We managed to find a trattoria and had great pizza.  I remember pizza in Italy being pretty ordinary (OK, I am talking about 28 years ago) but the ones we had tonight were fabulous!

How we ended up with 500g of Salzburg salt and other stories...

Some people in my immediate travelling party can be a bit disrespectful when it comes to my blog, but I notice they are all quick to suggest content.  "That should definitely go in the blog" comes up all the time!  I won't add all the farting or snoring stories though.  Some things do have to remain private :-)
Yesterday was a glorious Autumn day.  Bella, Liam and I set off on the Sound of Music Tour.  I really wanted to do the bike one, but they shut down in September.  I sent them an optimistic email but they didn't get back to me. So bus it was.  We opted for Grayline - www.grayline.com if you are interested - as they ticket was 5 euro cheaper per head and included free local transport for the rest of the day after the tour. We had a mini bus as numbers are down due to the season - there were 7 of us, all Aussies, and our Pommie driver. I really enjoyed it but Bella and Liam were not so keen, especially as we were the only ones singing along to the sound track as we drove.  It turns out I don't know as many of the words as I thought I did, but I didn't let that stop me!  The scenery was fabulous, and with a blue sky, it was quite perfect.
We met up with Greg (who had been working on that bloody never ending report) at the Mirabelle Gardens, and wandered through the city to the Fortress up on the hill.  There was some suggestions from the younger members of our party that we should take the funicular up the hill, but it was very pricey and as we all have strong legs, us oldies encouraged them onward and upward.  It was steep!!  More good quad workouts.  I need all the exercise I can get with the amount I'm eating and drinking - both of which I'm enjoying very much!
Fantastic views from the top of the fortress, and the price included an interesting tour of the rooms and towers.  It was very cold when we left to walk back down to the city.  We were super excited to find out that the 21st of November was the first day of the Christmas markets in Salzburg!  Yes!
Before we could hit the markets though Liam had to go back on the ice skating rink at Mozartplatz.  He'd had a go the night before with Bella.  He was hugely confident in his ice skating abilities after his excursion to Canberra in July, and assured Bella he could teach her.  It turns out that it took a while for the memory to come back, and meanwhile, poor Bella was left on her own to discover how bloody hard ice skating (and the ice on your crashing bottom) is.  I opted to take photos and sip warming gluhwein (regular blog readers will note that my fondness for gluhwein comes up on a regular basis - I just love it!) while they crashed and splattered their way around the rink.  Day two, Liam had improved quite a bit, but still had a long way to go to look as comfortable as the natives.  Greg urged him to watch "the guy in the red jumper" just as red jumper guy settled into a long session of tonsil hockey with his partner, we all found that quite hilarious.  Exactly WHAT did Greg want Liam to learn from the guy with the red jumper??  He encouraged us to wait.... and wait...eventually Liam just had to get back there on his own :-) The Christmas markets were great fun.  Full of colour, FABULOUS Christmas decorations (I so want to buy a box full and send them home - but I'm trying very hard not to buy anything other than little gifts for the grandbaby!), food and drink.  Greg, as I have mentioned a few times before, is crazy about sausages.  So he tries every different type of wurst available, leading to lots of bad wurst jokes along the line of "Dad is going to wurst heaven" - as you can see from the pic below he was very happy with his double wurst roll.
While I was having a roadie gluhwein, Liam decided to check out some nearby stalls.  We saw him chatting with one of the stall holders.  After a good 20 minutes I thought I should give her ears a break, so we wandered over.  She was just lovely - in fact with her strawberry blonde hair she reminded us a lot of our friend Jude! - who seemed to have genuinely enjoyed all the information Liam had managed to impart (which seemed like quite a lot of family detail, and a fair bit about crocodiles!!), but I felt we should buy something from her stand, which is how we ended up with the salt! Today we are off to Venice.  Talk to you all soon!
Oh, and by the way, Greg and I are holding audio thingys on our ears if you are wondering!

Munich, Fussen - and our first snow :-)

What a pain, Greg and I typed up a long blog entry after our day in Munich and obviously I didn't hit "post", because it's not here.  So I'll have to start again!!  When I wrote last we'd had a day in Nuremberg, back at the house Aaron and Antonia whipped up a magnificent Bavarian feast - roast pork, home made dumplings and bread sauce.  Andrea and Karl came and it turned out Andrea had been busy too, she had a whole crispy roast duck, plum sauce, roast goose legs, red cabbage, home made sauerkraut (the tastiest I've ever had) and to top it off, red wine puddings.  (Greg wants me to note that we've eaten sauerkraut all over Europe, as a comparison!) We were full to the brim, it was delicious.  A lovely way to celebrate our time in the Bavarian Outback (as Karl assured us it was!).
The next day we took the train into Munich.  We arrived into bright sunshine and a blue sky.  Wow, the sun felt sooo good.  I can understand why Europeans long for summer and holiday in tropical locations.  We kept switching to the sunny side of the road to enjoy the warmth of the winter sun.  We watched the Glockenspiel do it's thing, but I didn't get any photos - I was busy snapping away but didn't see the flashing message: "no card".  Whoops, I'd left it in the computer when I downloaded my last lot of photos!  Liam was busy taking a video of it on the little camera.  We walked to the New Museum which had four Van Goghs, Liam got to have his photo taken with a second "Sunflowers" plus other lovely art works.  The audio was good too.  We retraced our steps back into Marienplatz (home of the Glockenspiel) so I could re-take all the photos I thought I'd taken on the way there!  Then we went to the Deutsches Museum, a technological museum showcasing human achievements, particularly German achievements.  Liam and Bella really enjoyed it. Back on the train to Schwandorf to find we had a 30 Euro parking ticket.  We hadn't been able to find a park at the train station, and drove all around to find one, but could only buy a ticket for two hours.  Schwandorf seriously need to do something about their parking options!  Another small drama was when we arrived in Munich when Greg announced he'd been pick pocketed.  We couldn't believe it!  Luckily Bella reminded him he'd shoved it down his jocks for safe keeping, and we were all relieved to discover it was indeed still there!!
Yesterday we drove from Haselbach to Fussen.  The first two hours were spent in the worst fog ever.  We could hardly see a thing!  Half an hour from Fussen, the fog started to lift - and we hit roadworks.  We had no idea where to go, and a kindly Bavarian going the opposite direction took pity on us and led us on an alternative route - we thanked him profusely and gave him our card, to stay with us if he ever comes to Australia - the kindness of strangers.  Soon after he left us (heading in the right direction!) we came across such beautiful snow capped mountain views that Greg pulled over and insisted I jump out in the cold and get a decent photo!! Well OK then.  I'm so obedient :-)
Fussen was so beautiful.  Next to a lovely lake, with the two schlosses in the

snow capped mountains across the lake - Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles.  Our hostel room had a mountain view, so I quickly took a photo (just as well as it was foggy again this morning!) and we headed up to Neuschwanstein. Its said to be a 45 minute walk but it's really about 20 minutes, but reasonably steep.  You certainly warm up as you climb, but when we took off our coats we could feel the sweat freezing - very different to Darwin!

While waiting for our tour time slot Greg, Liam and I followed a few others up behind the closed off path to the Marien bridge (naughty, I know) to get photos of Neuschwanstein from the other side.  Now,THAT was a steep climb - very good for your quads Greg says!  But worth it for the views, and Liam was able to access some icy snow and throw snowballs at his father, who promptly started throwing them back (it doesn't take much to entertain boys!).  The path has of course been closed because of the snow and ice, but we made the trip safely!!
Today the kids and I went to Hohenschwangau, the castle Ludwig grew up in, that is adjacent to Neuschwanstein.  Not as big or spectacular, but still very interesting, especially if you love castles as much as Liam and I do!  Bella doesn't mind them either.  To make it even more special it was snowing when we got out of the car - our first snow for this trip!  The only downside is that you can't take photos in either castle, but we got lots of the exterior!!
Now we are in Salzburg.  Bella, Liam and I are looking forward to the Sound of Music Tour tomorrow!!

Where on earth is Haselbach?

The only person reading this blog who will know the answer right away is Lucy, as we are visiting her son Aaron and daughter in law Antonia in their Bavarian village of Haselbach!  It’s a small village about 170kms from Munich.  We drove here safely from Prague, after a last museum visit – this time to the National Museum of Prague, which had a large amount of Picassos and a couple of Klimts, and we enjoyed it.  

We stopped to get fuel – and use up our last few Czech crowns – when a traffic policeman approached us speaking French.  This is what happens when you are driving a car with French number plates!!  We explained that pathetically, that despite our French car we could only speak English!  He then found his supervisor to ask why we didn't have a vignette displayed in our car.  Well, that would be because we didn't realise we needed one!  We were fined 500 Czech crowns and then had to buy a vignette for 350 Czech crowns - then drove back into Germany 20 kms later :-)  

It was great to see Aaron (who incidentally I've known his entire life!) and we appreciated Aaron and Antonia putting us up for a few days.  You get to see a different side of a country when you are with friends or family :-)  Antonia got home from work around 9 pm (she works very long days commuting from Munich).  She told me that we need a vignette for Austria too, and the fine is 300 Euros!  So we were very lucky just to get pinged in Czech republic.

Yesterday I visited Antonia's hairdresser.  It was very important to keep those grey hairs at bay - what greys I like to say? She straightened my hair which I hoped with the cold weather would last for a few days (that hasn't been the case - it's getting curlier as I write!) and I felt very smart.  Nothing like being pampered.  Aaron had given us the address of the big supermarket so we could do some food shopping on the way back to the house (Greg was cooking) - however the GPS wouldn't accept the address and we had to wing it.  I saw it from the autobahn and we took the next exit, and got hopelessly, hopelessly lost.  We did see a lot of Schwandorf (the district they live in).  Greg attempted the tried and true "follow my nose" technique which ended up with us back on the autobahn heading for... the opposite direction.  After about 40 minutes we gave up and back tracked to a small supermarket we'd found.  Then put Aaron and Antonia's address into our GPS to get back with no further dramas!  

Aaron took us to see Regensberg, a big uni city with lots of Roman ruins about an hour's drive away.  We were going to take the train but were delayed by drinking beer, so we had to drive instead!  We had a little wander and sought solace from the cold by stopping for more beer and wurst (I didn't indulge in the wurst, but Greg liked it so much he bought a roadie when we left!).  Then it was back to the casserole Greg had prepared - Coq au Vin, delicious.  Antonia's parents Andrea and Karl came to join us and there was more beer and wine!  

Today we had a traditional Sunday Bavarian breakfast - weisswurst with bread pretzels and Weizenbier.  The very first time I've had beer for breakfast!  Or sausages for that matter - I haven't eaten them for over 40 years as I can't stand all the fattiness, but I was brave with these as they didn't (and weren't) fatty.  Aaron talked us through how to skin them - apparently you never eat the skin, thank goodness he was able to save us making that faux pas!  The pretzels were salty and delicious!  Then we drove to Amberg, a gorgeous town about 20 minutes away where Aaron catches the train to work every day.  The old part of the town is surrounded by a wall and is very charming.  i took a photo of Bella looking very swish in her new Prague boots - she loves them! We parked there and caught the train to Nuremberg, which is where Aaron works.  So kind of him to make the journey with us when he has to go there every work day!  It's such a pretty city.  Its just amazing to think that it was totally re-built after WW2 (as it was razed by bombing) .  We had a warming gluhwein, then headed to the Albrecht Durer House.  It was interesting, because it really was his house and has been well preserved/re built, but we were disappointed that all the Durer paintings on display were original copies not originals.  Liam still took some inspiration from the sketches on display and hopes to work on some more hands soon!  We re-joined Aaron and Antonia for .... beer, what did you expect? Some more wurst and cheese (good cheese).  Then we walked around the castle.  Liam and I are turning into castle fiends.  We can't see enough of them!!  I like to imagine I was someone wealthy and royal, not a scummy servant, in old times.  Greg tells me I'm dreaming :-)

Falling in love with e bikes!

Yesterday we'd booked an e bike tour - yes as it's so hilly in Prague, they have electric bikes!  Liam loved his from the first minute and swears he needs one of his own desperately.  www.ebikerprague.com if you are ever over this way! It was pretty cool to whizz up a steep hill while just pedaling at a leisurely rate!  As it was pretty cold though - around 4 degrees - I turned the motor off anytime we were on a flat bit so I could pump my legs a bit harder and keep the blood circulating.  We went all around the city, up to the castle - where Bert told us some interesting info about the lovely brass doors of the cathedral; past lots of gorgeous buildings; through the city orchard (yes, the city has a huge orchard on the side of a hill where the local populace can pick apples, cherries, grapes and almonds during the season!); to the famous graffiti wall (during communist times the locals would paint Beatles graffiti on it, and the commies would paint over it, then it would happen all over again, a sign of Czech resistance) - about 18kms in total.  We really enjoyed it and I'd recommend the tour!  It included a picnic lunch.  It was not really a picnic sort of day, and Liam and I opted to save our bun as we stopped to feed the swans.  They are pretty big birds out of the water, and not afraid to grab a finger while they snapped the bread or apple we fed them, but there were no injuries!
After the ride Bella needed to go straight back to the apartment to urgently complete some school work.  She had been successfully ignoring the fact that it needed to be done, but a deadline is a deadline!  Greg went with her to do some work too.  So that left Liam and I on our own to explore Prague.  We had a map, we had money - off we went.
Our first stop was a cafe to buy a hot chocolate to warm up from our ride!  However I saw gluhwein was cheaper than hot chocolate, so that sounded like a good idea to me.  Hot wine warms you right down to the end of your toes! Liam also had a cake.  This was when I discovered that Greg has actually taken all the money, less 200 Czech crowns, out for safe keeping.  Don't worry!  I still had my credit card :-) I had just enough cash to pay for our snack.  We've discovered that while most tourist areas will take credit cards, there are plenty of hotels (like the one we are staying at in Prague), restaurants, shops and even food shops in Europe that only want cold hard cash!
We had a map but I fancied I knew the direction we needed to take to the castle.  You may think this was the gluhwein talking, really it's just a pain taking my glasses off to read the map, putting them back on again to check the spelling of the street sign, especially when it's pretty cold and you just want to keep on moving. So, we found the famous Astrological clock!  And passed lots of gorgeous buildings!  And even (although we didn't realise it at the time) found Wenceslas Square.  We were having a lot of fun but eventually Liam pointed out that although it was quite entertaining, we were in fact pretty hopelessly lost, and we needed some assistance.  He provided this by stopping to buy a dagger (I've lost count of the amount of knives this boy has now) at a Smithy's shop (this turned out to be in Wenceslas Square - yes, its Wenceslas as in Good King Wenceslas) and asking for some directions to the Charles bridge.  Yay, we found the bridge, and crossed it safely (it is reknown for pick pocketers, although they would have been a bit sad if they'd picked our pockets, with both of us out of cash!) and started the climb to the castle.  However, we passed a clock and saw it was 3.10pm.  Due to the early closing, the last entry into castle exhibits is 3.20pm.  There was no way we could make the climb and get to the exhibit we wanted to see in 10 minutes, so reluctantly we headed back to Wenceslas Square, as we'd arranged to meet Greg & Bella at 5.30pm.  Liam offered to read the map (this was made easier by the fact that we knew this time exactly where we were on the map, in my defence!) and we set off.  We resolved to stop in shops as we went along, mainly to warm up, as we had two hours to fill in.  This did mean I did a little tiny bit of shopping!  One of my purchases is a snood.  I'm still searching for that elusive perfect hat.  I did find one I really liked in Vienna but it was 199 Euros.  A bit steep for a hat I'll barely ever wear again.  I'm going to try out my snood today - it works as a scarf/hat combo according to the picture!
We found the statue of Good King W with no problem (passing the Smithy stall, which is when we realised we'd been here before).  It would help if Wenceslas Square actually was a square - I'm sure we would have identified it earlier!  In fact it's very, very long rectangle with roads on either side and a pedestrian walking area in the middle, and the statue right at the very end.  It's also well known for pick pockets and general drunkenness and bad behaviour, but we managed to escape both.  Liam and I checked out the restaurants lining the "square" to find one that wasn't outrageously expensive - not an easy task.  They must think all tourists have loads of money!!  I wish we did!
We had to wait for Greg and Bella.  They were only 7 minutes late, but let me tell you, when it's zero degrees (or minus 10, which is what it felt like) every minute counts!  I was very keen to get somewhere to warm up again.  We stopped at one of the restaurants Liam and I had identified as a possible, and Greg was very taken with the Czech special, which was a whole roasted duck, smoked pork, roasted pork knee, spareribs, three big Czech pork sausages, cabbage, dumplings (bread and potato ones) - $75.  Greg mis-read the price, as he though it was 750 Czech crowns not 1750 cz, but we were committed by then.  See the pic.  I did my bit by eating a huge amount of duck, but despite valiant efforts by Greg and Bella, the platter was not finished!  It could easily have fed 6 people.
Well now we are going to check out of here (sadly, we've really liked this apartment!) and visit the National Museum before driving back to Germany, to Bavaria this time, to spend a few days with Aaron and Antonia Gregg!  Happy birthday to my little sister Suzy :-)