Navigating Amsterdam

Cam and I just got back from Café Alto, the jazz club just down the street from our hotel.  I wanted to go there when we arrived in Amsterdam on September 17th but the night we tried to get in it was jam-packed.  It would have been futile to even try.  We skipped.

Cam suggested that we go tonight because he remembered my reason for wanting to see the place; it's a club that Janet and I went to in 1997, and where we heard some pretty good jazz.  I'm pleased to report that time hasn't diminished the Alto legend, at least as I've constructed it in my mind.  The quartet -- guitar, electric bass, drums and keyboards -- were good together.  As I like to do, several times I closed my eyes and isolated on each instrument in turn.  They were good individually as well as together.

Alto is a small place.  The bar is on the right as you enter.  Across from it is a row of stools against small shelf, just wide enough to hold a glass.  Beyond that, toward the rear, two steps lead to an area of about ten tables and enough seats for maybe forty or fifty people.

We got there early and had snagged two stools along the wall with a good view of the stage, which was in ..  which was .. the back of the room.  At opening time, 9:00 PM, there was no sign of the band and not that many people.  We had an Amstel, then another, and while we did the musicians began to show up.  First was the drummer, then the keyboardist, the bassist and the guitar man.  Once they had their instruments out, completed an extended sound check, and it got to be ten o'clock they began to play.  We listened and enjoyed, although the sound of conversations coming from behind us and in the foreground interfered some with being really able to listen as I would have liked.

We left at the band's first break and came back to the hotel to rest up from a day of much walking, a visit to the Van Gogh museum, and a late day stop for coffee and dessert.

Cam's kind of tired from the bike tour that he took yesterday afternoon.  It was, he reported, interesting and educational.  The "hippie" girl, as he described her, knew a lot of historical and contemporary facts about Amsterdam and pointed out places that most casual tourists might not have recognized.  His trip helped us to find our way to places today.  Cam's turned out to be a pretty good navigator.  (Did I say that before?  Can't remember if it was here or on Facebook.)

A yen for the U.S. and Key West

October 13, 2009.  Garbsen, DE

We are in the town of Garbsen, Germany in a small, comfortable and pretty gasthaus.  We arrived here last night after spending Sunday night and Monday in Berlin where we took one of those bus tours that are offered virtually everywhere that there are large numbers of tourists.  (You know what I mean if you've ever been on the Conch Tour Train.)

The temperature here is 36º F, a reminder that it is close to winter, and that our tour is coming to an end.  I'm missing Key West, because I know that it is still warm there.

We drove for a few hours yesterday afternoon and evening, part of the way on the Autobahn where there are no speed limits.  It's our habit now to begin looking for a place to stay in late afternoon or early evening.

The GPS is now our principal means of finding a hotel and it seems to work out well, at least so far.

Our little Opel Agila isn't exactly an Autobahn kind of car, although we've managed a few times to push it to 150 kilometers per hour (93 MPH).  Even at that speed we regularly have to move over for bigger cars, Mercedes, BMW, Audi and the like, that pass us at speeds up to 50 kph faster than us.

Yesterday in Berlin Cam and I explored the intricacies of the Berlin underground (subway) and made our way to the heart of the city for our bus tour and what to our wondering eyes did appear but a Dunkin Donuts!  It's the only one we've seen since leaving the U.S..  We took a break, went inside, and enjoyed a cup of real coffee, unlike the sissy lattes and cappucinos that the Europeans seem to favor.  And a genuine Dunkin Donuts muffin for me, an everything bagel for Cam.  Then, to make our day complete, at a highway rest stop, I snagged a bag of peanut M&Ms to munch on as we drove.

We'll be in Amsterdam tomorrow to return the car.  More from there.

Farewell to Prague

Written on Sunday but posted today as we regained an internet connection.

And so we leave Prague, Czech Republic after our longest stay of all, one week, with the Kotekova family, Ondrej and his mother, Olga at their apartment in the Prague 6 District not very far from the Presidential Palace and between the last and next-to-last stops on the Green Metro line.

We are returning to Straubing, Germany to retrieve our car at the home of Karl and Krystle Wolf, brother- and sister-in-law of my brother Martin through his wife, Kathy, Karl's sister.  They hosted us for a couple of days a week ago after we traveled from Dachau (a visit about which we haven't yet written but will, God willing.)

But about Prague.  It was the first time here for both of us.  As I may have already explained, Cam and his family hosted Ondrej as an exchange student in Rochester, New Hampshire for the full school year 2008-2009.  Both played hockey for Spaulding High School as defensemen and contributed to Spaulding making it into the playoffs.  Ondrej graduated from Spaulding with Cam in June and returned to the Czech Republic where he still had one more year of school to fulfill for his Czech graduation.  When he got back to Prague he was required to take and pass fourteen(!) examinations on the subjects that he would have taken just as if he had completed the year at his local school.  He had just a few weeks to review, study and prepare for those exams.  He passed all but three, but those three were enough to prevent him from graduating.  He would have had to repeat the year in order to be able to move on to his fifth and final year of school.

Ondrej's mother Olga is a Juris Doctor lawyer in private practice in Prague and she understands the Czech educational system well enough to know that there were other options.  One was to find another school that would accept him in, allow him to repeat the testing, and thus move on without repeating an entire year.  So that's what he did, and was doing during our visit, boning up on the tests he will retake.  It's expected that he'll pass those.

This stay in Prague will be perhaps the most memorable of all the stops we've made, for several reasons.  First, its length and an opportunity to relax a little from the frenetic pace of before, moving on each day after a little sightseeing of those places and things that interested us.  Second, because we were without the car during our visit, we wound up spending much more time walking than riding.  Third, it gave Cam a chance to spend time with people his own age, Ondrej and his friends, all of whom welcomed him into their "community".  He had a chance to do the things that young people everywhere enjoy, to be with friends, to talk and listen to music and even dance, to watch sports.  And to do some things that young people everywhere don't always have the chance to do, especially in the U.S., to go to a pub or restaurant and to have a beer or two, a glass of wine, even a shot of Jagermeister and not have to sneak around to do it.  Most of all though it was being with people who knew well the places to go to and to see as tourists.  On the day that we arrived (a Sunday) Cam and Ondrej went off together and Olga and I walked from their apartment to the Palace grounds for a quick look, then into the oldest part of the city, and mostly just talked.  

Olga was studying English at a school in Prague and has made several overseas trips for opportunities to study with native English-speakers.  Notably, in June of this year, she spent an extended vacation in Vancouver, B.C. And traveled through several western states (Utah, Nebraska, Arizona) and followed up with a stay in New Hampshire to see Ondrej (and Cam) graduate.

Much of what we talked about was exploring Czech history, from early times through early and late twentieth century, including the German occupation that began in 1939, and the Soviet occupation after World War 2, up until the division of the Czech and Soviet Republics in the late 1990s.  Also we explored the contrasts between the U.S. And British political and legal systems and those of the European nations, mainly as a vehicle for her to practice her English skills, but also to satisfy my curiosity about those systems.

Next stop after getting the car will be in Berlin for 1-2 days where we hope to complete our survey of the the second World War and its aftermath.  Afterwards it will be a day or two in Amsterdam before finding our way back to Dublin for the flight home on the 20th.

Prague, a lovely place, and a new-found appreciation for what travel can be like when you can connect with locals.

Thanks, merci, danke and most of all, djecui Ondrej and Olga

We are traveling on a Czech train through the Czech countryside heading to the German border and the cities of Regensburg and Straubing.  We left Prague at (precisely) 1:06 PM and are slated to arrive in Straubing at (precisely( 6:26 PM) where Karl will pick us up.  We got somewhat confused when the (female) conductress informed us soon after we left Prague that it would become necessary to move to a different card, more forward in the train, when we arrived at a certain city.  At first I thought she meant when we reached the city of Schwansdorf, where we are scheduled to change to another train destined for Regensburg but, no, what she actually meant was that in the city of Pelzn we'd remain on this train but move up to another car towards the front of the train as, apparently, this car we're in will be detached at that time.

We reconnoitered the forward cars and note that they are quite full, with some people standing and sitting in the aisles.  We currently have a compartment all to ourselves and would prefer it if we can continue to have that convenience throughout the remainder of today's journey.

The aforementioned conductress comes across as somewhat bitchy, annoyed that she has to speak to us in English, and officious to a fault when she has conductress duties to perform, but I chalk it all up to a lack pf experience and to perhaps a lack of skill in English.  Ondrej told us that Czech girls are a lot more reluctant than guys to speak English if they aren't comfortable with it (not like Lenki at the Palaca gardens.)

Day Six of Prague Visit

It's Friday and our sixth day in Prague, with two more to go.  We leave here on Sunday to return to Straubing, Germany to retrieve our car, then it's off to Berlin and the last major stop on our tour.  We remain in Prague for Cam to spend time with Ondrej, which he (and we) has (have) been doing although Ondrej is in school during the day.

Yesterday we met up with him and his friend Martin in the afternoon, after Cam and I spent a couple of hours wandering by Metro and on foot searching for the church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the site where seven Czech soldiers were trapped by 350 German troops after they -- the Czechs - assassinated the German SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich who was, at the time, Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia, which was then the identity of the territory which included what is now known as the Czech Republic.

We found the place after Ondrej and Martin arrived and visited the church with them, including the crypt where the assassination team held off the the troops for a time before killing themselves to avoid being taken prisoner.  What followed has come to be known as the Heydrich Terror.  The Nazis leveled two nearby towns and killed all of their inhabitants as punishment and to show the residents of the territory that opposition would not be tolerated.

The visit there continued our pursuit, prompted by Cam's curiosity, of sites connected to the history of World War 2, which now include Normandy and Omaha Beach, Bastogne, Dachau and Prague.  We will complete that aspect of our  journey with our visit to Berlin in a few days.

More about Prague.  It is a city of contrasts.  Big, but small enough to walk in.  Old but with a lot that is new and modern.  Clean but in places grimy with the dirt of ages upon many of the monuments and buildings.  For tourists but really a city with a vitality of Czech people going about their daily lives.

Having now figured out the transportation system under the advice of Ondrej, and having acquired the three-day passes that allow us to use the Metro (subway) and the efficient tram system that weave a web throughout the town, we can see what Ondrej points out, that it isn't really necessary to have a car here to get around here, just as is the case in New York City.

I've done more walking here than I have in a very long time, s much so that I've twice peeled a substantial amount of skin from the soles of my feet.  Fortunately that hasn't resulted in blisters that would curtail my ability to continue to walk.  Keeping up with the three, and occasionally four, young men with whom I've been traveling has at times slowed them down.  It's fortunate that they are considerate of an old(er) Papa.

As we walked yesterday through one of the many small parks that dot the city we came upon a group of people gathered in a circle around a drummer who might have been a North American or South American native, and who was leading the group through a dance that alternately moved in a dance around him and toward and away from him.  I'm not sure if it was an organized event or merely an impromptu one, but it was interesting to watch for a while.

We arrived back to Ondrej's and Olgal's apartment, with me tired and ready for a nap.  Later Cameron and Ondrej went out again, to meet friends at a nearby hookah bar and perhaps later at a pub.  Interesting though it may have been for me to have gone along, I instead remained at home, catching up on the news of the day from the U.S. and from Key West, speaking with Janet for nearly three-quarters of an hour via Skype, and listening to jazz on Mezzo, about which I wrote earlier.

All in all it was another enjoyable day in Prague, even including the really awful bacon cheeseburger I had at a McDonalds near a school in the district where the church of Sts. Cyrill and Methodius was.

One serious miscue was that we left the apartment without either of us remembering to bring our cameras.  We missed a lot of good photo ops.  The camera of the mind will have to suffice.

Fixing the calendar

Trying to maintain a proper chronology in this blog,  I've just posted a report of a past set of events here.  It's in the proper sequence by the calendar, but it might not be apparent unless you happen to read back a few days.

A night and day in Prague

We arrived in Prague yesterday mid-afternoon for Cam's long-waited reunion with Ondrej (Andrew) Kotek.  Ondrej spent the 2008-2009 in Rochester, NH as an exchange student and living with the Chasses.  Cam and Ondrej played hockey together at Spaulding High School and became good friends in that time.

We were met at the Prague rail station by Ondrej and his mom, Olga Kotkova.  In Czech, the forms of men's and women's names are differentiated with the woman's name taking the ending "-ova", something I didn't know before coming here.  It is, I think, similar to the Russian language.

We came to their apartment by taxi because of the luggage and arrived after only a fifteen minute ride.  Olga had prepared for us a traditional Czech meal called Svickova.  It is a dish of beef marinated for 48 hours in a sauce prepared from vegetables and sour cream, served over dumplings, and garnished with fruit and whipped cream(!), and it was very delicious.

Afterwards, Cam and Ondrej went to a professional hockey game.  Olga and I walked for nearly two hours through Prague's old section as she pointed out various points of interest, such as the Presidential Palace (where we saw the changing of the palace guard), several churches and cathedrals, and examples of the mix of Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance architecture that characterizes the history of the city.  We saw only enough to give me an idea of the places that I will want to get back to and visit during the rest of the week that we'll remain here.

Today (Monday), after Ondrej took care of some school things that he needed to do in the morning, the three of us, Cam, Ondrej and I took the subway, the tube as it is referred to here, back to the old town area and walked around for almost four hours, seeing more of the sights that Ondrej thought we'd find interesting, including the famous Prague Astronomical Clock in the old town city hall.  We were there at 1:00 PM in a large crowd of other tourists to witness the many movements of the clock as it strikes each hour.

We stopped in at a McDonalds restaurant for a couple of Cokes for the boys and a coffee latte for me that we drank as we walked, and then later at a famous coffee house and restaurant called Café Slavia located directly across a broad avenue from the National Theater.  I had another latte and sampled some excellent warm apple strudel garnished with whipped cream and crumbled chocolate.

Tonight the four of us will attend a concert of classical music in one of the grand old churches and then have a meal together -- or maybe before the concert, I'm not clear on that point.

Cam is out with Ondrej right now meeting some of his friends that he expects to meet again for a dance party later in the week.  I'm alone in the apartment taking advantage of the wireless internet and watching a performance of a ballet on Mezzo, kind of an MTV for classical and jazz music that they have as part of their satellite TV service.  The service originates in France.  To the best of my knowledge it isn't available in America, though I kind of wish it was.  It seems not to be interrupted at all by commercials and broadcasts around the clock.

Cam and Ondrej have just returned at 6:00 PM and we'll be going out shortly, bringing this post to a halt.  There should be more tomorrow, as well as more photos at our Facebook photo pages.  Until then,

Dobrou noc!, which means good night.

The Alps - Switzerland and Austria

Switzerland was one of my favorite places yet. Everywhere were mountains. Mountains covered with trees, mountains with massive rock faces, and mountains that soar into the heavens with jagged summits that could pop a balloon if one were to make it up that high without bursting. There wasn’t any need for us to travel on scenic routes because the highways were scenic. They go up, down, across, and often times, through the mountains with tunnels as long as five kilometers every fifteen minutes or so. GPS Jack eventually guided us off the highways onto roads that brought us through picturesque towns nestled in valleys where the sun doesn’t shine until noon because the mountains on both sides are so great. The houses in the towns, for the most part, are huddled together as if to keep warm during the harsh winters. Every town had its fair share of cows all bearing the bells so characteristic of Swiss cattle. I’m not sure which aspect of the farms we recognized first as we approached the towns; the smell of the cow shit or the sound of the bells. Call me crazy but I somewhat enjoy the smell. We continued up, down, across, and through the mountains until we made it to the city of Davos. Even though it isn’t the right season for skiing just yet, it was obvious that Davos was a major resort town. There were multiple gondola stations that go up to the top of the mountains right from the center of the city. Also, the sides of the streets were not only used by people on bicycles but people on custom rollerblades made to resemble skis. They even had their ski poles with them. We tried to find a gondola to take us to the top of a mountain to maybe eat or just enjoy the views but they seemed to all only be open in the winter.

When we left Davos on the road to Austria, we went through the Fluelopass. I might have misspelled that. This is where I climbed the mountain next to the road and took the amazing pictures. As we got closer to the pass and higher in elevation, the mountains had less and less trees on them. They were the nicest colors, basically the colors of thanksgiving. The road itself was at an elevation above 2000 meters and most of the mountains were at least 500-1000 meters taller than that. It was like driving through Franconia Notch in New Hampshire except three times better. After I climbed halfway up one of the mountains next to the parking lot where Papa was, we had a nice meal at the restaurant.

Innsbruck, Austria was our next stop and we made it there around sunset. I didn’t know that the Olympics were held there twice. We didn’t go looking for the Olympic stadiums and such, but we did take a ride into town to walk around and get something to eat. We ended up eating at McDonalds. You’re probably saying, “Why the heck would you do that?”. Well, we hadn’t eaten at one since we started our trip so we wanted to see what they were like in Europe. Also, it was nice to have a meal that wasn’t so expensive. It wasn’t that different. It was right in downtown Innsbruck so there was no drive-through. The dining area was very long and narrow and the ceilings were arched giving it a very old look. There were a few differences on the menu, for instance, they had chicken wings, waffle fries, and a few more flavors of milkshakes than we do in America. The mountains in Austria were no less spectacular but it didn’t seem like there were as many as in Switzerland.

More adventures in the Alps

If the name Davos rings a bell (not a cow bell) it might be because that is the location of the location of the annual World Economic Forum held there at the beginning of the year and attended by dozens, maybe hundreds, of the world's movers and shakers in politics, finance, economics and business. We began to look for the actual site of the forum, a ski resort known as Davos Klosters, but gave up on that to see if we could find a gondola lift that would take us to the top of a local mountain. We found a couple of such lifts but they apparently only operate in winter for skiing. At any rate there were none operating while we were there.


Instead we decided to move on in the alps to seek a place to spend the night, which is how we wound up at La Cascata (The Cascade) in Augio-Rossa, about which Cam has already reported. The hotel has an interesting story attached to it. It is both a hotel and a local cultural center operated by an association, apparently as a non profit foundation. The building was built early in the 20th century by an immigrant from elsewhere. Long after his death the foundation which now supports it raised the funds needed to begin restoring the dilapidated buildings then there. Today it is a very comfortable hotel with modern facilities and a very attractive dining room that doubles as a performance center where a variety of cultural events are held. It's hard to envision how the small population who live in the vicinity can support it. Perhaps the visitors to the area in summer and for skiing in winter contribute to that.


In that region of the Alps Italian is the language spoken, but the woman who seems to operate the place is either English or an Australian/New Zealander. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union and thus the Euro is accepted merely as an alternative to the Swiss Franc which is the official currency. This was to prove a problem the next day when we had a lunch after Cam's climb up the mountain at Fluela Pass.  


The restaurant there didn't take credit cards and we were short about 13 Euros on our bill. Fortunately I also had some U.S. dollars and one of the workers there was willing to exchange dollars for Euros, so we were able to get away without having to wash dishes -- or being arrested.


We continued on from there to Innsbruck and took a room at a hotel near the airport that was under construction or being remodeled. We woke up the next morning to the sound of jackhammers nearby, had breakfast, and headed off for Germany and our next planned stop, Dachau, location of one of the first concentration camps set up by the National Socialists in 1933. More on that later.