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09-15-10

Days 21 – 25 : Prague

We arrived in Prague on Tuesday afternoon and not having the patience to figure out the public transportation options, we hired a cab to take us to Hotel St. Charles  for 600 kc (about $30 US).  This included an extra fee courtesy of the driver – we smiled and paid it, vowing to return to the airport via public transportation. The 3rd floor room was quite nice: Victorian themed with a large marble bathroom equipped with a jacuzzi tub, TV with BBC, a fridge and a very generous free breakfast every morning (usually the best meal we would eat all day).  We headed out to find food and ended up at a Canadian themed cafe with free wi-fi, that was playing a rerun of the 1972 Canada-USSR game. We then ate at the adjacent argentine restaurant. There were many of these kinds of restaurants, the people in Prague seemed to really like their meat. Jenni ended up with a thick steak, Andrew a rack of lamb ribs. This feast only cost us about 50 US Dollars, as it’s inexpensive to eat a 4-5 star dinner in Prague. You ever get a chance to go, make sure you treat yourself.

Afterwards we wandered around and found an indoor mall near the Angel subway metro stop.  We were pretty amazed at the scale of the mall (4 stories), how much it resembled the ones typical in north america, and how close it was to the city centre. The oddest thing was the 2-story Tesco. 1st floor was for groceries, 2nd floor for Wal-mart type clothes & appliances. 

The mall seemed fairly new, but the people were well accustomed to shopping.  We wandered around and got a sense of what the czechs buy, most things were only a bit cheaper than in the US. We both ended up splurging on a set of headphones, as both of ours had become quite sad and travel worn.  

Wednesday we headed to the Stare Mestro (old town) to catch our bike tour.  Our guide took us and a pair of Irish ladies through the gothic powder tower – one of eight original city gates separating old from new.  We made note of the Dvorak Classical Festival and the Museum Kampa as possible return trips.  One of the interesting stops was the Lennon Wall – a relic from communist days where a small part of the sidewalk that is technically part of the Maltese embassy allowed for people to stand outside of soviet territory and express their thoughts with graffiti. John Lennon lyrics we especially popular at the time.

This tour didn’t include a food stop so afterwards we wandered and located a nice patio restaurant that served us mediocre food.

We returned to the Kampa, a modern art museum, and saw works by local Prague artists while being closely monitored by the museums security detail of near-sighted short old ladies.  Jenni wandered into the gallery without first purchasing a ticket which prompted a grilling by one of these geriatric guards.  We were then on their watch list and they were relentless with their ticket checking – you might have thought they would start smelling or tasting them to ensure their validity.  It was quite amusing, but we enjoyed the art. The top of the museum had rooftop access with a see-through floor and a small terrace from which the charles street bridge and park can be surveyed.

Our hotel was actually located near the Vysehrad – a historic settlement surrounded by crumbling stone walls and filled with quiet winding paths. In the evening we ventured there in search of a beer garden, but by the time we found it they were done serving food so we continued our wanderings and happened upon a quartette practicing so we stopped to listen.  We’ll post a recording of them soon.  

Thursday we headed over to the very large Stromvk park, as Jenni had a walking tour linked to GPS on her iPhone.  We took the gondola up and were beaconed to spend about 200 kc to be able to walk up a miniature Eiffel tower.  We passed on this and proceeded down the forested trails to find a place to picnic and have views of the town below. Afterwards we went into a bar that looked at though it was decorated by Tim Burton with sandworm-like metallic sculptures and light fixtures that looked as though they could bite you. We happened to chat up a fellow Texan and photographer who had been living in Prague, preparing for an art show.   

Friday we got up a bit late and headed straight to the Mucha museum.  It’s a fascinating look into the life and work of one of the greatest art nouveau illustrator/printmakers. The collection included illustrations Mucha did as a young boy, photographs of him entertaining the likes of Paul Gauguin in his Paris studio and the original posters promoting Sarah Bernhardts productions, which made him famous.

We then jetted up the steep climb to Prague castle.  This heavily touristed conglomerate of museums, palaces, and St. Vitus’s Cathedral was interesting, especially the main hall of the palace where the royal sock slide contest was held.  In all seriousness, unless you really need to see another royal relic, this one might be a pass.  I was sort of disappointed we didn’t see the nearby toy museum.  After a cafe/wee fee/postcard stop we glamorously waltzed the red carpet of the Rudolfinum for an evening concert. 

The concert consisted of one man opera adjoined with a man at a piano. The gestures, flipping of the hair and exaggerations of the opera singer while singing was the most fascinating part for Jenni, who had never seen a concert like this before.

Friday we woke at the crack and took public transit to the airport. Our entire day was spent getting from Prague to Venice, Italy, and consisted of: tram, metro, bus, airplane, bus, and bus.  We’ll get into thoughts on Venice in our next post (there were some strong views and options), but clearly this was not the best thought out leg of our trip.    

09-06-10

Days 15 – 20 : Copenhagen

Thursday we headed to the Schoenefeld Airport to board our EasyJet flight to Copenhagen.  A very decent selection of breakfast foods from marche had to be gulped down in haste while we lined up and waited an hour to collect our boarding pass, even without bags to check.  Thankfully the flight was short, and upon arriving in Copenhagen, our friend Falah collected us at the gate and led us to the very efficient train to travel to where her and her husband, Torben, live.  It was so great to see friends again after weeks of travel, it really lightened our spirits.  They took us to the city center for traditional danish street food of hotdogs – “ristet pølse”. These are topped with ketchup, mustard and remoulade sauce is followed by a sprinkling of raw and toasted onion, and a layer of pickled cucumber. Torben also introduced us to traditional Danish liquor shots (“snaps” and “fisherman”). Once filled with Danish courage, we took our talents to the local karaoke bar.

The currency in Denmark is the Kroner, but taxes make many things much more expensive than other parts of europe.  We were very lucky to be able to stay with our friends and benefit from their savvy while in the Danish capital.

On Friday we picked up bikes.  Copenhagen is very bike friendly.  While we waited for fresh bikes to arrive at the shop, we walked across the street to get ice cream in the botanical gardens.  An extensive indoor greenhouse had a second floor reachable from cascading stairs.  We then rode to Christiania, a unique independent state established by counter-culture squatters of a former army base.  The rules are no pictures, violence, or hard drugs, so instead we drank Tuborg and ate sandwiches in the sunny weather.  We stopped at Bankeraat, a cool bar with oddities of taxidermy animals and artist types, for some more beer.  Back at the pad Falah made a fantastic Indian dish.

Saturday we biked to the Statens Museum of Kunst, an art museum.  The rear hall  is filled with natural light, and extends the original building facade.  The space occupied with an exhibit by Tomás Saraceno - giant suspended plastic biospheres.  We had coffee in the atrium cafe and wandered through the museum filled with art, largely of danish origin.

After the museum we headed to a restaurant where we had some traditional Danish food.  Andrew gorged smorrebord: cheese, ham, herring, liver pate, and breaded whitefish.

We topped off the afternoon in Nyhavn where colorful buildings – one of which was the birthplace of physicist Neils Bohr – line the canal filled with sailboats and further on a view of the operahouse.
 

In the evening we headed to the local dive bar for Carlsberg and dice games, but the locals provided extra entertainment as they drank and played a 5-pin billiards game.    

Sunday it rained, and we were fully prepared with Torben’s excellent DVD collection, lots of food and boxed wine. It was the first Sunday that we had the opportunity to be lazy . [also football match]    

Monday we waited for Falah to finish her half day of work and before taking a train trip up to Elisnore.  At 7-11 we picked up an assortment of licorice – a Danish favorite.  All were quite tasty except for the salted variety, which I had to spit out after a few curious chews. 

Elisnore is home to Kronberg castle, which was the hypothetical setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  We had just enough time to tour the tapestry-filled castle, climb to the roof where we could see the Swedish coastline, and browse through the maritime museum which had a fantastic collection of ship models.  When we got home, Torben had prepared an amazing meal for us.