first days

Okay, readers (all three of you), here's the update on my travels thus far.  Customs in SLC was happily smooth going.  SLC to Chicago was fine.   Then 9 hours to Munich.  That flight was very comfortable--no one next to  me and plenty of time to write and read, although I didn't sleep at all.  In Munich, I raced from one side of the airport to the other, but was waylaid in Customs.  I had to transfer my toiletries to a different plastic bag and throw away my empty water bottle. I'm sure the flight was much safer with my shampoo in that 50 cent baggie. 

 

The flight to Prague was quick.  You cannot imagine how many bald men came through the airport, but none were Steve.  I waited three hours.  Several times, I tried to call Alice, with whom we are staying, but the phone ate my coins.  The lovely girl in the information booth practically yelled at me when I asked about changing more money.  Luckily, I'd been warned about Czech service (though I must interject at this point that my experience since then has been very pleasant).  So I took a shuttle (about $40) to the house of Alice and Dave.

It was such a relief when Dave opened the door and walked me into their lovely apartment. They immediately made me feel welcome.  Steve had just called them--weather had delayed his flight in Denver and he'd missed his plane to Frankfurt.  About an hour later, he showed up and we went to dinner at a favorite restaurant of A & D.  Since I hadn't eaten anything for about 12 hours, except a very sweet German cookie on the flight from Munich, I was famished and devoured the beer, chicken, and boiled buttered potatoes.

Alice and Dave set me up in their study,  a poster in which is pictured here.  I had a gorgeous night's sleep.  Alice and Dave let us sleep in while they went to the gym.  Steve was still asleep when they returned and I walked with Alice to the market.  She bought me a traditional Czech sandwich--a slice of bread with potato salad, gherkins, ham and cheese.  Delicious. 

Later, Alice and Dave took me to the Prague Castle on the tram.  Amazing.  There were many, many tourists and we didn't want to stand in line to look inside, but it was awesome just to walk through the castle grounds.  Then we met Steve for lunch at Ebel pub where we had a traditional Czech meal--Pilsner, sausage with mustard and horseradish, and potato salad.  Very tasty.  We spent the rest of the day wandering through the city--Old Town Square and the Jewish Quarter (although the cemetary was closed Saturday, of course).  

 

Seeing Prague with Alice, who is Czech, was wonderful because she told me so much about the history of the places we visited.  All that information is swimming in my head that I've yet to sort into language I can share.  But I will try in future posts.

 

We saw a crazy sculpture outside the Kafka Museum: two guys made out of layered tiles with swiveling hips, peeing into a pool.  Dave recently realized that the pool is shaped like the Czech Republic.  What does that mean?  We had a big discussion about whether you would see something like this in the United States.  Certainly, never in Utah.