Day 10 - Keystone, SD to Chamberlain, SD - 271 miles

Hundreds of photos today so it's going to be difficult to narrow it down. We had a great day!

Our first stop this morning was Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. We only stayed a few minutes - just to get a look. There's really not much to do there and it was pretty crowded for 9 am.

The Needles Highway is one of my favorite roads. Mom and I drove it 30 years ago and I couldn't wait to see it again. It didn't disappoint.

The Needles Highway is a spectacular drive through pine and spruce forests, meadows surrounded by birch and aspen, and rugged granite mountains. The road’s name comes from the needlelike granite formations that seem to pierce the horizon along the highway.

The roadway was carefully planned by former South Dakota Governor Peter Norbeck, who marked the entire course on foot and by horseback. Construction was completed in 1922.

Along the road to our next stop were over 100 signs for Wall Drug. Keeping an eye out for them made the drive go very fast.

The Lakota gave this land its name, “Mako Sica,” meaning “land bad.” Located in southwestern South Dakota, Badlands National Park consists of 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States.

This land has been so ruthlessly ravaged by wind and water that it has become picturesque. The Badlands are a wonderland of bizarre, colorful spires and pinnacles, massive buttes and deep gorges.

 Erosion of the Badlands reveals sedimentary layers of different colors: purple and yellow (shale), tan and gray (sand and gravel), red and orange (iron oxides) and white (volcanic ash).

We had planned a quick photo stop for the Giant Prairie Dog statue but then we saw real prairie dogs.

We spent quite some time watching them play, eat and argue - very entertaining. 😃

The impressive Dignity sculpture is at a rest station five minutes from our hotel. It is a stunning combination of art and history. The stainless steel, 50-foot-tall statue was specifically designed by sculptor Dale Lamphere to honor the cultures of the Lakota and Dakota people. That’s why he used three Native American models ages 14, 29 and 55 to perfect the face of Dignity.

Day 9 - Westminster, CO to Keystone, SD - 394 miles

Leaving Colorado, we traveled through the beautiful Wyoming countryside before arriving in South Dakota to visit the Crazy House Memorial.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument  under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, South Dakota.

It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing to his tribal land. (You can see the memorial in the background.)

The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski. Work on the monument continues with the children and grandchildren of Korczak and Ruth.

Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S. Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people.

On November 7, 1939, Henry Standing Bear wrote to the Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who worked on Mount Rushmore under Gutzon Borglum. He informed the sculptor, "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too.” (Is it fair how cute she is in a hard hat?)😄

They have just started slicing away the stone below. This will be the horse's head. We were standing on his outstretched arm.

They have begun work on the knuckles and finger which will be 29 feet long.

The eye is 7’ x 7’.

 The sculpture's final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet long and 563 feet high. The arm of Crazy Horse will be 263 feet long and the head 87 feet high.

The engineering involved in this project is amazing.

View from the top. We took a Van Ride to the top of the memorial. These tours only run after all work is completed for the day and they are pricey. Once in a lifetime experience and well worth it. The details about how the work began are fascinating - at least to me.

Needles Highway on the way to our hotel.

Day 8 - Westminster, CO to Westminster, CO - 137 miles

Our halfway point was today and we were lucky enough to spend it with family - my cousin, Michele, her husband (and today's chauffeur), Steve, and my goddaughter, Samantha.

We visited Samantha in her new home and enjoyed the view from her second floor deck. I love Colorado!

Samantha and Lucy

Quick stop for ice cream in Georgetown …

A trip on the Georgetown Loop Train

On our way back to the hotel we got to experience a Colorado hail storm. I'm glad it wasn't my car. 😕

Delicious dinner at Macaroni Grill where we were joined by Samantha's boyfriend, Anvay. It was so nice to have some time to get to know him better. After hugging goodbye, we went back to the hotel to get ready to continue our road trip tomorrow.

Day 7 - Manitou Springs, CO to Westminster, CO - 142 miles

Today was the reason I started planning this trip - wolves! But first …

We decided to do a last minute visit to the Garden of the Gods. We were here 4 years ago after a snow and only a few people around. Today that was not the case😕. But it still was beautiful.

We were able to find a parking spot at Balanced Rock.

Our trip to the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center started with an hour tour where we meet the resident wolves. This is not a breeding facility but rather a rescue and educational one. I was here 4 years ago and couldn't wait to visit again.

This time our VIP Meet and Greet was with Kekoa, the oldest wolf there. This is not included in the regular tour but is an additional cost.

Then we drove to Westminster to visit my cousin, Michele. This photo was from a few years ago.😄 Happy 4th everyone!

Fireworks from the hotel parking lot. Lovely way to end the day.

Day 6 - Oakley, KS to Manitou Springs, CO - 250 miles

Today we arrived in our westernmost state, but first we started with a quick photo stop at one of our roadside wonders in Kansas.

Goodland, in western Kansas has the World's Largest Easel (or at least the largest along a U.S. Interstate). It's 80 feet tall, and atop it rests a 32x24-foot representation of one of Van Gogh's "Sunflower" paintings.

Kansas is the "Sunflower State," and Goodland is at the center of the local sunflower industry, so it makes sense. It made enough sense to the trade group, Sunflowers USA, that when Canadian artist Cameron Cross pitched them the idea in 2000, they raised the $150K necessary to build the thing.

Once in Colorado, we walked around the Paint Mines Interpretive Park which had its beginnings 55 million years ago when it was still a tropical hardwood forest.

The forest and ancient soils were later covered by white sandstone of uplifted and later eroded Pikes Peak Granite.

Its stone and clay layers have been weathered by wind and rain to produce the badlands, breaks, gullies and hoodoos.

Tessa and a hoodoo.

I love the wild flowers you find in the desert. Such beauty growing in such harsh conditions.

Day 5 - Kansas City, MO to Oakley, KS - 379 miles

Today was our day for some Kansas quirkiness. We started at Truckhenge for which all the research in the world cannot fully prepare you. It began with Tessa trying not to run over a peacock and got stranger and more wonderful from there.

Owner Ron Lessman has been working on Truckhenge since the early 2000’s. You can walk around on your own but you'd miss the full experience that a tour with Ron gives you. He talks super fast and I missed most of it, but it doesn't matter. Unbridled enthusiasm is the term that comes to mind.

Truckhenge consists of antique trucks jutting out of the ground – remnicient of England’s Stonehenge. 

In early 2000, Lessman, with the “encouragement” of county officials, decided to bury his antique car collection to prevent them from being washed down the Kansas River in the case of a flood.

“Shawnee County told me I had to pick my trucks up, so I picked them up,” said Lessman.

The tour included his studio which is draped with large paintings on sheets and other fabrics.

The trucks are surrounded by other recycled object art and a variety of native plants.

Laurel and Hardy

Upon leaving, Tessa said, “I don't know what else we are doing this trip, but nothing is going to top this.” I guess she's flying home tomorrow😄

Stop 2 was the Equality House in Topeka. The house sits across the street from the “church” that protests at soldiers' funerals.

Next we visited the Oz Museum in Wamego, KS. The Oz Museum has the largest permanent public display of Oz artifacts in the world - over 2000.

Final stop of the day was the World's Largest Czech Egg in Wilson, KS. Towering 20 feet into the air, the egg is painted in the fashion of Central-Eastern Europe’s famous eggs. The pattern on this egg is a traditional Czech design.

The project was commissioned by the City of Wilson to commemorate the area’s strong heritage. Local artist Christine Slechta, who is a talented Kraslice (what the Czechs and Slovaks call these delicate works of art) creator, chose the design and painted it along with help from the community. Every part of the egg and surrounding gazebo is Kansas made.

Day 4 - St. Louis, MO to Kansas City, MO - 339 miles

Today was really about getting us across Missouri. There wasn't much along our route so we just had one stop in Camdenton.

Tessa had most of her shift this morning in the rain but she did great.

The sun came out as we neared our destination.

Ha Ha Tonka State Park has sinkholes, caves, a huge natural bridge, sheer bluffs and Missouri’s 12th largest spring. They have many trails of varying difficulty but we only had time for the most popular.

There are mpressive views of the Lake of the Ozarks.

Alluding to the natural springs on the property, "ha ha tonka" was said to mean "big laugh" or "smiling waters."

The ruins of a turn-of-the-century stone castle are the highlight of the park and can be reached on a paved trail.

The house was built in the early 1920s before the Stock Market Crash and used as a summer and weekend home by the Snyder family, who lived in Kansas City. In the late 1930s, it was used as a hotel; however, it was destroyed by fire in 1942.

We stopped in this store before we drove on because who doesn't need chocolate? We are now in Kansas City and entering our next state tomorrow.

Day 3 - Dry Ridge, KY to St. Louis, MO - 353 miles

We started our day in Prospect, KY with a visit to TRF at Chestnut Hill. Tessa and I had our own, private tour. This is a “retirement farm” for thoroughbred race horses which was recently started by Churchill Downs. They have 11 horses, ages 16-22. 4 male and 7 female. They spend all day eating grass in the field. These are the lucky ones.

First were the geldings. Our guide told us they were much easier to handle than the females😄

This is Manny, the leader of the group. All the horses have nicknames, rather than use their racing names.

TJ is the only one without a fly mask because he lost it in the field. It's very obvious up close why it's necessary.

The females are led by the bossy Easy.

Tessa and the girls

After an hour and a half we arrived in Santa Claus, Indiana for a brief visit.

The town was established in 1854 and known as Santa Fe. In 1856, when the town was working to establish a post office, the Post Office Department refused their first application as there was already a Santa Fe, Indiana established with the Post Office Department. Several town meetings were held, during which the name Santa Claus was selected.

Visitors can sit down here and write letters to Santa.

The town has the world's only post office to bear the name of the eponymous Christmas figure. Because of this popular name, the post office receives thousands of letters to Santa from all over the world each year. A group of volunteers known as Santa's Elves ensures each child receives a reply from Santa Claus; this tradition has been in existence since at least 1914. The letters are saved and many are exhibited here.

The letters are fascinating to read- from sad to touching to funny.

“Santa if you have a left over real live wiener dog could I please have it?” 😄😄

St. Paul’s Santa Claus Church built in 1880 is on the National Register of Historic Places

Love the old heater!

Santa's Candy Castle sells nothing but candy and …

Frozen hot chocolate! Yum!

Then we were off to St. Louis and the Gateway Arch. Very impressive and a nice view of the city …

and baseball stadium. A game was just ending when we arrived at the hotel and apparently the Cardinals won but you couldn't tell by the hot, tired people walking down the street😃.

The Gateway Arch reflects St. Louis' role in the Westward Expansion of the United States during the nineteenth century. The park is a memorial to Thomas Jefferson's role in opening the West, to the pioneers who helped shape its history, and to Dred Scott who sued for his freedom in the Old Courthouse.

The muddy Mississippi

At the top of the arch. Each group has their own numbered windows.

Tessa manages to look glamorous riding the tram to the top of the arch wearing a mask. Luckily there are no photos of me feeling very unglamorous. Masks only need to be worn on the tram and at the top, not in the museum portion at the bottom.

Our “limited arch view” room at the Drury Palace

Day 2 - Elkins, WV to Dry Ridge, KY - 340 miles

I've tried to schedule stops every 2 to 2-1/2 hours so our first stop today was Capitol Street in Charleston, WV. We only had a short time there so we walked around a little and had lunch. Another hot day.

This is the most photographed image of Capitol Street. Also the prettiest spot.

There are a few putts along the street sponsored by local businesses. You can pick up a ball and putter at the book store for free. Really cute idea for marketing

Lunch at the Sweetwater Cafe. Cute place with good food and great service.

From there we were on to Kentucky.

We stopped in Old Washington, near Maysville, KY for a private tour of the area that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to write Uncle Tom's Cabin. They were extremely kind to arrange a tour for us since they close on Tuesdays. (This was arranged a couple of months ago - not as a walk up.) We toured the Paxton House and Inn, which were used as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The quilt would have been hung on the porch with the red star signifying safe harbor.

Servant staircase

The house is located on the site of the courthouse which burned down in 1909. This was where the slave auctions were held and prisoners hung. Harriet Beecher Stowe was visiting nearby when she witnessed the auction.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Museum is closed, awaiting renovations. These homes have been through multiple ownerships and many have fallen in to disrepair. Different organizations take on different projects. This home was where Harriet Beecher (not married yet) was staying when she was inspired to write her book.

This brick building likely had a dual purpose as a smokehouse and as a barricade for Indian attacks.

Albert Sydney Johnson house was built by the town in 1797 for the doctor. It was one of the buildings renovated by a local group. A ‘before’ photo is below.

Some of the doctor’s tools including forceps and a saw blade. And yes those forceps were huge!

The doctor also ran a general store. This is part of his ledger.

The “Golden Gate Bridge” of Kentucky between Maysville and Ohio.

Tessa's favorite part of the trip so far - we saw cows swimming in a pond to escape the heat😃

Day 1 - Media, PA to Elkins, WV - 324 miles

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia - Facts from Wikipedia, photos from me.

On October 16, 1859, the abolitionist John Brown led a group of 22 men (counting himself) in a raid on the arsenal. Five of the men were black: three free black men, one freed slave, and one fugitive slave. Brown attacked and captured several buildings, hoping to secure the weapons depot and arm the slaves, starting a revolt across the South, however, Brown failed to rally the slaves to revolt.

John Brown's men were quickly pinned down by local citizens and militia, and forced to take refuge in the fire engine house (later called John Brown's Fort), at the entrance to the armory.

Because of the town's strategic location on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, both Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. The town's garrison of 14,000 Federal troops attracted 1,500 contrabands (escaped slaves) by the summer of 1862. They were returned to slavery when Confederate forces took Harpers Ferry in 1862.

Harpers Ferry played a key role in the Confederate invasion of Maryland in September 1862. Gen. Robert E. Lee did not want to continue on to Maryland without capturing the town. It was on his supply line and could control one of his possible routes of retreat if the invasion did not go well.

Dividing his army of approximately 40,000 into four sections, Lee used the cover of the mountains to send three columns under Stonewall Jackson to surround and capture the town.

After a Confederate artillery bombardment on September 14 and 15, the Federal garrison surrendered. With 12,419 Federal troops captured by Jackson, the surrender at Harpers Ferry was the largest surrender of U.S. military personnel until the Battle of Bataan in World War II.

Views around Harpers Ferry

Seneca Rocks , WV

Saturday, April 30th

 "What starts here can change everything" - my quote of the day 

Our last day is a full day at sea.   No hurry to get anywhere since our final core season with Ricardo wasn't until 10:15.  Today we spoke a little of our experiences and thoughts.   Other than that we could just relax and enjoy the beautiful day. 

I thought I'd show you a little of the ship.   We had Stateroom A069 which is deck 8. There are cabins only on decks 8, 7, 6 and 4.  

Deck 5 - Promenade

The Main Dining Room - There are no assigned seatings.  You can wander in whenever you want.   We ended up at the same table every night with the same people (except once)

Laurie, Mark and Perrin

Mom and Gerry

The Curzon Lounge - where some meetings were held,  movies at night and some of the music.  

Anderson Lounge

Deck 5 also has photo screens where you can purchase photos taken during the impact activities.   You can buy individual prints or you can buy a cd with all the prints from one activity. The price for 1 activity is $60, 2 is $65 and 3 is $70, I think. 

Deck 9  - Lido

There is one pool. Except for the last day it was pretty empty

The Conservatory - buffet restaurant

The Gym

Deck 10

Some odd and ends

3 nights they had a Wine and Painting session.   They were very popular and sold out quickly

Until next time ....

Friday, April 29th

"I want to make memories all over the world" - my quote for the day

We woke to another beautiful sunrise this morning. 

As we headed to breakfast the captain made an announcement that we had to be off the ship by 7:30 since the Carnival Splendor was pulling up beside us.   We are not allowed to use the gangway while they are docking.   Almost everyone was off but we ended up having to wait until 8:20 to leave since some people didn't make it off and had to wait until 8:00 to disembark. Anyway we were finally on our way to our last Impact Activity - Recycled Paper. The bus ride was only about 15 minutes.   Yay!!

Once we reached the village,  we had a short walk to the facility.   Very colorful.  

These young boys were happy to pose for us. 

The women welcomed us with cheers and clapping and then introduced themselves. 13 women work here.  

Our first station was shredding the paper while separating the white spaces with the spaces with typing.  Tedious work.

2nd was mixing the paper in the blender and making the sheets.  

Altagracia

The final part was rolling the paper to smooth it out while singing and dancing. 😄 Yolanda was the liveliest there and so appreciative of the project.   

After a short break we switched to the crafts side. We worked on braiding plantain skins and tying pieces of wood together for a mat to put hot dishes on.  

Then there was a jewelry station where we strung cocoa beans ...

Candle making ...

And making coasters. 

We had a little time to buy a few items and then it was time to say goodbye. 

Once back on board,  it was time to depart Amber Cove and start home.   We left port around 1:15 and relaxed on the balcony all afternoon. Another dinner and bed.  

Thursday, April 28th

"Turn the trip into a journey" - my quote of the day

Arriving back in port at 7:00am

This morning mom decided to do the water filter program so she left at 7:30 with Marianne.  I kept an eye on her from the balcony. 

I decided to check out the pool at Amber Cove because that's how selfless I am🙄.

I rented an umbrella for the day - price was $8.  Well worth it for me. 

I took one of the bike taxis back to the ship around noon. They work for tips.

Around 1:30 I headed to the bus port for my next impact activity - Community English.  Around 1:55 we left the port and I found out we were going to the same village as yesterday.   

After about 25 minutes we left the paved road. 

We arrived to an enthusiastic greeting from about 10 women. 

There were 4 groups.  My group had 4 travelers and 2 ladies -Maria and Arianna who are sisters.

We all went to Maria's house which was across the street and we were joined by Clara and Maria's daughter and son.

Today's lesson was numbers so we reviewed the previous lessons: How are you? and the Alphabet and then worked with number flashcards.  Time flew by. 

Clara and Rosa

Arianna knew the word "selfie"

  Ariana is 18 years old. She comes twice a week from Puerta Plata in order to learn English.  She was so much fun to be with.

When it was time to go, there were lots of hugs and some tears.  It's incredible how quickly bonds were made.   Truly beautiful. 

Time to take the long ride home😢

Main highway through town

More about the Water Filter program later.

Wednesday, April 27th

"A whole world of opportunities" - Felix,  our impact guide, discussing today's activity

Sunrise

Amber Cove

Today was the activity I was most looking forward to -  Student English Conversation and Learning.  We pulled away from the ship around 8:20, about half an hour late.  Our bus ride was about an hour long, on some of the bumpiest roads I've ever been on.

 Finally we reached the school in which we would be teaching.  

After a warm-up activity we got in groups to start teaching the students beginning English.

5th grade class

Mom and Emely

My student,  Jorchi

What an amazing experience!  I wish we had more time in the school.   Some groups got to teach 2 lessons since their schools were closer.  But I'm sure our school was best. 

Around 11 o'clock we started our long bus ride back to town.

Big election coming up

Did some shopping at the stores at Amber Cove before the long walk back to the ship.

We had a relaxing afternoon and went down to dinner around 6:30 with our regular table-mates.

At 9:45 we left the dock to get rid of the waste from the ship.   We will be back in port around 7:00am.

Tuesday, April 26th

 "Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow. " -Anita Desai

The Conservatory 

Deck 9 aft

Breakfast in the Conservatory and then off to Spanish class in the library.   It was a fun interactive experience. With a cheat sheet in hand,  we broke into small groups and wrote a conversation.   I've had spanish in school but many people had none.   It made no difference. We laughed a lot and learned a little. 

The Library

At 10:15 we were back in the Curzon Lounge for a class called Getting to Know the Dominican Republic.   We learned a little history and some dos and donts.

Uh oh

Around 11:30 we were docked at Amber Cove,  Puerto Plata.

After a quick lunch we got ready for our afternoon impact activity. 

We met in the lounge at 1:15 and were assigned a sticker number for our trip to the chocolate factory.   We departed around 1:30 and finally got a good view of our ship. 

These bungalows can be rented while we are in port.   They are not cheap. 

The buses were all lined up and ready to go.   We pulled out at 2 on the dot.

​After about 35 minutes, we arrived at Chocal Chocolate Factory. It is a women-owned co-op in the Altamira section of the country.

We were divided into 4 groups of 11 people each. Our leader was Stephen from the organization, Iddy. He led us from station to station. We started off with a cup of hot chocolate which was delicious. Our group started with the final step - wrapping and boxing the chocolate bars.

Our next stop was the 1st step of chocolate-making: sorting the cocoa beans.  Small or flat beans cannot be used since they burst during the process.   

The 2nd step was pulling out the pieces of the shells of the beans that were not removed in the cleaning process.  

Our final station was pouring the chocolate into molds.   This was fun and messy.   We got a cup of melted chocolate at the end.    

After a few minutes in the little (very little) store,  we drove back to the ship.  

We had another lovely dinner with some of our new friends and retired to our room to prepare for an early start in the morning.

Monday, April 25th

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. " - My quote of the day

Sunrise at sea.

After sleeping in this morning, I woke up in time for the first session - Empowering English Tutoring - with a very enthusiastic, Tatiana.

There were a couple of non-threatening activities to wake everyone up and to start the interaction.   We learned a little of what we would be doing at the school (teaching 9 and 10 year olds English) and in the homes (teaching English to adults).

Tatiana 

After a quick breakfast in the conservatory,  I met with the Impact Guide assigned to our group, Ricardo.  Every passenger is assigned to a guide in groups called Cohorts.  The guide teaches us about Fathom - the general to the specific.   

Ricardo

Fathom words: "Transformation through travel."  "Alongsidedness" "Exploration"  "Eudaimonia-human flourishing"

In case you are thinking it's all work,  we had a great BBQ lunch,  spent some time relaxing by the pool and then on our balcony.   

Lido deck pool

My final session today was "The Story of You."  Like many of the sessions it was geared to community and sharing.   They work hard at helping put people in a place where they are comfortable sharing.  There were some partner activities: develop a secret handshake and tell a partner about your name - they were easy.   Then we had to determine a story that changed us in some way and tell it to 3 people we didn't know.   It was actually pretty fun. 

I then had a nice 25 minute hot stone massage before we got ready for dinner. Dinner is quite a drawn out experience.   We had a full table of 8 tonight: Shannon & Angie from Boise, Rose and Sylvia from NC, and Adelaide and Gerry from Virginia  (family in Media).  Lots of good conversation and stories over a 2 hour period.  For dinner I had a Caesar salad and turkey. 

No nightlife again so just relaxing on my balcony again.   Love the sound of the ocean. 

View from my balcony 😉

Day 2 - Prague

Well I'm awake at 1:30 so I guess now is a good time to write about our day. We both slept well and I had to wake mom up at 8:50.  We had another lovely breakfast and met Dagmar at 10:00.  We took tram number 22 from the hotel to Prague Castle.  It is an immense complex of buildings in different styles. It was originally designed by Maria Therese from the Hapsburg family in Austria.  It is now the president's office building and site of many other government functions.

Interesting fact - the uniform of the castle guards was designed by the costume designer for the movie "Amadeus".  much of that movie was filmed in this area.

One of the many hay nativity scenes

View of Prague from the castle

It was a beautiful view from the castle grounds overlooking the city of Prague, however notice on the right side the Starbucks. There is some product placement for you.

After getting our fill of the beautiful scenery, we started down the hill. It is quite a hike if you are going to walk up the hill. On our way down we stopped for hot chocolate. We had our choice of 50% hot cocoa or 70%. We took the 50% which was rich and delicious.  Then we stopped at a cute little gingerbread shop. There were molds and many different gingerbread cookies.  At the bottom of the hill we reached the Charles Bridge.

At this point we had to say goodbye to Dagmar. It was a fun two days and she was an excellent guide. Before she left she bought us two tickets to go on a short boat ride. Upon getting on the small boat we were offered a drink of wine. tea or coffee and a small cake. The boat ride lasted about 45 minutes.

This time of year the sun doesn't rise until nearly 8 a.m. and is setting around 4 p.m..

After the boat ride we went in the small exhibition of Nativity scenes. 

And my favorite...

It looked like a fish nativity scene but I'm really not sure what it was. I think that these are fish shepherds.

Another beautiful view of the river and castle. 

We walked back over the bridge to have dinner / lunch at a small restaurant that Dagmar recommended. I had the beef goulash and dumplings again. It was delicious.

After dinner we did some shopping and bought a couple of small gifts. We found a Haagen Dazs ice cream shop right across from the entrance to the mirror chapel.  So we had to try it out.

There was a very comfortable sitting area on the second floor where we could watch everybody walk below.

At 7 o'clock we went into the Klemendium complex to the Mirror Chapel.  We saw a concert which lasted a little over an hour. There was an organ, violin, flute, baritone and soprano. At the end they did a couple of Christmas songs. It was very nice and the atmosphere was perfect.

After the concert we took a taxi back to the hotel. Note: taxis are extremely expensive but we were too lazy to find the tram back to the hotel.

I will leave you for the evening with a few more shots of the Charles bridge.

Day 1 - Prague, Czech Republic

After a good, if muddled, night sleep, we got ourselves together and went down for breakfast.  Great!  

At 10:15 our guide from Tours by Locals came to pick us up. Dagmar and we walked around Prague until about 2:15. Our first stop was Wenceslas Square.

We walked around the new town and learned some history of the Czech Republic. About 11:45 we stopped and had tea at a cute little cafe.

Then we walked into Old Town, visited the Jewish quarter and ended at the Market Square where the big Christmas market is being held.

We had lunch at a nearby pub before returning to the market to do some Christmas shopping.

We returned to the hotel for a short rest before we were picked up for our evening entertainment. The van picked us up at 7:30 and took us just outside of the city to see a traditional Czech Folk show and have dinner. we had the traditional Czech meal of pork, chicken and ham followed by a apple strudel.

We were dropped off back at our hotel at 11 o'clock.

Envoy Class is the way to go...

Mom was happily surprised with her upgrade. She was so cute trying to figure everything out.  Our flight took off on time at 4:30pm. We had our dinner around 5:30 (appetizer, salad, rolls, a choice of 4 entrees, and dessert.) 

Then everyone went to sleep.  How?? It was 6:00pm. I was jealous.  Luckily they had individual monitors with lots of movies and tv.

Our flight arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at 5:44am. We breezed right through customs and immigration and were in the shuttle to the train station by 6:30.

We had to take a local train from Frankfurt airport to Frankfort HBF.  This is important since our connecting train left from the city station, not the airport. 

So, at 8:55am our train left for Nuremburg. Now I fell asleep. We arrived in Nuremberg at 10:59.  And had more time to waste in the station.  

The bus to Prague left at 12:42 pm. I slept for an hour until the police boarded to check passports. Don't know if that's a usual occurrence or not.  Mom slept right through it. We arrived in Prague at 4:20 pm and took a taxi to our hotel (400 crowns).

The hotel is delightful. The young girl at reception went over everything to do in Prague.  And she served us hot tea.  What a nice welcome.  Hotel is very nice and comfortable and unique. We are probably in for the night.   

Envoy dinner

Nuremberg Bus Station

I don't know...

Relaxing in our hotel sitting room.

Here we go...

Well here we are at Philadelphia Airport in the rain.  We are waiting in the Admirals Lounge, formally the USAirways Club.  Our flight is still saying ontime.  Fingers crossed. 

I upgraded our seats to first class but mom will be surprised. She will find out on-board. 

We are due to depart at 4:30pm and should arrive into Frankfurt, Germany at 6:15am.  Then the adventure begins.   

Mom in the Admirals Lounge