Marci and Steve Go Back to Europe

From  5 Stars to 2 Stars , Two days in Cesky Krumlov, a Renaissance town in Bohemia.  We headed out of Marienska Lazne after one last foot massage  at 7:30 am  (needed for those tired feet) and one last gigantic, but fair at best, huge buffet breakfasts groaning with meats and cheeses and herring.  It was onto Cesky Krumlov three hours away. Before we departed, we discovered a little problem. The lovely villa hotel we booked in Cesky, in our hotel booking fervor, was for the wrong nights and now there was 'no room at the inn' for us.  We figured we would wing it and just show up. We whizzed out of Marianske Lazne and made a midway stop for a drink and lunch for Steve in a very small town in the middle of the countryside. It had a shaded outdoor patio with umbrellas and wifi. So while Steve was enjoying his waiter selected lunch of schnitzel, I was searching for a room in Cesky.  Much was sold out, all the best was sold out but I found a maybe decent li...

Taking the Waters in Marianske Lazne There are three 'famous' spa towns in Czech, the most popular Karlovy Vary, but we choose to spend a couple days in the smaller spa kingdom of Marianske Lazne, or better known in German as Marienbad. Before we got on the road for the spa, we decided to head into Plzen town to visit the reputedly second largest in Europe and third largest in the world synagogue. It was impressive and big but we are not sold on the claims, it didn't seem much bigger than synagogues at home. But we also got in a little walk around the town square and saw interesting fountains and some wonderful sgrafito on buildings.  Perhaps the funniest moment on the square was hearing a group of Czech children singing Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes in English, as a way to start learning the names of body parts. We were tempted to join in. In about an hour, we arrived at the Falkensteiner Spa right on time and checked into a beautiful room in a lovely hotel not really kn...

Thanks to everyone for their very interesting guesses. We had 2 correct answers- Shelby Schwartz, in Philadelphia, was again the first, and wins the prize. Laurent in Paris also was correct. So, here was the original photo: The trick was to understand that this is the INSIDE of the object..... here is the outside: Now, closer..... And even closer -  A Tower of BOOKS, stacked into a sculpture in the lobby of the main library of Prague.... Very cool, and pretty, especially from the inside....here's another inside shot.... Oh, and thats a mirror at the top and bottom to give it the 'bottomless pit' look. Steve Schwartz  

A Beer Primer, Brewery to Baths In Czech, beer is king. It is the breakfast of champions, the lunchtime  liquid, the afternoon aperitif, the dinner drink and evening bar crawl beverage. There is dark and light and everything in between. You can order normal, at 10% alcohol, or 11 or 12 for a faster buzz. It can be smooth or bitter, yellow, brown or red. It goes with dumplings, and pork knee, and pickled sausages and apple strudel. It fills you up and always makes you need the WC. And so, although we are not beer aficionados, and I am not even a beer fan, we picked Plzen, CZ as the first stop on our 15 day road trip through Eastern Europe (or Central Europe to those who live there according to a Czech acquaintance). It was close to Prague so even if we got lost, the day would not be lost.  The morning's challenges would be getting to the rental car place in town by metro, finding our way back to the apartment in our Skoda, the largest produced Czech car,  and navigating ou...