Good-Bye Prague

We left Prague and our wonderful hotel this morning.

We took a bus to Nuremberg to catch a flight to Dusseldorf.  Surprisingly, the bus ride was very pleasant.

The flight to Dusseldorf was on a turbo prop.  Hadn't been on one for a long time.

Flying home tomorrow.  It's been a great trip.

Day 22--Jewish Quarter, Monastery, and Boat Trip

 The weather today was marvelous--in the 70s and sunny.  We started out with a tour of the Jewish Quarter.  The history here was a bit different than what we learned in Budapest.  At one point, the Jews of Prague were allowed to live outside of the ghetto.

This was quite a site in front of one of the synagogues.

Our taxi driver friend drove us up to the Strahov Monastery at the top of the hill by the castle.  We had a delicious, peaceful lunch and a great view of the city.

In the evening we took a boat trip on the Vitava river.

Day 21--Wandering around Prague

We walked all day, taking in Prague.

We strolled down the river and saw the Frank Gehry "Fred and Ginger" building that's supposed to look like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  It was terrific to see in person.

We had a lovely meal at the Bellevue  Restuarant next to our hotel.  We sat on the terrace and watched the sun set.

Day 20--Karlovy Vary

Today we took a day trip out to Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad)--the spa town where the Queen Latifah movie Last Holiday was filmed.  Ever since I saw the movie I have been intrigued by the town.  We had two locals on the trip with us--a cab driver from Prague and the hotel manager who was born in Karlovy Vary and going home for the weekend.

When we got there, the hotel manager had arranged a horse and carriage ride for us from her father.  It was really fun!

The town was very charming.  We ate lunch at a restaurant frequented by stars at the yearly Karlovy Vary Film festival and got to see the Grand Hotel Pupp where Last Holiday was filmed.

We went up on a funicular and got a view of the whole city.

We ended the day with dinner across the street from our hotel back in Prague.

Day 18 & 19

Yesterday was a long train ride from Budapest to Prague.  The train seemed like something from the past.  This is our old fashion train car and there was some nice scenery along the way.

When we got to our hotel, we were upgraded to a suite that must be 1,000 square feet with two bathrooms.  We're staying at the Pachtuv Palace.  The outside building is new and has guest rooms, but we're in the old palace part behind the front facade.

Here are our rooms.  The amazing thing is this is the cost of a hotel room in Bloomington.  We got a great deal.

We are right on the river and see these scenes when we walk out of our hotel.

Did a lot of walking today.  We had a meal on the top of an old hotel and got a great view of the city.

Day 17--The Jewish Quarter and City Wandering

We started our day as usual with a wonderful buffet breakfast at our hotel.  It's an amazing spread.

We went on a four hour tour of the Jewish Quarter in Budapest.  Two hours was with about 10 people and two hours was a private tour.  The Great Synagogue looked Moorish and the inside looked like a church.

The yard behind the synagogue had many holocaust memorials including this tree of life.

This was the information booth outside the synagogue.  :-)

There was a small, but impressive Jewish museum.

The Orthodox Synagogue was really beautiful and seemed much more like I would expect.

We had a great afternoon of wandering the city.

And ended with a swim in the lovely spa pool.  One of the prettiest I've ever been in.