Czech me out

As I said, Bill and I drove to Prague two weekends ago (I can’t believe how quickly time flies). Prague was absolutely fabulous – we had really good weather. The drive was fun – Bill drove to Prague, and was so excited to be going super fast on the autobahn (I hated to disappoint him, but 170 kph turned out to only be 105 mph). I drove back from Prague (because Bill wanted to visit a brewery in Plzen so I was the “designated” driver). Just because I could, and yes, maybe I am a little competitive, I drove 200 kph on the autobahn (124 mph) – poor Bill.

Now, even though I don’t speak German, I can pretend to pronounce it, and can actually come close to pronouncing a few words correctly (i.e. Thank You, Train Station, etc.). However, there’s no way that I can look at a word in Czech and begin to figure out how to say it.

We spent all day Saturday walking around Prague – exhausting. What’s even more amazing is that with all the walking we did, we still only saw a very small part of the city. I really need to come back again when I can spend more time.

As we were eating dinner on Saturday, there was a table of very drunk gentlemen sitting near us trying to sing songs in English. My back was to them (to start) so I made a few faces at Bill. Then, one of the guys came over and started talking to us. He said that he and his friends were from Norway, and then he just kept talking and talking. It’s probably a good thing he assumed Bill was my husband, because even then he asked Bill if it was OK to kiss me on the cheek. He was crazy.

Václavské Námestí

St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Nicolas Church

Powder Tower

Powder Tower

Prague Castle

Astrological Clock

National Museum

Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge

Jewish Cemetery - we wanted to visit the cemetery, but unfortunately we went on a Saturday.

Church of Our Lady

Church of Our Lady

Where can one go in 30 minutes?

Over the weekend, Bill and I rented a car and drove to Prague. Believe it or not, this was the quickest, least expensive way to go. Going by train would have taken almost all day (there wasn’t a direct route) and a plane ticket was over $300. So, a car rental and gas divided by two people wasn’t too bad – AND it only took us about 5 ½ hours to get there. Anyway, that’s all just a little introduction. No, this is not the post about Prague – that’ll come later. Although we would be backtracking, since we had a car and since Innsbruck is only about 30 minutes from Italy and since this was Bill’s first trip to Europe, we decided to take a little side trip. Our GPS didn’t take us to the little Italian village we were looking for, but we did get to an Italian village – where everyone still spoke German first (and Italian, I'm sure). We even had a pizza. After a short stop (just enough to take some pics and, of course, eat the pizza - which was delicious), we were back on our way to Prague. The name of the village, you ask? Colle Isarco.

These are my attempts at taking pictures from the passenger seat in a speeding vehicle.

Where’s my European sugar daddy?

So, my first week in Innsbruck is over – man, how I would love to live here. Here are some of the highlights (some are more detailed than others… live with it).

1. We arrived in Innsbruck last Sunday around noon. We dropped our luggage off at the hotel and then took off to see the city. I should probably have done better research on how to get to a couple of places because after walking for quite some time, we ran out of sidewalk and found that we couldn’t actually walk to where we wanted to go – we had to go by car – at least we stopped ourselves before we started walking on the autobahn.

2. Innsbruck is absolutely GORGEOUS!!

3. I got totally ripped off at dinner one night. I went to dinner with Bill and one of our Norwegian colleagues – delicious dinner, by the way, had brats and sauerkraut, YUMMY!! – anywho, at the end of the meal, our colleague suggested we split the ticket three ways. Sounded good – well, it wasn’t until after we paid that I realized this probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do since I hadn’t had any alcohol with my meal. Let me tell you, alcohol can become really expensive really fast. Oh, well.

4. I’m working with a really cute Austrian guy – Young, but cute! ;-)

5. Did I mention that Innsbruck is gorgeous?

6. Every meal has been delicious! We ate Italian (we're about 30 minutes from Italy, so there are a LOT of Italian restaurants here), Indian, Greek, and, of course, Austrian. YUMMY!

Triumphal Arch (Triumphpforte)

City Tower (Stadtturm) in Old Town

Building in Old Town

There was this really cool parade thing going on while we were walking around town

The Golden Roof - Old Town

This is the view from my hotel room - poor me, right?

The mountains are absolutely amazing

Also from my hotel room

Stift kirche

Inside St. Jakob (Innsbruck Cathedral)

Inside St. Jakob (Innsbruck Cathedral)

St. Jakob (Innsbruck Cathedral)

So, male pedestrians are allowed in Innsbruck, just not in Munich? ;-) But only if they wear a hat.

It's the small things

Last Friday I flew to Munich (Salt Lake to Atlanta, Atlanta to Munich). Because of my status with Delta, I received a complimentary upgrade to Atlanta. However, the bigger problem was the flight to Munich. I know I sound like such a whiner, but that is a really long flight (9 hours) to be stuck in coach. So, on Wednesday of last week, I called Delta to see if I could use my SkyMiles to purchase an upgrade. Nope, my ticket wasn’t in the right class, so no upgrade for me. A friend from work was traveling with me and overheard my conversation, so he thought he’d give it a try. He was told that he could use miles, but a better option would be for each of us to purchase an upgrade on the day of travel (if available) for $150. Totally worth it. So, bright and early on Friday morning (we’re talking about 5:30) I walked into the Crown Room at the Salt Lake City airport ready to purchase my upgrade. Sorry, ma’am (I’m not ready to be a ma’am), you were given incorrect information – there is no way, no how you can upgrade your flight. When Bill got to the airport, he tried, too. Same end result. He couldn't even use miles, now. Since each person told us something a little different, I thought I’d try asking again in Atlanta. Still the same end result (NO), but again, different information. After so much rejection, Bill and I were resigned to the fact that we would be in coach. However, when the gate agent scanned our tickets, much to our astonishment, a neat little upgrade ticket printed out - one for each of us. We didn't even ask this time. I was high-fiving Bill – the gate agent was excited for us, he high-fived us. It was quite the moment. I think the surprise made the upgrade that much sweeter.

We arrived in Munich Saturday morning, stayed in Munich Saturday night and then took the train to Innsbruck on Sunday. We arrived in Munich early in the morning, and even though our hotel rooms were ready, it’s my rule to try and stay awake as late as possible and then try to sleep through the night in order to reduce the amount of jet lag. So, Bill and I walked around Munich for a few hours – until both of us were ready to drop. I’ve been to Munich before, so I saw some of the same things (which I still LOVE), but we saw some different things, too. It’s a beautiful city.

Asparagus must be in season - there were asparagus stands EVERYWHERE

Theatine Church

Since neither of us spoke German, we couldn't quite figure out what this statue was for. We assumed it was for the fallen soldiers from Munich during the wars.

Beautiful skyline

One of my favorite sites in Munich - the Glockenspiel. There's quite the show when it strikes 11 a.m., noon, and 4 p.m. (I think it's 4 p.m.)

Frauenkirke (Church of Our Lady). There was scaffolding on the other tower, so the picture isn't quite what it could have been

English Gardens. It was amazing to have this tranquil garden in the middle of the city. My German friend, Rolf, told us that we were lucky it was cold and rainy - evidently nude sunbathing is quite the past time in this park.

Bill's first real German beer

OK, these signs were ALL over the English Gardens. We couldn't quite understand - were only women allowed to walk here? And only then if they were holding on to their daughter's hand? A little chauvinistic, if you ask me. My German resource, Rolf, wasn't sure what these meant, so I went on a quest online. Evidently these signs simply mean "pedestrians allowed." But only women pedestrians, right?