Category: Blog

(The Charles Bridge, Old Town side of the Vltava River)

Famous landmarks often evoke the spirit of a city more than anything else: The Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle, the Empire State Building. One type of landmark closely associated with many of the world’s great cities are famous bridges. Think Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. The Brooklyn Bridge. Pont Neuf in Paris. London Bridge and Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Well, maybe not that last one so much, but you get the idea.

(The Guard Tower, Old Town side of the bridge)

The Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic, certainly qualifies as one of the world’s most recognizable bridges, and one which symbolizes and typifies the city in which it dwells. No visit to Prague would be complete without at least one crossing (and re-crossing) of this ancient stone marvel.

(Charles Bridge on the right, Prague Castle on the left)

Continue reading “Prague, Part II – Charles Bridge” →

(Clearing storm in Garden of the Gods)

Back in 2010, my wife and I took a Seattle to New Orleans summer road trip, detailed on this site as the All-American Road Trip 2010. Of all the thousands of miles traveled and ten states visited on that journey, our consensus favorite state was Colorado. We promised ourselves then that we would return some day for a more extensive visit, and recently we got to do exactly that. This time, however, we had neither the time nor inclination to drive, opting instead to fly in to Denver from Seattle. It’s only about a two-hour, fifteen minute flight which, after enduring numerous flights from Seattle to Ukraine in recent years, seemed very brief.

(Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak in background)

My cousin’s son, Jonathan, offered us the run of his home for the duration of our stay and we can’t thank him enough for that act of generosity. He lives in Aurora, about a half hour drive from Denver. Using that as our home base, we spent ten days exploring as much of the area as we could squeeze into that time frame. With so many fabulous sights to see and things to do, it was tough to even know where to begin, but one item near the top of our agenda was visiting the Colorado Springs area. We’d only done a drive-by on I-25 of Colorado Springs during our 2010 trip, and this time we made it a point to spend a couple of days in and around Colorado’s second most populous city.

(Colorado Springs as seen from Pikes Peak)

Continue reading “Colorado, Part One – Colorado Springs and Garden Of The Gods” →

(Prague vista)

Arrival in Prague.

We left Krakow, heading for the Czech Republic and Prague, on a ten o’clock night train, which was both good and bad. Good because we would not lose a day to traveling. Bad because a) I don’t sleep well on trains, planes, buses or any sort of transportation device, and b) we wouldn’t get to see any of the Polish countryside. Again. We’d come into Poland from Ukraine at night and saw only a little of the country under dreary, gray rainy skies in the early morning. This time the weather was better but it was dark, of course, when we left, and by the time daylight arrived, we would be in the Czech Republic.

(In Old Town Square)

While settling into our train compartment – a six person sleeper – we were joined by three young Asian men, two of them dressed in the robes of Buddhist monks. Turned out the third guy, dressed in regular street clothes, was only there to help them board and say goodbye. No one else showed and so our six person compartment became a four person. This was a good thing as the top two berths – ours – were so high up that you would literally have to climb a small ladder and slide in sideways and couldn’t sit up at all without risking a concussion. So my wife and I figured we could take the two middle bunks instead.

(Monument in the Square)

Continue reading “Prague and the Czech Republic, Part One” →