Friday, Nov 9th.  Dense fog as everyone disembarks the ship.  Various departure times throughout the early morning.  It’s a wonder everyone got on the correct bus.  We had arranged a private tour van to transport us to Prague, with three stops along the away.  Our driver (in a very nice Ford van), was early and very helpful with our luggage.  

(Note:  A brief comment about the cruise.  It wasn’t what we expected, with all the low water (and the dominating conversations about low water).  I think that preventing us from getting to Budapest was the worst part and the one that will tarnish our memory.  But it’s not Viking’s fault and they did the best that I can imagine.  The offered credit for a future (Ocean Cruise!) will help.)

Dispensing with a scenic drive on country roads due to the fog, we made good time all the way.  First stop was Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.  Cute old section, full of humor and quaint shops.  Large display highlighting its Jewish citizenry’s accomplishments.  (At the start of WWII, 10% of its population was Jewish).  The fog hid their bridge across the Danube, called the UFO Bridge because of a strange circular structure at the top of its tower.  The Main Park (not to be confused with its main park) had lots of activity setting up their Xmas stalls.

Next was Lednice Chateau and Park, a beautiful palace/castle building on well-tended grounds.  Large enclosed greenhouse.  The stroll along the grounds was a nice respite from two weeks worth of city touring.  Lunch was at an unusually attractive restaurant for such a small town.  Excellent food.

After another two hours of driving we stopped at Cesky Sternberk Castle (a tautology: Cesky means castle).  12th century, still occupied by the 92 year-old owner.  The story is that in WWII the nazis took it over and kicked out the owner, only to discover that it had so many idiosyncrasies, after a few days they brought him back to run the place for them.  We couldn’t go in, but it was very interesting and even on the outside we could view the impressive view of the village below.

Another final hour drive got us to our AirBnb, where our guide became indispensable.  Our host had given me far too little information.  Getting the key needed a magic word at the restaurant and she hadn’t told us the apartment number.  The key had no info, nor did the restaurant.  The host didn’t answer her phone for 20 minutes, but our guide was persistent.  Eventually we managed.  Needless to say, our review of the host will be poor.

Had an excellent Vietnamese dinner.  Server had better English than I did. Other than a small glass of weak wine at lunch, I went alcohol-free for the first time in weeks.

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