Monday, 02/18: Driving around the city’s center. Stopped at a lookout point, the government area, cemetery, then markets. Took wonderful cable car rides. What walking we did during the tour was thankfully downhill. Markets included fruit stands with some great exotic samples. Intricate methods for slicing pineapple skins diagonally. Witch market was small and weird. Take a Llama fetus, dry it out, then bury it under your garden for luck. No thanks. Beautifully handcrafted ten-string small guitars.
Lunch was spaghetti with oil sauce. Soy oil? Delicious.
Afternoon was free time. Rather than wisely go back to the hotel and rest, I tagged along with some serious shoppers. Serious slow shoppers. Ended up heading uphill to look for a specific art gallery. Ugh. It was better tourist activity than sleeping through the afternoon, but exhausting. Turned out useful for them that I tagged along because only I knew the way back. Bought a bottle of Bolivian wine.
Perhaps the least favorite soccer stadium for visitors. 12,000 feet up.
Pay attention to the clock face and hands.
Bolivia still stubbornly has a Navy.
Government offices. Pretty.
One of the cable cars. Each line has its own color.
Cemetery. Families rent a space for 9 years, then have to find somewhere else.
Cemetery artwork.
Beautiful instruments.
If there is a city on Earth without an Irish bar, I haven’t found it.
Famous Bolivian artist. Hard to find the gallery. It’s a climb..
Sunday, 02/17: Landed at 1:00 AM local time. La Paz Airport is the highest international airport in the world (13,300 feet). During the flight in I kept thinking that aircraft cabins are kept at the equivalent of 8,000 to 10,000 feet altitude. Imagined that the cabin door would fly open after landing and we’d feel a breeze. Silly idea. (When this trip is over I’ll have been at four of the five highest capitals.)
Definitely felt the altitude. In Tibet I practiced ignoring the sensation; hoping to repeat. Immigration didn’t check my yellow fever vaccination documentation, which irked me quite a bit (a $300 shot!). After waiting for others to arrive and an hour drive (11 miles) I was able to sleep at 4 AM. Woke to a pounding heart at 7.
Rather than rest until the afternoon, I walked around a bit. Walked through a beautiful Japanese Garden. Did a lot of sitting (see title). Getting the heart below 100 beats was an exercise in futility.
Met the four companions and our Bolivian Guide, Ms. Jimena Santos. She encouraged us to attend a . . . well, I’m not sure what it was. Bolivian Wrestling Cholitas (woman). Comedy. A few male wrestlers. The acrobatic “throws” were pretty impressive. Transportation to and from was a great introduction to La Paz. Whomever though of the phrase “You can’t get there from here. First you have to go somewhere else” had this city in mind. I swear the taxi made a 540 degree turn through the streets at one point. Changed to a bus with an attitude, all the while climbing higher and higher. The return was via La Paz’s new and very impressive “Subways in the Sky” gondola network. We’ll do some more gondola riding tomorrow during daylight. Photos should be great.
Dinner was excellent trout from Lake Titicaca.
Our electrical lines are below ground. Consider: do they look like this?Yum.My kind of town.Very pretty Japanese Garden that’s closed to the public. I learned that when a gardener tossed me out.They construct majestic buildings anywhere. La Paz is in a valley. Fortunately they have a constant breeze to blow away the smog.Let’s get a photo of me out the way early. I love the hats.The man lost. Nothing new.If this was part of “The bachelorette” reality show, I’d watch.A range of reaction.Words fail me.
Saturday, 02/16: [Friday night] Have son drive me to LAX (next to Pacific), Layover in Texas, Long Layover at Miami (next to Atlantic), Layover in Lima (next to Pacific again), Flight to . . . To Be Continued Sunday. I traveled the two equal sides of an isosceles right triangle. 14.3 hours on planes, 10 more getting to and from airplanes. And I’m not done. Next time I’m doing my own reservations. It was a new feeling to fly 5.5 hours and not change time zones.
No pictures. Strange phenomena on flight south. Sitting left side of four seats. To my right a family with 10 year-old daughter. They put the daughter next to me. Across the aisle, two seat rows, family of four. The adults sat together, leaving 5 and 8 year-olds to fend for themselves. Neither action seemed normal from my USA perspective.
Nothing wrong with Avianca Airlines. Houston’s airport is great, though it needs people movers. Miami’s needs to be destroyed by a hurricane and rebuilt.
This will be the first of probably two adventures to SA. This one includes Lake Titicaca, Bolivia; Machu Picchu, Peru; Galapagos Islands, Ecuador; Bogota, Columbia; and other locals. I’m beginning the trip with a slight cold, which has me concerned. It’s going to be hard enough handling the high altitudes without sniffles.
It’s always a bit of a surprise to remember how far east SA is. Bolivia is an hour ahead of New York.
Monday, Nov 12. Toured the New Town, founded around 1640. Site of the 1968 Czech uprising and 1989 “Velvet Revolution”. Disappointing when compared with the Old Town. Buildings were largely utilitarian. Awful day for photos anyway. We went back to the Old Town for lunch and to watch the clock watchers, then over the Charles Bridge again. A largely easy-going day. Tomorrow at 0600 we fly away. Wake up at 0300.
Overall, the trip was great, in spite of the weather hiccups. We do not blame Viking for the problems and credit them for making the most of it. Amsterdam and Prague bookends were fantastic. Too many good memories. But getting home will be great.
Next Adventure begins 16 February. South America with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT). 15 companions max. Hurrah!
The “best ice cream in Prague”. Mine (cookies) was very good.
The best hot chocolate, period. Worldwide. Tasted like a melted Hersey bar.
Wrapped dough, cooked by spinning near a heat source. Filled inside or covered outside by whatever you’d like. Ice cream or a hot dog are just two of the options.
Just hanging around. There was a woman in the same pose.
In a mall entrance. Tesla was Czech and well known long before Musk built cars.
Art. Note that the graffiti artists honored the art by painting around it.
Car hood. Lots of beer in Prague.
One of ten thousand statues. Note swans.
Charles IV, namesake for the best things in Prague.
Wenceslas Square in the New Town. Famous for many reasons. A little too commercial today. The Old Town was much better.
Sunday, Nov 11th. Scattered rain, then unused-to sunshine. Better photo weather. Amazing clock that defies description, even with instructions. More gorgeous buildings. Chocolate shops, puppet shops, glassware shops. Museums everywhere. Jewish Quarter was heartbreaking. Hitler may have been planning for a “Museum for the Extinct Jewish Race”. Stored, rather than destroyed Jewish artifacts. One synagogue had a wall with 77,000 handwritten names of lost people. Represents only half of those lost. 240 children out of 10,000 survived.
Huge metronome (which didn’t operate), built to replace a massive Stalin Statue. Funicular (also not operating) encouraged a hill climb for a beautiful city view. Large city square had numerous living statues, huge bears, soap bubble guy, etc.
Wonderfully greasy sausage sandwich, fried potato swirl on a stick, hot wine. The city isn’t cheap, but the exchange rate hides it. Evening spent watching Youtube segments of orchestra performances.
So cute.
Just another bridge, with ornate decorations.
Building centerpiece. Unremarkable, considering it’s competition.
The lower calendar clock rotates once a year. 365 saints are listed. The upper clock? Mysterious.
The only boring building in the city. Deserves a plaque.
A Jewish Synagogue. Jews weren’t allowed to be stonemasons, so it was designed and built by Christians.
Didn’t try.
Rub for good luck. Commemorates the spot where a ruler was thrown off the bridge. Huh?
Saturday, Nov 10th. It’s the most beautiful city I’ve seen in Europe. Words and photos don’t do it justice. Point the camera anywhere and you get a great shot. Food is excellent. Crowds, not so much. This is some kind of celebratory weekend. (Harvest festival?)
A dismal kind of day.
Beautiful view at night.
When every building is wonderfully designed, it’s hard to choose.
Eastern Tower of the famous Charles Bridge. Vendors, tourists, musicians, artists, and the occasional Czech.
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.
A Viking Walking Tour that we weren’t part of. Hurrah!
I (Tomato) Pizza?
Great sense of humor in Bratislava.
Fun bike stand.
More Bratislava humer.
Lednice Chateau
Lednice Gardens. It must keep an army of groundskeepers busy.
Stuck in Komarom due to low water. Used a bus to Budapest. Long, slow bus tour of Pest. Interesting. Wished I could have gotten off the bus to see spots in detail, but time pressed. Drove back to Buda and did a walking tour of the hilltop neighborhood, including the interesting church. Afterwards, went to a landlocked Viking ship for lunch. Several goodbyes to those with early flights, who would stay on board. Then another long ride back to the Embra. Drank up the rest of my on-board credit, settled the bill, had dinner.
I did not spend nearly enough time in Budapest. It had loads of history that I need to research. But the cruise is over. Tomorrow we leave the ship and take a tour van to Prague. Four more days (on dry land).
In order to beat low water down the Danube, the ship rushed to Kamarom, Hungary, leaving tourists desiring to remain in Vienna with a bus ride to return to the ship, We opted to stay on board. Endured three heart-stopping passes below bridges within inches of the head. Cringing was allowed. Two massive locks followed, including what I was told was the largest lock in Europe. It was the largest I’d seen. Intimidating.
The ship can’t go any further. Tomorrow buses take us to Budapest. Some return to the ship, others (with earlier flights), spend the night on a local (landlocked) Viking ship. I can’t fault Viking for this arrangement. Some passengers, of (as I see it) questionable grievance thresholds, want to sue.
It was a relaxing day. The river was interesting, especially when our canal was disturbingly well above the surrounding land. Not many photos though.
Fishing outpost? Lots of them along the river.
The Danube turns into the large lake at certain places.
The driver of the ship, manning the port-side pilot station, needs protection from a leaky lock.
