monument in Prague

Today Anja is nine and a half. Caleb and I just watched a good movie, 'Zeitgeist The Movie,' about the U.S. and the world, the Amero, the future North American currency, the chips we will have inserted in our bodies to pay for things and be identified, similar to the chip in Lynne's passport, and maybe yours if you've obtained it recently. It begins with a lesson about world religion, its similar myths and their common base in astronomy, with Jesus et al being the sun. I keep hearing of this movie referred to as a conspiracy theory movie. I would classify it under non-fiction myself. You can enjoy it on U TUBE. Some intense very real imagery in the beginning. Be warned, but don't be stopped. The other day I wrote a rather superficial view of Prague about the casinos and bars, and how the Czech people must like to smoke and drink and gamble and I wanted to make sure you all know this is an extremely superficial view and if you really know me, you know it's not an insult of any kind as I do not frown upon leisure activities and have been found at various times in various places to enjoy leisure myself. I've also been thinking that if I were in Oakland for example looking around and not understanding the language but only seeing what the businesses have to offer, I would assume that Americans like to drink a lot of booze, and attend a lot of church. hmmm.... I don't see churches here. Caleb says they were not allowed. I intend to go to the Communism museum to understand this and more. I feel so uneducated, but I really enjoy having the opportunity to become more educated along with my children.

A cup of caj at Detsky Ostrov

Yesterday we went to Detsky Ostrov- Children's island. Detsky are children. Damsky are women. I can't remember what men are. I guess I don't have them on the mind, just Caleb in particular because it is our eight year wedding anniversary, and we get two hours in the park alone together as it is Sofie and Anja's pottery class day. Woo- hooo!!! That was in all seriousness. Ya gotta take what you can get- every minute counts!! Back to Detsky Ostrov- It is a lovely island dedicated to children. It has all kinds of fun play structures starting with a ship for toddlers and slowly progressing to things for big kids like skate ramps at the far end. It also has a restaurant / cafe/ bar where you ought to order beer as it is cheaper, bigger, and probably far tastier than the black tea I continue to order for some inane reason. The beer here comes with a very large head, foam about one fifth of your glass. They say its their tradition, or trademark in the not so very accurate Prague guide we bought in England. But that is the way the beer comes, every time. The Budweiser, the original Budweiser is from here and was obviously the original or the American Budweiser would have run it out of existence by now as corporations/ businesses in the land of lawsuit tend to do. This is a big city with much fine culture and something for everyone. I love that about cities. Still, don't order the black tea. I think one reason I would like to have a tea shop is simply to put out a decent cup of tea, as it so rare.

Cluny in Prague

Anja and Sofie made a model of Cluny in the sandbox here. This is it. If you've been there, or live there, maybe you recognize some of the buildings. They are looking forward to returning there some day.

Springing into Prague!!!!!!

Went to the Prague Zoo today. It was quite beautiful. They have the animals who like mountains way up a hill that one takes a ski lift to climb. Beautiful view of the city from there. We found that to be true from the park near Anja and Sofie's pottery class as well. It over looks the river and the old town, new town, and real new town. One can also see a miniature Eiffel tower from everywhere. Haven't been there yet though. The National Museum was a natural history museum of which we saw Zoology and 'Pre-History to Walking on the Moon.' That museum had a lot of shoes. Really gorgeous shoes from Morocco. I find that the Moroccan style is one of my favorites. Often when I am struck by the beauty of something, it turns out to be Moroccan. I am sorry I missed the Moroccan spring herb tour but the timing did not work for me at all. The shoes Anja was most struck by were the ones put on women whose feet were bound in China in the past. Ouch! Everywhere we go, we see so much, yet we always inevitably leave something to come back for. We want to go to the National museum for the two more floors of exploration and back to the zoo for some pretty large animals -the elephants- that we somehow missed. The zoo is 62 hectares which didn't really mean anything to me before going there, but I now realize is pretty large. There was a big flood in 2002 that wiped out a good part of the zoo. They received a lot of money for re-building and the zoo is beautifully done. All the animals seemed quite content. We've really made a tour of Europe by zoos and natural history museums. Anja counted the steps in the church tower we climbed. The sign said 286 or 7. But she said there were only 280. You gotta keep on top of these things. I think the people climbing as she counted on the way down appreciated knowing how many more steps were ahead of them. Atleast the ones near the top appreciated it anyway. Today we had chicken stir fry for dinner thanks to Caleb. Anything but sausage would be good at this point. Prague, like Germany, is filled with sausage on the streets, at the subway stations, everywhere. The butcher has I-don't-know-how-many kinds of sausage and then if you buy something else, it somehow tastes like sausage. Caleb thought he was buying a small loaf of bread and it turned out to be sausage. We are not even trying to learn the language this time. Just gonna stick with the francais as far as language acquisition goes for this year. You can't help but pick up some fun words though like Brambury are potatoes. Practically everything ends in "y", well especially words that would otherwise be English like cigarettey. Though casinos are Herna of which there are many everywhere. The Czech people must like to gamble, drink a lot of beer, and smoke a lot of cigarettys. The Marionettes are quite popular especially in the touristy areas. They are fun, though mostly not as nice as the ones Simon and Mary sent us. We have yet to go out for some goulash, and there are enough museums in this town to keep us busy for twice our stay or more, but we've really been enjoying the local pool in walking distance. We also really enjoyed our two hour walk alone together during pottery class so we signed them up for six more Tuesdays. The Horse Chestnut trees are about to bloom as are the Lilacs which are huge like Michigan lilacs. There are so many fruit trees and tulips in full bloom now. It is gorgeous. I really want to make it to the botanical gardens (there are two). One is said to have twenty something varieties of cherry trees which should be spectacular right now, though if we wait, there is said to be a great Rhododendron garden as well. Either way should suit us just fine.

On the left is the farmer's market in Basel, Switzerland. In the middle is a dinosaur skeleton at the National Museum in Prague. On the right is Sofie in our backyard in Prague.

round robin

Today our fabulous hosts took us on a round robin starting with a boat down the Dart river from Totnes to Dartmouth, then a ferry across to Kingswear, then a steam train to Paignton where we caught a the top of a double decker bus with no roof back to Totnes. The views were incredible, the river, the Ocean, the rolling, very green hills. The cappucino in Dartmouth was delicious. Mary's exclamations of joy and awe always add a lot to every day with her.
Happy late Birthday to Mel if she reads this. Been thinking of Mel since she's from this beautiful land we are enjoying so much, though we will not make it to London this trip.

Easter in Totnes!!

Anja saw a real brown bunny in the garden first thing in the morning. Then we had Easter dinner for 27, with ham and fruit salad. There was much chocolate for everyone. I received a giant chocolate egg as well as a delicious bar of dark chocolate. The girls had a great time playing with children that actually spoke English. How odd that felt. Beautiful day with much mud and only light intermittent showers.

Vacation from Vacation

Paris with Lynne for a week!!! Fabulous!!!