Tag Archives: travel

Welcome to Fabulous, Fabled Prague #TuesdayTravels

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Tuesday Travels
After Paris, we flew to the fabulous, fabled city of Prague, now one of my favorite places on earth!

Prague Castle and Vltava River

Prague Castle and Vltava River


Our flight wasn’t until 9:45AM, but Gate 1, in its lack of wisdom, arranged our departure from the hotel for 6:45AM. Yikes! As a result, we were up really early to shower, dress, finish packing and check out of the hotel. Our wonderful tour director, Anne, met us in the lobby with box breakfasts to take to the airport with us. The breakfast consisted of bottles of juice and a bunch of pastries. Rebecca gave hers to our driver, and I added my bottle of juice.

We were dropped at the airport more than an hour too early, as the gate didn’t open until 8AM. (If you’re traveling within the European Union, two hours or less is plenty of time to check in for a flight, something a travel company should have known.) We found a place to sit and I ate my pastries. After we were finally able to check in, we found a spot to eat a real breakfast of quiche before boarding our Czech Airlines plane. We lucked into aisle seats across from each other.

Prague airport is nice and small. The hotel sent a car for us driven by a Russian immigrant to the Czech Republic who was very nice but drove like he was entered in the Monaco Grand Prix! We were happy to arrive safe and sound at Hotel Rott.

Hotel Rott

Our room wasn’t ready, so we ate lunch at Nuance, the hotel restaurant. We had bowls of delicious beef broth and salads, followed by dessert. By the time we finished, our room was ready. We were assigned to room 401 at the back of the hotel. I didn’t expect much of a view, but boy was I wrong. Though the room looked out over an inner courtyard, when I looked up over the rooftops, I could see Prague Castle silhouetted against the sky. Perfect!

Vioew from room

After unpacking, we wandered over to the Old Town Square in time to see and hear the famous Astronomical Clock mark the hour. Quite a crowd of people were there. I figured everyone who was too afraid to go to Paris last year ended up in Prague instead.

astronomical clock

Old Town is so picturesque and we both fell immediately in love with Prague. I’ll have lots more posts in the next few weeks.

Jan Hus Statue

Statue of Jan Hus in Old Town Square

Linda

Monet Country: Lovely Giverny #TuesdayTravels

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Tuesday Travels
The last stop in Normandy was in Monet country, the lovely village of Giverny where lived and painted in his extensive gardens. I know you’ve all seen his water lily paintings. Well, this is where he painted them. Rebecca and I wore print tops (not quite matching) in colors that reminded us of Monet’s paintings.

Monet actually had two gardens, the water garden and the more traditional Clos Normand. We started in the Water Garden with the large lily pond.

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And the Japanese bridge. Of course, everyone had to have their pictures taken there. The bridge appears in a number of his paintings.

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We had a lovely, warm, early autumn day to explore the grounds, and I was amazed at the array of flowers still blooming. These are just a few of the pictures I took.

flowers

Monet garden

When we’d had our fill of the gardens, we toured his large pink house with green shutters. (Interesting color choice.)

Monet home

Monet’s home

We saw a number of his paintings on display inside, but most in a room where photos were prohibited. I did snap some pics in the colorful dining room and kitchen, and I decided I wanted a yellow kitchen at home.

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After a stop in the gift shop, we had lunch at Les Nympheas, a small restaurant on the property. We dined on the patio, relaxing and enjoying the pleasant day.

Les Nympheas

Les Nympheas Restaurant, Giverny

Afterwards we strolled through some of the shops, including one lovely little shop with scarbes and bags and other items all with Impressionist images. Rebecca made some purchases, and I would have, too, but I was literally running out of Euros and still without a credit card. Damn pickpockets.

After Giverny, we drove to Paris, happily going against the traffic. The Friday afternoon getaway was in progress, so traffic going the other direction was quite heavy. At a comfort stop, I picked up a bag of cheese puffs made with Emmental cheese. They were really good, better than the US variety, and with no yellow residue on my fingers. I also loved the Innocent kiwi smoothies sold in the Marriott.

Swiss cheetos

Emmental cheese puffs & smoothie

When we arrived back at the Paris Marriott Rive Gauche, I was quite relieved to find my new Mastercard waiting for me at the concierge desk. Thank you, Bank of America!

That night, we had our farewell dinner at a restaurant in the Latin Quarter, complete with wine and entertainment–an accordionist (how French) and a guitarist who thought he was a comedian. He did a lot of mugging for the crowd and flirted with the ladies. Alas, I have no recollection of what we ate, except that it was good.

Next week, Versailles.

Linda