By this Author: steven1600

SPECIAL FRIENDS OF THIS BLOG: AFTER VIEWING PLEASE POST YOUR CRITIQUE IN COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG SITE. IT IS BETTER THAN SENDING ME EMAIL comments. I’LL HAVE BLOGGED COMMENTS FOREVER AND EVER. THANKS - STEVEN

Before leaving the U.S. I made a visit to Flushing in Queens County, New York. The community where I grew up. I had heard from childhood friends that the area had undergone a transformation. To my amazement, Flushing had become Korean Town. I entered a Korean supermarket and was totally ignored by everyone. I felt like “a stranger in a strange land”.

[right]

Mitchell Gardens, a sign that wasn’t there before and a nice touch. It is now a co-op community. When I grew up it was strictly rentals.

Finally, my building at 138-12 28th Road. We lived on the fourth floor. The A/C window units still the same, but likely have been updated. I wanted to go in and see my old apartment. I wonder if it had changed? In 50 years, I am sure it had.
A picture of the park next to the building where I played endlessly with friends and sat with my mom and her friends “kibbutzed”. It looks a lot smaller.

After my short visit, I took public transportation to the JFK airport. My next stop is Vienna, Austria.

Thanks for looking in on us. I will be meeting Jake in Vienna in 2 days.
You, my lucky reader, will be able to join us vicariously via this blog.

There will be pictures, videos, jokes, adventure, and much much more.

We will meet again here in 2 - 3 days.

Here are a few tips:
1. click on [Map...] above and enlarge it and see the route of our trip
2. If the city name is in [ ]. Click on it and you can go to a web page describing the city. That is optional and is not “required” reading.

I expected Prague to be nice because I had heard so many nice comments about this city. It is prettier and more sophisticated than I had anticipated.

Prague

We arrived late on Tuesday.

I had arranged a private walking tour with a member of the PragueWalker company and Martina did a nice job with the history of the city, its development, political insights, and of course toured us through the many districts pointing out the important landmarks.

Early morning in Old Town, doing a 360...,

Our walking tour with Martina was informative. She explained some of the history of the region and the city’s development, political climate at varying times in history, and of course pointed out many buildings, etc

Castle Town view across the river from Old Town. Jake in the town square posing with the “Gold Scheister”. Russian ladies on holiday enjoying Prague’s special ice cream treat.

There is so much to see in Prague. Here is the “WaterTroll” protecting the flowing river below him. Jake at the “John Lennon Wall”.

At one of the more majestic churches and there are lots of churches, is a holy wax figure. Yes, it is wax and for some reason, which I forget, it is very very very holy. So, over 300 beautiful outfits such as this have been donated to the church to adorn this wax very holy doll. There is even a gold crown adorned with precious stones, diamonds, etc. A holy wax doll, what will they think of next.... a Mr. Frosty that never melted? Maybe in the Ciocalato Cona of the Holy Sepulchre.

The entrance way to the Prague Castle with the guards holding a club and holding a sword.

Panaromic view of Prague. Earliest bronze statue of King George slaying the Dragon. Pssst: I don’t think this really happened. It’s like religion. HaHa

A few more views of Prague

Next stop - Budapest, Hungary.

We didn’t spend much time in Budapest as we wanted to arrive in Croatia for the World Cup finals.
Budapest has a lot of potential, here is a glimpse.

Holy Trinity Statue with St. Matthias Church behind. St. Matthias Church on Buda Castle.

Inside Matthias Church.

St. Stephen’s statue.

Saint Steven and Jake pose in front of St. Stephen.

Hungary Parliament.

I arrived after a loooong all night flight. Luckily, in my tired and bemused condition I was able to navigate the Vienna map and find the Hotel Brillantengrund. Every Viennese I asked either didn’t know or didn’t care to direct me.

Vienna

The very comfortable, clean, and affordable Hotel Am Brillanten Grund.
And that was my first day, chillin at the hotel on Sunday.

The second day, I bought a 48 hour pass on the “The Big Bus”. For those unfamiliar, this is a convenient way to be toured around a big city. It provides a comfortable setting and allowed me to get off and back on, wherever I wanted. I’ve used it before in other cities and it is very useful, especially in a city in which I am not familiar. Like, just about everywhere in Europe.

A few of the many beautiful scenes in Vienna.

The only museum I spent time in was the Arsenal Museum. Originally a depot for troops and artillary to quell any uprising of the citizenry of Vienna, “radicals and the proletariat”. It now is home to the most amazing collection of military artifacts, paintings, equipment, etc of any collection in the entire world.

[right]

I left the museum sad thinking how much effort mankind has put into killing each other. It seems like such a waste but it must be part of our “Human Nature”. So sad.

On Tuesday, my final day in Vienna, Jake arrived. We toured the city on the Big Bus. We outwitted a rainstorm by a few minutes and found shelter from the storm in a very nice Bier Stube in Vienna zentrum.

It is time to go and catch the train to Prague.

Auf Wiedersehen.