The Ultimate Love Hate Trip (mostly love)

Hey, there's an Italian boat following us. Our back deck sits right on the water

I really wish that I could blog more but I have been having an awful time trying to get internet access or a cell phone signal in the Czech Republic and now in Germany. Fortunately, we are now on the ship (Viking Odin) that we will call home for the next ten days or so. We have one of the two Explorer Suites on the ship and I am sitting in our rear deck (I will call it the poop deck) while Cha Cha is still asleep in the bedroom. We have a deck on the port side as well that wraps around to this one. I am happy that we spent the extra money to get this suite; later I will video the room and post it up on our An Idiot and A Broad Facebook page.Yesterday was a very nice day. Cha Cha and I went and took a tour of Prague Castle. Then we went to Old Town Square where we saw many beautiful buildings and then we walked across The Charles Bridge we ate lunch at El Toro Negro Steak Bar (I had the cod) but, I did have two beers since there are over 500 breweries in Prague. We saw the place where Mozart played when he was in Prague (no town in the country that I live in can even say Amadeus went there, let alone played there. After lunch we walked the two miles or so back to the hotel in the heat.

Incidentally. we have to go through 48 locks on the Main and Rhine rivers. I sat on the stern for the first one because I am easily amused.

It is still really weird getting used to the time difference between here and home. It is 06:32 here right now and, at our home port, it is 23:32 now. One of the nice things about blogging and posting photos is that you can access them anytime that is convenient to your schedule and we will just post things whenever we are able. Mainly. at this point, when we are on the ship as our devises do not seem to be too compatible with the local WiFis.

Where the Nazis were trained to hate efficiently

This trip is truly the time of my life. I wish we could have brought the kids with us but, now that we are on the ship, we are the youngest people on the boat by quite a bit so our kids would have felt really weird with all of us MIDDLE and Older fogies. I get to spend a couple of weeks with the best friend I have ever had while seeing some of the most beautiful cities and meet some of the most wonderful people.

Yesterday, we visited one of the most hateful places (I will call it a fuse because it is where Adolph Hitler trained and rallied his Nazi soldiers / storm troopers) probably on the face of the Earth. Of course, there are worse places like the Concentration Camps and things. I could not help but feel sad being there and thinking about what had begun there. I loved the stories of how the Nazis wanted this place torn down so, eventually, there would be no concrete (literally and figuratively) evidence of what they had done. This is a proof that the millions and millions of murders that were perpetuated in the names of greed and hate and world domination and insanity were real and that cannot ever be disputed. I love that they use this place for concerts and drag races and things that would drive the Nazi Party insane. The guide that we had there told us about there had recently been a former high school band called Acey Deucey or something that recently played here. I consulted my notes and I guess the name of that former high school band was actually AC/DC. We were told how school trips are taken here and it proves to the children that this is part of they past and nobody can deny it.

It is so weird that there are only two Explorer Suites on this ship and we hooked-up (for dinner only) with the couple who have the other Explorer Suite. We ate dinner together and it was eerie how similar our stories are. The wife (Rose) had been very sick which is one of the reasons they decided to take this cruise. The husband's name is Bob in case I mentioned Rose and Bob. I do worry that her name is Rose and I think that was Kate Winslet's name in Titanic.

I don't know who these people are but I am happy to have them in my pants (pocket)

I think I forgot to tell you that I recouped my money ate the casino the other afternoon. After Cha Cha and I went and took a tour of Prague Castle we then went to Old Town Square where we saw many beautiful buildings. We then walked across The Charles Bridge where we ate lunch at El Toro Negro Steak Bar (I had the cod) but, I did have two beers since there are over 500 breweries in Prague. We saw the place where Mozart played when he was in Prague (no town in the country that I live in can even say Amadeus went there, let alone played there). After lunch we walked the two miles or so back to the hotel in the heat. Jill doesn't handle the heat well so, when we got back, she took a nap. What is a Matt to do? There was that casino down stairs... I won all of the Czech Kronus I had lost the previous day plus about 2,000 more. I had quite a stack of chips that probably added up to about $300 to $500 maybe. I hope I get to play some cards in Germany or Paris though that is only if I am killing time by myself.

I have to wrap-up and get into the shower. We signed-up for a village tour of Bamberg Germany this morning. I will probably be able to blog again tomorrow. I think this is Sunday so don't get used to me blogging on Sundays - it just worked out this way today. We are waiting to get through a set of locks now and tomorrow we have to go through 43 locks (I don;t know if they are a set of locks or what they are called). Thank you for stopping by - Jill and I will continue to post some photos to the An Idiot and A Broad Facebook page. I hope you are having as much fun in U S and A as we are having in Europe. Auf Wiedersehen.... Matthias in the MIDDLE of Europe (AUS) TA!