Road Trips – Page 20

ART, Attractions, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Birmingham Museum of Art

March 8, 2017March 5, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: THE JEWEL OF BIRMINGHAM

When the possibility of visiting Birmingham first came up, I checked out the city online. The city seemed to be a foodie haven with a great art museum and a nice botanical garden, but comparing their hours to our flight schedule and the hours of the thing I can’t tell you about, I wasn’t going to have time to do anything about any of that. So, I dutifully went about my business. Still, something in my subconscious kept clanging. I couldn’t exactly recall why, but I knew I really wanted to see the museum.

Perhaps, Maybe, Possibly

One day at lunch, before we took off on the Birmingham adventure, I mentioned to Hannah Beth that I regretted we weren’t going to have time to do the touristy thing. She assured me the museum was well worth seeing and mentioned a couple of possibilities we might have for seeing it. I assured her I had checked for evening hours, so that wouldn’t work, but skipping the final session – that would do.

I just happen to be one of those people who believe God is personally involved in my life. I also believe that if I’m willing to put Him first, He does everything he can to fulfill Psalms 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart.” In fact, He’s proved it to me too many time to deny it.

So, while we were keeping an ear to the ground to find out how significant the final session would be, God was arranging to keep things ahead of schedule so that we could get out in plenty of time to make it to the museum. You may call that a coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidences.

An Embarrassment of Wedgwood

If you’ve been hanging around this blog for very long, then you know the Decorative Arts Wing of any museum is my prime objective when I make a visit. I love Decorative Arts better than anything else produced from the artistic mind. I can spend an entire day in a Porcelain gallery – a passion I learned from my mother.

What’s more, Wedgwood,especially their Jasperware, (matte porcelain with relief decorations) is among my most favorite porcelains. Don’t believe me? Take a gander at the photo of the fireplace my husband and I designed for our home. You don’t have one of these unless you love Wedgwood. It was inspired by two I’d seen in Mount Vernon.

Along with representative Wedgwood pieces gracing the mantle piece, there are various Wedgwood and Jasperware pieces spread throughout the house. For good measure, my everyday china is Wedgwood. Not Jasperware but Wedgwood. So imagine my delight when I glanced over the map of the Birmingham Museum and saw three galleries designated by the word “Wedgwood”.

The Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood Collection

If you love Wedgwood the way I love Wedgwood, then go ahead and book the flight. I’ve been in a lot of museums and so far, I’ve never seen one with so much Wedgwood. I haven’t been to The Wedgwood Museum at Stokes-on-Trent yet, but that’s only because it didn’t exist decades ago when I visited the city. I can assure you, this is the most Wedgwood you are going to see anywhere outside of Britain.

The galleries contain mostly Jasperware in a rainbow of hues, but they have samples of other forms of Wedgwood collected by the couple. I swear I could have visited the museum every day for a week and been perfectly happy studying the exhibits in the three galleries. Here are some samples.

That blue and yellow vase on the jade pedestal would be great in my yellow and blue French decor but the dark blue wine cooler with the white flowers must be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’d leave it in the museum for others to share.

Giving the Rest of the Art Its Due

Even if you don’t like Wedgwood, the Birmingham Museum of Art is still a good thing to see. Porcelains from other places are prevalent throughout the museum, but there are also paintings and statues and other things to enjoy. I did run through the balance of the galleries at a high speed and then rushed back to gander at the Wedgwood a little more. However, I did get these two postcards to prove the museum has variety.

Buying the Book

In this digital age, when you can find almost any piece of art you’d like to see by searching it online, art books might not seem a good investment to some people. Maybe other people spend their time cruising museums online, but I’ll confess, I want to be there and see it in person. Seeing it online is better than not seeing it at all, but it’s not even on the same continent as first hand observation.

By the same token, while I have broken my habit of buying a book in every museum I go to, sometimes I just have to take a catalog home. This was one of those times. In fact, I anticipated facing down the fury of my husband if the only thing available was some $160 hardback number.

I guess God was doing me another favor, because there was a reasonably priced soft cover edition of the catalog – only it had a large sticker designating it as the display copy. I chatted up the clerk, who was a volunteer. She looked in the stockroom – nothing. She offered to have someone take a gander in the warehouse in the next day or so and call me if they had anymore. I just stood there clasping the display edition as if my life depended on it. “I’m leaving town this afternoon,” I all but wailed. “Oh we can ship it to you,” she assured me.

I put off replying to her suggestion by telling her about my fireplace. Then I mused as to what in the world I would do if there were no more of the books in the warehouse. She decided to sell me the display copy at a discounted price. BINGO! I’m getting a whole lot better at this negotiating thing than I used to be. I’d have paid full price just to have it, but I’m sure the fireplace story did the trick!

The flight home was not as trouble free as my flight to Birmingham. The flight was delayed for hours and as a result I know more about the food vendors at the Birmingham airport than I should. I’d been on a diet, which had been seriously threatened by the fast food offerings served to us at that thing I can’t tell you about, but what damage had not already been done got done. So much for dieting. And so much for Birmingham. Come back next week and see what I’m up to.

Architecture, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Vulcan Park Tower, Birmingham AL

March 1, 2017February 20, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: A STEEL CITY LANDMARK

So my boss had just arrived back in the States from someplace else that I can’t tell you about to join us at the thing I can’t tell you about. At the end of the second day after a meal provided by the thing I can’t tell you about, there was supposed to be a worship and praise service, but the boss needed a change of scenery. One more large meeting room filled with people and he was a goner, so we escaped.

Hannah Beth Helps Us Play Hooky

Since the meal we’d been provided was lukewarm hot dogs and stale potato chips (no offense intended, but that’s what it was), we wished we’d decided to play hooky about 30 minute previous to our boss’ confession of meeting room fatigue. A nice dinner would have been a treat. Still, we weren’t going to waste an opportunity for some team building activities outside the meeting room. So Hannah Beth took us on a tour.

Now I know young folks to things differently than I do, so this is not meant as criticism, but merely an observation. While Hannah Beth has been to Birmingham several times and has the inside scoop on what to do, she depends on GPS for directions. Her modus operandi is to take off in the direction which she thinks something is and then use voice commands to tell her phone to find the way. This means she has one hand fully on the wheel, while she holds both the wheel and the phone in the other – all the while chatting up everyone in the car.

Yep, I’m a Nervous Nellie, so the entire time we were driving in Birmingham, I’m in the backseat praying we actually get to the place we’re headed. Since I’m here to tell the tale, you know my prayers were answered in the affirmative, but while we were playing hooky from a praise and worship ceremony, I felt a little guilty about praying for protection. Proves God listens all the time, I guess.

Vulcan Tower on Red Mountain

Vulcan Tower via http://birminghamal.org

According to the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau:

“Vulcan is the largest cast iron statue in the world and Birmingham’s unofficial city symbol. Standing high atop Red Mountain, the 56-foot-high statue has an observation balcony on its pedestal for a panoramic view of the city. Vulcan is patterned after the mythical Roman god of the forge, a nod to the city’s powerful position in the iron and steel industry in the first part of the 20th century. The statue was created as Birmingham’s exhibit in the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis and won the exposition’s grand prize. The museum at Vulcan has interactive exhibits and displays that portray the region’s history and progress. Museum open Monday- Saturday, 10am- 6pm; Sunday, 1pm- 6pm. Observation balcony open Monday- Saturday, 10am- 10pm; Sunday, 1pm- 10pm. Admission.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, but you can learn more on the actual Vulcan Park website.

Our boss covered the entrance fee which was just a dollar or two and we climbed the stairs to the top of the hill. Someone who will remain nameless desperately needed to visit the rest room. Even though the sign said the museum was open, it wasn’t and that’s where the restroom was. In desperation, the drain in an unlocked utility room sufficed as a toilet. That’s all I’m going to say about it, but as tired as we were, that was just the crowning glory of the day and we got a serious fit of the giggles.

Above It All

Though the tower is lovely and the park is very nice, the real draw to visiting the Vulcan Tower is that you can climb up in it. So we did, still giggling like fools. Now yours truly is has a slight case of acrophobia. OK, so maybe a large case, but as we took the elevator up I was distracted by the giggling. We walked across a steel grate which was a bridge to the steel grate which was the balcony around the tower. There was also a fence, but all the ground around us was visible from our vantage point.

At first I just looked out toward the horizon and enjoyed the scenery (see picture from previous post). Then I looked down. MISTAKE. I tried to be cool. I tried standing away from the rail and looking toward the tower. Didn’t work. I started getting lightheaded and broke out in a cold sweat. It was time to go.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a grocery store, to get some necessities. That list might have included individual bottles of screw top wine, but if it did, I’m not telling. As much fun as this adventure was, the best is yet to come, so make you way back here next week.

DESTINATIONS, Road Trips, Shopping, TRAVEL, United States

San Marcos Premium Outlets

February 1, 2017January 12, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: MY KIND OF SHOPPING AND MORE

I love shopping. Actually, it would be more correct to say I love buying. I’m perfectly capable of wandering through a bazaar or market in a faraway place, just to get a feel for the place, but for me, it’s a lot more fun if there’s buying involved.

My husband has finally cured me of that – at least when he’s around. I used to come home from trips with a souvenir from every stop. I collected trinket boxes and Christmas ornaments. I loved to find handmade clothing and jewelry. I gathered up souvenir booklets like some people collect baseball cards. In the early years of our marriage, this practice created great discomfort for Bill. He followed me around with his eyes full of pain and flinched at every purchase. I didn’t pay close enough attention, so he started helping me understand his point of view.

Collecting just doesn’t make any sense to him. To Bill, all my gorgeous trinket boxes seemed like clutter. He’s suggested I store most of them and only put out a few at a time. What once held pride of place, on the fireplace mantle of my apartment, is now hidden away upstairs on a shelf in my office – along with all my framed family photos, my large collection of books and … well you get the picture. I don’t have to allow much room for souvenirs in my return luggage, anymore.

From time to time, I’ll have a lapse of judgement. We’ll be traveling and I’ll pick up an item with that look in my eye. Bill goes into panic mode. Trinket boxes and Christmas ornaments are strictly taboo. If I’ve picked up an item for the house, Bill wants to know exactly where I plan to display it and of course, he really loves what’s there and doesn’t want to replace it. Whatever it is, it won’t be coming home with me. Clothing and jewelry? Forget about it. He asks what I’m going to throw away or donate to make space for the new item. My only hope of making a purchase is when I find a gift for someone else. It takes some of the fun out of it.

The Exceptions to the Rule

While he can’t see the value in that cute straw purse on the beach or an embroidered sweater in the Alps, Bill does understand I know my way around an outlet mall. He fully endorses my outlet shopping. Mind you, he rarely goes with me, but he also doesn’t need resuscitation when I come home with armloads of shopping bags. See, he knows that cute straw purse on the beach has a mark-up somewhere in the range of 100%, but if I buy a top at an outlet mall, they’ve almost had to pay me to get me to carry it out.

I’m also allowed to buy shoes at DSW. I never look at anything unless it’s on the clearance rack and even then, I’ll only look at things that are 50% or more off. What I love is the yellow stickers, because that means they are marked down 80% or more.

San Marcos Premium Outlet

For some reason I cannot fathom, I never shopped at the San Marcos Premium Outlet – at least not in the last 20-30 years. It seems as if long ago I might have gone with Mom and Aunt Edie, but I think the stores may have been on the other side of the road – and none of the stores I loved this time were there.

You know I love San Antonio and get there every time I can, but for some reason, we’d just drive right past this outlet mall or stop in Salado. It pains me to think of all the bargains I’ve missed.

Deb and I started at Off 5th, the Saks outlet. I’d been looking at white pique dresses all summer long, but could not tolerate spending $150-200 for one dress. At Saks, I took several reasonably priced options to the dressing room and found one for about$20 that I loved. (I didn’t even know I was headed to Egypt on my next trip. Imagine how cute I will be, going out to dinner in Sharm!) Then off to the shoe department. Score!! Ellen Tracy brown crocodile pumps with a leather stack heel for $16.99! $16.99!!

After that auspicious beginning, my purchasing slowed down, but I did pick up a few items here and there. Then we wandered in to Dream Land. I pride myself on looking designer without paying designer prices, but I confess, there are designers I love and if money were no object, as my spouse if fond of saying, I’d load my closet up with them. My new favorite is Carolina Herrera. To my utter delight, she has an outlet store in San Marcos. The prices are still a little out of my reach, but they are closer than the ones at Northpark. Armani, Brahmin, Coach, Ferragamo – all these and more grace the sidewalks of the San Marcos outlet mall.

But let me tell you my favorite. I love St. John. I can pick out someone wearing it a mile away. There’s a sleek elegance I aspire to that exudes from each St. John creation. Their store is not exactly on the main drag, so we had to wander a bit to find it, but I adored the few moments I spent there. No reason to spend any more, because nothing was in my price range.

At a final stop, we found a handbag for my bestie. She’d been willing to pay $100 for something adequate at the Saks outlet, but we agreed to keep looking. She got a Brahmin for about $120. I was giddy. She hoped I was spending her money wisely and now I think she agrees I did.

Then it was time to head back to join the women who had spend the day in Gruene, because we were headed out to dinner. See you next week!

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Pretty Little Passau

December 7, 2016October 15, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: THE FINAL SHORE EXCURSION

Waking up in Passau was bittersweet. During the night we’d passed from Austria into Germany and docked at Passau, but my research had not mined up any nuggets for my “must-see” list, in this town at the confluence of three rivers. The overwhelming emotion was regret. I was going to have to leave this cozy boat where they took me from destination to destination, fulfilling my every need and desire along the way.

The Morning Rush Hour

In Viking River Cruise land, mornings were busy. We had to get up and get breakfast before the tour started. There were no lazy days at sea. It might have been nice to intersperse all these activities with some down time, but Mr. Bill is not a two week vacation kind of guy and on an 8 day river cruise you are engaged every single day, all day long.

Passau was no different. The walking tour began at nine. After a delicious breakfast we disembarked and found our guide. We did not get the pick of the litter.

The Walking Torture

He was a Frenchman, resettled into Germany and I’ll just say it, he was rude. He was quite knowledgeable, but so unpleasant. He was obviously unaware that we were on a walking tour, not taking an oral exam for a PhD. He’d pepper us with questions and then ridicule our answers. If we dared ask him a question, he’d belittle us. I’m not exactly ignorant of history, but the one question I asked him about a date painted on a castle, resulted in my most uncomfortable moment of the cruise.

We put up with him for a while, but it was finally so unpleasant that we wandered off and found our own way back to the boat. However, Passau is a lovely little town, in spite of the rude guide, so I’ll show you some of it.

Pretty Little Passau

If you’ve been following me along on this cruise, then you know the operative word for the predominant architectural style along the Danube is Baroque. We got a taste of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Cesky Krumlov, but pretty much everything else has been Baroque-on-steroids. Passau was no different. The architectural highlights are the Prelate’s Palace and St. Stephen’s Cathedral, but the whole town is lovely. For some reason, the Rathaus has murals painted all over it which are reminiscent of the Middle Ages, but they are merely modern interpretations of that era. Architecture aside, the three rivers are the real stars of the show.

Enjoy this gallery of shots from our walking torture. I can’t tell you much more about them, because the only way I was able to avoid killing my guide was to ignore him. We finally abandoned him and made our own way back to the boat. Come back next week and I’ll tell you about the rest of the day, which was a lot more fun.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, Shopping, TRAVEL

The Quaint Town of Cesky Krumlov

November 16, 2016November 26, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: A TOWN IN A TIME WARP

Cesky Krumlov was lucky. While it suffered a season of Communism, the Communists never had enough money to modernize the place. So when they were kicked out in 1989, all Cesky Krumlov needed was a little TLC. Tourists discovered it in the early 1990’s and the rest is history.

Entering the Time Warp

As I mentioned before, our wonderful guide was a native Krumlovite. He grew up there and had an abiding love for his lovely little town. We had disembarked our bus up in the castle gardens and seen a couple of lovely vistas from the castle grounds, but this charming blue, onion-domed church was our first taste of Krumlov proper.

The pace of our tour slowed down as the guide shared the highlights of his town, including his favorite places to eat and stories about his friends. I’ve toured with guides that turned this dialog into an “ain’t-I-great” soliloquy, but the charming citizen of Krumlov did not fall into that trap. His stories were all about the wonders in his favorite town.

By the way, while it is tempting to call it a village, rather than a town, it got a city charter somewhere along the way. They would probably be insulted because that I was calling it a town instead of a city, but I want you to get the feel of the place, even if my terminology is not technically correct.

On Our Own

We wandered along quaint little streets until we reached the town square, where our guide released us to our own reconnaissance. Our little group of cruise buddies hotfooted it back to our guide’s favorite restaurant and enjoyed a delightful lunch with generous quaffs of Czech beer.

And here’s their sign

Here’s where to find the restaurant

Then we headed out for shopping. EEEK! The prices were astronomical. I strolled into a handbag store and hurried out with my tail between my legs. While I’m not great at currency conversion, I do know enough to figure out when I’ve wandered into a triple digit zone. The cheapest handbag I could find was very comfortably in that triple digit zone and while my friends are certainly worth that much, I can’t afford it.

There were dozens of establishments featuring souvenirs – you know the kind, t-shirts and tea towels emblazoned with screen-printed images – but that wasn’t what I was looking for. Finally, I found a store with darling little gingerbread Christmas ornaments. I almost bought them out and was thrilled with my find, but unfortunately I lost them somewhere along the way. I was broken-hearted because they were hand-made and seriously darling.

Had I anticipated the expenditure, I would have bought up some amber jewelry. Every other store on the winding streets is an amber jeweler and I loved most of their wares. My bestie loves amber and I desperately wanted to find something for her, but in a town where a small cloth clutch costs about $200, you can imagine what the amber cost. Still, the prices were not unreasonable, so if you go, budget for the amber and shop until you drop!

Suddenly It Was Time to Go

For the final half hour or so, we abandoned our cruise buddies, because I was still desperately on the hunt for gifts. All of sudden we looked at our watch and realized we had to leave – right then. That’s when we figured out we were lost and Cesky Krumlov no longer felt like a quaint village, but more like the city they prided themselves on being. Our panic only lasted a short while, but that was long enough. They’d warned us they would leave us if we weren’t on time.

We strolled back through the town, up a path around the castle and there our buses were waiting for us. The drive back to the boat seemed longer than the trip to the Czech town, because we were hoping enough time would be left to check out Linz before dinner.

We did make it back early enough and I’ll share that with you next week, but for now, enjoy all these pictures from Cesky Krumlov.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

A Quick Stroll through Cesky Krumlov Castle

November 9, 2016October 8, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: TAKE MORE TIME HERE THAN WE DID

Cesky Krumlov Castle is a treasure trove of history, architecture and decorative arts. Let’s start with the history.

The Medieval Lords of Krumlov

There’s not much left from the Middle Ages, but this has been a castle since the 13th century. The one remaining tidbit is the castle tower, left over from the days when the castle’s first job was defense. According to Rick Steves, if you go up its 162 steps you’ll get a find view of the Czech countryside, but I wouldn’t know.

Moving on to the Renaissance

While the tower is Medieval, it’s decoration is not. That’s all Renaissance, so let’s move up a few years. When the Krumlovs died out, their cousins, the Rozmberks, moved in. (Rozmberk is often rendered as Rosenberg, but let’s be Czech about this.)

The Krumlovs had been your basic local gentry, but their cousins were a whole different animal. The Rosmberks went on a serious building campaign, but don’t let the pictures fool you. Those walls in the courtyard are just plaster. All the fancy stonework is merely painted on. They weren’t being cheap, it was just the style. In fact, they probably could have gotten the stonework cheaper than the painting, but they were all about the show.

Everything had to look modern and up-to-date for the Rozmberks. They turned that practical, defensive tower into a folly of astrological signs and symbols. I’m not sure who came up with the idea of a pastel yellow and baby pink as an acceptable color combination, but I would like to complain about it. Pink and beige were often used together throughout this region, too. Both color themes make me a little nauseous, but they were all the rage apparently, based on the frequency of their use.

While I didn’t approve of their color schemes, I have to admit they did do a great job out in the gardens. The glorious Renaissance gardens in the French style, with a magnificent central fountain, were something to see. It was a little early in the season for floral displays.

They symbol of the Rosenberg family can be found all over the castle. — They symbol of the Rozmberk family can be found all over the castle.

Visions of Grandeur

It wasn’t enough for the Rozmberks to have the best castle around, they wanted to climb even higher on the social ladder. So they decided they wanted to be kin to the the Orsinis, who were ruling the roost over in Italy.

Now there are a number of stories about their claim to Orsinism. Some say they just added a fake limb to their family tree and were powerful enough to pull it off with aplomb. Others claim they actually did have a legitimate claim. My favorite story is they expressed their desire to be Orsinis to that family and for X amount of money, the Orsini’s adopted them. That sounds about right from what I know of the Orsinis.

The Crest of the Orsini-Rosenbergs — The Crest of the Orsini-Rozmberks

Whichever story is true, the Rozmberks celebrated their promotion in a couple of ways. They altered their family crest and added a bear to their moat, because as we all know, Orsini comes from the Italian word for bear.

When I titled this post as “a quick stroll” I’m referring to the way I saw the castle – almost at a dead run! We were in and out of the castle environs almost before I could get out the camera for a few photos. (Confession, we did not take the bear picture. It’s off the Viking memory stick we purchased. The bear hid from us during our quick stroll.)

What’s more, the tour was only outside and we didn’t get so much as a peek inside. Museum Girl was about to have a fit. Here she had a well-furnished Czech palace to check out and we’re ripping through the courtyards at a fast pace. One of the reasons the castle is well-furnished is because once a Hapsburg-related family gained control of the place it fell out of favor and became a sort of over-sized attic.

Another reason you can enjoy the castle in its former furnished glory is because Czech curators share better than Americans. They actually try to get the various bits and pieces they find to the appropriate castles. Because Cesky Krumlov Castle spent so many years as a warehouse of out-of-fashion and damaged furnishings, there are still huge areas of the castle that are still cleaned out and cataloged. When they find a piece that seems to belong to another castle, they send it along with their regards and curators at other castles do the same. American curators seem to share a penchant for hoarding. The bowels of their institutions hold tons of items the public never gets to see, because the museums hold on to every bit they get for dear life. I liked the Czechs even better for this little tid-bit.

Once we’d checked out the bear pits we had a choice to make. We could either head to the ticket office and go on one of the interior castle tours or we could head out to the picturesque town. The town is charming and I had a wonderful time with our cruise buddies, but Museum Girl was about to go into melt-down.

I’ll share a treat with you. While I didn’t go through the castle, someone on the Viking crew did and they got some marvelous pictures, which I’ll include at the end along with more of my pictures of the exterior, but there’s one more bit of history you need to know about Cesky Krumlov.

The Baroque Theater

I chose to get a degree in Performance instead of Literature and I’m glad, because to get the degree you have to have a smattering of all the arts, including the performance arts. One of my classes was the history of theater and I thoroughly enjoyed it. (The professor was somewhat of a kook, but welcome to the university!)

We studied all the old playwrights and reviewed the various venues. I reveled in the Renaissance era when cathedrals used to fly children through the air on wires as cherubs. (No child labor laws to contend with.) However, the Baroque period was also something. Every castle worth its appellation had its own theater and each theater proprietor tried to outdo the other on special effects – only there was no digital CGI. They used actual flames and fireworks to get their effects. And that’s exactly why there are only two of them left in the world. Cesky Krumlov is one of them!

It killed me to forego the pleasure of touring the theater. If I ever get back to the Czech Republic, wild horses won’t keep me away from taking every tour offered in Cesky Krumlov. Now enjoy the pictures and come back next week for a tour of the town.

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, International, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, Travel Planning

Chasing Castle Intell

November 2, 2016November 3, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: RESEARCHING CESKY KRUMLOV CASTLE

Our day in Cesky Krumlov was one I will long cherish, but Museum Girl was mad at me. My faithful followers know me and they know that as much as I love to eat, I’m willing to miss a meal in order to visit a good museum (or castle or palace or abbey etc.) I live for museums. I have this ever-growing collection of historical and artistic items in my head and one of my main goals in life is to expand it. On this particular day, I abandoned my prime directive and I’m glad I did, but Museum Girl is still a little miffed.

An Absence of Good Intell

Last week I complimented Viking on their ground game, but I was a little challenged by them on the planning end of things. Because they know what they’re doing, they don’t spell everything out. They know things happen when you’re traveling and they don’t want to spend their days making apologies to disgruntled passengers.

This lack of information is probably a blessing to most passengers. My husband was completely content with the absence of logistical information, but I was a crazy person. I’m driven by that museum in my head and I carefully curate what I’m going to see. On this trip, to a certain extent, I had to just let go and follow the guy with red Viking sign.

So in Budapest, I had no clue what spa I’d be visiting until I got on the bus with my fluffy towel. I’m convinced I was stuck on the castle AND walking tour in Bratislava because the walking-only tour was full. (Yes, I should have spoken up, but didn’t.) As I planned for my day in Vienna, discovering where we would dock was like searching for the Holy Grail and even when I got someone to tell me where they usually docked, they were careful to warn me things could change.

Finding out what we’d see of the castle in Krumlov was pretty much the same sort of thing. The UNESCO website was great, but how Viking plugged into that opportunity was like diving down a black hole.

Kudos to Norwegian

Since I pretty much hated everything about my cruise on Norwegian Epic (except going with my bestie and the day we spent with Sunny Liston, which is still one of my best days EVER) I’m loathe to admit it, but I loved their website. Well I didn’t love everything about it, because I had some navigation issues, but they did have a section of the site devoted to passengers sharing travel tips. (Yes, I read them all.)

Norwegian disclaims in large letters these are experiences of past cruisers and things change on every cruise, but I gained great comfort from knowing what usually happened. I’m well aware things can change (did I hear someone say Josay?), but I like to be ready for what is probably going to happen. The internet allowed me to research everything about a destination, but Viking kept the details, of exactly what they’re going to show you, pretty close to their vest.

Come back next week and we’ll stroll through the castle grounds.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Checking Out the Czech Republic

October 26, 2016October 8, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: SHORE EXCURSION TO CESKY KRUMLOV

The city of Linz provided our starting point for a bus trip to the Czech Republic. I woke up to this lovely landscape, complete with Ferris wheel – a pleasant surprise. Breakfast was early, because the bus boarded at 8:30. Our cruise buddies were assigned to the same bus as we were. I think one of them had done the legwork to see that this happened and I appreciated it, because it make the excursion a very special day.

First Things First

If you’re headed to Cesky Krumlov, don’t call it Cesky. Cesky means something like ‘bend in the river’ and apparently the Czech Republic has a lot of crooked rivers, because there are a lot of Cesky Thises and Cesky Thats. Perfectly fine to shorten it to Krumlov, because that’s unique.

Next up, we loved our guide – a young hip guy who grew up in Cesky Krumlov and loves his little city. We were half in love with it too before we even arrived.

A funny part of the bus trip was the stop at a service station. I was never quite clear why we did it – something about changing money, but we just stretched our legs and took a stroll around the convenience store. It reminded me of a roadside stop in the Bahamas with Josay, the worst tour guide we’ve ever had. All the tour buses stopped there, but it was certainly no Buc-ee’s.

Sneaking in the Back Door

One thing you’ll discover if you sail with Viking – they’ve got this cruising thing down pat. I’ve cruised with a number of different lines, both river and ocean, and I never have seen anybody who has the logistics of things figured out so completely. They park their boats in the best places, their tour buses are just steps away from the gangplank each morning and their guides are without a doubt the best-dressed and most professional of any I saw.

Cesky Krumlov certainly qualifies as a tourist trap. By the time we hit the castle proper, there was a deluge of folks standing around listening to a guide. I can only imagine the parking nightmare somewhere around that town, but Viking had it’s own parking lot somewhere on the garden end of the castle grounds, away from the nightmare.

Because of Viking, we stepped off the bus and into a Renaissance garden. Fountains danced, the sun was shining and I was a happy camper. Our guide allowed us a few Kodak moments and then led us down the hill and through a back gate to the castle proper. There we were treated to some of the most charming vistas of the day.

The Castle Proper

Cesky Krumlov Castle is a UNESCO site and they do a pretty good job of attaching their name to the best places in the world. You may never have heard of the Lords of Krumlovs, but their castle grew into an architectural history lesson. Rather than rush you through it, the way my tour did, I’ll invite you to come back next week, but in the meantime, enjoy this video of our day in Cesky Krumlov.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, International, Libraries, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Marvelous Melk Abbey

October 5, 2016October 6, 2016 Jane Sadek

3m-41 — A peek at the Wachau Valley from inside the Abbey walls

TRAVEL THERE: THE GLORIES OF BAROQUE IN SPADES

A Return to Marvelous Melk Abbey

Of all the places I’ve traveled to over the years, Melk Abbey qualifies as one of the most remarkable. All they need in the dictionary, to define the word Baroque, is a picture of the chapel’s interior. But that dictionary doesn’t have enough words in it to adequately describe the wonders you will see inside the abbey.

Melk Abbey has become somewhat of a tourist trap in the days since my last visit, 3-4 decades ago. I remember parking on the street, strolling over to the abbey and having a private tour with my small busload of tourists. This time I disembarked along a riverside crowded with cruise boats and hordes of people heading toward the abbey. Do not be dismayed or discouraged. Just line up and go with it. The abbey is worth your time and the hassle of dealing with tourists and guides.

The weather was miserably cold and damp, while my gear was sadly inadequate. What was intended to be a pleasant stroll through a garden and a chance to visit a small outdoor cafe, was instead an overlong huddle in the abbey’s courtyard.

Eventually the ubiquitous Viking guides, with their red jackets and numbered signs, showed up to talk us through the experience. Since my last visit, the abbey has had some renovations and remodeling, adding several exhibit rooms displaying a wonderful array of abbey treasures. While the exhibits are truly extraordinary, I would have easily traded them in on the opportunity to see my first guide just one more time.

The Charming Abbot Emeritus of Melk

And here’s the reason I enjoyed my first visit to Melk ever so much more than I did my return. The sweet little man in this photo had been the abbot of this remarkable place for many years and he loved it almost as much as he did God. He’d been retired from running the place for only a little while and had been assigned the joy of sharing it with others. During the tour he’d come to a closed door and look around surreptitiously to see if anyone was watching. If the coast was clear, he’d wrench open the door and say, “I’m not supposed to show you this, but I didn’t want you to miss it.” Then he’d go on to tell us a marvelous story about something that happened in the room or a tidbit about the artist who decorated it.

I loved him so much that I wanted to bundle him up and take him home with me. My admiration for the place was obvious and he begged me to come back some time and visit him. He confided that when there wasn’t such a crowd, he could show me other places in the abbey.

That small busload of travelers would have been lost in the horde of tourists on my latest visit. I wonder what my friend would have thought about the abbey’s popularity. The guides did a great job of sharing architectural highlights, but they were completely devoid of the affection the Abbot Emeritus displayed. I’ve always wished I could have returned for the promised private tour, but life changed for me after that trip and it was a long time before I crossed the ocean again. Too long of a time for the Abbot Emeritus to give me a tour.

Trompe-l'œil tricks the eye into thinking there's a dome above the stairwell. — Trompe-l’œil tricks the eye into thinking there’s a dome above the stairwell.

Gorgeous Melk

Even without the Abbot Emeritus to show us around, the wonders of the abbey are apparent. This guide was quite good about rolling off pertinent dates of the abbey’s history, but she was not as insistent about keeping our eyes focused upwards. In every room the Abbot Emeritus told us to look up, as he described in detail the story of the ceiling frescoes. The average tourist probably misses the wonder of contemplating the effects of trompe–l’œil.

Sure the ceilings are beautiful, but gazing up your eyes are tricked into thinking you are looking up at arched ceilings and domes. It’s all an optical illusion, because the ceilings of the abbey are flat. There is one stairwell where the tour highlights the painted effects, but they are ignored in the rest of the abbey.

This is not a dome! — This is not a dome either!

The guide also didn’t tell us any of the enchanting tales of the artist, tales of which I’ve long forgotten the details, but I had hoped to be reminded of during this visit. Nor did she explain in detail the meaning behind the elaborate frescoes. She was pedantic about the many ways the features of the abbey were Baroque in nature, but I was more interested in being reminded why they were unique.

Eventually, I gave up and quit listening to her. Instead I recalled the chuckles of glee my first guide shared with me and I wandered about mouth agape. I tried to jog my memory for the details of the frescoes and their painter, but they’d gotten lost somewhere along the way. More than once I stumbled into a fellow tourist because my eyes were glued above my head, rather than at my immediate surroundings.

I’ve saved the best for last, but in the meantime ran out of words for today. Come back next week and we’ll visit the chapel.

Attractions, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Cruising the Wachau Valley

September 21, 2016August 22, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: FROM DURNSTIEN TO MELK ON THE DANUBE

After a pleasant morning in the small town of Durnstien, our longboat headed towards Melk. This stretch of the river is quintessential Danube cruising. Verdant green forests, craggy hills topped with ruins, picturesque villages hugging the riverbank – what’s not to like! The whole area has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Let’s go!

I’m a Wimp and I Know It!

On that cruise I took in my head, before we boarded the Viking Tor, I planned on enjoying the Wachau Valley from the comfort of my private balcony. I hadn’t considered there were two riverbanks to watch. I just imagined feeling all kinds of luxurious in my own space, but I realized I needed a better plan.

Bill thought the Sun Deck would be the perfect spot for taking in the sights, but I wasn’t liking the idea so much. While the day was bright and sunny, there was a definite chill to the air. I’m not into cold. Skiing is not my thing. I can’t get very excited about an Alaskan cruise. Besides, I had just done my hair. I could only imagine what a few hours on deck, with the wind pummeling my tresses, would do to my coiffure. I refer to that stuff on my head as a force of nature and you’re not supposed to mess with Mother Nature. I thought the lounge was a better place to take in the sights.

On My Own…For a While

Bill and I are one of those couples who do most things together, but we’re not connected at the hip. I’m an early bird and he’s a night owl. He heads off to the golf course with his buddies and I’m content to hang with my bestie. In fact, I seem to operate best when I’ve had some alone time and there hadn’t been much of that on our cruise. The Wachau Valley seemed like a good place to catch up with me.

I shooed Bill up to the Sun Deck and found a spot up in the lounge to take in the sights. I’d gaze out the window for awhile and then spend a few moments catching up in my journal. I was loving the scenery, but I was loving my alone time even more.

Bill showed up a couple of time to report on the Sun Deck activity. The first time was a quick drop by and I was soon on my own again. The next time his visit was a little longer. He told me about the amazing view. He let me know that our cruise buddies were on deck. He thought I’d be interested to know the crew was handing out warm blankets and hot beverages. I sent him on his way.

Then he was back. This time he’d gotten it all figured out. I could go by the room and put on some more layers. Then I could have all the blankets I wanted. And if I didn’t like it, I could leave, but I should give it a try, but only if I wanted to…My alone time was over.

Alright, Already!

So I went up to the Sun Deck. I will admit the view was gorgeous. It’s too bad WordPress’s media feature won’t handle panoramic pictures, because we got a humdinger. You’ll just have to trust me.

I really did try to make a go of it. I resented having my alone time interrupted, but once I was up and out, I did try to enjoy it. I really did, but I didn’t succeed. After just a few minutes wrapped in the festive blanket, Bill let me out of my misery.

It was almost time for lunch, so I didn’t get back to my spot in the lounge. After lunch we’d be touring Melk Abbey. Our pictures don’t do justice to the Wachau Valley, but I’ll show you some anyway. Come back next week for Melk. It was one of the highlights of the trip.