The Drive To Prague

Something I failed to calculate in all my travel estimations was traffic jams. It took over an hour to get out of the city of Berlin this morning, then we drove a few hours and crossed into the Czech Republic. Once we got to Prague, we sat in traffic, not moving a whole lot for more than an hour with blistering hot heat and no air conditioning. It wasn’t pleasant, but I was so thankful when we finally reached our little piece of heaven for the night, I forgot all about it once the water fight ensued (see photo of me and Kaleb, our van and our home for the next three nights.
What I am most thankful for is that we aren’t driving anymore. We decided to take a freeway for once just to expedite our arrival in Prague. Those German freeways are nerve racking. Kory was going about 80 mph the whole time and cars were zipping past us like we were standing still. Kory had to drive looking mostly in his rear-view mirror just to be safe. One time three motorcycles went flying past us doing at least 150mph. The only thing that made the whole drive tolerable was rocking out to the music of Jimmy Buffet, John Denver and Billy Joel. And I was also thankful we weren’t stuck in one backup we saw going the opposite direction (a truck caught on fire) because the exits are few and far between so there would be no hope of getting very far for many hours. I think we’ll stick to the side roads from now on. We’ll be crossing back through Germany next week so at least I have time to recover.

I have about 15% German blood in me from my dad’s side, but I didn’t feel any sense of belonging driving around Germany. I’ve always thought of Germans as the Texans of Europe – they are a bit proud, loud and bold. Norwegians aren’t very fond of them (rightly so), but the ones we’ve dealt with were certainly pleasant and kind. Not many people spoke English, but enough did that we got around. It’s certainly a beautiful country with a lot of land, but apparently not that many jobs because a lot of Germans go to Norway for work. One thing that puzzled me about Germany was there were no cemeteries anywhere. They must bury people, as we saw places that sold headstones, but there were no graveyards next to churches or anywhere visible from the roads we were on.

All the borders we’ve crossed so far are open – no one stops to check a passport or ask how long we’ll be staying. When I was on a backpacking/train trip through Europe in 1983, I got my passport stamped in every country. It’s a little sad we don’t get that now. And so far, only Germany has used Euros. I’ve had to use five different currencies on this road trip so far as Czech Republic still has their own money – which makes it incredibly cheap to be here. We stopped shortly after crossing the border to buy a few groceries as we are staying in a cabin for the next few days and making some of our meals. It was shocking how cheap things were at the store. Wine was a dollar a bottle. A six pack of two liter bottled water was only a dollar. We stocked up on both. The grocery store was huge and as Kaleb said, “It’s kind of like Fred Meyer meets Sam’s Club” as they had everything and lots of it. They also had a cafeteria so we all ordered a hot lunch and drink and it was under ten bucks. Can’t beat that. The bathroom there was different – there was one toilet paper dispenser by the sink so it was necessary to tear off some and take it along into the stall. I wish I would have known that beforehand.

The landscape we’ve seen so far in Czech Republic is very interesting. There are plenty of rolling hills covered in farmland, but there are also several cinder cone looking points sticking up here and there. A few hills we saw had castles at the top so that was interesting. And we are finally are back into billboard territory. Norway doesn’t allow them, but Czech Republic has them hanging from all the overpasses, so that’s different.

Once we got to the campground I was able to finally do some laundry and clean out the car. Kory took my spot in the water fight and he ended up using the car as his shield and somehow managed to lock both sets of keys inside as a result. I wasn’t too happy about that but after about an hour, and with the help of another camper from Denmark, he was able thankfully able to unlock the car. All the while a thunderstorm was rolling overhead and the sky looked threatening, but not much rain came down. It sure made for some dramatic sound effects however. Kaleb is glad to have kids to play with now – so our stay here should be a bit more kid friendly for him. And it’s nice for me as I love being out in the country. City life is good, but in small doses, I think.

A Day in Berlin

This was Kory’s day. He’s been wanting to see Berlin longer than I’ve been alive, I’m sure. Since he lived through the history of the Berlin Wall and has been intrigued by communism in general, this was the place for him. I’m sure he could stay here a week, but a day was enough to hit the highpoints and satisfy his curiosity about many things.

We took the tram into the city this morning. They have the public transportation system down to a science. I’m so jealous of the tram system because it’s efficient, cheap and extensive. We asked at the hotel how we pay for it and the woman just said “insert the coins and push the button” so we thought it would be easy. What we didn’t realize until we got on was there were at least 20 button options and all the information was in German. Fortunately a guy on the tram helped us out, but he also suggested we just play “dumb tourist” and not pay at all. I got the feeling many people ride the trams for free as I only saw one other person buy a ticket and no one swiped a monthly pass card on the scanner.

The last stop on our line was the TV tower in the center of Berlin. It was built to show off Berlin’s technological abilities but I guess the Swedes had to help them design it. As a little “thumbing the nose” at the communist system here, the Swedes designed it in such a way that when the sun shines on it, a cross is visible. Too funny. The view from up top can’t be beat. We then marched our way down Unter den Linden street – some famous road cutting through both East and West Berlin – and arrived at the Brandenburg Gate (see photo). Kory had to have the obligatory “Hallelujah” photo of him standing under it and of course, he couldn’t help but scream it out as well. There were a lot of police just hanging out at the gate as there were some mild protests going on in front of it. One guy in a chicken suit got arrested, for what, I don’t know, but it was pretty funny watching a half dozen young cops trying to cram this guy in a chicken suit into the paddy wagon. Kaleb and I had a good laugh thinking about his mug shot and what might happen if he tried to escape.

The whole downtown area is quite manageable on foot so it was an easy walk over to Checkpoint Charlie. There is a large section of the wall remaining near there, which satisfied Kory’s desire to see it in place. They’ve also set special stones into the streets and sidewalks around the city showing where the wall stood. The city has been completely redone in the last twenty years and it’s one of the hippest cities in all of Europe now for young people to be. There is a lot of nice new areas and some of the older buildings have been restored and it’s a wonderful blend. I didn’t know what to expect, but it felt clean, safe, and very alive. Tower cranes are everywhere so the recession hasn’t yet hit this town as construction is going on in every corner of the city.
At the intersection where Checkpoint Charlie once stood there is a sort of outdoor museum with placards and photos all along the sidewalks. We read them all and learned a lot, but Kory wanted to go to the Peaceful Resistance Museum near there so Kaleb and I found a place we could access the internet and I finally posted my blog (and photos) and Kaleb played on his favorite websites while we waited for Kory. (Kory was a bit surprised there was no mention anywhere that America and/or Ronald Regan contributed to the destruction of the wall.) We met back up then decided there was time for Kaleb to check out the Lego Discovery Center so we walked over to the Sony Center – an impressive piece of architecture – and Kaleb and I went in that “museum” while Kory walked around outside. The Lego place was like a children’s museum but everything was Legos. Kaleb loved it. I thought it was overpriced, but a good way to sit down and get out of the hot sun. Kory enjoyed checking out the car exhibit going on nearby with many high priced vehicles for sale. The city is definitely impressive with so many new buildings with whacko designs, it made for an interesting walk no matter what street we were on.

We have only one rule when we are on vacation – ice cream every day. Today we made four stops for ice cream because it was so hot. Thankfully the buildings are tall and provided enough shade while walking around, but we were all were fairly exhausted by day’s end. We spent about an hour sitting in front of a fountain after dinner, just to cool off. Kaleb found a dog to play with and a band was playing in the distance. Hundreds of people were lying around on the green grass taking in the warm summer evening. It felt like Southern California. We sat there watching the sun dip down out of sight, satisfied with all we saw and experienced today. Kaleb said he felt lucky to get three “unexpected pleasures” today – the Lego place, a nice park, and a dog. We all felt lucky.

These are the faces I love...

Deanna, a girlfriend in Seattle (bottom right in photo), invited me over for lunch today to say good-bye. Kory and Kaleb and I were on our way to Oregon for a few days to attend a wedding this Saturday so it fit nicely into our schedule as we headed south. What Deanna didn’t tell me is that she invited a bunch of my other friends over as well – so I got a wonderful surprise good-bye party!

I met these incredible women through a Bible study we attended back in 1993 lead by Janet (first row, center, in photo – and otherwise known to Kaleb as “Grammy J”) and we’ve all been good friends ever since. Only one of our original group was missing but it was a great day to see their smiling faces again and give them a hug and hear their voices one last time before we go. And the coolest thing was, it was just like our old Bible study days where we sat around the table talking about things of God. These are the faces of some of the most spiritual women I know and I’m blessed to call them my friends.