After a nap, about 3:15pm we headed back out on foot. We walked back across the Charles Bridge and turned right along the bank and followed the river for about a mile down to the boat docks.
Sculpture in Prague
This sculpture was along the way. I didn’t see any description, but I think it’s clearly contrasting the rusted orthodoxy of the communist system with the vibrant capitalist economy.
Here’s the late afternoon start of our cruise before Kate moved back to face forward.
Charles Bridge
Here we are approaching the Charles bridge from the water. You can see the statues along the bridge. We crossed under the bridge and turned around and sailed back down river. It turns out the Vltava River connects to the Elbe River north of Prague and then continues up to Hamburg.
After the cruise we walked back but took a side trip back to the store next to the Old New Synagogue so Kate could buy a Prague Golem. We then walked back across the Charles Bridge and got some dinner.
U Schnellu in Prague
We had dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel. It was founded in 1787, two years before the Constitution was ratified.
Kate at dinner
I had an Aperol Spritz for Jan & Mike. We had traditional Czech meals, Kate had Pork Neck and Dumplings, and I had Boar goulash with potato pancakes. They were both very good. and even at a high-end restaurant was about $70. It was just a couple of blocks back to the hotel. It was a pretty tiring day, but I think we really got a feel for Prague.
Prague (or Praha in Czech) is one of the coolest cities I have ever been in. It was virtually untouched by WWII, other than an unfortunate bombing that was probably someone trying to bomb Dresden one night.
After a great breakfast (included with hotel) we had a walking tour from 9:00-1:00pm. They transported the four customers plus guide up to the castle on top of the hill behind the Augustine Hotel. The “castle” is actually a sprawling group of buildings, gardens, etc. covering 45 hectares (whatever metric BS that is).
Green square in the castle complex, the buildings around were family residences of “friends of the king?
Main Castle Building Entrance for ceremonies, now used as tourist exit.Diagram of Castle. The red Inner Courtyard & ChapelMetropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert INSIDE the Castle
Ok, we have this huge gothic cathedral tucked into an inner courtyard of the castle. It is dedicated to St Vitus, nice Sicilian boy from the 200’sAD. His relics moved around and were presented to Wenceslaus I, in 925AD by King Henry I of Germany. They were installed in a rotunda on the site of the cathedral. Finally, St Adalbert was born a good Bohemian son and went on to be Bishop of Prague but eventually was martyred in Prussia in while converting the proto-Prussians. (It is always the Germans).
Anyway, the present Cathedral was started in 1344 and proceeded apace until 1399 when work was stalled and proceeded in fits and starts until a revival in 1844. It was finally consecrated on 12 May 1929 just in time for the 1,000th anniversary of Good King Wenceslaus’s death. (he got a posthumous promotion to King from Duke). Note that 1929 was in the post-WWI period where Czechoslovakia was a real country.
After the castle, we were driven down to the Old Town section of Prague. We wandered through the streets, past the oldest Synagogue in Europe completed in 1270. In continuous use (except for the unpleasantness from 1939-1945).
We wandered over to the main square where they had set up Easter Market booths and spent about half an hour browsing and got some famous “chimney cakes” which are supposedly popular in Budapest.
We arrived just before noon for the exhibition of the Prague Astronomical Clock, of course the oldest astronomical clock in the world, from 1410. It was impressive, but there was quite the crowd in front of it. After the clock we wended our way through many of the back streets to the Charles Bridge.
The bridge (started 1357) is an amazing structure.
One of the Statues
After crossing the bridge, it was just several blocks back to the Augustinian Hotel arriving about 1:00pm. I will post this now and write part 2, the river cruise next.
(Revised and edited). Either I jinxed it by bragging about it, but Frankfurt is where karma goes to die. We landed, and taxied and taxied, but Denver is like that. Except when we were done the wheeled up a set of boarding stairs and we deplaned into what looked like a maintenance yard and all boarded busses for the ride to the terminal. Now I haven’t deplaned and walked in since the early years in Casper or flying Pilgrim Airlines into Groton. I really expected for Frankfurt to be better.
The bus took 20 minutes driving all around the airport to unload us near Gate C1. We knew that our flight would leave from A35; but wait there’s more. As we trooped thru terminal, we were herded into a set machines designed to read your passport, collect a photo and read your fingerprints to establish a firm bio-signature of you. Except it didn’t work very well. Kate’s machine read her passport and took a picture but choked. Mine had trouble even reading the passport. Since they failed so we all got herded through corridors over to a set of mazes feeding into booths with police officers doing regular screening and collecting fingerprints. We spent two and a half hours weaving back and forth like old school Disney lines. Now we had a 4-hour layover, but other passengers were freaking out. And this was still in terminal A. I counted that there were 14 booths with 4 of them occupied. They opened two more after our first hour in line. When we got to the boot the police had the usual questions, purpose of visit, how long we were staying (in the EU), etc.
Also, this fun event had taken us outside the containment area, so we all got rescreened and came back in at the end of terminal C. This only took about 15 minutes, so with all that done we followed the signs through terminal B, up and down to a long tunnel to Terminal A. We finally made it to the Lufthansa Longue where we’re waiting for closer to the boarding time. We boarded about 45-minutes late due to late arrival of our older Airbus-345 (think 737-ish).
One interesting thing was that to create a first-class section, the blocked off the middle seats of each 6-row section with a tray table like section bolted to the seat arms. On the 90-minute flight they did a full lunch and drink service. I discovered that I don’t particularly like hummus (I think it comes from the Akkadian word for “failed at the hunt”.) and I settled for water to drink. I did have a double gin & tonic on the big flight but by this time I was tired, numb and was basically done for the day. I regret to say I am no alcoholic, I will have to pass the baton to Jan.
When we exited the plane (at a regular gate) we got our luggage and walked out and found the Viking guide who has us step aside with the other guests while he collected passengers.
The driver he paired us up with was man about my age who spoke a reasonably fair version of English who was very ebullient and gave us a tour of the city as we drove to the hotel. Prague is a very historic city that apparently avoided much of unintended renovations associated with WW-II. It has huge 3-5 story ancient buildings that are still used. We even talked about the Prague Spring, which he and I both still remember.
The Augustinian Hotel (click the link, really) was named after the Augustinian Monastery that still operates out of part of the hotel. The before and after parts of the tour let you select luxury or more pedestrian hotels. I think by the time I booked it only the luxury selection was available. On reconsideration, I think I’m glad I booked the Augustinian, like with airfare at this age of my life, if it’s worth going, it’s worth going first-class. We are here for three-days, leaving on Thursday morning for the 6–8 hour bus ride to Budapest. There will be a couple of hour-long breaks for lunch, etc. We have a 4-hour walking tour of Prague scheduled for this morning, we’ll see how we do on it and maybe schedule other events, dinners, etc. later.
In Amsterdam we also have three days after the cruise. Right now, we are scheduled for the Van Gogh Museum and a walking tour. I also want to stop by the Nieuw Kirk sometime.
We’re due down at the Front Desk for our walking tour.
Well, this morning went exactly as planned. We got up and dressed without issue and Jan & Mike picked us up at seven. We drove up to Eggington’s, and we got the handicapped sport out front and walked in and were seated immediately.
After a great breakfast we drove to the airport with time to spare. The baggage desk wasn’t even open. After checking bags and waiting for TSA to open, we breezed through with no problems.
The plane boarded on time, and we made it to Denver uneventfully. We walked off the plane and when we got to the main concourse there was a guy driving one of the golf carts sitting there waiting. I elected to ride while Kate walked. We met back up at gate A27 and are currently ii the United Club waiting for the boarding time of 4:00pm
I am a little bit worried that I’m burning through all that good karma before even leaving the US, but thus far the trip is going perfectly. The next update should be on the flight to Frankfurt (assuming Wi-Fi is as advertised).
Today is Saturday March 21, 2026, and I am just about packed to begin my Grand European Vacation. Kate and I fly out tomorrow with our first destination of Prague. After a couple of days in Prague, we get transported to Budapest for the start. The itinerary should be as follows: Day 1 Budapest Day 2 Budapest Day 3 Vienna Day 4 Vienna Day 5 Wachau Valley, Melk Austria Day 6 Passau Germany Day 7 Regensburg, Germany Day 8 Danube-Main Canal, Nuremburg Germany Day 9 Bamberg Germany Day 10 Wurzburg Germany Day 11 Wertheim Germany, Scenic Sailing on Main River Day 12 Scenic Sailing Middle Rhine, Koblenz Germany Day 13 Cologne Germany Day 14 Scenic Sailing Waal & Merwede, Kinderdijk, Netherlands Day 15 Amsterdam, Netherlands
We spend a couple of days in Amsterdam and then fly back to Casper on or about April 11th.
On of the things I am bringing with me is the mini-Starlink dish that I hope will give me wireless connection throughout the trip. Watch the space for updates.
So, while Kate was out checking on me last week, on Friday (the 23rd) the outside temperature had plummeted, and the inside temperature had dropped to below 60 degrees. Kate was complaining that her room was too cold and she wanted to get another electric space heater for her room. I conceded and we picked one up and I also agreed to have the Bosch furnace checked. Since it had been over three years since it was installed I figured it was time.
I called the furnace installer (Air Innovations in Casper) and since I wasn’t declaring a heating emergency, arranged for them to come out on Monday. (I did notice that this year the furnace seemed to be struggling more than previously.). On Monday I met Gabe, the technician and we descended into the bowels of the basement after checking that the thermostat was working correctly. In the basement we discovered that the furnace was not functioning at all; the blower would come on, after a minute or so the flame would come on and immediately go out. His initial diagnosis was that he electric flame detector needed cleaning, so he spent the next hour or so struggling to get it extracted and cleaned and reinstalled.
Unfortunately, that didn’t fix it, so he dug deeper into the guts of the furnace checking this and that circuitry and eventually found a display with an particular error code. That involved a call to Bosch tech support, and they had no record of the furnace ever being installed. That was a little confusing, since Air Innovations had records of the purchase and installation. We spent 15-20 minutes getting the furnace registered and then Gabe started in with tech support, so I left him down there deeply in tech support hell.
He resurfaced about lunch time and said he had to go get some parts and try to get my furnace registered as when it was installed to make sure it was covered under warrantee. About an hour or so later I got a call from the clerk at Air Innovations saying that they had gotten the furnace registered with Bosch at the time of installation, and that parts for repairs would be covered under warranty and Gabe should be back out in a little while.
Shortly thereafter Gabe showed back up with a new main board that would require some modifications to the system before installation, and with a new air filter (it was white instead of a dingy brown), He disappeared back down into the hole. When he emerged about an hour or so later, he declared victory. While he wrote up the ticket, documenting all the troubleshooting, he stuck a thermometer in one of the heating vents and confirmed that warm air was coming out.
Note to self: Have Gabe come back out late this fall to do a pre-season check.
So I was noodling around on You Tube and came across this performance of the French National Anthem “La Marseillaise” by Mireille Mathieu. (See link here)
Now I have a passing familiarity with the song, probably the pinnacle being the movie “Casablanca” From the Grok entry:
The actress most famously associated with singing “La Marseillaise” (the French national anthem) in the iconic 1942 film Casablanca is Madeleine Lebeau. She played the character Yvonne, Rick Blaine’s (Humphrey Bogart) jilted former lover.
The interesting part was, not being a French speaker, I really had no idea what the words actually meant. Whell as you will see in the link above, they provided an English version of the lyrics. In the notes to the You Tube entry they note “My translation to American English, weighing literal accuracy, lyrical style, and contemporary US context.”.
I don’t know what I expected, but holy shit, the Frenchmen from the French Revolution were some bloodthirsty folks.
Let’s go, children of the homeland. The day of glory has arrived. The bloody banner of tyranny Confronts us by being raised The bloody banner is raised Do you hear the road outside… Of those ferocious soldiers ? They are coming right to you To cut the throats of your children and partners To ARMS, Citizens! Form up in groups to fight March now, march now! Let their blood spill.. And soak into the dirt!
I think I will stand the next time I hear the song played, at least in public,
It has been a while since my last entry. What is prompting this restart is my upcoming trip to Europe. I (and Kate) have signed up for a Viking River Cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam.
Since this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip (in theory), I have bookended a couple of days prior to and after the actual river trip. We fly into Prague in the Czech Republic for a couple of days before boarding the ship in Budapest. If you note the colors of Budapest and Vienna above, we spend two days in those cities for the chance to better immerse ourselves in those cities. It will begin when we fly to Prague on Sunday March 22, 2026.
Just by coincidence, last November I got a message from Starlink offering me (for free) a new product, the Starlink Mini. I dithered for long time before pulling the trigger.
Starlink Mini
Starlink comes with a 110v plug and 15m of power cord. I also ordered from Amazon, a battery pack that serves as a stand to give you 4 hours of connectivity. My plan is to take this on the trip to insure connectivity. If they allow me to set it up onboard it will be great, otherwise I will take it ashore daily to establish connection.
Starlink Mini with 5-Ah battery.
I am expecting this trip to be amazing, particularly the ending in Amsterdam. This particular city has a great deal of meaning to me and Lindsay in particular.
Prior to Christmas in 1980 I was on patrol abord the USS Sam Rayburn (SSBN-635) somewhere in the far North Atlantic. We were notified that we would have a port call in the Netherlands over Christmas. We transited down the North Sea and eventually moored in Rotterdam.
At the same time the wives were notified and given the opportunity to meet us if they desired. Lindsay, of course, had her passport from her trip to Germany for the Reforger Exercise when we were in San Diego, and being DINK’s we were able to afford it. We were informed that Lindsay and the Engineer’s wife would be meeting us.
The previous summer Lindsay had finally gotten a confirmed diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) with a new diagnostic tool, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (they quickly dropped the Nuclear to avoid freaking people out since there was no ionizing radiation involved), at Yale, New Haven. The MRI clearly imaged the lesions previously noted in autopsies of MS sufferers. They had offered us “genetic counseling” stressing the uncertainty of Lindsay’s future and the possibility of some genetic links to MS that were being investigated. We had long ago decided to have children “eventually”, but this gave us pause.
We spent the next couple of weeks talking about it. What we finally decided was not to be deterred. Lindsay could be perfectly healthy, have children and then get hit by a bus crossing the street. As for the possible genetic compromise of the offspring, I suppose you could ask them whether they would rather not exist, or take the risk of possible MS.
But that Christmas, unknown to me, Lindsay’s biologic clock had begun to tick loudly. I was thirty years old; she had just turned twenty-nine. In Amsterdam we talked about it. One of the quirks of ballistic missile patrols at the time was that if you wanted the husband to be present for both the conception and delivery, there was a two-week window to conceive. Lindsay had calculated (of course she had) that her period would line up with the patrol cycles about next March or so with delivery the following December. So that Christmas in Amsterdam is where we finally decided that we were going to have a family.
On of the highlights of that trip was the chance to attend midnight Mass at the Nieuwe Kirk, the “New Church” in Dutch. The Nieuwe Kirk was a huge dramatic cathedral in downtown Amsterdam. It was built after the Oude Kerk (Old Church of course), built a century or so before, was outgrown. I found the cornerstone of the Nieuwe Kirk after mass; it was completed in 1409. It became Protestant in 1578 after the Reformation, and at the time was more of a cultural center, but Midnight Mass was celebrated there in 1980. It really gave me a sense of just how new the United States was compared to Europe.
One of the things that Kate, and others, have been pushing me do is to find something to do to occupy my mind. Idle hands, devil’s work, etc. One of the things I decided to do was to get back into 3D printing.
Things have really changed since about 2017. I had a smallish 3D printer that I obtained via a crowdfunding site. This time I reviewed a number of potential printers before deciding on FlashForge Adventurer 5M printer from Amazon.
My first prints were from the embedded projects in the firmware.
The classic ‘Floaty’ small tugboatFloaty on lower left, a recessed icosahedron and a cat-themed phone holder.F
Finally, I went a little nuts and started branching out.
Floaty for scale with a bigger multicolored Floaty and a box labelled Stuff.
The Adventurer has a provision to pause a print mid-stream that allows you to change filaments. The big Floaty started off with bronze (like the box next to it) below the waterline, transiting to blue for the decks, transiting to white for the bow and upper deckhouse, and finally to red for the stack. The latching box prints as is, including the working hinge. I added the embossed ‘Stuff’ to the front.
The print bed size is 220mm x 220mm x 220mm (8.66 inches cube). It connects via USB or wireless network so I have it set up so I can load and control it from my laptop in the living room. It has a mini camera on the bed that lets me keep an eye on printing remotely.
It’s Thursday April 17th and it’s snowing again (although lightly). Should just be a couple of days before clear weather returns.
The recent trip to Hawaii was wonderful. It was only for 4 days but it was simply amazing. We stayed at Disney’s Aulani Resort which is a great property. One of the key decisions I made was to rent a car, rather than rely on Uber, etc. Having a car let us stop at the nearby ABC Store to stock up on packaged fruit, salads, Gouda cheese and English Muffins. This let us avoid getting breakfast at the resort (a very pricey option).
Aulani is on the leeward side, near the old NAS Barber’s Point, where Sis was stationed in the mid-70’s. We took the car and decided to explore the site. (The NAS was closed in 1999 with the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process). You can tell it’s a former military installation because the streets are all named after battles/aircraft carriers.
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Sis at tower at former NAS Barber’s Point
We drove around the base, discovering all the old cinder block housing is gone, and eventually wound up at the control tower for Kalaeloa Airport. Sis talked to a gent who was parking at the time and he invited us in to look around.
The front desk inside was the same as was present in 1975 (with the addition of a plexiglass shield courtesy of COVID). Sis shared stories of the past with the guard, and she offered to call upstairs to see if we could visit. They sent an air traffic controller down (who was making a coincidentally convenient trip to her car) and she took up up (including a steep stairwell and circular metal staircase) up to the tower.
Tower of Kalaeloa Airport with ocean view in the background.
Other than the addition of a couple of computers and a remote radar display from Honolulu Airport, the equipment is almost unchanged. This is one of the highlights of the trip for Sis.
While driving around that day we also visited Ford Island in Pearl Harbor where a couple of the original hangers were set up as museums of the attack and subsequent war. They even had some of the original windows with bullet holes that were preserved to commemorate that day.
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The bridge across to Ford Island is new since the early 1970’s, you used to have to take a ferry. Note that you do need a Military ID to access Ford Island via the bridge, but I had my retired ID so there was no problem.
The next day we met up with Patty, a close friend Sis’s. She drove us around and we picked up some lomi lomi chicken and another store for sushi. We wound up parking behind St Augustine by the Sea (Patty had an in with the secretary, so she got a note with permission to park. We then walked a block down to Kalakaua Avenue on on to Waikiki Beach. We found a stone table in the shade of nearby trees and sat down for a delicious lunch of chicken, rice, sushi.
After lunch we stopped in at the ABC store in front of the church and got some emergency Macadamia Nuts. After we left, we decided to swing by Sam’s Club. We got some more Macadamia nuts, and I found two (made in Hawaii) Aloha shirts for about a third what they charged at Aulani.
The following day was our last in Hawaii, but our flight wasn’t until 8:00pm. We checked out about 9:30am and loaded out bags in the trunk. We then went back into the resort and sat by the adult pool and enjoyed some tropical drinks.
At 11:00am the food service opened, and we tried an order Ahi Poke Nachos. They consisted of (raw) Big Eye Tuna, Wonton Chips, Green Onions, Furikake, Kewpie Mayonnaise. Although not a fan of raw fish, these were quite tasty.
After lunch we stopped by Sam’s Club to fill up the rental car and to let Kate get her Macadamia nuts. For dinner we decided to try The Big Kahuna Pizza located right adjacent to the Honolulu Airport The pizzas were fantastic. (Of course, the classic Hawaiian pizza [ham & pineapple] was renamed the Haole pizza).
We finished up and turned in the rental car and sat outside the security gates because you are not allowed to check your bags more that 4 hours before the flight.
One drawback of the late flight is that, combined with the 5-hour time difference, is that we didn’t arrive in Denver until 6:30am the next day. I didn’t arrive back in Casper until almost 11:00. It was a long day.
