Where did I leave off? Ah yes! We stayed at the all night café until about 0430 and then migrated to a McDonalds to grab a bite and await the coming of the Starbucks opening time of 0700 (can you believe that!?). Greeting them with a hearty "Mornin',"since morning it was and we were the first, I grabbed my first peppermint mocha of the season and we walked towards Charles Bridge to cross over to the old city and visit the castle. The plan had been to watch the sunrise on the bridge as it lit up the buildings on the other side of the river, but gray skies meant that we just watched the gray get a little lighter. Oh well, next time. The statues dotting the bridge were amazing. They were so diverse and detailed that it took us probably 30 minutes to cross this bridge, and half of it was under renovation so half the statues were inaccessible. Getting over to the other side, we begin by walking around a park area bordering the river. Turns out there is an art museum there and a strange restaurant with a large row of bright yellow penguins. I have no idea what use they have. None.
Heading farther away from the river, we walked south of the castle and wandered an orchard there, which along with the fruit trees also resembled a large field that was tilted at a huge angle. It was quite the hike but afforded an amazing view. The castle was filling the view but it was still several streets away. I glanced at my map and realized that a little idea I had been toying with was going to bear fruit. Several embassies were in the immediate area on the way from the orchards to the castle proper including the US one. All I know about them is from movies or what not and I think I heard from a non-movie source that you can go visit and just say hi if you wanted. Thinking this was not too dumb an idea and finding it amusing to stand on US soil again, we wandered over. We walked up and saw our flag flying high. A couple guards outside I could tell were looking our way and we simply walked up to one and asked if we could just go inside. They said that all we could really do was visit this anteroom but not actually go in. Inside behind some glass was a young marine and we yakked with him for a bit, basically telling him we just wanted to say hi. It was fun.
At the castle we picked up some sort of deep fried mass of cheese placed between two soft warm buns. It was a most welcome treat especially for the trek up to the top of the hill that the castle sits upon. At the top, a beautiful view and at least two tour groups awaited us. Oh well. Getting to see the entire area from way up high is always a hoot. I enjoy getting the bird's eye view. Rae and I are frugal travelers and we will only occasionally pay to go into somewhere, which is why we did not go into the inner area of the castle. Perhaps next time. After walking down from the castle hill, we roamed the surrounding area some more, finding little nooks and crannies and random streets. In truth, we were trying to find our way over to the river just to walk along that park again and then cross the bridge. Nothing much more happened for some time besides walking along and taking in the city until we started to get hungry. We also started thinking about moving along back to the airport.
We both decided on an early dinner/late lunch and so commenced a search for the cheapest place with local food we wanted to try. We must have wandered for an hour at least just looking at every restaurant's menu we passed for prices or deals. Lo and behold! We stumble on one of those nooks I previously mentioned. A restaurant sequestered down an alley with a 'tourist' special that included starter, entrée, and dessert. But that wasn't the most interesting part. It was that its a jazz restaurant and jazz music was playing from speakers in the courtyard. Whoa. It may have been early but we were hungry and this place just seemed to unique to pass up. In we went and old instruments, posters of the great jazz musicians, and wonderful aromas greeted us. We were the only people there in the area they sat us and our meal was prompt and well timed (salad done, there's the main course). Overall a really good experience.
I cannot continue to ramble on, this is too late in coming to you already. Suffice it to say, once done with dinner, we moseyed the city one last time and then returned to our subway, bus and plane combo. No large hassles greeted us that need be told here. Perhaps I'll get a chance to rant about a slight experience we had on the return train to Giessen one day. Regardless, my apologies for dragging out my first foreign foreign country experience.
Rae and I at the top of the castle hill.
Those penguins. I don't know what purpose they serve at all.
Just makes you think, doesn't it?
1 comment:
Dang! That last picture is kind of scary!
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