We left Prague (photo view from our hotel room this am) today on the 10:28 train to Berlin that actually left at 10:58. Prague station seems totally disorganized. About 75% of the trains were reflected as arriving or leaving late.  Ours wasn’t but left 30 minutes late anyway. At one stage the platform number of one train went up 1 minute before its due departure time and everyone had to run to get to the train. It was total chaos. When we got to our train, the doors to the carriage we were booked on were locked so we had to board through the neighboring carriage and walk through. By the time everyone was on, there were not enough seats and people had bookings for the same seats – they just sat down in the aisle and waited. No conductor in sight and it didn’t seem like anyone cared to sort out the issue.

The train was pretty slow going as well. It was meant to take 4.5 hours but it took longer (because we sat in the middle of nowhere for about 15 minutes as well). Before the Czech border no-one even checked our tickets, it was only after the Deutsche Bahn people came on the train that they bothered to check the tickets and two people behind us were in the entirely wrong carriage (which might have explained something of why there were no seats for people with bookings). The WiFi on board worked well until we crossed into Germany and thereafter it didn’t work again. And I think the Germans must have thought the train was actually a sauna because it was very hot inside. Not the most pleasant of train journeys I have had in my life but we got to Berlin eventually.

What I also cannot understand about Germany is how poor the cellphone signal is in most parts of the country. We traveled for about 2 hours on the train either without cellphone reception at all or the signal was Edge (basically so slow you can’t use your phone except to send a text message and even that will probably take 5 minutes to go through). Smoke signals would be faster. This is not the first time I have moaned about German cellphone coverage and speeds though  – if you have ever read any of my other blogs while I have been in Germany you would have heard me moan about this numerous times. South Africa (supposedly a much more backwards country than Germany) has much better coverage and speed than Germany. To prove my point I am battling to upload photos to the blog now as the speed in the hotel is only 2Mbps.  I thought maybe my cellphone would be better as it was showing 3G but alas that in came at 0.2Mbps (don’t think the speed test registered that low!).

The other thing that I notice every time I am in Germany is that all the announcements on the train are only done in German. In Czech Republic, notices done in Czech and English. The moment we crossed into Germany all the announcements done in German only until we arrived at Berlin Hauptbahnhof. The train was full of English-speaking people (I reckon 75% of the train were tourists who were English-speaking) but no announcements in English. At least I can understand the German and follow enough to be able to understand the announcements.

We are staying at Cosmo Hotel Berlin Mitte (http://www.cosmo-hotel.de/) – photo from our room window again. The area (not the hotel) was recommended by my nephew who is currently staying in Berlin. We had agreed to meet him for dinner tonight. We took a taxi to meet him and the taxi driver dropped us off and pointed down towards the river. It looked fairly dodgy and on the way down someone remarked ‘Where has Daniel taken us to’. We arrived and discovered it was a private party (with the same name as the restaurant) but it wasn’t the restaurant! And at precisely that moment the heavens opened and it pelted down with rain. We had to call another taxi and by the time we got into it we were all drenched (and I mean drenched). We had to go back to the hotel to change and then back to the actual restaurant.

We eventually arrived about 45 minutes late at Spindler Restaurant (https://www.spindler-berlin.de/) and so by the time we finished eating it was 9:30pm. The restaurant is rated Top 10 trendy places to eat in Berlin (well done Daniel on selecting it). After dinner, we went to seek out ice creams for desert and then walked back to the hotel (and got back about 10:40pm). Our clothes are still seriously wet (they’re going to need a day to dry it seems).

For some reason even though we spent most of the day on the train, we are all pretty tired.

So until tomorrow

P, H, M, S, C, O (she lost her ranking today based on not understanding why Michael wanted to sit next to me on the train so we could watch cricket on my iPad)

Breakfast was included in our room rate at the hotel and it was a pretty good spread including fruit (a lot of varieties), eggs (scrambled, boiled and fried) and usual extensive selection (for Europe) of breads, rolls, meat & cheese.

We headed for the Museum of Communism after breakfast. Ironically it is situated in one of the Palaces which it shares with a swish casino and downstairs is MacDonald’s. It is a street with shops both ways and those included all the major chain stores like H&M and even a Hamley’s.  Communism long ago it seems. It wasn’t the best museum I have ever been to and given how much they charged (190 Koruna per person which is about R115 or just under $10). But we did get a bit of history of Czechoslovakia especially post-WWII which was helpful in understanding the country a little more. The most interesting part was a video that was playing perpetually of the civil unrest in the 80s that eventually lead to the fall of the communist government. It only took 10 days of protests (17-27 November 1989) for the communist government to resign and Vaclav Havel (a political writer, dissident & philosopher from 70s) to take over as President and he also presided over the separation into Czech Republic and Slovakia and then became the first Prime Minister of Czech Republic as well.

The other thing that struck me about the museum and movie was the brutality of the police against their own people. But then again who am I as a South African to be surprised by that given our country’s history. The video did make me wonder how a handful of policemen can dominate thousands of people. If the people just turned on the police they could have easily dominated them given their numbers. But fortunately the protests were very short-lived and democracy restored. It is also clear that capitalism became firmly entrenched very quickly thereafter despite all the communist propaganda (some of the cartoons against America in the museum were pretty good). It seems the Czech people never really believed the propaganda and their love for America was restored quickly (as evidenced by the number of Americans in Prague and the American brands).

We had hoped to go the National Library (because it has a beautiful interior) but it is closed for renovation (like a lot of things across Europe). We decided to walk over the Charles Bridge again (and it seems every other tourist in Prague had the same idea). We wanted to go the place on the other side that were making Trdlo (they are places all over Prague making them but we liked the look of this place from last night). Trdlo is like a rolled donut and you can put things inside it (like ice cream, strawberries & cream or savory ones with sausage and fries). We had our’s with ice cream inside.

We then walked along the river (but on the other side of where our hotel is) which takes you past some of the palaces which are open to the public.  One of them is the Senate building.  We didn’t go into the senate (though I believe you can) but we did wander around the beautiful gardens outside. Both yesterday and today are actually public holidays in Prague.  Yesterday was ‘The Day of Slavic Missionaries Cyril and Methodius‘ (they brought Christianity to the area in 863) and today is ‘Anniversary of the execution of John Huss’ who was a Reformer that was burnt at the stake on 6 July 1415. Huss was significantly influenced by reading John Wycliffe and spoke out against the corruption of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther was influenced by Huss as he read Huss’ sermons as was astonished that he had been burnt at the stake for heresy when all Luther could see was his clear defense and exposition of the Bible. He was burnt at the stake 102 years earlier than Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door so in fact he was pre-reformer.

I hope you’re reading these blogs and being suitably impressed by my history knowledge I’m building up.  While Prague isn’t my favourite city it hasn’t stopped me from learning about Czech history & politics. What was also impressive today was that O also learnt an important thing (or at least displayed her learning). While M & I were discussing the start of today’s cricket, she asked ‘Is it an important game’ and just from a look from me she immediately corrected herself and said ‘oh that’s right, every cricket game is important’ … finally something worth promoting her for on the blog. We had also finished walking around for the morning so that gave me some time to watch the cricket and relax in the hotel room. The photo shows the nature of a symbiotic relationship – H leaning her kindle against my iPad while I watch cricket!

Late afternoon we headed for the other side of the river and up the hill to the metronome in Letna Park. It replaced the statue of Stalin that was built there in 1955 only to be taken down (actually blasted with dynamite) in 1962 when the process of de-Stalinization was taking place across Europe. It stood empty for many years and then eventually in the 90s the metronome was erected in its place. The views of Prague were pretty good from the top though it did require climbing about 200 steps to get there.

As we had pretty much skipped lunch, we decided to have an early dinner and picked out a place right on the side of the river (mainly because we could feel a cool breeze off the water … it was 29 degrees here today). Nothing special in terms of food – more like pub food (burgers x 2, ribs x 2, prawn pasta x2). Stephen and I did try out another local beer (pilsner this time) which was good.  We have had 4 different beers in 4 days between Austria and Prague and all of them have been good. Another walk across the Charles Bridge as we headed back to our hotel (this time was the emptiest it has been but it was still pretty busy) and no doubt an early night for most of us.

Until tomorrow

P, H, O, M, C & S

We left at 7:30am from the flat for Heathrow to get our BA flight to Vienna. We had some breakfast in the BA lounge and by the time we were finished it was almost ready to board the plane. I used air miles for the flights and could only get 3 business class and 3 economy class seats and so O, M & S were in economy where you get no food on the flight at all so they went to buy some lunch and drinks for the flight before we boarded.  We left a few minutes late but landed early into Vienna (at around 1pm). The guy at passport control was the grumpiest guy ever … matched US passport control guys (or at least my experience of them). He insisted we each come one at a time even though everywhere else in the world you go together as a family. Not the best start to an arrival in Austria but it wasn’t going to affect our view that much.

We took a Uber to the hotel from the airport (needed a van for the 6 of us).  We are staying at Motel One Wien Staatsoper (https://www.motel-one.com/en/hotels/vienna/wien-staatsoper/). It is perfectly situated for us and even though the rooms are slightly small and there is no in-room safe or coffee maker, the hotel’s position makes up for that and the quality is quite good.  It was recommended by the branch manager of the Vienna office of the company I work for and it was a good recommendation.

We went on a walking tour before dinner. As you can guess from the hotel name, we are very close to the State Opera House in Vienna. From there we walked to St. Stephen’s Cathedral (St Stephen definitely isn’t with us on this trip though). As usual the Cathedral is shrouded in scaffolding as they clean & renovate (as you’ll find for many European Cathedrals). From there we went to Mozart Haus which is now a museum to Mozart. It was where he lived while in Vienna and where he wrote the music for Marriage of Figaro (opera). It was until recently known as Figaro House (for that reason).

I learnt more than I had ever known about Mozart (my knowledge was limited to the movie Amadeus which I realised I had forgotten anyway). I didn’t for instance know that Mozart was a Freemason, nor that he was a big gambler (he lost over half his earnings on gambling and he earned a lot), nor that he was that well paid for a young man (who died young too). He earned more than professionals living in Vienna and was closer in earnings to some of the royalty of his day. I also learnt that Figaro was a political statement against the elite of the day (like most musicians over time he used his music to protest). For the times, the apartment he lived in was quite spacious and again showed his wealth (the rental was about 50% of what the average middle class person would earn in year).

By the time we finished at Mozart Haus I was starving and following the restaurant recommendations of my colleague (branch manager in Vienna again), we walked to Lugeck Figlmuller which is an Austrian restaurant specialising in Wiener Schnitzel.  You probably need to make a reservation to get in but we were fortunate that we got a table so long as we finished before 8pm (it was 6:30pm so we thought that perfectly possible). We went totally local including local drinks – Lugeck beer for men and Pear (C), Apricot (H) and Rhubarb & Raspberry (O) juice for ladies. We all went for Wiener Schnitzel and none of us regretted that decision.  It really was very nice Schnitzel and the service was excellent as well.

We were so full we went for an after dinner walk on the way back to the hotel. Vienna is a very beautiful city. The buildings and parks and particularly striking. We walked past a lot of museums, the national library, Burggarten, Hofberg etc etc. It is an easy city to walk around despite the throngs (and I really do mean throngs) of people milling around (especially near the Cathedral).

It was a really good afternoon and enjoyed by everyone (Chloe even declared she was feeling really happy).

Until tomorrow P, C (because she’s so happy), H, O, M & S (S should actually be on his own line after today after amount of irritating he did – he was taking the view he was already at the bottom so why not make the most of it)

I can’t believe it has been a week already in Portugal. We arrived last Saturday and the week had simply flown by. Feeling like we should have had 2 weeks instead of only 1 week. Nothing to be done about that now though.

Saturday was our last full day in Portugal. Every Saturday there is a market at a nearby town called Loule. Helen had planned to run in the morning before we left for the market but the wind was blowing so hard during the night that neither of us had slept well. We had a constant high-pitched whistle which Helen figured out in the morning was coming from the door to the balcony (if only we had figured that out in the middle of the night). I eventually got up at about 2:30am and went downstairs and did some work on my computer until about 4am. Finally fell asleep after that but was awake at 6:30am because the wind blew over a chair or two and the outside umbrella (it really was blowing very strongly).

The market was very busy – much busier than we went the last time. It really is the place to go at the start of the trip not at the end. They have really nice looking fruit & vegetables; fish and meat. Hardly useful on the last day of the trip though. We had come for the specific purpose of restocking on smoked paprika. We have never found it anywhere else except at the market and Helen had used the last of her stock about 2 months ago. We found the same seller as previously and made sure we got enough to last us through to the next time we go (well at least we hope we did). It is a very pretty town and we walked around a bit before heading back to Vilamoura and the house for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Our last supper was a braai of veal cutlets; lamb kebabs & pork sausage.

This morning we packed up and headed back to Faro airport to drop off the cars, check in the luggage and head for our flight back to London. The weekend has got to be the worst time to travel out of Faro because the rest of England also seem to be traveling home then too. The airport was packed full of people. It took us an hour and 15 minutes from when we left home to be heading through security. A quick trip to the BA lounge for our last Pastis de Nata and then it was time to board. In fact we were sitting comfortably with an hour to go to the flight when the lounge staff came around and said the BA flight was boarding already. We still needed to get through passport control and by the time we got to the gate, the flight was on final call (about 45 minutes before departure time).

Everyone was on board about 20 minutes before departure time but that made no difference because the pilot announced there were severe restrictions on air traffic control over Europe due to the number of flights and so we couldn’t leave until 12:35pm (we were ready to leave at 11:35am) so we had rushed to the plane only to have to wait for an hour to take off. We finally landed in London at 3:10pm at Gatwick airport. It is a terrible airport – a close match for Faro. Unfortunately we came in directly behind a US flight and so the passport control line was quite long and it took us about 30 minutes to get through. Oli has a UK passport and so she was through in a few minutes and went to get the luggage. By the time we found her she had thought we had abandoned her with the 8 pieces of luggage. She definitely gets a blog promotion for getting all the luggage off before we got through passport control. Pretty impressive that she actually knew what all the luggage looked like and even more impressive that she managed to get the golf clubs off the belt.

We took the Gatwick Express into Victoria station. Of course the line that operates it (Southern trains) is on industrial action (there is always some transport company on strike in the UK at any point in time). Fortunately only one in every 3 trains was being cancelled and so we were able to get onto the 16:20 train (this after Oli and Chloe headed down the escalator without realising that we left a lot of luggage with only a few of us at the top. I was worried they would get on the train and it would take off without the rest of us.  Once we got onto the platform they had vanished (they came looking for us and had gone back up again). Fortunately they came back down again (thank goodness for whatsapp).

Our flat in London is about a 10-minute walk from Victoria Station but doing that with 9 pieces of luggage, backpacks, handbags etc is not as easy as it seems. It was also 24 degrees (heat wave in London) and so by the time we arrived we were all dripping with sweat. My sister and brother-in-law and family had been staying in London in the flat and the plan was to meet them and have dinner together before they headed to the airport (they fly home to the US tomorrow). We had booked at Jamie’s Italian (of Jamie Oliver) for dinner. The youth pastor of our Church in Cape Town was also in London and he came and had dinner with us as well (once we tracked him down). It was a great evening of catching up with family.

Now we’re off to bed because we also have an early morning flight actually.

Until tomorrow ….

P, O (she fully deserves the promotion all on her own today), M (because he dragged both sets of the golf clubs from the station to the flat), H, C & S (he deserves to be at the end for numerous reasons but his constant annoying of Oli would be reason enough)

You should be used to the pattern by now – every second day, a round of golf. Michael and I had booked our last round in Portugal for 7:30am. It was a bit colder than previous mornings as evidenced by the fact that all the staff at the golf course were wearing jerseys. It was a bit cool but neither Michael nor I would have even considered wearing a jersey. It was an average round of golf for both of us.  We both were hitting the ball a long way off the tee and Michael and I pretty much match each other in distance now (photographic proof that I am still longer than him off the tee though).

The ladies went off to the beach at Albufeira called Praia dos Arrifes. The beaches along the coast are generally very pretty but the water is often too cold to swim in (people think the Algarve is on the Mediterranean but it is in fact on the Atlantic ocean).  So sun tanning is the thing to do on the beaches and none of the men are inclined to do that. The ladies seemed to enjoy themselves and they got back at around lunch time. The afternoon was spent just relaxing in and around the house again with a braai for dinner (lamb chops & chicken wings). Helen and I went for a short walk around the neighborhood after dinner.

One week almost down … it went past very quickly.

Until tomorrow …

P, H, C (because I promised to move her up and she is my favourite daughter), M, O & S (because he beat me at table tennis yesterday)

Spending the day doing very little is the definition of holiday. That is pretty much what we did yesterday. The whole morning was spent around the house (either inside or next to or inside the pool). Michael cooked us some burgers for lunch which was probably the most active thing done the whole morning (except that Oli and Helen went for a run in the morning).

In the afternoon I needed to buy printer ink (yes I do have a printer at the house) and Michael, Oli and Stephen came with me and then we tried to drive along the coast heading west. I say tried because you cannot actually drive along the seafront because they don’t build roads that run along the coast. Instead they build hotels and resorts. You cannot even access the beach unless you go through one of these hotels or resorts. We spent about 20 minutes trying to at least see a beach and we eventually managed to find one. Some grocery shopping on the way back to the house to buy food for the next day or so and then back home. I know I have said this before, but I really can’t believe how cheap chicken is in Portugal. We bought 9 chicken wings for €2 from the butcher. That really is very cheap. I reckon you can buy chicken than pretty much anything else including fruit and vegetables.

Last night we decided to have dinner at the Marina and we had chosen out Prime Steakhouse from the previous evening when we walked around and had ice creams. It was a very chilled meal and even though the steaks (we all had steaks) weren’t the best I have ever had, the company was good and that always makes a meal.

P, H, S (because he moaned a lot about not being high enough in the order), O (because Michael was Christ-like and offered to swap his position for O’s earned position … substitutionary atonement in action), C, M

On Monday after our shocking round of golf Michael and I immediately booked the next round at our favourite course in Vilamoura – The Millennium course (http://www.dompedrogolf.com/our-courses/millennium-golf-course.html). While it still has a reasonable number of trees it doesn’t have nearly as many as Pinhal and both Michael and I really like the course. We had the first tee off time of the day at 7:30am. It was 16 degrees when we drove to the course and the word ‘cold’ was actually used for the first time on the trip. Turned out to be perfect golf weather (very little wind) and because we were the first group off, we finished by 10:30am. I didn’t start well but fortunately by the end of the round I had gotten my ‘golf mojo’ back while Michael started well, lost it in the middle and got it back again for last few holes. End result was that we scored exactly the same score and it was considerably better than Monday. We did also see an automatic lawnmower (no operator needed) cutting the lawn of one of the homeowners next to the course. First time I have ever seen (that is what the picture is of).

The other bunch were planning to go to the beach but because the weather was ‘so cold’ (23 degrees by the time we got back at 10:30), they had decided not to go and so we spent the morning in the house (too cold to sit outside in the sun even apparently). Some people watched The Iron Lady (the movie about Margaret Thatcher starring Meryl Streep) – quite a good movie giving you a good sense of who she was and how unfortunately dementia finally took over.

The ladies went back to the Algarve Shopping Centre after lunch to do some more shopping though it seems that Helen was the most successful shopper this time. The men stayed behind and played some table tennis and I also had a chat to our gardening service about what needs to be done in the garden before winter comes.

After dinner we decided to go down to the marina for a stroll and a gelato.  The marina is the place to be in the evenings.  Every English person who is staying anywhere near the marina is at the marina at that time of the night. The ladies are all dressed up but the men don’t dress up at all – they’re just in shorts and T-shirts. It is the funniest thing to see but every time we are here it strikes me. The other thing that strikes me are the yachts you find in the marina.  The bigger ones are very impressive.  Michael found a place selling them and the prices for the larger ones are around £1m each. Add to that the mooring fees, the need for skipper etc and you have to be seriously wealthy to own one of them. Stephen says that one day he is going to own one of them … he better start working soon then because he’s almost past his prime.  Steve Jobs founded Apple at 21; Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook at 19.  It’s only a few days now until Stephen’s 21st birthday so I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s going to invent in the next 2 weeks.

P, M (because he plays golf), H, C, S & O (the insults just keep rolling in from her …)

Even though I have been to Portugal numerous times now, I still don’t understand the place. You drive around and there is a really nice home or building but right next door is total dereliction with graffiti sprayed all over it. It seems a real mixture between first world and third world even though they would only consider themselves to be first world only.

Yesterday we needed to drop off our expired residency cards at our lawyers office in the Algarve (so they can issue us the latest updated ones). Their office was in Almancil (about 15 minutes from our house) and as we hadn’t been there before so we all decided to go and then go from there to Faro (again because we hadn’t really been there).

Faro is rated as the number 1 attraction in Algarve region. Not only does it have the biggest shopping centre (Forum Algarve) but it also has an Old Town and New Town area, the airport (where we landed), a marina and also a wetlands. We first went to the shopping centre and did a little (fortunately it was a little only) shopping. Stephen entertained himself by making crosses with the pool noodle (probably the effect of being an intern for 6 months at Church).  We then drove into Faro itself. It did feel a little like SA when we arrived because we had two people ‘helping’ us find a parking (in a free parking lot with plenty of free spaces). When we didn’t pay them on exiting our cars we had a slew of words shouted at us. No idea what she said because we don’t understand Portuguese – probably fortunate we didn’t because I suspect it wasn’t wholesome.

The Old Town area is what you would expect of Portugal. White washed buildings generally in good shape and cobbled streets. We walked around a bit and then found our way down to the sea and wetland area and walked along the coast until we found a restaurant on the waterside to have some lunch. On the way back to the car after lunch we passed an exercise park (which everyone amused themselves on for some time). The wind was blowing quite strongly especially near the sea

We were back to the house early afternoon which allowed time for everyone to have a nap or just relax around the pool. A dinner done entirely on the braai (lamb kebabs; chicken wings; zucchini, sweet potatoes & asparagus) by Stephen & I was how we finished the day.

Until tomorrow

P, H, M, S, C & O (she deserves the last place and she knows why …)