Germany (with a hint of France)

[Kyle]Leaving Prague, we started a twelve-hour, three leg train trip to the other side of Germany. Here, at Breisach on the Rhine River on the border with France, lives my High School friend Geoffrey, with his wife Sarah and their 4 year old son Andrea.

We were especially lucky because just a six-minute walk from their house, they have an unoccupied studio apartment, which they were kind enough to offer us for the duration of our stay.

The morning after our arrival, we emerged to find that Breisach is a surprisingly lovely little town. A spired cathedral sits atop a steep hill, along with houses that are part of the walled-in old city. Below the cliffs, like extra decorations that wouldn't fit on the cake above, Tudor and chalet-style houses and shops spread out into the space between the walls and the Rhine. To get to Geoff and Sarah's house from their apartment, the walk takes us through the only remaining stone gate and then across cobbled streets edged by welcome mats in German.

Geoff tells us that one of the good things about Briesach is that the whole town has speed limits of thirty km/h or less. I assume he means for Andrea's safety, because he can run around and play without speeding traffic to worry about. The thing is, I'm pretty sure little Andrea spends most of his time going faster than that (the kid's a blur), so they are just asking for a pocketful of speeding tickets.

We spent the first weekend with the family dividing our time between the house and walks through the town, plus a drive up into wine country for the views.

Beautiful Breisach in Germany is now home to Kyle's school friend Geoffrey, and his family

Murals adorn many of the area's homes

And the area is surrounded with the local wine industry

During the work week, Geoff and Sarah lent us their two electric bicycles. We really like electric bicycles. The terrain in this part of Germany is mostly flat, with a few hills thrown in for variety. The electric boost really helps to flatten out the hills, which made it easy to put in double the miles we would have even attempted on a manual bike. We had a lovely time, arriving back at the house weary and saddle-sore, but with big smiles at our day out in wine country.

The bicycles gave us the chance to explore some of the equally charming nearby towns and scenery, and it was easy to cross one of the many bridges over the Rhine to France

We had a rainy, cozy day at the house, and then we loaded up their car for a trip to the nearby "big" city of Freiburg. Sarah studied there in college and knows the place inside and out. It is also beautiful, but is a bit hectic compared to Briesach, making it necessary to constantly keep an eye on Andrea any time he gets to close to traffic or wanders too far into the crowd ahead. Briesach feels very much like a small island where anybody who finds him will happily take him by the hand and deliver him home.

Freiburg was the nearest German city, and we were expertly guided by Sarah who had studied there many years ago

One very nice touch to Freiburg (and many of the nearby towns) is the series of man made brooks (Bächle), mini-canals that run through the streets, once as water supply and fire protection. They remain now to keep the wine cool in the summer, and also provide drinking water for thirsty dogs, and allow children to tow little boats along them by strings.

A few days later, Geoffrey took us into Staufen, which is an impossibly pretty little village full of adorable shops and crisscrossed with the same type of miniature cooling canals as Freiburg.

Staufen was equally charming

On our last day in Breisach, which was also Easter Sunday, Geoff and Sarah booked us on a brunch cruise of the Rhine. It was just brilliant! It feels like a strange thing to say, but it was so nice to be out on the water, even if it was in a giant boat that had had no sense of the wavy motion of smaller boats. We went up and down the Rhine, including a transit each way of a big lock with a ten-meter lift. After last seeing Geoffrey and Sarah in French Polynesia in 2018, they subsequently went on to buy a canal boat, which they took through the canals near their base in Dublin, Ireland. One great statistic that Geoffrey told me was that, as an infant, Andrea had been through forty-three locks before he had ever ridden in an elevator. As we went along the Rhine, we reminisced about our respective time on various canal systems while enjoying a delicious meal.

And we were treated to a beautiful river boat lunch cruise on the Rhine, and managed a lock or two without having to touch any lines!

Briesach has been really great and Geoff, Sarah and Andrea have really made a nice life for themselves here. One of the first tidbits of information we were given about the town was that Breisach has five ice cream shops. (Maryanne found a secret sixth shop.) With my goal of collecting samples from all five (six), I had some structure to my visit, with which Andrea was all too happy to help.

Breisach is a regular stop on the river cruise ship route. They get a lot of Americans, but English is not particularly widely spoken. This is when it's great to have Geoff around. It's such a pleasure to watch him conversing at the Saturday Market with all of his German friends in their native tongue. He's always happy to step in and translate when I get stuck. He also speaks Swedish, Hindi and most of the other Scandinavian languages as well. At one point, he explained to me that since Breisach is a border town, French is also widely spoken. Geoff says he doesn't speak French, but he knows so much about languages generally that he is much better at it than I am, even though I think of French as the local language I have a chance at understanding. At one point, on a solo visit to ice cream shop number five, after not getting any of the proprietor's German, I remembered the thing about how I could use French. I accidentally said, "I'm sorry, I cannot speak English" in my best French, to which the guy responded, "Oh, you're American!", in English.

After explaining that I wasn't one of the passengers from the cruise ship, but that I was visiting a local friend, he looked a bit perplexed. When I explained about Geoffrey, a slight glimmer came over his face. When I mentioned Andrea, he knew exactly who I was talking about. Geoff told me a story about how on one of their first visits to Breisach, Andrea dropped his ice cream cone. Before anybody could even realize what had happened, the proprietor appeared with an exact replacement. That's the kind of place it is.

Prague

[Kyle]On day 90 of my 90-days permitted in the UK, Maryanne and I boarded a flight to Prague in the Czech Republic. Prague is not very accessible from the sea, but a visit to see it has been on our wish list for a long time. I justified the visit on the basis that it was still pretty much our wedding anniversary.

Now, I mean no disrespect to York, which is a lovely old city, but it has got nothing on Prague. Those who have been know exactly what I am talking about. Prague is incredible on so many levels. Maryanne and I have been lucky enough to see so many of the world's most beautiful cities, but Prague tops them all (so far).

Everything there is beautiful beyond the ability to take it all in. Rooftops and ledges and doorways are all filled with so much carefully-crafted detail that you could spend hours looking at each section and admiring its exquisite beauty, except that there is a whole city of it surrounding you in three dimensions.

Take the lampposts as one small example. Prague has by far the biggest, most elaborate, intricately ornate lampposts I've ever seen.

Some of the many ornate and grand lampposts that Kyle found in Prague

Now imagine that every part of the city is as over the top as the lampposts. It doesn't stop there. As you walk the cobbled streets, the air smells of barbecue, baking cinnamon and flowers. It's too much!

Considering every minute spent in our giant hotel room as wasted, we walked for miles and miles and miles along steep streets, mouths agape at all that we saw. We walked until we were limping and sore and then we would spot something in the distance and somehow muster the strength to limp over to see it. The cafes along the way helped, but it was still a grind by the end of each amazing day.

If there was anything I would say detracts from the appeal of Prague, it would be the quality of table service at restaurants. Prague's servers do not, as a general rule, seem to be pulled from a sub-population of naturally friendly people. We did have a few nice servers but, generally speaking, restaurant service ranged between indifferent to bordering on hostile. When Maryanne was served clearly undercooked chicken one day, sure they took it away and heated it up a bit more, but then just returned it to the table without any nod to their mistake..

Based on reports I have seen first hand from servers around the world, Maryanne universally makes excellent menu selections. Thus, it was quite shocking to be present at yet another of her inspired choices and see the server let out an exasperated sigh, accompanied by a teenage eye roll in response.

I'm going to be charitable and assume that I must be misunderstanding some cultural difference, like service people spontaneously smiling at strangers is just something that is not done, like an actor breaking character, and not that they are actually jerks.

Even so, don't get me wrong. One night in Prague is worth putting up with a hundred pissy waiters.

That said, we ate and walked hand-in-hand and sat on park benches amidst the most incredible backdrops. It was thoroughly lovely and far too much to describe. Perhaps some pictures would do the job...

[Maryanne]I feel Kyle has barely touched on the many sights we absorbed in this beautiful, walkable city. We both loved it, and the weather held out for us (given the time of year things could have been quite different). We were extra fortunate in that our accomodation spit us out into the giant square in the center of old town, and this was all filled with stands and decorations for the traditional Easter Market.

At the Old Town square we cound enjoy the Easter Market and the local treats, including the Trdelník (Chimney Cakes)

We visited the Municipal House (an ornate art-nouveau-ish civic building with concert hall) many times, for its cafe and American Bar, and a tour of its very grand rooms

We crossed the Vltava River via the various bridges (the Charles Bridge being the most famous) and by boat tour

We visited the various old towers and gates, many of which you could climb for the views, and offered some small museum on some of the floors as an excuse to pace ourselves on the climb up. We especially loved St Henry's Tower which housed the lovely Restaurant Zvonice where we grabbed lunch one day with a table by a giant bell

We took in some culture with a classical music concert, in the beautiful Mirror Chappel of the Clementinum

But the best part of the Clementinum was the old Baroque library and the connection to early and renowned astronomers (like Tycho Brahe) who made key observations in the very tower where we were able to climb for the history and the views

There were so many churches, the castle (with the most painfully boring audio guide I've ever experienced), the gardens, that kept us occupied, but even less obvious things, like the post office, and the shopping malls contained so much beauty. We were forced (due to time) to skip the Jewish district, and due to lack of physical cash we also had to miss the recently excavated and complete Alchemist Labratory. But, there was plenty to keep us busy during our 4 days in Prague.

The main post office

There is art and quirky fun everywhere

The Astronomical Clock at the Old Town Hall is a #1 tourist spot

Churches and Cathedrals with ornate (and sometimes gawdy) decoration

We visited a host of different gardens, and can only imagine how beautiful they would be in full bloom.

I have so much more I could write, and with details, details, details of places and artists, etc... But what I think Kyle is trying to say is that it is well worth going - so hopefully our friends and family all get to see for themselves someday; we might even return ourselves one day.