Started our free day at the Kuntz Museum. Large collection. My favs were (predictably) Dali, Picasso, and Butler.

Even though the Rhine river is a huge means of industrial transportation, it doesn’t scare the locals away from swimming in its fast current. The water was Alps Mountain Cool and full of its share of broken glass and metal. It was amazing.

Sorry to be out of order. Going back to Prague posts… This was an unexpected day of climbing and, well, crying. We climbed lots and lots and lots of stairs up to the Prague Castle and cathedral, where we were met with even more tourists than there were stairs to get there. Watched the guard change, snuck into the cathedral without paying, went through some castle building, meditated in a courtyard bla bla bla.

Lunch consisted of great brews, homemade at the monastic brewery. Europeans pour their beers with extra foamy head. Cheat in me of my beer, that’s what I think!

After sustenance our climb up an even steeper hill began. This time through forest. Alex fell. I laughed. The destination was a 1:5 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower which then we also had to climb. Great views of Prague though. After, we swang and played on a cool kids playground. Still in the mood for climbing I guess.

On our first day of “class” we we bussed around to see more off the map buildings. Unfortunately we didn’t get to go in any of them… Not my cup of tea exactly. In the evening we split dinners since one can’t even buy a kebab for less than 11 bucks in Switzerland. There was a youth music festival happening outside the square by our hotel. We spent a while observing white Swiss rap and dance?

We couldn’t afford to buy our matching German outfits but we could afford to sneak around a German department store and pretend to be traditional folk for a few minutes.

Because we only stayed in Munich for one night AND it was a Sunday evening, there really wasn’t much to do besides window shop for Alex a watch and eat eat eat. We met up with my second favorite Alex, Mr. Diamond at the Haufbrahaus. The first time I went there a few years ago drank one litter of beer. This year I outdid myself and almost made it to two. That was our night in a nutshell.

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We went to Bad Staffelstein, north of Munich, to see what a Bad(German for bath) is all about. As we expected it was a quaint town teaming with elderly retreaters looking for a calming wellness experience.

It’s a spa merged with a beach resort. It was incredible. Exercise pools, lounging tubs, and of course a waterfall hiding a granite grotto. All of this was overflowing with a soft spring salt water which was a great way to soften our toenails before cutting them and our corns off.

The best were the saunas which we sat in three different types, the hottest being 87 degrees celsius. Luckily that is only 188.6 F. Kels and I figured we needed to relate a bit to the heat at home.

Lastly Kelsey was like a kid in a candy store dancing and groovin’ along to the beats with the water aerobics class every hour.

Check out Kels’ new accessory too!

Rented a boat, took out some beers. A good time in Prague.

After walking 3 miles through Czech apartments, we arrived at the contemporary art museum, DOX. The exhibit was small, but really interesting and dense. Rain was not in our plans for the day, since we hadn’t brought an umbrella… We ducked into a warm pub/pizza place decked out in old car parts, nik naks, and quickly hand made furniture. The perfect retreat from tourists and the rain.

A fine example of a toilet not up to full flushing capacity in our hostel.
Really nice place…. Except for stolen cereal, and finger scooped peanut butter by gypsies…

Alex’s sweet new specs.

I personally could not get over the swarm of tourists that filled the streets and stared intently into the same ole crystal, marionette, or fur hat shops. If I was able to look past that I’d see the beautiful and perfectly preserved city that Prague really is. Cobblestone streets, castle on the hill, bridges, and narrow alleyways between century old cathedrals.

And while I’m complaining… The Czech people were possibly even worse than the out of control tourism. On multiple occasions, rude servers would tip themselves out, cab drivers tried to charge 10x the going rate, and lastly, the evil guards of public transportation fined us 1,400 Czech corona for not stamping our purchased tickets and threatened to call the police. My crying and Alex’s extreme niceness got it halved. Don’t worry, they gave us change using a wad of cash bigger than a large man’s fist and took extra money from the young tourists in line after us I am sure.

Phew. Well anyway, here is our first day where we explored the Jewish quarter and went wandering through a park on the hillside.

So as posted earlier, Alex desperately needed new glasses. He easily got his eyes checked and a new prescription. Finding good frames was a different story. Luckily we stumbled upon Opti King which had hundreds of vintage 1950s+ frames. Found a great pair.

I also found some fab vintage sandals and a pixilated floral skirt. Dinner consisted of Russian cabbage pasta and a full liter of beer. O yaaa. It was a good evening.

Our walkings through West Berlin. Plenty of interesting architecture. Civic buildings, libraries, museums, concert halls, and Lego giraffe. We ended our trek with Mies van der Rohe’s Neu museum. Mmm loved that collection of work. Will post fav pieces later.

We started our museuming journey with a brat from a one woman wiener stand. I loved the Pergamon museum because if how it made me really understand the types of enormous spaces that existed in ancient times. Not just artifacts in a box. Alex did get yelled at in German for getting too comfortable with those extra large columns.

The best part of the Altes Museum was definitely the ancient erotica section. There was a flying penis with penis tail and of course its own penis. Those ancient Romans loved their erect genitalia. (for once the gift store didn’t have a replica, otherwise it would have made great gifts)

We did a 180 from the traditional museum and went over to this art house/famous piss covered squatters haven. Dozens of off the grid artists and craftsmen work here and sell their “art” for on the cheap to eager tourists.

Such a collection of “seasoned” people, but why? No doubt the gardens are delightful, the children are buckets of fun to watch, but is that a reason to have half the park over 65?

Then the answer showed itself….

SLOTS!

Patterns of Berlin. Guess which ones are Alex and I.