Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 Day 1
London Weather:  Low 39 High 48
Got on earlier flight, good thing because the one we would have been on to London was over 6 hours late.    Lee took us to airport in Austin.  Layover in Houston.  Ate at Pappasito’s fast food – chicken fajita tacos.  Purchased extra leg room on our Houston to London flight.  Lots of extra room in our bulkhead seats.

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 Day 2
London Weather:  Low 37 High 51
We arrived about 8:30 am instead of 6:55 am.  Took train (Heathrow Connect) into Paddington Station.  There took a short cab ride to our hotel – Parkwood at Marble Arch at 4 Stanhope Place.   Dropped off our luggage and went touring London.  Took a double decker bus to Trafalgar Square.   Next stop was the Cabinet War Room.  On the way there we saw the changing of the guard horses and 10 Downing Street from half a block away.  Lots of media was there due to the recent elections here.  Next was Westminster Abbey and then on to the London Eye.  Before going to the London Eye we stopped by St Stephens Tavern Westminster and had a pint and shared some fish and chips.  Next it was back to the hotel to check in, unpack and get organized.  Took about 1 hour to sleep / rest, surf the net etc.  Went to Dog & Duck (Via bus and foot) for dinner on Bateman St.  Kelly waited on us upstairs and was very cheery.  Had British Sausage Plate, a Ploughman’s plate and 3 pints total (Landlord, Ringwood 49ER and a Jaipur IPA Blonde.  Walked back towards Oxford and stopped in the Kings Arm for a beer.  We didn’t know it when we walked in and had ½ pint of beer, but it was a bear bar!  Walked to Oxford and we were still a little bit hungry, so we ate a very late second dinner at McDonald’s (10 pm).  Took a bus back to hotel (overshot the hotel part way down Hyde Park) and walked the remaining distance back.  We went to sleep around 11:30 pm.

Thursday, May 13th, 2010 Day 3
London Weather:  Low 41   High 53
Up around 7:30 am.  Showered and out for breakfast at hotel at 8:20 am.  Left around 9am via a double decker bus for the Tower of London (arrived at 10 am).  We had a great tour by a beefeater.  It was cool and mostly sunny at first and then turned cloudy.  Next was the Tower Bridge exhibition (11:45 am).  The lift going up was out, so we took the stairs up.  We took the tube and then walked to the Fox and Anchor for lunch and sat at the bar. Mark had Trolley Sandwich (Lamb and mint roast) and Lyndon had the Steak Pie with Goose Fat chips.  We washed down lunch with 2 very good beers each.  One of the beers we had was a very good Saison. Then we walked to St Paul’s Cathedral where we arrived at 2:10 pm (awesome).  We walked the stairs all the way to the top observation point.  We were still on the go, so it was now time to take in the British Museum.  Then we took the tube home on the central line.  This line was backed up due to “someone under the train” at a station further down the line.   Got back to the hotel around 4pm.  Rested and left the hotel around 7pm.  We checked out before leaving.  Ate dinner (noodles & curry) at Wagamama on Wigmore St.  For this dinner we actually didn’t have beer!  Peach ice tea for Lyndon and Coke Zero for Mark.  Then went to Dog & Duck for a pint.  Gave the manager Natalie our Dog & Duck t-shirt from Austin.  She in turn gave us 2 Dog & Duck London t-shirts and 2 London Fuller pint glasses.  We walked a few blocks down and had a pint at the Duke of Wellington.  Took the double decker bus back to hotel.  Lights off at 11:50 pm.

Friday, May 14th, 2010 Day 4
London Weather:  Low 42 High 57 
 Berlin Weather: Low 47 High 52
Got up at 6 am.  Left hotel at 6:30 am and caught taxi for short ride to Paddington Station.  Bought tickets on the 7:03 train (Heathrow Connect) for Heathrow Airport.   Both inbound and outbound from Heathrow, we took the Heathrow Connect instead of the Heathrow Express to save money.  There was a slight delay checking into our flight because of a flight change?  We booked our tickets on Lufthansa which code shares with BMI.  The flight was delayed almost 2 hours due to equipment issues.  We arrived at Berlin Tegel and got through immigration and customs fairly quickly.  We exchanged a small amount of money at 1:44 am and then caught a taxi to our hotel - Art Hotel Connection 33 Fuggerstrassem (room 8).    We explored the area by foot all already the area of our hotel.  Then we proceeded to walk down to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche.  This church is the shell of a church bombed in WWII.  It has the nickname of hohler Zohn (hollow tooth).  This neo-Romanesque octagonal church has restored ceiling mosaics depicting scenes from the rule of Emperor Wilhelm I.  Next was a long walk down part of Kurfurstendamm (to about the area of “The Story of Berlin” and back.  We continued walking down the the KaDeWe department store (103 years old).  We visited the 6th floor where wonderful food items (prepared as well as international grocery items) were everywhere.  We did buy us some candy to take back with us to the hotel for a later snack(s).  For a later dinner, we walked from KaDeWe to Tiergarten and the beer garden Café am Neuen See ( Lichtensteinallee 2).  The outdoor beer garden seats about 1000 making it Berlin’s biggest beer garden.  It was cold outside, so it was closed, but we did eat inside.  The food and beer was excellent.   We had 4 Hefe-Weizens and each had a soup – potato with sausage and salmon.  For our main entrée we had a pizza.  We got lost several times walking home, so we walked and walked and walked.  We finally made it to the hotel as 2 very tired puppies.  After a short down time, we went to bed around 11:30 pm.

Saturday, May 15, 2010 Day 5
Berlin Weather: Low 42 High 46
Got up at 7:30.  We toured from 9:30 am – 1:30 pm with our hired guide, Jeremy Minsberg aka The Berlin Expert.  We highly recommend him for anyone who would like a personal guide during their stay in Berlin.  The only downside was that the whole time it was extremely cold, rainy and windy.  The temperature stayed in the 40s with a wind chill in the low 30s. We did lots of sightseeing on this tour, so I will not mention everything, but some of the major sights we saw.  Oh, I almost forgot, he helped us buy our 72 hour Berlin Welcome Card.   On the start of our morning tour in the rain, we came across a “BierBike”, a moving contraption with about 10 people peddling and drinking beer.  It was a hoot!  Here are some of the sights:  Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche (went in), Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Reichstag, Soviet War Memorial, Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial and the site of the Fuhrerbunker.  We also had described to us, numerous buildings, plaques, architects, historical facts, etc.  We stopped briefly at the Akademie der Kunste for coffee and to warm up.   Jeremy got the U-Bahn with us were we got off at Alexanderplatz for a short walk to eat a late lunch.  Our lunch choice was  Zur Letzten Instanz which dates back to 1621.  Napoleon Bonaparte once supped here!  The beer and food was also excellent and plentiful here.  We had 4 beers, 3 Schofferhofer Hefeweizens and 1 Schwarzbier (black beer).   Mark’s lunch choice was some kind of pickled pork knuckle and potatoes and Lyndon’s was a meatball (more like a hamburger) with green beans, pan fried sliced potatoes and carrot.  After that we took the U-2 back to the hotel.  We then took a nap around 4:30 pm getting up around 6 pm.  Then it was time to update this journal for all of yesterday and today up to this point.  Read guide books, determined next plan of action – going to eat a late dinner at BrewBaker (brew pub) on Flensburger Str.415).  Mark had the Weisswurste mit Kartoffelsalat and Lyndon had Ravioli.  We had to take a U bahn and transfer to an S Bahn to get there, but it was just right outside the station.  Another great meal and beer.  Lyndon had Spinach and Italian sausage Ravioli & Mark had Weisswurste mit Kartoffelsalat (potato salad and cucumbers).    Left the restaurant at 10:45 pm and back in the room at 11:15.

Sunday, May 16th, 2010 Day 6
Berlin Weather: Low 44 High 60
 Potsdam Weather:  Low 39 High 62
Got up and had a small quick breakfast at a shop around the corner, then took the S-7 and spent the day at Potsdam.  When we got the train station, we booked a Potsdam City Tour where we could hop on and off the bus at several locations.   The tour went by the famous Glienicker Brucke.  For a quarter of a century, this steel bridge across the Havel, between West Berlin and Potsdam, was the main spot for spy swaps between East and West.  Next was a drop off point near Neuer Garten.  We hopped off the bus and spent about 30 minutes there.  We walked down a few paths and around the Schloss Cecilienhof. This is the last palace built by the Hohenzollern dynasty. It was erected between 1914 and 1917 for Crown Prince Wilhelm and his wife Cecilie von Mecklenburg-Schwerin. This English Tudor palace was where from July 17 to August 2, 1945 the Potsdam Conference negotiations between the victorious Allies of World War II were held.  Then it was back on the bus for a drive through Park Sanssouci and past the Schloss Sanssouci, Orangerie and Neues Palais.  We hopped off the bus at the town square (Luisenplatz) and walked around.  We found a place where we had another excellent meal for lunch.  We ate lunch at the Gaststatte “Zur Linde” at Lindenstrasse 50.  Mark had a .3l Schneider Weiss and .3l Kostritzer beer and Lyndon had a .4l Schneider Weiss.  To eat, Lyndon had the Schnitzel Cordon Bleu and Mark had the Spiessbraten.  For dessert, we found an ice cream vendor on the street and walked around town while eating our ice cream. We then walked through the park from one end to the other and toured the Neues Palais.  We then walked halfway back through the park and walked up to the Orangerie.  They were having a ceremony here where they were bringing out all the plants, tropical plants etc to put throughout the area.  We stopped here also for some water and strudel.  We walked back to the town center (Luisenplatz) where we had about a 30 minute wait to hop on the bus back to the train stations.  Got on the S-7 and went back to the room.  This trip to Potsdam was pretty much an all day event.  For dinner we went to the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood and ate at The Prater (Berlin’s oldest Beer Garden).  For beers between Mark and Lyndon we have the Jever (a hoppier Pils), the Prater Pils, the Schwarzbier and in the bottle (but poured in a glass), a Weihenstephan Heffe.  For our meal, Lyndon had the Spargel Schinken (white Asparagus – yummy, in season now and very tendy), potatoes and Black Forest ham.  Mark had the Spargel  Schinken (typo – Mark had something else, don’t remember what the German name was, but it was pork, potatoes and sauerkraut).  We then went to see the Brandenburg Tor at night.  It was almost completely dark and views were awesome with a sliver of the moon hanging just above the gate.  We had to pee, so for the first time we used one of the public street toilets “City Toilette”, and interesting experience!   Another interesting experience we stumbled upon by accident was skate night.  In line skaters gather on Sunday evenings several times a month for an organized skate through the streets of Berlin.  Looks like everyone was having a great time!  We took the U-2 back home and had a beer at the bar next door (Prinzknecht) , then went to a store around the corner and bought snacks and water.  We made several phone calls and Skype and then went to bed about 12:20 am.

Monday, May 17, 2010 Day 7
Berlin Weather: Low 39 High 60
Got up around 7:30.  Spend a good time and a long walk trying to find a place that would wash our clothes and have them ready tomorrow.  We finally found one on Martin Luther after walking around in one big circle!  Took the U-2 to Postdamer Platz to go to the Reichstag.  The line was way too long (we got there probably around 10:30 am).  So we walked around that area of the city for a while.   We walked down Unter den Linden and down to the Gendarmenmarkt.  This square was created at the end of the 17th century as a market place. The three main features here are the Konzerthaus  (Concert Hall- built in 1821), the Französischer Dom (French Cathedral – built 1701-1705) and Deutscher Dom (German Cathderal – built 1708). We climbed the steps up the “French” Dom (there are 2 identical ones in this plaza).  The view from up top was pretty good.  The bells were just above us when we were at the top and ran out the noon hour.  We then walked down to Checkpoint Charlie.  There was a fence that had a good description of events over time with the wall.  Other than that there isn’t much to see here.  We then walked down to the Topography of Terror.  Inside they had very detailed descriptions, pictures and artifacts dealing with the period of National Socialism (1933-1945).  We then took the U trains down to eat lunch at Curry 36, a famous sidewalk joint here where they say might be the best currywurst.  The U train station we got off at was Mehringdamm.  After eating lunch we stopped next door at Vogt’s Bier-Express to have some beers.  Lyndon had a Schneider Weizen and Bitburger.  Mark had a Schneider Weizen and a Berliner Kindl.  Next we took several trains again to the Stasimuseum far into the east side.  The displays were not in English, and the brochure didn’t say much, so we didn’t get too much out of this.  If you knew German, this probably would have been a good museum to visit.   The museum is the former headquarters of the East Ministry for state security of Stasi.  Then it was another ride on more trains to go see the East Side Gallery.  This was worth the visit.   This is a preserved area of the wall that is a 1.3 km open air museum where individual artists painted sections of the wall for the whole length that is still standing.   After this, we were tired puppies, so it was back to the hotel.  After a short break and research on where to eat dinner, we were back out the door.  Dinner was at “Paulaner’s” at Alt Moabit 98.  Mark and Lyndon both had a Paulaner Hefe and Mark ate the Schweinshaxe and Lyndon had the Spargel Schnitzel (another meal with wonderful white asparagus).  Left around 9:15 at got back to the hotel around 9:50 am.  Then it was time to update the journal again.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 Day 8
Berlin Weather: Low 48 High 57
Left the hotel at 8:15 at had a bite to eat and coffee at our now favorite local breakfast place.  Then we took the U2 and went to Potsdamer Platz and walked to the Reichstag.  It was about a 1.5 hour wait to go up the dome.  Great sites from the top and the audio tour was very informative in English.  Personally we wouldn’t take the time to see this if the wait was longer.  We then took a couple of trains to the Berliner Fernsehturm am Alexanderplatz.  The views from the top of this television tower200 meters up were amazing.  We did get a discount with our Berlin Welcome card.  This was only the second time we used it for an attraction discount.  The first time was at Postdam.  We then walked past the World Clock in Alexander Platz and on to the Franziskaner-Klosterkirche (the remains of a Franciscan monastery from 1250).  Next we explored the Nikolaiviertel area (Nicholas Quarter) and found a local place to eat lunch.  A German man sitting at the table next to us said this was food “like his mom would cook”.  We skipped the places that advertized out front English menus and instead decided to eat here.  An excellent choice on our part.  We had the tagesmenu (special) – White Asparagus soup and sausage and potatoes and a type of ice cream Sunday for dessert.  This restaurant was Kaffeestube.   Next we walked down Under Der Linden pas the Bebelplatz (looking for the sunken library “book burning memorial” which we never could find).  This is the place the book burning took place on May 10, 1933.  From the S-Bahn near the Brandenburg Tor, we went next to the Gedenkstatte Berliner Mauer  where you can see the double wall with the death strip in the middle as it was before the wall came down.  We recommend seeing this if possible.  Very interesting and recommended.  Next we went back to the hotel, and then picked up the clothes from the cleaners that we had them wash yesterday. We checked out of the hotel (actually only paid our bill to be able to leave quicker in the morning).   Next we walked way up and down the area for miles and then finally ate dinner at MORE cafe restaurant.  We had Berliner Pilseners and Schwarzbier.  Mark ate Wiener Schnitzel and Lyndon had Rinderhufsteak.  After leaving there we picked up some snacks and water and made it back to our room around 9:15 pm.

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 Day 9
Berlin Weather: Low 46 High 57 
Dresden Weather:  Lo 43 High 50 
Prague Weather:  Low 42 High 47
Got up at 6:40 to get ready for our cab to take us to the main train station.  We had the front desk order the cab last night to be here at 7:30 am.  At the train station, we had breakfast at a McDonald’s.  The sausage McMuffin had lettuce, a tomato slice and mayonnaise on it. Very interesting.   Our guide book said that the train would stop at 2 stations in Dresden, but it only stopped at one – the main station.  It was another cold (in the 40s), dreary windy and rainy day.  We payed 4 euro for a locker to store our luggage.   We walked to the old town (via Prager Strasse)  and through “old” Dresden in the cold windy rain which made it really hard to take in the sights.    We walked through the Frauenkirche where a noon service was about to begin, then walked outside to another entrance to go up into the tower and the viewing platform.  We sat at the bar for lunch at Gansedieb An der Kreuzkirche, Weisee Gasse 1. Mark had a 0.3 Hefe and a 0.3 Dunkel and Lyndon had a 0.5 Hefe and to eat Mark had a Gillhaxe and Lyndon has a Rostbratwurst.  We then walked around some more, found a water closet and then walked across the Augustus Bridge which spans the river Elbe.  We decided to try to get an earlier train to Prague since it was so cold and wet.  We got an earlier train (3:10pm instead of 5:10pm) to Prague.  We had to pay an extra fee, but it was worth it.  The fee was 32 euro for change + reserved seats.  For a good part of the trip, the train ran parallel to a river (Elbe (German) Labe (Czech)) with very picturesque villages along the way. We got the Prague main station at 5:27pm.  Trying to get a cab was a trying experience.  One cab driver wanted to charge us the equivalent of 80 US to get to our hotel a 10 minute or less drive away and said he was giving us a bargain!  The Czech Republic hasn’t converted to the Euro yet, so the exchange rate can be confusing if you aren’t careful.  Our trick is to drop the last digit and divide by 2 to get the equivalent in US.  So 100 crowns would be 10/2 = 5 US.  Not exact but helps out.  At the train station, we also converted 200 US we had to us while in Prague.  After checking into our Hotel , Cerny Slon (Black Elephant) and getting settled into room 9, we hit the streets.  This hotel was in the perfect location ½ block from Old Town Square and comes highly recommended.   We walked through the town square area, past the Astronomical Clock and across the Charles Bridge.  The temperature was still in the 40s and it was misting, but much better than an all out rain.  We stopped briefly back at our room, then went to dinner at U Medvidku (highly recommended).  We had 2 Budvars each, 1 regular and 1 dark.  This is a Tankova which means the beer is unpasteurized and very fresh.  We had an appetizer that had ham, pickles and horseradish.  For the main meal Mark had a chicken and potato dish and Lyndon had Meat potato dumplings.  This was one of the cheapest meals we had so far – 472 CZK.  This is about 22.54 US at today’s exchange rate of 1$ = 20.87 CZK.  Thirty days ago, the exchange rate was $1 = 18.75 CZK.  The dollar is also doing much better too.  Today it is 1$= .815 euro, 30 days ago it was 1$ =  .743 euro.  We walked around the corner to a gay bar – Friends and Mark had a margarita and Lyndon had a Pilsner Urquell.  The Pilsner was in a bottle, if Lyndon would have known in time, he would have ordered a Budvar on tap.  The bartender did tell him it was in a bottle, but he didn’t understand at the time.    It was time to call it a night.  We were back at the room close to 11 pm.

Thursday, May 20th. 2010 Day 10
Prague Weather:  Low 45 High 57
We actually slept in to 8 am this morning.  Then we showered and went down for our continental breakfast which was very good.  Then we came up to the room, updated the journal, planned out our day, etc.  We got out the door around 10:15 am.  We went up the tower above the Astronomical clock in Old Town Hall (built in 1364) and had amazing views of Prague.  Next we walked through old town across the Charles Bridge and up to Prague Castle.  When walking across the bridge there was a medium size group of school children painting pictures of the scenery around the bridge. There was a changing of the guard while we were there.  This is the largest castle complex in the world and is really impressive.  We rented an English audio guide which helped us out.  Now it was time for lunch, so we walked down to U Cerneho Vola at Loretenske Nam 1.  Lyndon had pickled sausage and niva (blue) cheese.  Mark had roasted sausage and another kind of cheese.  Mark had .5 L of the dark Kozel beer and Lyndon had .5 L of the light Kozel beer.    The total bill came to 229 CZK (10.93 US).  We walked through Petrinske Sady/Park and went up the Petrin Observation Tower (opened in 1891)which looks like a mini Eifel Tower.  It was walking all the way up and back down 299 steps.  No lift here!  We took the funicular down from the observation area and rode a tram for a couple of stops and then walked the rest of the way back to our room.  We now actually had the luxury of taking a nice long nap.  We left the window open and we could hear the people talking in the pedestrian area, church bells ringing, laughter and even organ music very lightly playing from the distance.  For dinner we walked to Nove Mesto (New Town) and ate at a Prague Brew Pub Pivovarsky Dum.  We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table.  The waitress was very nice and efficient, the food and beer were great.    We sat at a table with 4 students from Atlanta studying in Germany.  For dinner we had a beer sample plate.  One beer was called Nettle and was green.  It tasted like grass….interesting.  Mark ate Rabbit with spatzle and Lyndon had pork with spatzle.  Lyndon ordered a sour cherry beer and Mark had the Rye beer.  We got back to the room around 10:30 pm.

Friday, May 21st 2010 Day 11
Prague Weather:  Low 50 High 64
Cesky Krumlov Weather:  Low 50 High 56
Got up in time to walk to the Intercontinental Hotel nearby to pick up our Budget Rental Car at 8 am.  They upgraded us to VW Golf.  We drove down to Cesky Krumlov which took about 2:45 or a little longer.  The town is build around a 13th century castle. We rented a GPS (tom tom) which helped us out a lot.  We parked in parking lot B.  We walked a different direction than what we should have to enter the Castle area and ended up instead at the Eggenberg Brewery restaurant (what luck!).  The dark beer here was our favorite.    Mark ordered Goulash and Lyndon had the meat filled potato dumplings.  We next walked through the Castle area and paid the fee to go up the little Castle Tower.  The views from the top were amazing.  Then we walked through the main castle itself and across the covered bridge.  Next we walked across Barber’s bridge and into the town main square where the Town hall and Marian Column are.  Mark bought some kind of pastry for us to share while walking.  We walked to and partially around the Church of St. Vitus.  Lyndon exchanged some money at the Raiffeisen Bank on the square.  Of course a cold rain started as we were almost finished with our self guided tour, so we opened our umbrellas again and headed for the car.  Our GPS told us to go through the old town to get back to Prague.  Well, it wasn’t a good direction as the small one lane cobble stoned road ended on a bridge where there was some construction.  He had to turn the car around on the bridge (not easy) while the locals and tourists were staring away.  Lyndon almost had a heart attack.  The drive back took more like 3.5 hours because we hit a major traffic jam in Ceske Budejovice (German name is Budweis).   As we were getting closer to our hotel, we stopped to get gas at Shell station.  We bought 21.77 liters for 751.10 KC.  That is 5.75 gallons for $36.53. ($6.35 / gallon).  We got back to the Intercontinental Hotel and dropped the car off around 5:50 pm.  We then went back to the hotel to rest a moment and regroup.  Next we walked down Wenceslas square and to our restaurant for dinner – Ferdinand located just off the square at Opletalova 24.  Mark had some pork cutlet that has a blue cheese sauce on top of it with ‘baked potato’.  Lyndon had a cheese, meat platter.  As usual, the beer was yummy.  We had dark beer and the lager, but very good tasting and Mark had a special 13 degree beer too.  Even though we were stuffed we walked to the gay bar U Rudolfa just off Wenceslas Square at Mezbranska 3 and had each had a Kozel dark beer. We then walked back to the hotel and then went back out and strolled around old town before calling it a night around 10:20 pm.  Made a few phone calls and surfed the net, then read in bed until around 11:30 pm.

Saturday, May 23rd, 2010 Day 12
Prague Weather:  Low 52 High 70
Updated yesterday’s activities into this journal after we got up.  Finally a warmer day today! Ate our continental breakfast and went to the 11 am playing at the Astronomical Clock - unfortunately, it wasn’t working this hour.  We walked around old town and then took the Metro (subway) to the Czech Beer Festival at the PVA Letnany Exhibition Centre.  They had 10,000 seats places in 3 (actually 4) tents with free entrance.  There were 70 brands of Czech beer to try.  You had to buy 5 Tolars (“money” used for this event) for 40 CZK.  We got there around 12:30 and spent about 3 hours there.   Here are the beers we drank (as for all this document, we are not using the special characters, accents, etc used in the Czech words).
Svijany – Svijany Knezna 13 degree Tmavy Special (Lyndon)
Primator – Primator Weizenbier  (Mark)
Pernstesn  Ozzobir 11 degree Svetle (Mark)
Regent – Bohemia Regent Petrvok, Polotmovy Specialni Lezak 13 degree (Lyndon)
Bakalar 17 degree Jubilejni Polotmavy Special  (Lyndon)
Janacok – Janacok Extra Svelty Lezak 12 degree (Lyndon)
Jezek – Jezek Telesky Zacharias Svelty Special 14 degree (Lyndon & Mark)
Cerna Hora – Cerna Hora Granat Tmavy Special (Mark)
To eat we had pork head cheese from Davle, each had a soup – goulash soup with sausage, hot peppers and potatoes & Old Bohemian Potato and Mushroom.  Another snack was a sausage plate.
Lyndon rode a kiddy swam ride at the amusement center on the way out and Mark had cotton candy.
We took the metro back home and then walked to Letna park and the metronome.  This big metronome was built where once was the world’s largest statue of Stalin (164 ft tall).  It was commissioned in the early 50’s and dynamited in 1962 with 2,000 pounds of explosives.  Next it was back to the hotel for nap time because of all the beer and food.  After a nice long nap we went to eat Thai food at the Orange Moon.  It was a nice change from potatoes and sausage and meat and sausage an potatoes and sausage,etc.  We had soups – Tom Yum Kai and Tom Kha Kai. Mark had a chicken coconut curry dish and Lyndon had  a chicken, string bean, bamboo shoots and basil dish.  We each had a 0.75 liter of water to help replenish us for the beer earlier!  We then walked down to a Belgium Chocolate shop for Mark to buy fudge and then down to at U Medvidku to buy a Budweiser glass.  We got back to the room around 10:15 pm.  We surfed the net, updated the journal and watched a downloaded TV program on the laptop (Desperate Housewives).

Sunday, May 23rd 2010 Day 13
Prague Weather:  Low 53 High 68
Regensburg Weather:  Low 47 High 73
Munich Weather:  Low 48 High 69
Got up at 6:50 am and packed for our train trip to Munich and ate the continental breakfast at the hotel.  The cab we ordered was 5 minutes early and so were we, so we took the short drive to the Prague Main Rail Station.  The cab fare was 199 CZK.  The train left at 9:05 am and made a stop in Regensburg at 1:30 pm.  While we were on the train, we spend some of our leftover CZK and bought a couple of sandwiches for 38 CZK.  We spent just over 3 hours in Regensburg.  We ate lunch at the pub Brauerei Kneitinger Regensburg which has been around since 1530.  The pils and bock beers there were excellent!  To eat we had one of the Kneitinger’s Specialties – Brauerschmaus – two bratwurst , schweinsbraten & shweinshaxn with sauerkrauat and knodel for 9.60 euro (we split this meal).  We walked around the town, in particular Dom St Peter (a Gothic church built in the 1300s on the site of earlier cathedrals), a park on the west side (Stadpark), Porta Praetoria (built in AD 179 by Emperor Marcus Aurelius as part of the Castra Regina fortress).  After a brief stop to eat some ice cream, we then walked across the Steinerne Brucke (Stone Bridge) built in the years 1135-1146 over the Danube River.  This is the oldest bridge in Germany.  We walked to a park on the other side where people were laying out on blankets enjoying the sun and watching the Danube River go by.  Yes, we said the sun, this was the second day that wasn’t freezing cold this whole trip and the sun actually was shining!  We walked back to the train station and caught the 4:45 pm train to Munich, checked into our Hotel (Hotel Royal) on Schillerstrasse 11a.  After unpacking and updating this journal it was 7:10 pm.  Around 8 pm went the S-Bahn and took a train to Laim and walked to the Hirschgarten Beer Garden to have dinner and a few beers.  This is the largest Beer Garden in Munich and can seat up to 8,000 people.  Among the beers we had was a Konig Ludwig Weissbier.  We sat at a table with a tablecloth to get table service.  After the sun went down it got chilly - this was the first evening in Europe that we decided to leave our jackets at home.  We got back to the hotel around 10:30 pm.

Monday, May 24th, 2010 Day 14
Munich Weather:  Low 50 High 77
After eating the very nice breakfast in our hotel (included with room), we walked around the area of our hotel to find a laundry that was recommended by the hotel.  We found it and they were actually open for the holiday, so we brought our clothes in around 10 am for a ready time of 4 pm.  We then bought a partner transportation ticket for the inner zone only.  We walked to the main shopping area (Neuhauser Str. And Kaufinger Str.) and to the Marienplatz.  Everything (99%) is closed today due to the Whitsunday Monday holiday.  We went up the St. Peter Church tower where the views were excellent.  We then went to the square and waited for the Glockenspiel in the town hall tower to do its thing at noon.  Mark took video on the camera of the whole ‘play’.  We bought some ice cream in the platz and then walked over to the Viktualienmarkt.  Of course, everything there was closed too.  We ate lunch at Seehaus in the  Englischer Garten.   The beer and food here was good and the view of the park and the lake were excellent.  Since it was a holiday, there were tons of people out walking, eating, playing ball, on the lake in boats, etc.  It was warm and sunny and everyone seemed to be very much enjoying the beautiful day and going at a slow pace.  We actually took some down time ourselves in the park. Lyndon laid down for awhile amongst the others in the park and Mark walked around and took pictures.  We made our way back to the hotel for an official nap.  This was also the first day this trip we wore shorts, which was nice.  For dinner we decided to go to a gay restaurant – Club Morizz.  The food was both European and Thai.  The bartender was very friendly and translated the whole menu for us into English.  This would be a place that we would go back to.  The setting was elegant and a very relaxing place to be (although more expensive than we would usually spend on a dinner).  We then walked around and found Edelheiss, another gay bar, to have a beer before settling in for the evening.  The beer of choice was Herrnbrau.

May 25th, 2010 Tuesday Day 15
Munich Weather:  Low 57 High 73
Last full day in Munich.  We ate our breakfast in the hotel around 8:30 am.  Then it was time to update the journal with yesterday’s events.  Out the door around 10 am and walked towards Marienplatz to explore now that the shops are open.  Got money at an ATM and walked through the Viktualienmarkt (very amazing food market).  Then we walked down Sendlinger Tor (erected in 1318 by Ludwig the Bavarian as one of the four town gates belonging to a second ring of fortifications) and Mark bought a backpack for his carry on for his computer stuff.  We took the S-Bahn to the Andechs Kloster (Monastery).  We had a great view of the Alps in the distance from where we were sitting.  It was very peaceful here (although the food service was not good, but the food itself was one of our better meals).  The beer was excellent.  We took the bus back to the S-Bahn.  Our bus ran into a taxi on the way back, so we got off the bus and walked the remaining few blocks back to the station.  It was then about a 45 minute train ride back to Munich’s main train station.  From there it was only a 5 min walk back to our hotel.  We rested up, took a nap, etc. and then walked down to Marienplatz again.  We passed through Marienplatz and ate salads from a place called greeny’s salads & more.  We ate at a table on the sidewalk.  The salad was a nice change from meat and potatoes!  We then walked to the Hofbrauhaus and had a beer.  We then stopped by the hotel briefly before continuing on to Club Morizz for another few beers at the bar.  The host/waiter from our original trip here was hosting again and chatted with us for awhile.  Then it was home to make phone calls, relax, etc.  Lights off at 12:30 am.

May 26th, 2010 Wednesday Day 16
Munich Weather:  Low 57 High 73
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Weather:  Low 55 High 70
Got up, ate breakfast and packed.  Checked out of the hotel and left luggage at reception desk.  Got rental car (had to take the U-Bahn for 2 stops and Avis rental car was right at the stop.  They didn’t have noted that we wanted a GPS, so they upgraded us to a nicer car that was also automatic.  Drove to the Eagle’s nest near Berchtesgaden via Austria.  The GPS in our car told us to go some way that didn’t make since about half way there.  We took the GPS’s advice and avoided a big traffic jam on the autobahn.  By the way, Mark never went faster than 105 mph (the car could only do 104 mph).  We stopped right before crossing the border for a Vinette which is good for 10 days.  After arriving at the parking area for the Eagle’s Nest, we ate lunch at the Berggasthof Obersalzburg.  We visited the Eagle’s Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) at evelation of 6, 017 ft by catching a bus, walking through a marble tunnel and going up an elevator that rises ‘2 floors’ inside of the mountain.  Next it was back to the parking lot and a visit to the Obersalzabeg – Nazi Documentation Center museum.  The displays were all in German in the documentation center, so we rented one audio guide.  There are also bunkers you can walk around in underground that were not finished, but still very interesting.  We drove to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and found a hotel in town that we loved – Garmischer Hof on Chamonixstrasse.  We checked into the hotel around 6:15 pm.  Our room had a very nice balcony with awesome views of the snow covered Alps.  Next we explored the town on foot in the rain.  We found a bistro - Bistro – Café Max - where we ate Pizza (one of the best we ever had) and salad.  Of course, we had a couple of beers.  We walked around the town some more, stopping along the way to get ice cream.  Everything in town was closed up tight for the evening.  It was like a ghost town with very few people walking around.  We stopped in the hotel bar for another beer. This place was small, but hopping.  We then visited the wet sauna at 10 pm.  It was closed for the night, but they let us in and said we could have an hour.  Bed time tonight was around midnight.

May 27th, 2010 Thursday.  Day 17
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Weather:  Low 53 High 63
Lindau (Konstanz) Weather:  Low 57 High 66 
We got up around 8 am and had breakfast.  We were going to take the cogwheel train and/or ski lift up   to the top of Germany’s highest mountain - Zugspitze, but the weather wasn’t good (raining and low clouds) and the price is near $50 a person, so naturally we skipped this.  Oh, also it is cold again.  Finished updated the journal for yesterday’s events at 9:30 am.  Next it was time to pack and try to figure out today’s events!  We checked out of the hotel and then drove to the parking area nearest to the Partnach gorge but it was too long of a walk from the parking area in the rain.  Instead we decided to go ahead and drive to our next destination.  On our way to Fussen, we passed a beautiful emerald green alpine lake – Plansee - in the Tyrol Austria.   We drove past Fussen to the castle of Neuschwanstein.  Our tickets weren’t until 3:40, so we ate lunch at the Alpenstuben Restaurant near the ticket office.  We then paid for a bus to take us up the mountain / hill to (Marien Brucke) Mary’s Bridge where the view of the castle and surrounding area was awesome.  I forgot to mention that we topped of the tank with gas at a Shell station in Garmish before continuing on our daily trip.   We bought 34.07 liters at the price of 48.00 euros (1.409 euro per liter = 5.33 euro per gallon = $6.54 per gallon).  After leaving the castle, we programmed the car’s GPS to take us to the island of Lindau.  For some reason the GPS took us off the autobahn and through some very small villages and tiny tiny roads, then back to the autobahn.  We got to the tourist information office right as it was closing and they booked us a room at Gasthof Engel at Schafgasse 4.  We then explored the city, starting at the harbor overlooking the Bodensee (Lake Constance).  Then we searched for a restaurant.  After much walking, we ended up on the 2nd floor of an Italian restaurant – Ristoranti da capo at Burstergasse 1.  We actually only had one beer each here.  We got back to the room around 9 pm.   About 10 pm we walked to a gay bar called “Why Not?” it was a very small bar, no English spoken here!  We were back in the room around 11:30 pm.

May 28th, 2010 Friday Day 18
Lindau (Konstanz) Weather:  Low 55 High 69 
Freiburg Weather:  Low 57 High 69
Today was our drive over to Freiburg.  After eating breakfast and giving the hotel reception an Austin magnet, we started our drive.   We went through several towns on the Bodensee.   These towns had sort of a Mediterranean flair.  We stopped in a town about 30-40 minutes east of Freiburg in a very small village just off the road we were driving on to eat lunch.  The lunch was pretty good, but we were there for about an hour.  Just found my receipt – our lunch stop was Gasthaus Hirschen (Familie Heer – 79843 Unadingen).  We got to Freiburg and drove around to several hotels to inquire about price and vacancy.  The prices we were quoted we more than we wanted to spend, so we went to the Information center at the Rathaus.  They booked us a hotel just around the corner in the old town called Hotel am Rathaus. The room was nice and had a good view of the Rathaus Platz.  After checking in to the hotel, we went back to get our car. We had paid for parking on the street and needed to move it to the hotel’s parking garage a few blocks away.  This was an adventure that took 30-35 minutes!  We tried following the instructions on the paper map given to us, but the streets were one way and places with lights where you couldn’t cross and turn left.  We ended up on what we think was a sideway, then a tram car track.  It seems that on some of the tram car tracks, cars can drive on them ok, and on others we never saw cars.  The information center said this parking lot was had to get to - she wasn’t lying!  Once we got to the garage, you have to buzz the hotel for them to open the gate.  Then there is a very very steep narrow and steep spiral drove down to the parking where the parking spaces are very strange and small.  Once Mark parked the car – very good job on his part, we now climbed up to the top of the ramp to figure out how to get out with our luggage.  All the doors that seemed to lead out were all locked. We finally saw some local in the garage.  He didn’t know any English, but indicated that there was a rope that we needed to tug downward on and the garage door would open.  Who would have known!  After unpacking we walked around the old town at times with our umbrella open.  Found a restaurant to eat at on the square by the church – Ganter Brauereiausschank.  For our beers we had a Pils, Urtrunk, Wodan and Dunkles Weizen.  For our meal, Mark had Maultaschle and Lyndon had Putensalat. Walked around town some more and through a very nice park Stadt-garten.  For late night drinks, we found a gay bar about 2-3 blocks from the hotel – SonderBar.  One of the bartenders was from Pennsylvania.  We had Weizens and Pils here.  The beer on tap here was Furstenberg.

May 29th, 2010 Saturday Day 19
Freiburg Weather:  Low 52 High 71
Heidelberg Weather:   Low 46 High 71
We left the hotel around 9am for our drive through the Black Forest.  Along the way we saw lots of cows, some of which were on their sides all stretched out like they were dead.  Those were some relaxed cows!  We stopped by the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum (clock museum) in Furtwangen and got gas there too.  This was a clock museum that would be very interesting if you were interested in time and clocks and how the evolved over the years.  The gas we bought was 1.449 euro per liter.  We bought 32.96 liters for a price of 47.76 euros  ($58.94) (1.449 euro per liter = 5.49 euro per gallon = $6.77 per gallon).   We stopped to eat lunch in Triberg at Zur Lilie – Wallfahrtsstrasse 3 – where we had hamburgers and Pommes Frittes.  Several shops we stopped and looked at the cuckoo clocks and wood carvings.  Triberg has an extensive selection of cuckoo clocks and the highest waterfall in Germany (which we didn’t walk to)   At one of the shops(Haus der 1000 Uhren – House of 1000 clocks)  we bought various jellies. We stopped at a woodcarvers shop and talked to him about his woodcarving work, in particular the carving of carnival masks.  We continued on through the forest.  There were lots of wind turbines and even hang gliders in the area.  One of the hang gliders was actually flipping around upside down and around over and over.   When we finally made it to the autobahn, there were several areas of road construction where the left lane was very very narrow.  The fastest Mark drove was 105 mph.  We checked into the Leonardo Hotel around 3:45 pm.  We had booked it earlier this morning online for a price of 79 Euros.  Parking and internet connection are extra at this hotel.  It was about a 30-40 minute walk from the hotel to the far end of the old town district.  When walking out to explore, we gave the reception an Austin magnet.  We ate dinner at a place that had 100 different versions of Schnitzel – Schnitzelhaus Alte Meunz.  The beer here was good as usual and the food was excellent.  The featured beer was Heidelberger.  Next we bought some liquors to take home with us at Alte Brennerei, stopped by Starbucks for a coffee and walked back to the hotel.  We arrived at the hotel around 7:40 pm.  After pausing at the hotel, we went back out at 9:00 pm and walked to a restaurant new old town and had a couple of beers each.  This was one of the few times we sat at the bar.  Next we walked around old town and the Old Bridge (The Alte Bruecke) which spans the Neckar River. where we got an awesome view of the castle lit up at night.  We were going to go out somewhere and get one more beer, but didn’t see anything that met our fancy.  Back to the room and in bed around midnight.

May 30th, 2010 Sunday Day 20
Heidelberg Weather:  Low 51 High 67
Austin Weather: Low 73 High 95
Walked to try to find a breakfast place, but none could be found.  Upon checking out the reception deskgave us a Heidelberg magnet in return!  That was a very nice gesture.  Left around 9:15 am for our 50-55 minute drive to the Frankfurt airport.  We had trouble finding gas close to the airport and took a roundabout way using our GPS.  When we dropped the car off at the rental place, we were 50 minutes past our expected time so they charged us for another full day at the rate of over $50 US!  We exchanged the last of or Euro money (bills and some change) at an International Exchange in the Frankfurt Airport.  The trip through security and to the gate was relatively fast.  It was very room while waiting to get through security.  Other places in the airport were also warm.  We stopped in the Lufthansa lounge to get a bite to eat and some drinks and snacks.  They had a lot to offer – Ham and Panini sandwiches pressed while you wait, a fruit bar, asparagus soup, other sandwiches, coffee, tea, Franziskaner beer, etc.  Our flight back to Houston was running about 25 minutes late.  We left the Lufthansa lounge around 1 pm.  The flight was about 1.5 hours late getting to Houston, so we missed our connecting flight.  Continental put us on the next flight, but we boarded around 8:40 pm and then the airport was shut down due to a severe thunderstorm.  We were on the plane for 2 hours before becoming airborne!  We got to Austin very late and didn’t get home until close to midnight.