More hot springs in Budapest

Murray was tired, but even so we ventured out on the metro to the hot springs ‎Széchenyi Bath.  It was nice, but they didn't have a really hot pool.  It was also big and popular which made it a fun place to people watch.  There were plenty of couples snuggling and drifting by in the warm water which inspired one of a group of British girls to say "I totally feel like everyone around me is having sex".  It was a steamy scene, but literally.  It was a family place like a park.

Afterwards Murray was tired but went with me to pick up our clothes since I couldn't be trusted with laundry bags by myself.

Clubbing in Prague

A city where accordion never went out of style. The second show featured men in plaid skirts singing a song my dad taught me in the second grade. (What shall we do with a drunken sailor). It was pretty awesome.  Murray said hiking boots didn't inspire her to dance. I suppose we should have packed her ballet slippers, they are compact...

In the sleeper car from Prague to Budapest love has to work harder to find a way. But getting your own shower on a train is pretty awesome. 

Pictures from Prague

Ten points to the person that knows who sang "we dance like marionettes" without googling it. 

The castle that seems to inspired half of all Disney art in the background and my little princess in the foreground.

We went to see the Czech Philharmonic tonight.  Not Berlin, but still pretty amazing.

On the Charles Bridge in Prague

The white marks on my black jeans are not from my new cocaine habit.  The tour guide actually suggested I try picking up the German cannon balls in the background.  They hit the city hall we were under.  Tour guides in the states would never say something like that.  And no, I couldn't lift it.  I was getting close and Murray's "he's going to have a hernia" response kicked in.

The medieval vibe in this basement restaurant is so real it makes your hair stand up.  Or it could be that stupid blue hat you see in some of the other pics.  Hard to say.

They no longer have communists in Prague.  But they also don't have vegetables.  So I went to the supermarket, bought the four I recognized and made pork medallions with green beans, bell peppers, and carrots in a garlic-ginger sauce.

Apparently people rub this statue at the Prague Castle for good luck.

Prague Castle

Murray proud at having hiked all the way up to where you can see nothing but roofs.  

In front of the Kafka museum is a statue of two guys peeing into a pool shaped like the Czech Republic.  I thought perhaps it was some pissing contest around the founding of the country.  But no, just whimsical, the statues move in two axis and you can SMS a message for them to write out in the water.  I was going to take a photo of me pretending to drink from the fountain, but Murray "saved me from myself".

It is said that when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade.  But life rarely gives you any sugar when it is giving you lemons.  But you can freshen up your trough style lavatory.

The storefront window asks that you "have a hardcore holiday".  Perhaps this holiday tradition goes with the phallic public art.  I am not up on Czech customs. 

Did I mention I like whimsical public art.

Murray pondering "what is wrong with this statue?"

I am regaining feeling in my hand

No, I wasn't in a bar fight.  I was carrying home laundry.  We finally got a place with a washing machine, but it broke.  The laundering prices in Northern Europe are astronomical so I was actually pretty excited about this most mundane appliance.  I tried a bunch of stuff to get it going.  Being a compulsive clean freak, I really wanted clean clothes. I was pretty sure the belt had come off.  Don't ask me how I knew, it might put you to sleep.  Engineers just know these things sometimes.

So, we we dropped off the laundry.  The frugal woman at the laundromat was able to get it all back into one back.  It was a bit of a walk getting home.  And get this, even though Murray offered to carry the bag, I said no.  Sometimes it is just easier if Murray isn't helping.  In addition to it being a bit of a walk it was cold.  So I guess I didn't notice the numbness setting in where the strap of the bag had been cutting into my cold bloodless fingers.

But when I got home and warmed up, I was left with a funny tingling in my right, ring finger.  It is still there this morning, but seems to be a bit better.  I hope it doesn't have any lasting repercussions.  It isn't a guitar playing finger, unless I go back to playing classical.  At any rate, I have a picture of the offending bag.  It wasn't that impressive.  So I thought perhaps if I put my foot in the picture for scale it might help.

Guess who is happy-

We have wifi in the AirBnB in Prague even though I forgot to ask about it  -and it is fast.

Pics of our two days with my aunt Jan in Berlin

Exhibit at the Jewish Museum

Can you guess which Jewish custom is being discussed in this flyer from at the Jewish Museum in Berlin?

Chocolate Money

I remember thinking these were so cool as a kid.  They combined two awesome things, candy and money.

The Dutch

Has anyone else noticed this?  Going from Iceland to Sweden to Denmark to the Netherlands I noticed that the Dutch odor is worse than the Scandinavian.  I am guessing part of it has to do with the fact that they freed the weed in Amsterdam.  I hope Colorado doesn't start to stink.  Well, now that I think about it... Boulder has its share of malodorous citizens...

Cranky

Murray said she didn't want to go to the sixth floor of the hotel to check out the gym and hot-tub. She isn't homophobic but she was worried the people there might comment on how nice it was for me to bring my mom to Berlin if they saw her in her bathing suite. She has been apprehensive since the Mexican couple in Amsterdam mistook her for my mom.

Or perhaps her bruised ribs have made her cranky. She slipped off the arm rest on the train and her torso fell six inches onto the wooden arm rest. I know for many of the under forty crowd this seems implausible and perhaps you are beginning to suspect I am try to conceal some domestic violence issue. But the MurMonster has broken ribs before doing things as mundane as reaching across a tall wide counter for some coffee creamer.

On the upside it does give her an excuse to not feel guilty about having me carry her backpack and roller board (in addition to my roller board) up stairs and off of trains. 

The hotel restaurant

Fitness And Hot tub on the sixth floor. Perhaps one shouldn't bring one's mom.  

Pics from Amsterdam

Amsterdam has an amazing museum scene.  We went to the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House, the design museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Sex Museum, the Rembrandt House.

My favorite work at the Van Gogh museum was not a Van Gogh

In the stair well of the Van Gogh Museum the Dutch sun made a cameo appearance for our camera

I like this one on the Amsterdam Canal tour, you can see architecture in the background

I call this one "getting ahead".  It is some kind of phrenology-eugenics study from 1900 on Javanese dudes using plaster casts.  Murray says the Javanese look pretty hot.  I'm down with that assessment.  

Photobombed outside the Rijksmuseum by an unhappy Dutch bust.

Murray is so happy... once she has her coffee.

I can just image the guy saying "What are you doing in my house?  You have no eye for art!"

I feel the burgundy on red in this piece combined with the composite soft filter effect of iphone motion and pixel decimation creates in the space a feeling of "incongruous spatial anachronism" 

Rembrandt.  The dude could paint.

Love will find a way

In my quest to find reasonably priced places to stay close enough to stuff we want to see that we can walk, I have put us in some pretty small places. Here in Amsterdam at the City Garden Hotel the beds were smaller than single beds. But love will find a way. 

Fika with family in Sweden

We visited family in Sweden today, Saturday Nov 15.  Murray convinced me not to publish this post the night after the visit.  I am not sure why.  But she is generally worried I will put something ill conceived out on the internet.  But I am assuming that possibility is what might make it entertaining for others.

Eva, who is 95, is my grandmothers cousin.  Johan is her grandson.  I got lots of family stories, like my great grandfather Carl, showing back up in Södra Borby Öland unannounced after 45 years away and asking his brothers and sisters for recommendations on a good place to eat.  They didn't recognize him.

I thought it was just my father and grandfather that were in the habit of showing up at the house of relatives unannounced, but apparently the tradition goes back a long ways.  I, at least, emailed Johan before coming out.  Mona and Lillian volunteered to put together a Fika for us.  The food was excellent.  Fika has lots of sweets.  MMmmm...

Johan's wife Linn also made a great dinner last night for us with roast beef, scalloped potatoes and salad.  It was very much like what my grandmother used to make.  Johan's son Ville is 7 years old, quite entertaining, and a big fan of Pokeman of all things.

 Isaac, Eva, Johan, Shel in Öland, Södra Borby

 Johan, Ville, Linn, Isaac at Johan's house

How all of these folks are related (since I know a good chunk of the people reading this are related to these folks too).  Ellen Gene in the middle bottom is my grandmother.

 Shel, Isaac, Lillian, Mona, Eva, Johan

Roland, Shel, Eva, Johan

 Johan, Murray in the "big serious" region of Öland.

Matilda and Karl (my great, great grandparents) at the top of the family tree above.