Bill & Nancy Lively
We are retired librarians. Nancy worked for the Board of Education and Bill operated a one person engineering library for a communications company. Travel has been one of our passions our entire marriage. Bill and Nancy
Originally we thought this blog would report only on our trip to Prague. However, we have decided to add entries and photos previous trips. We hope you enjoy them.
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Way to view photos on our traveblog
Published: July 28th 2011North America » United States » Maryland » Annapolis
July 28th 2011
For some unknown reason Travelblog no longer makes it easy to see all our 'fantastic' photos that we take so much time to include, title, write comments about, etc. on our blog. They are all there but not right along with the text. All you need to do is either scroll down about two pages or hit the page down key on your computer and 'voila' there are the rest of the pictures. We had not realized this until today when I asked Bill a question, "What does our blog look like to people who subscribe?" We Googled ourselves and were dismayed to see that only two of the pictures of the Puppet Museum were visible until we hunted DOWN the page and found them all sitting there virtually hidden from view. So, if you ... read more
The Children of Lidice - Their Tragic Story
Published: September 30th 2011Europe » Czech Republic » Central Bohemian Region » Lidice
June 25th 2011
The Rest of the Story In another entry on Lidice we talked about the destruction of the village and what happened to the men and women. That is only one part of this sad story. What about the children of Lidice? What happened to them? Were they spared? Did any survive? Read on ................. The Memorial to the Children The memorial to the children is one of the most moving pieces of artwork we have seen. Eighty-two bronze statues of the children, 42 girls and 40 boys, stand looking out over the meadow toward the place where the village stood. The looks on the faces of the older children show they are aware that a tragedy is unfolding before their eyes. The children and their mothers were gathered together and removed to another village so they ... read more
Lidice - a very sad history
Published: September 30th 2011Europe » Czech Republic » Central Bohemian Region » Lidice
June 25th 2011
June 25th, our last Saturday in Prague After almost eleven months in Prague, working at the IBTS seminary, we were fast approaching our return home date. Bill had been interested in the events surrounding the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Butcher of Prague. The village of Lidice came into history in a tragic way during the Nazi reprisals following his death. A Czech produced movie, named Lidice was released just in time for us to see it with our friend Marjon and this sparked a desire in all three of us to see the Lidice village memorial. This was out last chance to do so. Leaving from Dejvicka it is about a forty minute ride by public bus from Prague to Lidice. The route must be the same as that taken by the SS on what ... read more
June 10th 2011
Puppets, all kinds of puppets. One of the last things we did in Tallinn was to visit their puppet museum. Nancy's good English student, "V", in Prague is a Master Puppeteer. So she really wanted to see this museum and take pictures to show him. We first found out there was a puppet museum when we saw a 'Rube Goldberg' device in one of the show windows of the museum. It does all it's fantastic moves once an hour and we happened to walk past at the right time. We were quite hungry for lunch and were on our way to a really interesting African restaurant. We ate first and then returned to enjoy a fascinating trip through the magic world of puppetry. As much as we enjoyed it we are sure any child would be ... read more
May 31st 2011
A Jewel of a City There is much to visit and see in Vilnius and, heaven knows, we walked many miles, went to museums, visited numerous churches and explored many streets to see as much as we could in our limited time there. It is not just the historic places that are interesting, life in general and events taking place are also interesting. Festival We were fortunate in that a folk festival was in progress the Saturday and Sunday we were there. The square in front of the town hall was full of folk craftsmen/women displaying and selling their wares. These were not factory mass-produced "trash" but the real thing, handcrafted items. Sadly we have seen the real hand made items disappear in similar stalls in Prague during times of festivals, such as Christmas and Easter ... read more
May 31st 2011
Location The Hill of Three Crosses lies just outside of Old Town Vilnius near the Upper Castle. It is not hard to get there even if you are walking, as we were. It is a bit tiring to get to the top on a hot day like today. Knowing that the probability of our being in Vilnius again is slight, we included it even if we were already pretty tired from walking for hours. In my opinion the major reason to visit the crosses is the view of the city from the top. Certainly you can see the crosses themselves quite well from other places. So, if you are in town I would say not to bother with the climb. We walked up the road since if there is a path through the woods we missed ... read more
May 30th 2011
Trakai, the Island Castle. The first time I saw pictures of Trakai I said to myself, "This is one place Nancy and I must visit!". It was so lovely it was hard to believe there was such a place on earth. Today my dream came true. Getting there. The best way to go to Trakai is by public bus. There are frequent buses that leave from the main station and arrive at the village about 40 minutes later. From the Trakai bus station to the island castle you have an enjoyable 2 kilometer walk through the village. There are tour buses to Trakai which would be much more expensive than the public buses. Also by tour bus you have to follow the schedule of the tour. We enjoyed the freedom to go when we wanted and ... read more
May 29th 2011
ICON OF THE HOLY MOTHER OF MERCY After stowing our things in the hotel we struck out to see the sights and sites of Vilnius. We knew the general direction of the old part of the city and headed that way. After walking four or five blocks we saw an arch through a high wall. Nancy couldn't bear to stay on the same side of the street where we were and ignoring this interesting looking arch. So, she asked if we could 'Please just go over and look through that arch'. It turned out to be the entrance to Ausros Vartai Street. Later I read this is called the Gate of Dawn. It looked to be an interesting way to walk so we passed through. Walking on, down a slight downgrade, we turned to see the ... read more
May 28th 2011
May 28th to May 31st. We have wanted to visit the Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for a number of years. Through the years at IBTS we have been blessed with meeting and becoming friends with a number of people from these countries. This year we decided we would visit this area of the world. After all we are not getting any younger and there is no guarantee we will ever be back in Europe. We like to travel by train, but this was not a viable option given our time restraints. It is possible to go by train from Prague to Vilnius, but it requires a number of changes and quite a bit of time. It is also possible to go by bus ... but riding on a bus for 48 to 51 hours ... read more
May 6th 2011
The Heiligenkreuz Abbey The stones we walked today have been ambled on, walked on, run on, shuffled on, stumbled on or tripped over for 922 years. This monastery was first established in 1133, almost a thousand years ago. Whenever I am in such a place I have a sense of awe. What if these stones could talk? The stories they could tell of good and bad times and of times in between. Times of war. Times of peace. And, most horrific of all, in my mind, during the Black Plague when up to one third of all Europeans died quickly but miserably of this terrible disease. Just as in every village and city we have visited in Central and Eastern Europe there is a Plague Memorial at the Abbey. Our friends live only a mile or ... read more
Bill and Nancy
| Joined | December 11th 2004 | Trips | 3 |
| Last Login | April 23rd 2012 | Followers | 0 |
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Trips
Summer at the Baptist Seminary in Moscow
July 11th 2008 -» July 28th 2008
Fall in Prague 2009
September 21st 2008 -» January 1st 2009
Prague, August 2010 to June 30, 2011 -- working, teaching, playing.
August 9th 2010 -» July 1st 2011
July 11th 2008 -» July 28th 2008
Fall in Prague 2009
September 21st 2008 -» January 1st 2009
Prague, August 2010 to June 30, 2011 -- working, teaching, playing.
August 9th 2010 -» July 1st 2011
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