Last night Nancy and I went to the meeting that was hosted by the Czech government and the American Embassy. The purpose of the meeting was to explain the new Visa rules. Everything is topsy-turvy because at the end of 2007 the Czech Republic became a full member of the Schengen States. Currently the Schengen States include 24 European Union countries and four non EU countries. If you are a citizen of one of these countries the agreement makes life much simpler as you can travel, with no border checks, in any of these countries. It is somewhat like going from [View Full Entry]

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Perhaps the most famous church in Prague is the Church of our Lady Victorious more commonly called The Church of the Infant Jesus. It is not the largest church, nor the most ornate but it holds an attraction unmatched by other churches in the city and that is a wax statue of the infant Jesus. This statue was brought in 1627 to Prague by the Lobkowicz family. A bride in this family brought the statue from Spain initially. We love visiting this church not just to have a place to pray but often to see Fr. Anastasio a priest who is [View Full Entry]

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There is a one room museum in the Wallenstein Palace that though small has some neat items on display. The displayed items are almost all of military items, swords, pistols, pre-rifle long guns and several military manuals. Pictures hanging on the walls show events of long ago, most are not happy events. There were some really tough times to be alive in the past. [View Full Entry]

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Since our first visit to Prague as tourists in 2004, we have watched as the Schwarzenbersky Palace has been brought back to life. When we first saw the palace, it looked miserable and not at all like a fancy building. Within the Castle area it was probably the building in the worst state of repair. Our Czech tour guide told us this property was still in the hands of the state but the private owners were trying to work through the legal process of reclaiming it after the years of Soviet domination when so much private property became state owned. It [View Full Entry]

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Sunday Feb. 3rd Almost Chinese New Year, almost Bill’s birthday, just a day after Groundhog Day (he saw his shadow here in the morning too even though it got cloudy and snowed for about 2 minutes later in the day. What a wonderful Sunday! Actually the wonderful part started yesterday. We worked from about 8 till close to 1:15 in the library and set off up the hill to get our coats and head downtown. It was so cold, so windy and SO humid with that little bit of snow coming down. We looked at each other and said, “It’s the [View Full Entry]

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Bill writing --- As soon as I got up I looked out the window to see if Nancy's prayer had been answered with rain or sunshine. Outside I saw that the sun was rising in a cloudless blue sky and though I could not call the morning balmy it was warmer than I had any right to expect this far north in January. "A good day for tourists," I thought, "and I hope a good one for visa applicants." We showered and as quickly as we could, got ready for breakfast. Breakfast at the Hotel Martha was very good, hard boiled [View Full Entry]

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Well the easy days of an extended visa are over, gone, done away with by politicians. Gone are the days when all we had to do to get a 90 day extension was to ride the train to Dresden, or Vienna or Salzburg go into the train station, buy a cup of espresso and a nice pastry and get on the next train heading back to Prague and as the train entered the Czech Republic a new 90 day visa was stamped into our passports. It was nice, oh so nice while it lasted. All that changed with the Czech Republic [View Full Entry]

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January 20, 2008 What an unusual 4 days we have had. I’ll try to catch you up all in one blog entry. On the 16th promptly at 4:10 (just when she said she would) Carole Price drove us out of our driveway at the beginning of our adventure. We had planned to ride public transportation to BWI but Carole had offered to take us and at the last minute we had decided two extra hours at home finishing all the last minute things was better than sitting in a van and at the airport for two hours. We had already finished [View Full Entry]

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One of the wonderful things about living in Annapolis is the Chesapeake Bay and the waters that surround our city. Each Christmas time local sailors enjoy themselves with decorating their boats, yachts and dinghies for the holidays. They may have Santa Claus and reindeer or Christmas Trees or Hannakuk lights or tropical scenes complete with Saint Nick on the beach. Some animate animals or people or toys and have elaborate movements in the scenes on their boats. Now no one goes to all this trouble and then is content to leave their handiwork at a dock somewhere. So on an early [View Full Entry]

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On September 30, 2007 the community of West Annapolis held its annual Octoberfest. Yes, I know. It wasn’t October yet but who cared? It was close and the weather was absolutely, positively perfect (as long as a prolonged drought is your idea of perfect). The sun was shining and if you had even a tiny bit of shade it was cool and comfortable. The streets were roped off so no cars could drive through and they were lined with games for children, beautiful art work by local arts and craft persons and yummy foods for those who came to spend a [View Full Entry]

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