On the advice of a friend, I took the free walking tour of the city this morning. Knowing how the free tours operate, I wasn't expecting much, but it did give me some of the highlights in between plugs for their other, not-free tours. Also met a Brit on the tour, got to chatting as he was from Leeds (not far from York, for those of you who need an explanation - York being where I did my MA). Agreed to meet him later to do the beer tour in the evening. After all, it's Munich. And while I'm not a beer fan, when in Ro... Munich... do as all the silly tourists do, right? In between, I found some kids' sized jerseys. Sadly, in white, but in my size nonetheless. After a brief consultation via ... read more

I had sort of intended to go on one of Kate's tours. I brought it up, she looked at her work schedule, and promptly advised against it. She was scheduled to do the Third Reich tour today, which is fine if you're into the Third Reich, but if you are looking for a more general introduction to Berlin, not so much. Instead, she told me which guides from her company would be good to tour with, and also pointed out a partner company that did walking tours. I chose the latter and am quite glad I did. The tour was meant to be a four-hour tour, starting at 10:30. The guide was fabulous, really knew his stuff, and I know we finished more than 30 minutes later than intended. But I'd never have guessed if I ... read more

This morning was a bit of a repeat of yesterday... In the sense that the first thing I did was take the tram up to the Castle. This time, however, I bought admission and rented an audioguide for a couple of hours. The tour was fairly interesting, although I have to admit I was kind of disappointed to learn that St. Vitus' cathedral is mostly a 19th and 20th century structure. I was still fascinated by the reliquaries and such, since they were mostly housed in the older sections of the Cathedral, and the tomb/relics of St. Wenceslas was pretty impressive. The one thing I need to figure out, but didn't, was how this Wenceslas fits with the guy who's in the Christmas carol. I'm sure Google will find me the answer. The castle also housed ... read more

Today has been emotional, to say the least. It started out with a trip to Orava Castle, an absolutely beautiful castle/palace built on a hill in the Orava region, bits dating back as far as the 13th century, and still fairly intact. It was another sort of museum where you followed a guide around from room to room, without being able to wander freely, but I can certainly see why in this case. Not so much to protect from theft or anything as to prevent people from getting lost (the place is huge!) or hurt (there are still open archaeological excavations on site). Not only that, but it was raining, and wood and stone have a tendency to get slippery when wet. Next we ventured on to Podbiel, and stopped at the town hall. The travel ... read more

I lied. I'm beginning to understand Slovakian. At least enough to catch the bits that are similar to English or French. There are enough that I can now tell when Marian us talking about his English-speaking (or French) Canadian tourist, and the odd other word here and there (allegory of Venus was one I caught today). I wonder if Rosetta Stone does Slovakian. Maybe I could pick up some more... Today was spent wandering in and around Banska Stiavnica. Not far from my hotel was a memorial/prayer column , the plague column. Rather more Baroque than I'd thought it would be, but then, there was more than one wave of plague starting in the early 1300s, and finishing in the 1600s or perhaps even later, I'm not sure. I should really have asked. Ah well, maybe ... read more