Blogs from Malá Strana, Prague, Czech Republic, Europe

Our second day in Prague started with the usual battle in the shower. I don't know why, but both the bathrooms in Vienna and Prague had a miniscule glass partition in the shower that didn't even cover half of it. It was a daily struggle to take a shower whilst making sure that water didn't flood the bathroom floor completely. Try as I may, it seemed the darned optional hand held shower head would point to the corner, which wasn't properly sealed. Then we set out on a mission! We had been told to make it to the Castle District by 11 AM, or we would be waiting in long security lines. There are three entrances but, truthfully, I'm not sure which one we went to. Our trusty google map led us through some of the ... read more

Mosaic House is a very nice hostel which is well worth the slightly higher than average costs for a 4 bed en-suite (a bargain at about €35pppn), it's very modern, has great bathrooms and has a good vibe to it. It's clearly been recently renovated and they have probably spent a fair bit of money doing so. They should have pushed the boat out just a little further and sprung for soft close doors! It sounded like a building site outside our room this morning thanks to the hallway door slamming off its hinges ever 30 seconds! Apparently our hungover roomies didn't mind as he were still soundos, so we showered and packed up quietly and popped down stairs for another decent brekkie. We also, finnaly, got around to booking an AirBnB place for Barcelona where ... read more

As expected we wake to 15C and rain. So it is off up the hill to Prague Castle, walking gingerly on the shiny damp cobblestones. The tourist groups are here early, especially our friends from the PRC in groups of 50 or so, always keen not to lose contact with their comrades so they tend to move as one fluid mass. The pouring rain stops the use of the selfie sticks though which is something. We join the queue for the cathedral which looks interminable but in fact moves quite quickly. The cathedral was begun in 1338 but not consecrated until 1929, which left us a little unclear as to what happened in the intervening 600 years! Maybe the numerous side chapels were consecrated. Anyway, some of the reliquary and side chapels are very impressive, especially ... read more

This week we have finished up our classes at Anglo-American University, and we are finalizing our preparations to begin phase 3 of our summer trek...our walk on the Camino de Santiago. In addition to teaching his classes this week, on Tuesday evening Ray spoke at the inaugural event for the AAU Center for Leadership Studies which he has been tapped to direct. As an out-of-class experiential learning activity last weekend, Ray took some of the students from his AAU leadership class to a high ropes course to practice cooperative learning activities. This was the first time any of the students had participated in a high ropes course, and--by their report--was a great learning experience. Here is the link to a short video showing some of the elements Ray worked on with the students: https://youtu.be/xFRK7gF_MGk Our classes ... read more

We both slept very hard, didn’t wake up until the alarm went off at 7. Breakfast is included in the price of our room here so we took advantage of that. I want to explain what breakfast means in Europe for those that may not know or for those of you that are not on my e-mail list and might just be reading this for hints about travel. When breakfast is included in the price of the room, do not expect pancakes, oatmeal, omelets or bacon and eggs; those are American breakfast items. What you get varies from hotel to hotel and country to country, but the basics are pretty much the same: Bread, pastries, yogurt, granola or some cold cereal, coffee (usually Nescafe), juice and cheese. On occasion you may get soft boiled or hard ... read more