Sunday, November 23, 2008

Kurfurstenbad

Amberg has an awesome kurfurstenbad, aka public pool. I'm not even sure I would call call it a pool, because it is more of a complex with several pools, some hot tubs, and many, many other fun surprises. Cameron and I went on friday night, and still cannot get over impossible it would be to have this sort of fun in America.
First let me describe the complex. Indoors there is a lap pool, a deep pool where people were scuba diving, a pool for water aerobics, a kiddie pool, and a very large pool with various waterfalls, alcoves with jets, and other fun surprises. 
The pool continues outside (yes, even in the winter) where there are more jets, waterfalls, and a very strong lazy river that pulls you around in large circles.
This pool has to be the coolest thing ever open to the public. Buuuut it could never be this fun in America, because someone would sue the city and ruin it for everyone. For example- there aren't lifeguards everywhere; there are a couple of people sitting in a glass room playing with their cell phones and surfing the web. In the middle of the very strong lazy river there is a huuuuge rock that could do some serious damage. There is nobody monitoring the water slide- just a red light that turns green when it is safe to go down. I did not see a single "no diving" sign, warning sign about the dangers of hot tubs, or even the depth of the pool posted anywhere. We kept pointing different things out and saying "you could never do that in America"...
What's the deal? What is it about Americans that they can't take responsibility for their own actions, so that maybe we could have a totally awesome public pool?
Check out more pictures on the Kurfustenbad website.
Oh yeah, and there is a cafe poolside- in America they would need to post a warning about waiting 2 hours before swimming after eating.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

"Czech" it out!! (part 2)

The puns I can make with "Czech" are endless and not very creative. Along with all the historical sightseeing Cameron and I did, we also went to two museums- the Communism museum and the Chocolate museum. Both were interesting, but only one had free samples. Yumm. The Communism museum was educational, but it would have held my attention more had it had more propaganda and visual aspects, instead of the verbose history lessons accompanying pictures of important communists. As an extra jab in the ribs to communism, the museum is located in a building whose other two inhabitants are a McDonalds and a casino. Ha-Ha!
The chocolate museum held my attention quite well. There was a section on the history of chocolate, a movie on the harvesting of coco beans and the procedure for making them into chocolate (and bark to munch on while watching) , and an exhibit with chocolate wrappers throughout the years. My favorite (besides the samples) were the posters discrediting some myths about chocolate...
And the chocolate chapstick Cameron got me... not very good for moisturizing the lips, but a delicious snack!
We also went on a guided pup crawl to some of Prague's oldest breweries. There is a pub in the house an executioner lived in (eating meat was not advised) and is said to haunt every night at midnight. We also tasted the original Budweiser, which was never exported until recently and has had problems with a beer of similar name but poorer taste, and had a beer at U Fleku, a beer hall dating back to 1499. The picture below is of Cameron holding a glass of the "original" Budweiser.
On our way home, we stopped at the famous "spa town" of Carlsbad on the Czech/German border. I was hoping for hot springs to rest my sore legs in, but much to my disappointment the hot springs I had read all about are just bad tasting water fountains. Scattered around the town are twelve wells flowing with mineral water formed by geological fault lines. The water is supposed to have healing powers, and people sit around
 them sipping the warm, sometimes hot, spring water from little porcelain cups. To me it tasted like warm sea water and the mineral build up on the faucets and catch basins was a turn off, but Cameron was braver and tried several of the different springs.
Here I am sipping from my cup in front of a very steamy mineral water fountain. The whole atrium was warmed by the shooting water, making it quite cozy.
These large wafers are a popular accompanist to the mineral water. We tried a lemon one, and it was a lot better tasting than it looks!
We will "Czech" ya later!

Prague? Czech!

Cameron finally got a 4 day weekend, so we hopped in our Opel and headed for Prague (thank God for GPS!).  We were both looking forward to getting a new stamp in our passports, buuuut there was no check point, not even a sign saying "Welcome to the Czech Republic!"; we were rather disappointed.  Prague was very tourist oriented and there were crowds of people everywhere. All the menus and museum exhibits were translated into several different languages, and we didn't meet a single person who didn't speak English. Our hotel concierge spoke at least 3 languages that I over heard- Czech, English, and Italian. McDonalds and KFC were also all over the city and along the highways. The Czech currency, koruna, is a pain. A beer is about 45, a meal in the 200 range, etc. Thus, holding a 2,000 note is not as exciting to the Czech as it is to us.
This is the Astronomical Clock Tower in the center of Prague. I'm not sure how to read the face, but there are skeleton figurines on both sides of the tower. Every hour those figurines pull ropes that open the two little doors above the large face, and disciples parade around in a circle. Every time we were there around an hour mark, there was a crowd of people craning their necks to get a glimpse. 
These are views from the top of the Clock Tower. Unfortunately, it was raining and cloudy for the majority of our trip. Off in the distance is the Prague Castle and surrounding buildings. There is even an imitation Eiffel Tower, but it was too foggy to see. The fog gave an even more creepy atmosphere to the historic city.
On Sunday we walked up to the Prague Castle with St. George's Basilica and the surrounding Palaces. The Castle had historic rooms open to visitors with information about the Castle's historic past and the kings that inhabited it. The Castle is guarded by soldiers much like London's beefeaters, only without the funny hats. These guards have to fight through the tourists to change positions hourly, and we saw one woman get whacked by a guards' arm when she didn't get out of the way fast enough. The guard cracked a smile but quickly resumed his stone-faced expression.
And this is why Europeans are not obese. We walked up a steep street to get to the Castle complex, but took these stairs down. I was pooped!
The famous Golden Lane is also located within the Castle complex. This mini street and the houses (shops now, of course) date back to the 15 century. The houses are very small, and Cameron had to watch his head in several of them. Walking down the Golden Lane presented a good image of how neighborhoods must have looked centuries ago (just not the goods being sold!).
This is a view from the Charles Bridge at night. The bridge was built in 1357 and over the years has had thirty six Baroque saints added to its architecture. This foot bridge is obviously very popular with tourists and is undergoing some renovations, so we couldn't get a picture good enough to grace this fantastic blog.