Spotty wifi is already an issue, so signing off now - ciao.

I wanted to leave our Prague visit largely unstructured, in part because we would need to get over the jet lag, and in part because the river cruise has its own agenda of tours. But I knew also that there is a fascinating story of the Jewish community in this Central European city, and so we engaged a private guide for a 3 hour walking tour. Olga met us at our hotel yesterday morning, and since the hotel is a mere 5 minutes from the Josefov area of the Jewish quarter, it was a short walk over to begin the tour. Nestled in the blocks of an area now given over to elegant shops are several synagogues of an earlier time. Olga was a wealth of information, and it was both fascinating yet not without poignant reminders of a community decimated by the horrors of the Final Solution. We will be taking a similar journey in Budapest, and it was a morning well spent in history.

After the tour, Ned put on the leader cap and took Dana, David and I on an adventure to find a micropub mentioned in his Lonely Planet book - it took us on the Prague subway, and we found ourselves at what is billed the smallest micropub in the Czech Republic. David and Ned had to try at least 3 pivos, and we were also glad to have a delicious lunch as well - venison goulash was mine. Subway ride back to Old Town Square.

Some of us decided to head over to St. Nicholas Church for an afternoon trumpet/organ concert; it was an hour long, featured Handl, and had the best accoustics I have heard - amazing.

Swtiching gears for the evening, we made a reservation at Chez Marcel, a French bistro nestled in an area not far from Old Town Square; the French Embassy is here, and you see boulangeries selling pastries, a wine shop, Louis Vitton, etc. We drank house wine and tried the mussels, steak frites, quiche, salmon - a change from pivo and schnitzel. And with that another day in Prague comes to a close.

Rachel told her father he would only need one Czech word for his stay in Prague: pivo, which means beer. Given his language abilities, we are going to stick to this.

First morning in Prague means finding our traveling crew (old friends Dana & Ned, Rhonda and her sister from Iowa, Emilie) at breakfast, and as 4 of us had just arrived, there were some housekeeping chores to do when we set off for the day. Luckily for us there was a tourist office just across the way in Old Town Hall (we see brides in white several times a day), and we purchased a Prague Card for museum/sites entrance, then walked to a Metro station to get a 3 day transportation card. From there it was a lovely stroll across the Charles Bridge to get to the tram stop for the Prague Castle. Tram 22

The castle is a huge complex on the hill overlooking the city. We stroll through the basilica with hordes of school groups on field trips, and see a few other buildings. It is past mid-day, and that old jet lag is creeping up; some of us decide to walk down the hill to Male Strana for lunch, and down the cobblestones was quite the adventure, we go through the Gold Lane and past a small vineyard, back to the tram and finally find the brew pub. Turns out it is near the American Embassy and we see the Polizia mirror sweeping the undersides of cars. A bit more pivo with lunch, and Ned has the infamous Prague pork knuckle.

I think there was some put the feet up time before dinner, and we meet up again with Rhonda & Emilie for our walk to Kolkovna, a short distance and towards the Jewish quarter where we will be touring tomorrow. Dinner was good, service was extremely slow and it was close to 10 before we actually ate. Tonight I tried both a red and white Czech wine; this may not be Italy but the wines were decent. so tired tonight I do not hear the clock chime past midnight.

In two more days we will get to the river boat and I think the wifi may be very spotty while we cruise to Budapest. With Facebook I feel like I am sending a postcard here and there, and yet this blog calls me to get more in depth. And I am reading the latest Donna Leon on my Ipad, so perhaps I am in Italy this trip after all.

The last part of our long journey into Prague was relatively easy, even though it involved a shuttle bus to the tarmac for our flight and a bit of rain delay; the flight was short and we were rather charmed to be served a proper British tea. No lines, luggage or immigration at the airport, and the hotel driver was waiting for us. From touchdown to check in was under an hour, and the sun was just setting.

We are a bit dismayed to find our hotel, the Grand Hotel Praha, chosen for its charm and location in Old Town Square, is under construction: scaffolding covers the front and obscures our view of the Astronomical Clock. As I type this in the early morning there is a worker perched outside my window, and he is not exactly quiet. Profuse apologies from management; apparently they have no control as to when the government allows them to do this, or so the oddly translated note in our room states. We knew the square would be noisy, but we have one of the layers of window glass removed and we know we are going to hear the noise from the square as well. The hotel itself is charming, our room spacious and the bathroom newly remodeled. It's going to be an "ah well travel" experience.

We are really tired at this point, but I take a quick shower and we go out in search of dinner. We decide to walk off the square, and to my surprise, find a place that I recognize from my notes. It's small, and full, but there is one table left, lucky us. Pilsners, schnitzels and salads later, we walk back to the hotel as it begins to rain. We have yet to see one set of traveling companions and know the others are still in the air; plan to find everyone at breakfast in the morning. In spite of the cafe noise outside, we sleep.

We have made it to London and are currently in the Concorde Lounge, BA Terminal 5, waiting for our flight to Prague in two hours. The Concorde Lounge is courtesy of David deciding to splurge on First Class FF tickets, and while it is quite nice, I know I cannot get used to this. I think Business is a splurge, seriously.

We seemed to have either learned a few travel tricks or have been very lucky so far; perhaps it is the bonus of both of us being able-bodied, err knee, this year. Car pick up was on time, no line at LAX, and a fairly smooth crossing of the pond to London. Certain things in First were
interesting, besides the flat bed: FA's offered pj's to wear as well as a bed make-up, turn down sort of service. Service was excellent, food was ok (expected better), wines were fine. Between boarding, dinner, and lights out, hardly time to read, and no movie time either.

Concorde lounge is very elegant, there is even a terrace that looks out over the shopping mall. Instead of the buffet service in the Business lounge, there is a sit down restaurant, and a full service bar. My favorite thing to do when transitting through LHR is to sit and read all of the British newspapers; yesterday on the plane I learned that Wayne Rooney, soccer star, had a hair transplant. Who knew?

So far David has taken a shower and we have had lunch - yummy British cheeses, French bubbly and Bordeaux. Still have a few hours, and I feel like I could use a nap, never sleep much on planes no matter how flat a seat I might have.

Onward to Prague, where I sincerely hope our luggage meets us at the carousel. Two of our fellow travelers are in Prague already, then other two are flying BA 4 hours behind us.

Tomorrow we start another travel adventure, but it was definitely with mixed emotions that we chose another path for our journey this year. And it has been a whole year since I have written on these pages, a year filled with family excitement as we embraced the engagement of our youngest daughter, welcomed a new grandson and spent wonderful time watching the older grandbabies grow into toddlers. So where are we going this year?

When we arrived home from Italy last summer, and some may remember that we took this trip with David's last minute, unexpected knee surgery, which meant it was an interesting experience, what with my driving, and using mobility services in airports in three countries, I felt that perhaps we should think of a gentler trip for 2011. We had enjoyed our Alaskan cruise a few years back, and I had been thinking of river cruises in Europe for awhile. Talking about it with friends, we found that a few were interested in joining us, and that is how we came to our decision. We did some research on river boat cruise lines, called the travel agent who had booked Alaska and there we were. David took charge of arranging air travel with our FF miles (more later on that), and I began the research for our pre and post days in Prague and Budapest as we had decided to be independent travelers there, and not sign up for the cruise options. Tomorrow we fly to Prague, and so today I really should finish the packing, the lists, and the other lists.

And since we are hosting a wedding come September, this will be our only big trip this year. Please don't tell Italy we aren't coming for awhile.

At the end of two weeks, we are ready to go home. David has been a trooper with his knee, yet I know that if AA had been able to change our flights, we would have cut a few days off the trip . It's been fun, but hard and painful for him at times. So we are ready.

Having scoped out the departures terminal at Malpensa yesterday, we know where we are heading when the shuttle drops us off, and more importantly, we know where the luggage carts are. The person at BA check in insists that we get a chair for David, and she is so right, it is a very long walk to the departure gate. We have a last Italian caffe; my first in a 'take-away' cup.

2 airlines (BA/AA one world alliance), 3 countries and 4 airports later, we arrive at LAX - it's been 24 hours and counting since we woke up in Italy. I know I made a comment earlier that I thought the AA food service had slipped since our last trip, well not on the London to Boston run, it was far better than our trip over, so I guess, as with any airline, it is variable. The mobility services that we used in all airports were again gracious and necessary; at Logan Airport in Boston there was even an immigration line reserved for wheelchairs. We got a few glances and pauses as the officer considered our declaration of 10 bottles of wine, but in the end he stamped us on our way. All our luggage arrived home with us, nothing broken, nothing missing.

So it was a good adventure, yes, a different one, but am glad we went. Now to start planning next year's vacation; at the moment, for me, a river trip somewhere in Europe sounds very relaxing.

Arrivederci.

In the original game plan we had let this last day in Italy be fairly unstructured. We have a car to return to the Malpensa airport by 6 pm, and we are spending our last night at the First Hotel as we had our first night two weeks ago. Oh, and I had planned that we would eat dinner at the recommended La Quercia next door to the hotel.

So with an unplanned day, we could have done any number of things: visited a town or two that we had missed, take a drive to one of the lakes not far from Malpensa or . . .
But then the mobility issue kicks in, and by breakfast our last morning at La Favorita we know we are done – tired, sore (David), in need of some rest before our long flight day on Sunday. So our decision is to pack (or repack), load the car, drive to the hotel, leave the luggage there while we either take a drive, have lunch, or just return the car.

First Hotel Malpensa

Refuge from the downpour

Local church

The car is returned, the hotel picks us up and we spend the rest of the afternoon in our quiet, cool, room, using the internet and watching soccer on Sky. In the early evening we walk next door to La Quercia (on Tripadvisor #1 of 1 restaurants in Somma Lombardo). It is also recommended by fellow Slow Travelers.

La Quercia dining room

It is a charming place, with a dining room that reminds me of another era, staffed by elderly gentlemen. They have what looks like a wonderful antipasto buffet but we are more tired than hungry. David has a risotto for a primi and I have the faro and vegetable soup; it is actually cool enough for soup. We both have the cottoletto Milanese, with a mixed salad and sautéed spinach in lemon and oil. Over dinner we casually talk about ideas for our next trip.

Our last dinner in Italy:

Farro and vegetable soup, delicious on a cool evening

Veal cutlet a la Milanese

Spinach with lemon and olive oil

The dessert cart is loaded with beautiful pans of tiramisu, flan and something intriguing wrapped in a meringue, but we are truly full, and simply tired - early morning call, long day ahead of airports and airplanes, so we pass.

It is an early evening at the First Hotel; the shuttle is taking us and all of our luggage to
the airport at 5:30 am. We have had a most excellent adventure in Italy, especially since we were making limoncello out of lemons. Actually there has been no limoncello, but there has been a lot of delicious wine.

Arrevederci Italia and grazie mille for yet another beautiful adventure.

Waking to the morning after our winery day with Paolo, it is apparent to me that all of these wine bottles are not going to fit in our two suitcases and one small duffle bag, the duffle having been brought for 'overload'. And we all know that wine bottles are not going to be carried on, and today I miss those days.

After another delicious brunch breakfast under the pergola (photos of that below), I asked Roberta where in town we might buy an inexpensive suitcase; she gave us two suggestions, and that became our first order of business.

Truffles in Alba

I park David under an umbrella at the Caffe Duomo, and spend an hour strolling around Alba, getting a bit lost, which is always fine. When I return to the cafe, we decide to have lunch there, David has a gnocchi con pesto, and I am happy with a salade caprese. And a glass of the local white wine.

Lunch at Caffe Duomo

Since our afternoon plan is to return to Alba for the 4pm USA/Slovenia soccier game, we drive five minutes back to La Favorita and do some computer work and reading. We had found a bar with Sky satellite coverage after dinner in Alba the other evening, so we knew where we were heading. And we found a parking place even closer to the Duomo.

Team USA national anthem

The rest of our afternoon and evening in Alba can be called the bar/wine bar/cafe experience. There were beers for David and a Prosecco spritz for me during the tense soccer game. Then we meandered down the street to Vincafe (no pictures after soccer since someone had forgotten to recharge my camera) for the late afternoon 'happy' hour and town passegiata. So there was wine, and a plate of toasts with toppings, and then a complimentary antipasto buffet. Oh, and a few musicians set up and played for the passegiata.

And of course there was dinner to follow; we had one place picked out, but to be honest, nothing on the menu posted really appealed to me when I scouted it out, so we ended up at a little place around the corner from Vincafe, where we had pastas (finally tartuffo!), then I had grilled lamb chops and green beans, David a braised leg of pork and roasted potatoes.

The evening could have ended nicely there, but while walking back to the car, we passed our lunch cafe, and to our surprise, they had set up two large televisions for the evening soccer match, England/Algeria, a game David thought he would watch back in our room. It was a nice cool evening, and there was an empty table, so there under the Duomo, he had a few glasses of Moscato, and we then had our evening caffe.

We both really like Alba, it seems the perfect small city and I think we have now have it on the list of places to return to, places that we would like to spend more time in, and especially places we will see different when David and his knee are capable of strolling again.

Tomorrow we repack the clothes, the new purchases and our winery gifts, and begin the journey home. While we really have all day to return the car to the airport and check into our hotel, I think we are both tired, and think we will just take it as an easy day - our touring, excellent as it has been, is done. The trip home, with two connections, will be a very long day.

I have written about our day in Bologna with the Bluone Cooking School, today we have had the Paolo Ferrero tour of Piemonte. Paolo was recommended by our friends Shannon and Kim, who spent several days touring with Paolo earlier this year. We told him we wanted to visit wineries, and he put together a day for us that not only included 3 winery visits, but also visits to an artiginal pasta maker, a goat cheese farm, lunch in Barolo, a tour of Asti at night and for a grand finale, he cooked dinner for us at his home (with some of the artiginal pasta). It was a 14 hour day, covering Piemonte from Alba to Asti and parts in between on beautiful rolling roads that I was happy to be seeing from the back seat of Paolo's car. David was beside himself with the wine tastings.

Mauro and his pasta dryer - 8 hours to dry the 70 Kg.

Mauro's pasta