Prague surprised me. I didn’t know much about Prague, and I wouldn’t have included it in our itinerary, except that Maricela’s sister had spent a semester there during her college years and often spoke highly of it. So we included a two-day stop there, and we’re glad we did. There is so much history and beauty here!
Everywhere you turn, the architecture is beautiful in Prague
Soon after we arrived, we did what we generally do upon arriving in another country, find an ATM and withdraw some local funds. Prague is a big city so we had no trouble finding an ATM. I requested the equivalent of about $300 US, and the machine asked if I wanted to select what denomination bills or if I wanted to take the default denominations determined by the machine. I didn’t think much of it and selected the default. Unfortunately, it dispensed one large bill worth nearly $300! Our next stop was to find a place to eat. Before being seated, we asked at a restaurant if they would have change for our $300 bill, and they did, so our problem was solved.
We signed up for a walking tour that we found on the Experiences section of the AirBnB site and the guide did an amazing job. Read the captions on the following photos for a few random facts shared during our tour.
Originally, this statue was named, “Statue of liberty”. It was renamed by the communists as “Statue of a woman holding a torch while riding a lion”, a name so long and meaningless that it is assumed people will ignore it.The designer of this tower failed to depict any poor people. As a result, he was given the death penalty. Another designer, of a nearby church, faced a different fate – his creation was so magnificent, the authorities blinded him so that he couldn’t create a similar, competing masterpiece for another locale.The towers on this church are known as the Adam and Eve towers. Eve is the slightly larger one on the right. The church was completed in 1251 AD.Just to the right of the center of the photo is a statue of stylized flames. It was made to remember a man who set himself on fire and ran around the square to protest the rise of communism. His family didn’t want to memorialize him so much as they wanted to remember his ideas. Prague castle is said to be the largest in the world. It took 1100 years to build, from 820 to 1929, and was built in many different styles.
We rented a car in Copenhagen, took a ferry to Germany, and drove to our first stop, in Berlin. We had hoped that by renting a car and doing our own driving we would get to see more of each country, including small towns, countryside and local residents. Unfortunately, we ended up driving primarily on large interstate highways. This made for fast, efficient travel, but it was less picturesque than we had hoped for.
A thatched roof house in the Danish countryside
One of the first places we visited in Berlin was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. There are 2,711 gray stone blocks of various sizes. A fellow traveler, visiting from Australia, summed it up in one word: Confronting.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Berlin Wall – only a few remnants have been preserved. However, they have installed a walkway throughout the city, marking where the wall formerly stood. There are a lot of reminders all around the city of damage that was caused during the war.
A section of the Berlin Wall that remains standingRemains of a church in Berlin, damaged by World War II bombs
We found a great café around the block from our AirBnB. The food appeared to be carefully prepared, the atmosphere was relaxed, and the prices were reasonable. We also found a good restaurant for dinner. The menu was available only in German, although the helpful waitress spoke English well. Maricela and I each just selected an item at random from the menu, hoping we would like it. Thankfully it worked out well for both of us. An interesting thing after the meal – we left the helpful waitress a tip of about 15%; she came and talked to us and told us the tip amount was too much. Imagine that happening in the US! (In the end, we convinced her to keep the full amount.)
Traffic and parking were a bit of a challenge, but we survived unscathed.
We arrived in New York City a couple of days ago. As we got close to the city, traffic was so bad that it took about an hour and a half to drive the last eight miles. This reinforced our decision to not drive in NYC again until we were leaving. So we parked the van and the next day we purchased a weekly pass for the subway system; that’s all we’ve been using to explore the city.
Our experience with New York City transit was very good. We visited in early spring, in late March, and it snowed a couple of times during the week we were there. Our AirBnB was within walking distance from at least two subway stations (there may have been another station on another line, but we never had a need to look for it). After a short walk to one of the stations, which was easy enough even when it was snowing, trains showed up quickly and brought us anywhere in the city. It took us about 45 minutes to get from our AirBnB to anywhere in Manhattan.
Walking through snow toward the subway
Having lived in the Bay Area and ridden BART – the Bay Area Rapid Transit system – for many years, it’s interesting to see the differences between the two subway systems. For the most part, I would rate the New York system as superior. Not just for the obvious reason that the NYC metro system is much more extensive than BART, but the daily user experience is a bit better in various ways too.
For example, look at the photo below. In many of the NYC train cars, there is a map of the line you’re on, and it has little lights to show what stops remain in the direction you’re headed. One by one they go out as you leave for the next station. Plus, announcements are made over the PA system in the trains and passengers can actually hear and understand what is being said; this is often not the case on BART.
Subway directions sign
A one-way ride to anywhere in NY costs $2.75. On BART a one-way ticket from Pleasanton to San Francisco costs about $6.50, and that’s not the most expensive ride. Alternatively, in NY you can purchase an unlimited weekly pass for $32.00, which allows as many on and off trips as you want. There’s no such thing as an unlimited pass on BART.
Most importantly, trains run very frequently. Some lines run every 2-5 minutes! On BART, the train to Pleasanton runs every 15-20 minutes, depending on whether it’s peak travel time or not.
Other small things:
In NY, you need to swipe your card to enter the station but not to exit. This speeds up the exit process over BART.
Noise – have you noticed that the noise on some BART cars is deafening? The NY train cars are much quieter; not so quiet you forget you’re on a train, but at least they won’t make you go deaf.
Why does BART insist on having padded seats? Padded seats are harder to keep clean and easier to vandalize. NY has traditional, hard plastic seats, which are fine for commuting and easier to maintain.
The main area where BART surpasses the NY subway is that the ClipperCard ticket system is nicer to use than paper tickets, which NY still relies on. And finally, as dirty as BART is, it seems to be slightly cleaner overall than the NY system.
We’re having a great time exploring New York by train!
