Adult, or not a kid?

Today I am going for synoptic. Not sure I'll get there. The rain cleared late Monday morning, so we ventured into downtown Dallas and saw the Kennedy site. Not much to tell -- Dealey Plaza has a couple monuments to Dealey, and the Book Repository is still there, with a museum in it, but much of the skyline has changed in the 58 years since. 

The lowlight was getting panhandled 3 times in a hour, and they were pretty aggressive.  In my mind, the most intense panhandling I've ever seen, and that includes London, Paris, Berlin, and New York.  

Then off to Fort Worth.  I will state the obvious: Dallas and Fort Worth are nothing alike!  Dallas is high rises and feels business like.  The central part of Fort Worth is more touristy and cowboy-friendly.  Near the stockyards the businesses were boots, hats, saddles, or bars/eateries. 

We ate at a biscuit place.  Just a half block from the stockyards building.  

Then we waited around for the 4 o'clock cattle drive, which is the tourist attraction in Fort Worth.  Cattle drive is "cattle drive" as this video attests.

You feel sad for the cows.  Not that the cowboys have much more energy.  (not sure if video is going to work -- new tech for me, and seemingly for "blogger" 😂)

Dinner was the culinary highlight of the week.  We made late reservations at Del Frisco's Double Eagle (double eagle seems to be a thing here) -- a steakhouse.  

We stopped for a wait-on-the-table drink; when it came time to settle up, there was a squabble over who was getting the bill.  Dbrolaw wanted it; so did the Kid.  "I got this," he says and his mom tells us all not to let him get it (🙄) and he says, "I'm an adult" and puts his card on the bill.  LoL. 

He had the rack of lamb, but the rest of us had steak.  This is the filet mignon with the night's special: lobster butter and chunks of lobster. 

The filet melted in your mouth -- almost like butter.  Not like meat at all.   Yum yum. 

We finished the night with a drink in the area (known as Sundance), which was dead and many places closed on Monday night. 

As we ordered, RR decided to supervise the Kid on drinks, to which he said "I am not a kid."  Discussion followed about the difference between this and the "adult" line earlier. 😂

Tuesday was pretty much a washout, with the rain continuing to late, late afternoon. 

We ate dinner at the Kid's golf club, which specializes in smoked meats.  And Tuesday was smoking day.  We all had some variation of the brisket -- here's RR's brisket plate with the mac and cheese.  

They also had ice cream for dessert, which was quite good.  They get some specialty stuff.  The wait staff didn't respond to my question about their arm being tired (Kids! don't know that you have to hand crank it to make it at home 😀.)

And now we are two days from going home.  😒

Not exactly food porn

Hi everyone! I'm back. As to the title, as you may recall, one of the features of this blog is what we have eaten in many venues, in many countries actually (you may remember that our last BIG trip, to Germany, Prague, and Zurich left us NOT wanting anymore German-style cuisine). Galveston has not been a winner so far. One might say that just being in Texas gives you little hope, but there's always Tex-Mex (see later) and BBQ. Nothing here has been haute, haute cuisine. Last night's dinner was very, very good and deserves kudos. So kudos. Let's start there. RR wanted to go the "Strand" and walk around. As is often the case with RR, where such a place actually is is a whole different question. We ended up in the historic district, which had some streets with little shops. I had seen a billboard (eating tip: this is NOT a great way to find a good place to eat) that claimed that this place was the "original Tex Mex restaurant in historic Galveston." The name is Taquilo's. That's where we ate. I start with a picture of the salsa.

You will note that the red salsa doesn't look like salsa. It was also warm. It was pretty spicy and had a texture...well, like beanless chili. It was verygood. My entree was delicious. Enchiladas with verde sauce.

That was a hit. And I got credit for finding it. While there, we looked at places nearby. Catty corner across the street was a place called Ruby & Paco. RR looked it up. It was seafood with a Latin American twist. She wanted to eat there. But they had a dress code! (WTF!). We went in after dinner (I violated their dress code, as I was wearing shorts) and tried to get res for tonight. "We have no openings." "Nothing?" "Nothing. You could come for lunch." I got the impression she looked down her nose at me in my shorts as she said this. "No, we are busy for lunch, sorry." So, no Latin inspired seafood. Instead, we had Miller's Seawall Grille. No, their specialty isn't really seawall. But it is right across from the Gulf. The food wasn't great, but it was okay. I had the flounder, fried, on top of "crab dressing." I think this is like a crab cake, but called a different thing. You can see it here.

The best part of dinner was our first dessert of the week -- a brownie ganache with ice cream. We couldn't eat it all.

And, finally, here's yesteday morning's attempt at pushing RR's "I'll try anything" mantra -- it was labeled a "bouda," which she told me had something and rice in the middle. I got the spicy. You see how much was eaten. :). But I did a Google search and I still don't know what it really was. So, there's our food adventure in Galveston. It ain't Berlin, but then where is, with curry dogs everywhere? I've been promised high end chow in Fort Worth. Okay, maybe not in THOSE words. :)

We're back -- in Texas. Go 'stros!

Yes, after 14 months (almost exactly) of hiatus due to "the 'rona," we are back on the road. In that prolonged period, known to RR ("recent retiree") as the "year of no fun," Mrs. Intrepid Traveller, yes, retired. Of course thinking that retiring meant lots of opportunities to travel. Whoops! Thanksgiving trip? Nope. Christmas trip? Nope. Spring break trip? There was no spring break on this year's semester calendar. Nope. May trip to London? Nope. You can see why she might be disappointed. Anyway, here we are in lovely (you can figure out if it is surrounded by air quotes or not) Galveston, TX. Why Galveston, you might ask? Well, we were coming down to see Kid 2, and Bro-law X and Sis-law numero uno, and wanted some beach time (there was none, absolutely none, last year -- the year of no fun). So we rented a condo on the water on Galveston Island. First, there's no beach here. The Gulf is across the road and it almost rolls onto the road at high tide, which is surprisingly not much higher than low tide. The Gulf. A strange thing. OTOH, it was 79 and windy when we got up yesterday morning. Can't say it wasn't warm enough. The effin' guy on WBRE weather kept talking about "a chance of snow flurries" last weekend. Where's my eye roll emoji? One of the things we decided to do on this trip, once it was clear it was possible, was to go see baseball games at the two Texas parks. Last night we went to Minute Maid (go 'Stros!) and saw a great game between the 'Stros and the Angels -- Houston broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 8th with 4 runs. And it was quick. Last night's ballpark was #22 as RR and I attempt the much envied "every ballpark" checklist. When we finish a mostly ballpark trip in early July to the southeast, we will be left with just 4 to visit -- Fenway and three on the West Coast. We really liked Minute Maid. One part we liked (which we were told we wouldn't like about Rangers Park next week) is that the park is right downtown and you can see the city through the big windows in the outfield. I guess they did away with the distinctive slope in centerfield some years ago, so it is not quite as quirky a field as it was when it opened. There's still a big wall of shrubbery behind the centerfield fence (not unusual in these newer ballparks, like Philly) and there are seats in a "box" in the leftfield corner -- the "Crawford Boxes" -- which make homers a bit easier to hit there. All-in-all, a good experience. I finish with a photo from our seats. This will be the first of several blogs this next ten days -- we fly home on the 21st -- but they won't be daily. That'd feel like work and RR (when does it become something other than "recent"???) isn't having any hint of that. :)

Summary Observations about Trip

We are home (if you’re reading this). I wrote this one on the plane, in an attempt to cover insights & details I didn’t have time or space for on any given day.

A quick admission: I went with no intention of blogging. I took neither laptop nor portable keyboard. This made it trickier than it needed to be. But both companions insisted I write one, the young one claiming “this is how we remember where we’ve been & what we ate.” She actually called it up twice to remind us of things that happened. 😃 & last night the other one was laughing at my account of the drunk stumbling thru the tram, which she missed. 🙂 that’s rewarding.

What more to say? We have some summary observations after 10 days in Europe: 

• We all agreed Prague was our favorite. The culture is old & impressive, & it’s not too expensive. Lunch Saturday was 1,000 “zlotnys” – or $44. For similar (Italian) fare yday in Zurich, it was $110.

  

  Prague Castle from across the river

• Berlin was our least favorite. Maybe because we were in old East Berlin, it had little charm. It was nice enough, with our favorite restaurant (the Royal Grill last Sunday) & some good museums – both antiquities museums & the modernist gallery were quite good, but we never warmed to it.  Even our flat was the nicest place we stayed in (except for Sat back in Berlin’s hotel), but… None of us really see a need or draw back (I wouldn’t go back to Prague either, btw)
• Central European food is not for us. Given the choice of it or Italian, having had Italian multiple times, we chose Italian. EH wisdom “even mediocre Italian is good.” (Corollary from her: don’t try Mexican food where you can’t get salsa in the grocery store [see Berlin]). We had local cuisine in both Berlin & Prague twice. Lots of sausage, breaded meats (eggplant schnitzel?!) & potato side dishes. Why they aren’t dead of cardio event by 60 is a curiosity.

  

  Goulash w/ potato dumplings

• The German/czech notion of paying for bathrooms is caw-caw. I have a small fortune invested in the one in Prague train station; every museum in Berlin either didn’t have one or charged. The Starbucks in Prague charged! (In fairness, a sign said they’d give customers the coin).  Criminitaly, as they used to say. I guess it fits w/their stereotype of being retentive 🤣
•   I look forward to a real shower. 10 days of hand-held, short things had been annoying
•  Both EH & KH wonder why Europeans (this is true in Britain too) don’t believe in top sheets on beds. Esp in warm temperatures.
•   Washcloths were rare. We wondered what they did instead
•   We never had trouble with people not speaking English. The taxi driver in Berlin the first day & the scheister in Prague the first day, but otherwise, everyone spoke enough English. Maybe except me.   
•  We found the Swiss very friendly. Even the Germans, who don’t have that rep, were friendly (caveat: no one is going to be nice when you’re a total d***f**k. Just sayin’. 🙂 & as for not liking Americans, never encountered any of that. Both Berlin & Prague were crawling w/ Americans – Viking river cruise ship was in Prague the one day.
• Not all airports are the same. Today in Zurich passport control was miles from security, then we did a TSA passport check at the gate. Yesterday in Berlin was a cluster. & it’s a wonderful thing not having to go thru customs from one European country to another. Only the Brits & Americans are crazy abt such things.
• Mass transit is a wonderful thing. We had day passes in all four cities & they worked great. We took trains from Berlin to Dresden, Dresden to Prague, Prague back to Berlin.  Even figured out how to make the Wi-Fi work on 3^rd trip 😃 we wished US had invested in mass transit infrastructure the same way. OC, Americans would rather pay lower taxes & drive cars. Short sighted.
•  Google maps ain’t good at bus stops in these countries. We wondered around last night & never found the stop in Oerlikon we were supposed to get on. There was an alternative. We did the same in Berlin one morning. Trust but verify 🙂

And that's it. It was a long ten/eleven days, but we had a great time, despite pretty much collapsing every late afternoon, then after dinner, every night.  European travel is big on walking (maybe it's true of USA, too, if you don't have a car). Where we go next is very much up in there, so...till next time.

" We are never coming back to this airport, or flying Swiss Air, or..."

As you can tell by the title, the morning did NOT start well (understatement).

But we got to Zurich & found it a lovely (tho amazingly expensive) city.

But first, the morning. Let's start w/ mother & daughter "Freely discussing"wast time to leave for the airport. Daughter won. Uh oh. 😮 we got there in great time, but Berlin airport has you check in at the gate. KH had to check her bag. There was a long line. We waited at least 35 mins in that line. Then I had to go 4 gates away to pay that to get our boring passes. They got in the security line as I did that, but hadn't moved. By the time we got thru security (which was right next to the gangway) they were announcing they were closing the doors. OC  we had noted the 40 people being us in line. KH was practically apoplectic. I almost forced an ativan down her throat, but decided I might never recover from the attempt. We never got breakfast. 😥
Oh, it gets better. Oh, yeah.
We get to Zurich, go to luggage carousel, & the bag never comes. More recrimination, more tears. No ativan & no breakfast. We found the lost luggage person & she said "it's going to new york... You should have said." We had a 22.5 hour layover, WTF!
An unhappy 75 mins later , where I prowl Everywhere to discover we are trapped inside customs. I got cash & 2 drinks at duty free, KH went back & was told she should have looked on carousel 21!!! It was there. KH was very, very, very unhappy.
Then we found out the hotel shuttle was twenty minutes away. So we took a  taxi. 32 francs (=$1) later.... Then our room wasn't ready. Grrrr😡😠😡
Did I mention we hadn't had real food yet?
The bus stop is conveniently right outside the hotel (we're supposed to be near the airport) & in half an hour we are along this lovely, Venice or Amsterdam-like river.

Here are the photos. 
They were running a professional level Iron man competition, which we kept crossing. You know what they do in an Iron man competition?! A marathon, 2.4 miles swimming (today on lake Zurich), & 118 miles cycling. They almost killed me they look so tired: the white stuff in the fountain pic are sponges for them.
I am out of room. Till next time!going nuts so far. We stood in front of a "swiss restaurant" & she said "there's an Italian place across the lane." She claimed this wasn't a statement of fact, but a suggestion. We all agreed we'd rather have Italian. You can see from the pics, we did.  😃

• We went into the Frauenkirche (woman church), which is nicely Romanesque (if you have to ask, I can't help you) but has wonderful Chagall stained glass windows. But doesn't allow pics
• Then across the river to Grossenkirche (gross church) which is the big one. Also Romanesque. No Chagalls. Boring. 
• Then across the river (lose count, I did) & up a heart attack hill to a park overlooking the city. I may have caught my breath long enough for a pic
• After a Starbucks break, we walked to the lakefront. Where we found we could get on a ship for a 75 min cruise & did. It was beautiful. Here's one quality shot:
• I am out of room (& lake pic is in wrong place). Till next time. Love ya!

High lights & low lights our last. day in Prague

Okay, we're out of Prague. Back to the overhyped "german efficiency" (the train left Praha Hladni Nadrazi -- central station (i did learn some Czech) 10 mins late.
•Turns out the last thing we did was one of the high lights of the trip: we rode the elevator to the top of the town hall clock tower (from yday video). The views were spectacular. Here's  the shot across the square at the "cathedral" -- "Our Lady" the Catholic Church.

The views in all directions were outstanding.

• We started the morning, after dropping our bags & a gnosh, w/ a tour of the alchemy museum. Seriously.  I'm a little surprised I wasn't turned to stone. The house it is in is the 2nd older in Prague, dating to the 9th c. During the time of Rudolf  II (you know when that is 🙂) it was a center of alchemy. Rudy was a fan. Including have a 2 km secret tunnel dug from the castle to the house (i.e. Under the river). I did learn that a big part of alchemist potions depends on alcohol and opium. Genius!
• Next, a tram across the river to St Nicholas's church. As this picture will show,
• (Picture went to bottom)
•  it's v different than gothic cathedrals we've seen -- this is v baroque  (insert joke ). We climbed the (posted) 60 steps to the gallery. You can see the view. 
• Then back across the river to the clock tower. 

Then it was 2 o'clock & time for lunch & dinner (we arrive in Berlin at 845) -- KH, yes, not me, suggested pizza Nuovo,  where we ate Thurs night b4 the ballet, so the pictures will remind you of that. Pizza & pasta. Guess who had the pasta?

B4 closing the book in Prague, there's the story of last night. The apartment say w/ the bedroom on the front side, so there was lots of street noise at night (Last night included a woman & kid &d Bundy of drunk guys). So, it wasn't quiet. At 4 last night I was awakened by a rattling noise, which I first thought was something banging around in the dryer. Then I realized there was no dryer! Then I thought it was someone trying to get in the balcony door. Neither of my traveling companions wee awake, so I got up to investigate (they could've, you know 😃). In the hall I realized it was someone trying to get in the front door-- rattling the key over & over. I hit the door w/ my fist & termed "go away" in my best The Rock voice, and they did. EH & KH w wondered what that was all abt- 🙄

Final notes on Prague:

• As we walked thru old town last night, we saw a group of middle aged men in front of a cafe in matching, ugly Hawaiian shirts. Yellow & red. EH analyzed "Dumb asses on vacation"- -- you can see the pic of guys peddling while drinking beer -- i.e. There was a lot of that
• On the first tram today some oversized 20 something men got on reeking of last night. Not to far along & the driver slammed the breaks & one of them flew. As EH put it "he did the whole I stumbled but I'm ok thing, taking half the car & grabbing multiple people on the way. " including me. ☹️ we all stayed up, but barely. He was reminded to hang onto the poles
• We decided the Czechs hate sitting. Benches were rare. At one point last night in the subway there was a metal pole abt a foot off the ground protecting the wall & lots of people were sitting on it. But it wasn't built for sitting. We decided "no sitting, comrades"was their motto, left over from the Soviet regime 😂
• As for our assessment, KH said she really liked it (but she's said the same abt vermin AND Dresden). EH & I think Budapest  & Bratislava are more interesting, tho Prague is better than Vienna (for instance). 

Now. The reverse trip via Zurich home.

Gray Day in Prague; Czech please

Today was not a "Feel good day" in Prague.

It started w our coffee run (a morning ritual). KH joined me; we took the EH unapproved route of the bus from a block away, 11 stops later. We got Starbucks. (We'll skip the exchange abt gnoshes & missing the bus). The bus is sitting short of the bus stop & the woman from Norfolk (we don't drink, nor smoke, nor...) & she takes her hurry cane & pounds on the window & shouts "open the door" & he shouts & points at the sign 50 feet up the road. We stand there & Karen gives him the stink eye every few moments as he reads the paper. Four of us got on & went one stop be getting off. I said "i forgot to say dekuju to him" & KH says "i was going to say something to him in English but he'd have understood it!" Whoa.
    We started by going to the Old Town Square. Hundreds of people were blocking the road. Turns out the astrological clock does interesting things on the hour -- the video in today's pics gives you an idea, although not the best angle.
.   Then into the cathedral. No pics allowed.
.    Then across the square to St Nicholas church. A nice enough place, smaller than the two nearby, but its congregation are Hussites (that's him in the big statue in the square). An early (14th c) protestant rebel.
.   As we were hungry, we had lunch at Meetburger. You can't make this shit up. The burger photo should tell you all you need.
.  Across the street was a Kafka exhibit. He's a big deal here (see the awning in pic). EH was lured in by promises of some kind of knowledge. If it wasn't the weirdest thing I've ever seen, it's up there. There were two rooms of medieval excavations & one room w 64 screens, 8 at a time showing the same thing, w a series of murderous & morbid events, some w/ a guy w/ a K in a circle on his clothes. We were told by signs the confusion we felt was the human condition.!!!
.  If that wasn't uplifting enough, we then went to the Jewish quarter. Acc to EH, Prague had the largest Jewish population in Europe for centuries. The Nazis took care of that. The first building was a synagogue w/names on the wall of all the Prague Jews killed. Imagine the Vietnam Memorial on white walls w/ LOTS more names. Stunning.
.   Then the Jewish cemetery. Again, v old. As you can see, it rained the whole time we were outside.

.    By the time we got thru the 4 synagogue, we were worn out.
.    Back to our bus stop, where again we waited, this time patiently, for the driver to finish his break. 😃
After a nap, & changing, back onto a tram to dinner. This place was recommended by our waiter Sunday night in Berlin. It had a young, hip vibe (i.e. We were out of place) w/ an early institutional decor. The food was "Czech" -- which means breading, potatoes & not much sauce. We were disappointed. 

.  & now patient Reader, for one of those observational endings. One thing we have find consistently in 3 cities in 2 countries is that they don't want to bring the check!!! Tonight wast the worst culprit but it took 15 minutes after our plates were cleared. Wed night it was over half an hour. Sunday night in the almost Michelin star it was half an hour plus. We don't get it. Like we turn invisible abt the time you'd think they'd want to flip the table. Even Tues in Dresden they said we had to be done by 9 for someone else, were done at 850 & they didn't bring the check till 915! WTF!!

.  Tomorrow, we see the alchemy museum & other things, then get on a 430 train back to Berlin. Two days left. 

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