by David McGuffin | Jul 28, 2008 | Destinations
FINALLY I GET TO DO A LITTLE EXPLORING OF MY OWN: I arrived just an hour ago at my pension in Český Krumlov. Finding the pension was an adventure in itself (which I post in my last blog), but now I’ve got the van parked, my group and I are all checked into our rooms, and we’re ready to do some exploring!
According to legend and the town’s website, the name Krumlov is derived from the German “Krumme Aue”, which may be translated as “crooked meadow”. The name comes from the natural topography of the town, specifically from the tightly crooked meander of the Vltava river. The word “Český” simply means Czech or Bohemian.
The Vltava (Moldau) River flows gently just outside our pension’s entrance. The pension seems to be a multi-purpose place for sleeping, eating, and docking ones’ boats. Today, with warm weather and bright sun, the outdoor restaurant and the river are loaded with people. Floating down this river must be a major activity here. Standing on the riverbank, I can see a multitude of kayaks, canoes, inner tubes, and homemade water “crafts” lazily meandering by on the river. It’s quite nautical in a quirky sense. In keeping with the nautical theme, we hear the folks from the restaurant yelling, “Ahoy!” to those drifting by on the river and in response, the river floaters answer back with their own, “Ahoy!”
After being here for five minutes, I can tell this place is a keeper. The river, the brightly painted town building, the towering castle, and the care-free atmosphere all combine to make this one of my ideal destinations. I think, “Too bad we are only here for one night”. It was about this time in my reflective thought that I hear a loud horn sound which I soon identify as coming from a “viking-like” bull horn.
We’re hungry and decide to walk across the river and find a cafe for lunch. It was not until two days later, while visiting Prague, did I find out the “Ahoy!” was not just a funny nautical-themed greeting used on the water in Český Krumlov. It is the Czech’s way of saying an informal “Hello” to one another!
Ahoy!
-David
by David McGuffin | Jul 27, 2008 | Adventures in Tour Guiding
I’ve been writing about my experiences planning and leading tours in Europe. This was brought on by a friend asking, upon my return from a month of leading tours in Europe, how I liked my recent “vacation”. Don’t get me wrong, traveling and leading tours in Europe is a blast and I wouldn’t do it if I did not really enjoy myself. But, there is a lot of work in it too. In the previous episodes of this series, I’ve chronicled my most memorable adventures in Paris.
PARIS- There’s a lot to see in Paris. I’ve been there countless times yet I always seem to find or do something new with each visit. However, for the first-time visitor there is a menu of must-see-sights in Paris that have to be “checked-off” their list before going on to other things. Everyone organizes their tour differently, but here is how we deal with the sights on our two-day in Paris itinerary.
Day 1- Arrive in Paris, hotel check-in. Metro to Montmartre and visit the Sarce Cour, Pigalle, Place Abyasee, and Moulin rouge sight. Metro to Rue Cler neighborhood for dinner. Walk under the Eiffel Tower to the Seine River, take a one-hour boat cruise on the river. Walk to the Trocadero (with great views of the Eiffel Tower) and Metro back to our hotel.
Day 2- Breakfast at the hotel. Metro to the Latin Quarter. Visit the Notre Dame Cathedral. Visit the Latin Quarter and Il’ St. Louis. Have lunch in the area. Visit the Louvre after lunch with a local guide. Walk from the Louvre to the Champs Elysees. Wander and shop. Metro to the Cambronne area and visit the Monoprix supermarket for picnic supplies. Picnic under the Eiffel tower on the Champs du Mars. Then about one hour before dark, ascend the Eiffel Tower for a great sunset view of the city of Light! Return to the hotel by Metro.
So you can see that’s a pretty busy two days, but at least it gives the first time visitor an overview of the big sights.
by David McGuffin | Jul 25, 2008 | Destinations
For the past few weeks I’ve been traveling around Europe with one of my tour groups. A couple of days ago, I got to visit the only “new” destination for me in my summer travels. One of the drawbacks of being a “tour guide” is that you go to the same locations all the time. Yes, Paris is wonderful and Rome is a “must see” city, but sometimes it gets old walking the same streets, the same route, and talking about the same sights. I know, it’s hard to understand unless you’ve done it. At any rate, my point is I finally got to go to a new destination and experience the fun of actually exploring Europe!
Český Krumlov is a delightful little fairy-tale town situated in a sharp crook of the Vltava (Moldau) River. I think that during the forty years Czechoslovakia was under communist rule, this little town was blighted and forgotten. Now since the middle 1990’s, it has become a big vacation destination for Germans, Austrians, and Czechs.
My group and I arrived in in town about one o’clock. I was driving and had no GPS guidance system in the Czech Republic, so we were going by the old-fashion method of using a map! We made it to the town center with no problem, but then we had to find and drive to our “pension” located on the riverbank in a pedestrian-only zone. Natalie, my navigator, and I tried it for a little bit, but soon decided it was a lost cause to drive around blindly hoping to run across the pension. So I stopped, looked at our map, then got out and went to a taxi sitting just a few meters away. I asked in English, since I can’t speak Czech, if the taxi driver knew where our pension was located. The driver spoke pretty good English and began with directions that sounded something like this, “One bridge, go left, then one bridge, go left, then go, three bridge, and go.” So, I understood the directions perfectly and asked, “Can you drive and I follow?” Then I made a driver steering motion and pointed to him. Success, we both understood! I got in my van. He took off. I followed.
Everything was ok until the road got narrow. Natalie started to have visions of our 2007 adventure in Arcos, Spain. She made me stop when it looked like the road would peter out. Natalie got out, hopped in the cab, and we waited. In a couple of minutes she came walking back, got back in the van and said, “Let’s go”. So off we went down a small cobbled lane with only inches clearance on either side of the van.
Well, we made it the “Pension U Matesa and Labyrint” and there was plenty of room to park next door too. Relief! We piled out of the van, Natalie got our room keys, and another adventure began.
by David McGuffin | Jul 18, 2008 | Culture & Customs, Destinations
Last night I was in Paris for the second time in a month. Every tour group has its different dynamics and this one was no exception. I’m leading around a group of seven adults, three couples, and one single gentleman. After a grueling day of walking and sightseeing, we were all looking forward to my traditional picnic on the Champ du Mars. The weather has been unseasonably cool and until last night, clear and cloudless. That changed yesterday afternoon when the colds rolled in and there was even some sputtering rain.
Not to be cheated out of the picnic experience, we grabbed our umbrellas, and then went off to the market. The Monoprix is a combination of a department store and a supermarket. These are scatted all over Paris, but this one is particulary convienient because it is just three blocks from the Eiffel Tower in the Cambronne area. So, we divided up our shopping duties and agreed to meet outside in twenty minutes. Forty-five minutes later we were loaded with food and were walking to the park.
As I mentioned, it was sputtering rain so there were very few pods of people sitting on the grass park. We decided to risk it and staked out our territory on a grassy section with an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower. We spread out our “table cloth”, all the food, and a couple of bottles of wine. Then we dove into the food.
Looking down the park toward the Eiffel Tower we noticed a group of policemen in white shirts visiting every pod of people, telling them a few things, and then the people either packed up and left or remained seated. This was odd, and very different from all my previous experiences picnicking here. Soon the policemen in white shirts came to our little group of picnickers. One officer told us it was forbidden to have open bottles of “spirits” in the park. I took this to mean liquor, not beer or wine. But when I asked he said no, nothing of the sort was allowed. Now this was really odd. I cannot even begin to recount the times where I’ve picniced with my tour groups on this very location and had no problem.
We all started packing up our food deciding that the weather was not so good for a picnic anyway. Then after about five minutes, more policemen were heading towards us. These were different police, not in white shites but in black commando uniforms with heaving-duty pistols strapped to their side. When they got to us, we all hurriedly said we knew the new rule and were packing up. One of them laughed a bit and said, “No, no it’s ok. Just hide the bottle of wine in your bag and it is ok!” These guys obviously carried more authority than the police in white shirts. So we stayed! No more rain and the evening was a success.
Later we noticed the two sets of policemen speaking with one another. They both were animated in their gestures and it was obvious there was some disagreement. Some of the men in white walked back the way they had come in shame. It seems they were being a little too aggressive in enforcing the new alcohol policy in the park. Three hours later, when we were packing up to go home, we noticed the “NEW” signs which had just been stuck in the ground stating this new “policy.” In big bold icon on the right stated no sitting and drinking from bottles. HA!
So the moral of the story here is that the rule has changed in Paris. There are signs in the parks that illustrate the no drinking rule. But apparently for now, it is ok as long as it is out of view.
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by David McGuffin | Jul 16, 2008 | Adventures in Tour Guiding
I’ve been writing about my experiences planning and leading tours in Europe. This was brought on by a friend at church asking me how I liked my recent “vacation” there. Don’t get me wrong, traveling in Europe is a blast and I wouldn’t do it if I did not really enjoy myself. But, there is a lot of work in it too. In the previous episodes I’ve collected the group from the airport, gotten them on a bus, traveled to Paris, unloaded the bus in heavy traffic, gotten them checked into the hotel, headed out on foot, gotten onto the metro, and now we are exploring the city.
We are now on a bridge, and we can see that the Seine River is flanked on both sides by broad and busy streets loaded with traffic at all hours of the day. The death of Princess Diana in 1997 made the entire world aware of the topography of Paris. There are actually 35 bridges crossing the Seine and we were able to make it to safety. From here, we’ve got a grand view of the Trocadero and the imposing Eiffel Tower. As impressive as it is, our goal is not the Eiffel Tower just yet because we’re headed down to the river for a cruise along the Seine.
I get the tickets with no problem and the “delay” on the streets has allowed us to have no wait-time for embarkation. So, we pile onto the boat with three hundred other Parisian tourists. The intent of the Paris boat tours is to illuminate the major sights along the Seine with gigantic “search” lights while providing pre-recorded narration in eight languages. While this is a great city overview and orientation, it is really touristy. Hence the hoards of Japanese tourists who have just overtaken us in the cue to get on board.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against the Japanese people. But when twenty or more of them get together in a “tour group”, it’s usually pretty entertaining. To begin with, the travel shops back in Japan must make a load of money. I mean, is there a common dress code for tourists in Japan or what? Their “uniform” consists of khaki pants, a solid colored shirt, a khaki “photographer’s” vest with lots of pockets, and a fold-up bucket hat. It does not matter whether they are men or women because they dress practically the same. Although, the women usually tend to dress up their outfit with a nice scraf or piece of jewelery. Hanging around their necks are many assortments of camera equipment. Some have as many as three different cameras weighting them down! Not only do they dress alike, but they must be given a stern warning by their tour guide to stay together. By all means don’t get in the group’s way… Should you get caught up in their path, you’ll have no choice but to move along with them like a flock of birds until you can work your way to an edge of the pack and get out. It is good that most Japanese people are short because should one get caught up in a stampede, it’s quite possible to alert your friends of the situation by looking back over the group’s heads and yelling for help!
Finally we get on the boat, find some nice comfy seats up on the top deck, and we shove off. Down the river we go with narration booming in eight languages over the PA system. This is a great ride! What a good way to become oriented to the city and its sights. After about five minutes the Japanese group finally makes it up to the top deck with us. They must have had some difficulty navigating the narrow steps as a group because many of them had a panicked look on their face. Soon I find that its not a look of panic at all, but a look of sheer delight. This is a photographer’s paradise! Fancy bridges, elaborate buildings, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, and a multitude of well-known sights are just too much of a temptation. Every one of the Japanese scurry from one side of the boat to the other to get a perfect photo. There also must be a rule that someone should strike a dramatic pose for every picture taken! My gosh, I have never seen so many people “hamming it up” in one place.
This becomes entertaining for me and my tour. In fact, the Japanese show might be more interesting than the sights passing by. Soon our groups begins to join in the fun by pointing to meaningless objects. We decide to coordinate our efforts and soon we are pointing out an empty grocery cart on the riverbank, making a lot of oooo’s and ahhh’s, just to entice the Japanese to run to our side of the boat so they’ll not miss anything. Here they come, cameras flashing, scampering to strike the perfect pose, and then they join in with the ooo’s and ahhh’s too. This is all for a silly grocery cart on the riverbank! You can only imagine the response when at ten o’clock the Eiffel Tower begins its twinkling light show. Now we all look up with amazement with oooo’s and ahhh’s spilling from our mouths in sheer delight! Paris never ceases to amaze me! OOooo…..
(more to come)
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After being here for five minutes, I can tell this place is a keeper. The river, the brightly painted town building, the towering castle, and the care-free atmosphere all combine to make this one of my ideal destinations. I think, “Too bad we are only here for one night”. It was about this time in my reflective thought that I hear a loud horn sound which I soon identify as coming from a “viking-like” bull horn.
