Just a quick one.

It's been a busy day and I need to pack so we are ready to check out tomorrow. We have had a lot of fun in the snow and taken a lot of pictures. Tomorrow we fly back and I will be able to upload them. Strange though it sounds the best place to be in a snow storm is the top of a tower. Tomorrow we hope to get to the cathederal it looks amazing from the town I hope it is as good up close. The picture today is Charles bridge in the snow.

Yay we have snow

Day 3 Part 2

Hmm, so light rain + cobbles + steep slope = wee ouch. Fortunately I had worked out this was an option so I was going slowly and managed a reasonably elegant fall. No harm done, but given I was wearing very good boots and taking care we are thinking of finding a different route out in the morning.Having chosen our restauant based on location, we were pleasently surprised to find good food and friendly service. It was a little more expensive than we have been used to, almost £15 per head for two courses and several drinks, but overall a very positive experience. I think the menu was in 6 languages so very handy for a wide range of tourists, but the food is traditional Czech. I finally tried what seems to be the standard desert here, warm raspberries and ice cream. I can highly recommend it, I also have to find out about their cream and butter. They are both white and very light. They feel very low fat and I love them. Better than that so does my body….and finally, we have snow! Not a lot yet, but we are hoping.

Steel is very bouncy

So after a very late night last night (drunk brits sadly get everywhere) we did manage to haul ourselves out of bed at a reasonable time this morning, and head off for the Petrin tower. This involved a tram and a fenicular railway both of which were covered by our travel passes. I love the Prague system, you only have to get your ticket out the first time you use it, when it gets a date stamp. After that you just get on and off as you like. They do random ticket checks, and I was very pleased to discover they handle dumb tourists very well. I mistook the ticket checker for a sales man so just walked past, even more so when he tried to grab me. To his credit he fiured out the problem and said in perfect English, "Stop, ticket check". I can't imagine UK transport police handling it like that, or being so willing to accept our apology. I guess having a valid ticket helps.The Petri tower is lovely. A very pretty grey steel structure with two viewing areas, one at the top and the other half way up. There is no lift, just a lot of stairs, but they do have several seats on the way up. The first landing has an external balcony and provides pretty amazing views of Prague, but for those with a good head for heights and strong legs it is well worth pushing on to the top. The upper viewing area is considerably smaller than the lower on and fully enclosed. It does have some large windows you can open to take pictures, and if you've made it up there you will want to. The view is stunning. To see all the bridges over the river was magical. I also discovered the cathedral. For some reason every where we have been before, the cathedral has been hidden. A great shame, it is a dark gothic building with wonderful flying butresses. I hope we will be able to find time to have a better look at it, but we are hoping for snow, at which point tomorrow will be fully booked going back to places we have already seen and know we want to see in the snow.After taking the railway back down the hill we found we are actually staying very close to Charles bridge, and on the side with all the good viewing points. Sadly good pictures from the end of the bridge are impossible, there is a constant flood of tourists. Still once you start hunting around the back streets there are some good photo oportunities. Unfortunately I forgot to take any of the with my phone so todays picture is the Petrin tower as seen from our balcony. Which can be seen in the panoram brochure from the tower. Cool.Now I need to work out how much clothing I need to not freeze on the way to dinner.

Wow. Oh my. Gosh.

Well I think that covers it, Prague (I must find out how the natives say that) is just stunning. I've been to so many cool places it's hard to know where to start. Maybe near the end. The picture today is from the restaurant where we had dinner. I is a medieval themed place by the name of U Sadlu. If you take a look at their web site www.usadlu.cz you can find the English version of the menu. Some things have changed since it was written but it will certainly give you the flavour of the place. The guide book doesn't rate it but I loved it. The portions are sillly, there is no way I would attempt three courses, the setting it fun (and they have three different decorative areas) and both staff and customers are very friendly. It seems to mostly be frequented by natives despite being close to the main tourist area, I think that speaks volumes for the great value for money they offer.The one down side is their reluctance to bring desert. Funnily enough two determined females managed to order, and after quite a wait the food arrived. The other diners started to snigger and we had to get down to the serious business of stunt pudding eating. Huge really doesn't cover it. I had a pancake with fruit ans icecream, doesn't sound too mad does it. It came on a plate 12" in diameter and the pancake alone (rolled arround icecream)went from one edge to the other and filled about a third of the plate. The rest of the plate was full of orange, pineapple, apple and banana. That's the real full not the sort of covered, this was more food than the ,main course, which wasn't small. Just as well we had spent the day walking and our hotel is at the top of a hill.We started the day with a trip to the Old Town square (Staromestske). It's probably a 20 minute journey normally but with me and a camera it took over an hour and I hate to think how many pictures. The architecture here is amazing, and for me very inspiring. Ideas I have had kicking around for a while suddenly make sence and I hope I will get to work on them soon. The square is dominated by several famous Prague landmarks, my personal favourites being Tyn church and the astronomical clock tower. For 60Kc, about £2 you can go to the top of the tower and get fantasti panoramic views of the city. I froze my fingers but I hope I have some good pictures to show for it. From this vantage point you can really appreciate the architectural variety in Prague, fron the gothic churches to the futuristic tower. From here it is a short, and inspiring walk to Charles bridge. Sadly the days being short meant that light was fading by the time we got there, so we will be forced to go back tomorrow, oh the hardship. We did however have a chance to scope out possible vantage points for photography. Also, tomorrow being th weekend, we can visit the Petrin tower. This looks like a minature Eifel tower and overlooks our apartment, it should have amazing views over the river. It's funny, this isn't a big city (certainly not when you are used to London) but the number of really worthwhile places to visit is astounding. I'll cover as much as I can, but it will a tiny fraction of what is here.

Prague – day one – it’s not all flat you know.

So we left Gatwick as the first flakes of snow started falling, and were promptly served the strangest sandwich I have tried. For the record tuna, chives and sweetcorn don't seem to work together. Still being used to budget airlines any food was appreciated and the free drinks seemed a real treat. OK maybe coffee and orange juice aren't that astounding to most travelers but if you do enough cheap flights it is.We landed (gently, not the normal throw the plane at the ground) to find a light dusting of snow and the usual not cold cold weather. Public transport here is cheap, clean and efficient, for £15 we have a five day travel pass that includes getting to and from the airport. As you might expect the area closest to the airport is not the mot attractive. The first part reminded me of Scandinavian industrial zones, but as you head into the city it morphs into distinctly continetal architecture with a style of it's own.As soon as we could we got on the metro, which has three lines, A, B, and C. Easy for visitors to get to grips with. I did get very confused that trains reaching the end of the line don't turn around and go back the other way. I have been assured that there is a magic turny thing just out of sight that put the train on the other platform to keep things easy. It still seems a bit odd.Much gawping followed as we made our way to our room. It is pretty close to the metro horizontally but vertically there is a good distance to cover. Looks like I will get enough exercise to use up all the extra calories I eat here. However the room does indeed have a great view, two in fact. The picture is looking south towards the river and the center of town. Forgive it being a bit small and blury I am trying to keep to an upload budget ans the picture was taken on the phone. The other view really needs my camera to do it justice, the tv tower is on the next hill and when lit up after dark looks amazing.Our chosen restaurant has got busy since Nat was last here, so we had to make a reservation for tomorrow and find somewhere else. We found a very relaxed mostly italian restaurant. The food was fantastic and amazing value. Dinner for two, including the best Irish coffee I have had in a long time was less than £20. I was particularly pleased with this restaurant as it had candles outside the door as is the custom in Sweden this time of the year, it made me feel more at home. On the subject of Sweden, Swedish seems to have become my default foreign language. Bit of a shame as it is totally different to Czech. Hopefully I will get get hang of the basiccs soon. There is the same problem that you face trying to learn other European languages, everyone here speaks near great English, and is proud to be able to communicate with us, it doesn't help us learn though.Before we left I did some reading about Prague. There were mixed messages but I found quite a few the suggested it was still rather run down from a shopping point of view. Having just been to the biggest, cleanest, and for my tastes best stocked shopping center I have ever seen, I would beg to differ. Goods vary greatly in price from about half price up to what I would have to pay in London. It was woderful to see such a range of clothes, boots, and strangely, fountain pens. Where in London most shops stock essentially the same styles, here there is variety and the potential for individuality. It's amazing. So far I have largely resisted retail therapy, but with so many boots so close to my ideal I don't think it will last.Now to bed and hopefully a good nights sleep to set me up for a busy day tomorrow.

It must be new year again

So here I am standing by a bonfire blogging. It must be New Years Eve. Just like last year we were quite late due to last minute quilting. This time it was a sample for next terms class, and hopefully a book. It's become urgent because in two days I am off to Prague for nearly a week flying back the day before my next talk. I then need to start teaching this class a couple of days later. Not much time for preparation really. I just hope I don't forget everything while I am on holiday.So to prepare for the holiday I am trying to post a photograph from my phone. If it works I will be able to use it on holiday, if not I know not to waste my money transfering that much data internationally.As well as working on the class sample and my other not nude I've been trying to get two quilts to America. Well technically they have made it there geographically but not legally as they are stuck in customs. Sound familiar? They have been stuck in customs since the 23rd and that is with a seemingly competent courier. Hopefully in the next couple of days they will start moving again. It does help having the show (Road 2 California) working with me and the courier to try and rescue them in time. If the quilts do make it they will be the first ones to be appraised. I have no idea what to expect but I am sure it will be interesting.Well I guess I ahould try sending this before the text frenzy starts. Hope you are all having fun in whatever way you wish. Best wishes for the New Year.

Not one but two time wasters.

Well technically neither of them will waste your time. They are both educational and one helps others, but they have both distracted me so much I had to blog to tear myself away.

The first is an excellent blog with a tutorial on making shawls. I asked her some time ago about her shawl and she has very kindly posted full instructions on making your ow. Having made scarves in a similar manner it was interesting to see what changes she had made to get her shawl which looks a lot more like fabric where mine look like loose knitting. The secrets seem to be the stitching and lots of silk. What a shame I will have to put silk in my shawl. I can’t wait to have a go. Have a read of ‘All Things Quilty‘ by Jeanne McBrayer.

So you’re back you have escaped that little distraction then. I hope you found it interesting and inspiring, I know I did. OK next is a word game. I have been looking at a game for the Nintendo DS that is supposed to teach you new words, but I knew all the words on the box and that worried me. So when I found a link to this site on a blog I had to have a go. Free rice is a game you can play with a fairly clean conscience as you are earning rice to be donated to poor communities as you play, and the words are a lot more interesting than the ones on the game I was looking at. I have found a few where their definition seems a little odd, but it is usually pretty clear which one they intend you to pick. Have fun and earn some rice. The rice is paid for by the advertisers to the site. The adverts are delivered in a nice way, they are below the main game area so you see them but they don’t disturb the flow of the game.

Now I have rescued myself from these distractions I can get back to the nude I was working on yesterday. I am hoping to have the top finished today, if I do I will try and get a picture up later.

Another Christmas Past

Well I might not be a huge fan of Christmas, but I would have to admit today has been pretty good. I think it helps seeing family a secton at a time. It gives you a chance to really talk and catch up with a lot less risk of disagreement. Also having less people makes the meal a lot easier to organise and you can reach most of the dishes. I was especially thrilled with one of my gifts. I have inherited a fountain pen. That is pretty amazing in it's own right but Having known it's owner it is very special, amd it is ver similar to the one I had been planning to save up for. How cool is that. I cant wait to get home amd give it a go.If you are into playing family games at Christmas I can heartily recommend 'The Big Taboo'. It is basically a posh version of charades, but it is a lot of fun and the things you have to describe are quite well balanced for different spheres of knowledge. if you are in the UK Toys 'R' Us are sellimg it for 6.99 which I thing is very good value for money.