Volvo asked me to travel back to Sweden for 2 weeks to work on a project.  It was a great opportunity to see something new over the weekend.  After researching many cities and checking flight schedules, Prague was the perfect choice!

Friday: I arrived just before midnight on Friday night.  I had previously booked a taxi since I was arriving so late, but when I walked to the exit of the airport, none of the taxi drivers were holding up a sign with my name on it.  “Crap!”  I started to get worried. 

Here I was in a faraway country at midnight with no ride.  After looking at all the signs the drivers were holding many times, hoping my name would somehow show up, I decided to walk outside to see if my driver was there.  I walked about 5 steps and there was my driver walking up!  “Whew!”

I stayed at the Hilton Old Town hotel.  They assigned a room to me on the executive floor (top floor) which was really nice.  It was also in a perfect location, only a 10 minute walk to the Old Town Square where my city tour would begin the following day.  I decided to take a tour with a company called Prague Walking Tours since it was recommended on tripadviser.com.

Saturday: My 6 hour tour began at 10 AM next to the Astronomical Clock.  It took me a while to actually find the Astronomical Clock!  I ended up taking the wrong route and had to ask 3 people for directions, but of course I made it just in time.

The tour started off with a bus ride to the Prague Castle area.  My tour guide was named Barbra.  She did an excellent job and thankfully her English was very good.

I learned that at one time, Prague was made up of 4 towns: Hradcany, Lesser Town, Old Town and New Town.  Hardcany (or the Castle District) is located on a hill on the west bank of the Vltava River.  It is where the Prague Castle is located.  Lesser Town sits just below Hradcany.  Old Town and New Town are on the opposite bank (eastern side) of the river.

Before reaching the Prague Castle, we made two quick stops.  Our first stop was across from the Loreto Pilgrimage site which is a religious place that contains a replica of the Italian Santa Casa which is the Holy House of the Virgin Mary believed to be the very home in which the Virgin Mary lived, conceived and raised the young Jesus.  We didn’t have time to go inside of the church, but if I ever get the chance to visit Prague again, I will visit this site again.  Next was the former town hall of Hardcany. 

Here is where we saw a medieval measuring device attached to the door which was used to measure if the market truly gave you the proper amount of food.

The next stop was the entrance to the Prague Castle!   The castle is where the Kings of Bohemia and presidents of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic have resided.

  The President of the Czech Republic still uses the castle today.  Prague Castle is one of the largest castles in the world!  Located right in the middle of the castle complex, stands the impressive St. Vitus Cathedral.  The cathedral actually took 600 years to complete due to many Bohemian wars.  Construction started in 1344, but it wasn’t completely finished until 1929.  The cathedral contains two styles, both Gothic and Neo-Gothic. The entire western half is a Neo-Gothic style.

We had lunch at a Czech medieval restaurant.  I ordered goulash, but what I got was some type of meat (like brisket) with bread on the side and BBQ “type” sauce poured all over.  The food was good, but just not what I expected.

Next was a walk thru Lesser Town.   We visited the Church of Our Lady Victorious where the famous statue Infant Jesus of Prague is located.  It originally came from Spain and is said to have miraculous curing powers. 

The Infant of Jesus has about 80 different outfits, one of which was made by Empress Maria Theresa, who I found out later was the Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia and Slavonia during 1745 – 1780.  She was the only woman ruler.  Our tour guide also told us that there was an outfit given from the USA which was red, white and blue, but I didn’t get to see this particular one!

We also visited the Lennon Wall.  It was once just a normal wall, but in the 1980s, it was filled with graffiti about John Lennon and pieces of lyrics from the Beatles songs. 

Later, Czechs started writing many types of complaints on the wall.  The wall undergoes changes daily and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under all the new coats of paint.  Today, the wall represents a symbol of young adult’s ideals such as love and peace.

Love padlocks on bridges have started to show up everywhere. 

When Chad and I were in Wroclaw, Poland last year, there was a love bridge and there is also one in Prague!  Love padlocks are a new custom in which lovers attach padlocks to fences or bridges to symbolize their love for one another.  They lock their love together and then throw away the key over the bridge.  I learned that this custom started in 1980 in Hungary.

We then arrived at the Charles Bridge.  Charles Bridge is a famous historical bridge that crosses the Vltava River.  It was constructed by King Charles IV.  The first stone was laid in the year 1357 on July 9^th at 5:31 AM.  King Charles talked to his astrologers and this date and time was chosen so that the odd numbers that ascend and descend on the scale of 1-9 would form 135797531.  This time was used in order to bring good luck to the bridge so that it would not be destroyed.  There are 30 statues mounted on each side of the bridge one of which is the Statue of Saint John of Nepomuk.  The priest John of Nepomuk was drowned in the Vltava River by the King of Bohemia who wanted him to confess the sins of his wife, the Queen of Bohemia, and tell all of her secrets which he refused.

Next we toured the Jewish Quarter or the Prague Jewish ghetto.   Jews were banned to this area back in the 13^th century.  Approximately 20,000 Jews use to live in this small area and today, only 2000 live there.  Only a few synagogues still remain including the Spanish Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue and the Old-New Synagogue.

The tour ended back in the Old Town Square at the Astronomical Clock which is the most popular attraction in Prague.  Huge crowds gather at the top of every hour to watch the clock performance.  The clock was first installed in 1410 and contains three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the sun and moon in the sky, the calendar dial with the medallions representing the months, and the “Walk of the Apostles”, a routine hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures.  There is an old story, a legend about the clock, that town officials had the clock maker blinded so that he would never duplicate his masterpiece in any other city. The people wanted this unique clock only in their city.   In revenge, the blind man climbed the tower and broke his masterpiece. It of course was later fixed.  No one knows if this was actually true or not, but this is what they say!

After my full day tour, I went to the top of the tower of the Astronomical Clock.  I got to see an amazing view of the city and got some great photos.

For dinner, I went to an Italian restaurant.  My tour guide, Barbra recommended Ambiente, but I couldn’t find it.  I got lost roaming the streets, so I settled for another Italian place.  It wasn’t very good.  I wish I had searched a little bit more for Ambiente.  I actually found it the following day and had lunch there!

That evening at 9PM, I went to a ghost tour that was free since I bought the full day tour.  Tatiana was my guide’s name.  We walked through the Old Town by candlelight and she told us about 6 ghosts that roamed the city at night!

Sunday: I was so tired, that I decided to sleep in on Sunday morning.  I had an easy going day.  I had a nice lunch at the Ambiente and took one final tour called the “Underground”.  The city of Prague use to flood a lot, so the people decided to build a city on top of their original city.  During the underground tour, I got to see 5 original homes that existed beneath the Old Town Hall.

I arrived back in Gothenburg that night at midnight.  What a great trip!!!

Rhonda

Check out all pictures below!

We had a practice at the wind tunnel this Friday.  Next week is our first 8-way training at the dz.  Here are a few photos from the wind tunnel.

Chad did an interview of Rhonda and took some pictures of her flying.

Check out his video!

Yesterday, Chad and I went to Charlotte to visit the Raptor Center.  They offered an early morning private viewing session for approximately 40 photographers.

Here are a few photographs that Chad took!

Rhonda

Last weekend, we were without electricity for 4 days due to a winter storm.   We felt we deserved a trip to the beach to get some warm weather and see some amazing sunsets.  So, at the last minute, Chad and I decided to go to Grand Cayman to celebrate Chad’s birthday and Valentine’s Day.  We arrived in Grand Cayman on Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 10^th) on a beautiful sunny day.  The temperature was warm and refreshing at 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  We escaped all the snow and ice in North Carolina!

When we arrived, we rented a car and headed for the Westin hotel on Seven Mile beach.  After going to the wrong side of the car, we realized the driver’s side was on the right.  It was actually a benefit because it made it easier to drive on the left side of the road since we were already uncomfortable in the car. The rental agency told us to drive slow until we got use to driving on the “wrong” side of the road.

Our room at the hotel had a great ocean view.  We got settled in and went straight for the beach.  Grand Cayman has absolutely the most spectacular sunsets.  We sat on the beach until the sun set and had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant called Luca.

Thursday, we spent the entire day on the beach being served margaritas and beer by our beach side waitress.  Wow, this is the life.  By the end of the afternoon our skin was feeling a bit hot in a few spots.  We thought we had put enough sunscreen on, but soon realized we missed a few spots.  It’s not good to get a sun burn at the beginning of a trip, but at least it was only in a few areas…mainly our feet and shoulders.

For dinner, we decided to go to a local restaurant called the Cracked Conch.  We sat outside under candlelight next to the ocean!

The next day, we booked a 6-hour private tour!  Our tour was called Stingray City Eco tour.  Our tour guide was a local named John Michael Stafford.  He owns a 27ft Boston Whaler Outrage and we had it all to ourselves!  The first stop on the tour was to see some wildlife on the edge of a mangrove.  We saw tons of Egrets and a few Blue Herons.

We then went to Stingray City to swim with the stingrays.  John taught us how to feed them and how to hold them in our arms.  They were truly amazing.  There were about 10 swimming all around us as long as food was near.  To feed them, you hold the food (squid and conch) in your hand and make a fist.  The stingray will swim over and suck the food right out of your hand.  The first time for me was quite startling.  We also learned how to hold them.  You have to hold out your arms and make sure you are directly in front of them.   If you remain directly in front of them and lean back like you are in a dentist chair, they will stay in your arms for a long time.

The next stop was to snorkel the reef.  This was my first experience snorkeling.  John was kind enough to teach me what to do.  Once I got the hang of it, it was quite easy.  The coral and fish were incredible!  I wish we had pictures of what we saw underwater because it was amazing.  There were many bright colors such as yellow and purple.  We also even saw a huge lobster.  It was so cool to see!

We then went to the popular Rum Point.  John found a secluded area to dock his boat which was about a 10 minute walk to Rum Point.  He dropped us off and we walked along what seem to be our own private beach to Rum Point.  The beaches in the area are totally private, but there is right of way for people walking along the edge.  We passed many huge dream-like homes along the way.  Once there, we had bite to eat and enjoyed the unique atmosphere.

When we got back to the boat, John had found two large starfish!  I had not seen anything like it!  We got to pick them up for a very short time for a few photographs.   It was really neat to see them up close.

Our last stop on the tour was to see the hidden mangrove which is a part of a large scale water flow system.  We went down one channel to see some wildlife.  John pointed out that the white blobs in the water were jelly fish.  He later dove underwater to find some urchins so that we could view them up close and feel the sharp spines moving.

We had a fantastic time on the tour and are looking forward to our next trip to Grand Cayman.

Rhonda

Check out all of Chad’s photos below!

Here are a few photos from the wind tunnel.  There were a lot of great expressions captured.   Chad

We went to Montana for Christmas.  It was really nice to see Chad’s family again.  We spent most of our time visiting and playing in the snow!  I even built a small snowman which was fun.  Chad got to take some great pictures of Bill’s buffalo and the surrounding area.

See Chad’s pics below!  Rhonda

Chad and I spent a weekend in Charlotte! The day we traveled was probably one of the worst weather days in history here in Greensboro, but we decided to tackle it. It was a bad decision because the roads were covered in ice and snow. We ended up doing S-turns on interstate 40. We did, however, survive the trip down to Charlotte (barely). We learned our lesson and won’t be traveling in that type of weather ever again.

While we were there, we attended the Skydive Carolina’s annual Christmas party. We went shopping at Concord Mills and got to see the Vikings/Panthers football game!

We had a great time. Check out Chad’s pictures!

Rhonda

For Thanksgiving, Chad and I went to Florida to visit my folks!  It was a great time.  We got to hang out at the beach, visited a butterfly house which was cool, and played some 42 (dominos)!

Check out Chad’s photos.  Rhonda

Rhonda: Chad and I got the opportunity to visit Poland!  Volvo asked me if I would travel to Poland several months ago, but dates were never finalized.  Then two weeks prior to the trip, everything was set.  They wanted me to go for 2 weeks to learn about a project that I would be working on full time.  I discussed with Chad the possibility of him going with me and after determining the cost and getting the approval from his company; we decided to go!

When we arrived in Wroclaw (Vro-slav), we found that the airport was very small with only 3 gates very close together.  We immediately thought that the city would be smaller than Greensboro.  We later learned however that the population was approximately 650,000 residents with over 100,000 college students.   We arrived on November 1^st, All Saints Day, a National holiday and virtually everything was closed.  We decided to go hunt for a restaurant.  We took a stroll through the old town, the main market square.  All of the streets and buildings are really picturesque.  We luckily found the Sphinx Restaurant open and decided to partake in some garlic bread and tacos.

After dinner, Chad took a few photos of the market square and of the big fountain.  It was actually the last night that the fountain would be running, because the next day it was turned off for the winter.  We were so glad that we decided to photograph it before it was turned off.

Each day Chad and I worked.  I would travel to the Volvo office and Chad would work in the hotel room.  The internet connection in the hotel was poor, but good enough for him to do his job.

Chad: The room had a wired internet connection.  I spent a few hours trying to get it to work.  The cost was about 20 dollars per day.  Once I got it going I had a 10 mbit connection and it was so congested it was unusable for work.  I ended up putting a chair against the room window and using the free wireless network.  It was a bit slow at times, but much better than the wired connection.

Rhonda: In the evenings, Chad and I would go out to dinner and a little exploration.  It was like having a “date night” every night!  At each new restaurant we would try, I just knew  that it couldn’t be as good as the previous one, but was proven wrong every time.  Chad and I can now recommend 10 different restaurants in Wroclaw! I would like to mention a little something about each one.

Sphinx Restaurant (Polish with Mexican flare) This is a Polish chain restaurant.  It was the most inexpensive restaurant that we went to.  We had a full carafe of house wine for $10.  It was also one of the few that were open on All Saints Day.

La Scala (Italian)  My co-worker highly recommended this place, but it wasn’t as good as I had hoped.   I later found out that we should have eaten upstairs because a better selection was offered.  Oh well, we will know next time.

Pod Papugami (International)  This was a cool place.  The entire restaurant was deck out in Hollywood movie stars and the theme was film making.  It had a nice bar but didn’t seem to have a good wine selection.  We asked for a glass of wine and learned that it was approximately $30 per glass.  So, we opted for a beer and whiskey.

Novocaina (Italian)  The interior of this place was so neat.  It was dark with plasma TVs everywhere mounted inside picture frames.  Old pictures of Wroclaw (before the war) were displayed as a slide show in each one.  The lasagna was really good and they have the best cheesecake in the world.  It is served warm with a meringue topping and whip cream on the side with a touch of chocolate.  There was also a dance club downstairs, but I couldn’t talk Chad into going.  Dang it…

Akropolis (Greek)  This was an upscale Greek restaurant.  I had some tiger shrimps and Chad chose the calamari.  We also selected a Greek red wine.

Spiz (Polish)  This is a small brewery in town with a restaurant next door.  I wasn’t expecting the food to be that good, but it was the best yet.  I had some small pork fillets that were bacon wrapped.  Chad ordered the turkey that looked to be fried because it has a batter around the outside.  They also placed a couple of pieces of peaches on top of the turkey which we thought was different.  Chad said it was a excellent flavor to combine with it.  This was the only place where our waitress refused to speak English.  It was ok though because I spoke a few words of Polish, so she knew I was trying and was very nice to us.  They also served bread with a lard and bacon spread.  No butter or oil anywhere.  Interesting taste and something you won’t find every day.   On a different evening, we visited the bar with a couple of my co-workers I met there.  The bar was huge and quite smoky.  It seemed to be the place to be because I was quite packed.  It was difficult to find a table, but just before we were going to walk out, we found a spot.  Chad tried their local wheat beer which had a different taste and I tried their common light beer.  Both were very good.

Amalfi (Italian)  This little Italian place was on a street that only contained Italian restaurants.  We learned from one of our city walking tours (which I will discuss in detail later) that an Italian person bought the entire street for the purpose of building Italian restaurants and he made sure when he sold it would remain to only contain Italian restaurants.  We got an English menu and immediately noticed that they served peperoni pizza which we hadn’t had in a while!  So, that is what we ordered.  Little did I know, when our food showed up, it was not a pepperoni pizza like I expected.  It was covered with green peppers!  I should have known it would be different because you can’t get pepperoni pizza in Europe!  Also, the spelling was even different in the menu with only one ‘p’.  Chad wanted to keep it and not cause any trouble, but I didn’t feel I could eat it.  So, I turned it down.  I then felt really bad because I should have been more accommodating.  I told Chad to go get the pizza back and just order a second one.   After taking a taste of the pizza, it was quite good!  We ate at the Amalfi a second time a couple of days later, and we got the same waiter.  He double checked our order to make sure we knew what we were ordering.  : )

Chatka przy Jatkach (Polish)  This was our first time to try out perogies!  I was told that we had to try some before we left Poland.  So…they were great!  I had some that were fried with beef inside and Chad ordered some that were covered with cheese and mushrooms.   We also ordered some potato cakes and a couple of Polish beers!  The beer came in a special glass and I thought it would be cool to have as a souvenir.   I went to ask the waitress if they would sell one!  She hesitantly said “No” while shaking her head.  I pleaded a bit more and again she said “No”.  Then I told her that it was my first time in Poland!  That made a huge difference and she instantly said, “Go ahead and take it.”  It was really nice of her.

Pod Gryfami (Polish)  I was told by a colleague that this place had an excellent selection of wine and they did!  It was a unique place to eat.

Krawczyk (Polish)  This was our last restaurant to try and it was very good.

Well, that is all of the restaurants that we tried.  If I had to pick my favorites, I think I would go with Novocaina, Spiz, and Szachownica.

We had 3 days to tour Wroclaw and the surrounding area.  We chose three tours.

Our first tour was a city walking tour.  Our guide, Michal, took us around the city and gave us a little history lesson along the way.  We learned that during WWII, the city was 70% destroyed.  Since then, it has been rebuilt and is one of the most beautiful European cities.  The first stop on the tour was St. Elisabeth’s Church.  It is one of the largest churches in the city built in the 14^th century.  The church was a burial place for the wealthiest and most important families in Wroclaw.  On the exterior walls you can see many burial plates with inscriptions.

On the way to our next stop, we learned the story regarding all of the little dwarfs around the city.  There are approximately 50 of them around the city.  In the early 1980s, a man named Waldemar Fydrych launched a movement for a new culture.  It became known as the “Orange Alternative”.  It was a protest against the Soviet Communist dominance.  The protests came in different forms; many took the form of graffiti depicting orange dwarfs.   The dwarf statues in Wroclaw  commemorate the Orange Alternative as an important part of the city’s history and culture.  It was really fun to look for all of the dwarfs.  Chad and I found about 10-15 of them!

Next was the market square.  All the roads in Wroclaw lead to the square!  It was once the main market in the city and it is now filled with tons of restaurants and shops.  It is surrounded by historic houses on all four sides.  We learned from our guide that a long time ago the more windows you had in your home, the more taxes you had to pay and that symmetry played a huge part in the architecture. 

Everything had to be symmetrical.  There were several examples of this.  There was one building we saw that had a painted (fake) window in order to look symmetrical and it also saved the owners some money because it wasn’t a real window!  Can you pick out the fake window in the picture to the right?  Also located in the market square is the town hall.  It has a Gothic style and was built in the 13^th century.  The town hall played the role of the seat of the city authorities for several hundred years.

On the way to visit the University, we made a quick stop at the Old Butcher’s Stalls.   The stalls were where meat was sold during the medieval times.  The stalls now are small shops and art galleries.  In front of the stalls is a monument to remember what the place use to be.

When we arrived at the University, we went to a beautiful ornate hall called the Aula Leopoldina which is named after the founder, Austrian Emperor Leopold.  The hall is still used today for special ceremonies and it is filled with amazing paintings and sculptures.  We also learned that the University began as a Jesuit academy.

The final stop on the tour was at St. John the Baptist Cathedral.  It took about 100 years to build starting in 1244.  The church was incredible.  We were able to walk throughout the church and even to the top of one of the towers to get a great view of the city.

Our second day tour was to visit two castles and an underground mine built by Hitler during WWII.   The castles we visited were very different from one another.  The Bolkow castle dates back to the 14^th century and is now in ruins.  While we were there, people were cleaning up the place and parts of the castle were being restored.  We were able to climb to the top of the round “rain drop” shape tower which was neat.  The Kaisz castle was very large and is still in use!   It reminded both Chad and I of visiting the Biltmore in Asheville, NC

because you can walk around inside (to part of it) and see how each room is furnished.

Our last stop was at one of Hitler’s mines.  It is still unknown today why the mines were built.  There are many theories, one being that they were to be used to build a secret weapon.  However, no one knows why because there are no documents available.

Our third and final day tour was of Auschwitz concentration camp and Wieliczka salt mine.  It was very difficult visiting Auschwitz because of what happened there.  I knew what happened, but it didn’t really sink in until I was actually there.  It really affected me when I saw the people’s belongings, what they brought with them.  I then broke down.  The people thought they were going to live a better life.  Auschwits was the biggest concentration/death camp.  It began as a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners, and then in 1942 became a death camp for Jews.  Approximately 1,500,000 people were killed at Auschwits, mainly Jews, but also Poles, POWs, Gypsies, Russians, and others.  It was very difficult to see how the people lived and how they were treated.  It was just rows and rows of buildings.   Even though this was hard for me, I am glad I was able to experience it.

The Wieliczka salt mine was cool to see.  It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Poland.  The tour started by descending 400 steps down to the first level.  Each room was decorated by beautiful sculptures carved out of rock salt.  There were several chapels built in the salt mine.  One of them was a huge cathedral!  Chad got some great pictures of the cathedral and the sculptures on the walls.  Also, there was a bar and restaurant in the salt mine.  It was a city underground!

Our trip to Poland was truly amazing.  All of the people were very friendly.  I enjoyed meeting my co-workers and it was great getting to know them.  They even took us out for drinks a couple of times!  We had a great time.

Check out all of Chad’s great pictures below!!