January 29

 As I was typing my last post over 1 week ago I had had a feeling I was coming down with the flu. Yep, woke up with 102 fever and spent the next 3 days in bed, coughing, blowing, feeling nauseous and tired. Then I spent 2 more days hanging out in our condo reading and being quiet and staying away from others. We had to make the move to the upper floor condo during the worst of the illness, not fun but Dave packed everything up and moved it, insisting I just do nothing. I went from one bed to the other. We love our top floor poolside room, so pretty, bright and fabulous view. We can even see whales from here.

While I was sick Dave did a lot of wandering around taking pictures of dogs and practicing his Spanish. And taking care of me, making sure I had fluids and what ever tiny morsel of food I could choke down, he was wonderful. 

And he saw the biggest crocodile ever.

I had booked a Mandala Dot Yeti Cup painting class for Kitty and I to do on Monday at The Annex Studio. Luckily I was feeling much better and not coughing much. We made beautiful designs on our cups, and learned the basic art of Mandala Dot painting. There were 2 other women there coughing who have had the same thing Kitty and I did, it is going around big time here. 

We met up with the guys at Mango beach club when we were done painting. We had an almost non stop front row seat  to amazing whale watching! They were so close to shore and were swimming back and forth playing and breaching occasionally, mamas and babies. I told myself not to take pictures to just enjoy with my eyes. Kitty snapped a couple good ones.

Tuesday we walked up to Kitty and Jims place in the Versailles neighborhood and played a game then went out for a delicious lunch at Aubulon.

After lunch Dave and I made our way to La Comer and Costco for some supplies. After unpacking we headed back out to find dinner stopping at Don Chava for tasty street style tacos, then made our way to a bakery to pick up a late slice of birthday cake since we had to cancel Daves Birthday dinner plans due to my illness, we are rescheduled though! Then we made our way to the beach for sunset. It is so nice to feel good enough to get out and about!

PV 2025

 We returned to PV for a 5 plus week trip on January 18, a little later than usual. We actually came here for 1 week over my birthday in November and stayed in the 3rd floor unit here at Bella Loma that we stayed in for 1 week last February. Hindsight we could have stayed then and now at our beloved Villa Olivia as it is still for sale and they are renting it out but I had prepaid for our rooms at Bella Loma because everyone was so certain the Villa had been sold back in February. We meet up with Denise for dinner and went back to the Villa when we were here in November, it was so good to see her and catch up,  basically she has been alone in the Villa since May, other than some staff.  

The PV airport was a breeze, got out in almost record time, then walked right after exiting stopping just after Avis rental and at the One Hotel and Casino to set up an Uber as recommend on Trip Advisor Forum. It worked well, there was actually an uber driver waiting there.

Our room here at Bella Loma for the first 5 nights is a larger 1 bedroom with 3 outdoor balconies but not inviting to hang out on any of them, they are either right up to a building and an outdoor gully or basically enclosed because of being right up to another building. We are not hanging outside at these spaces! I MISS my ocean view at Villa Olivia! 

We will move to the roof top room soon with views and ocean breezes. Which could have its own challenges! 

Our friends Kitty and Jim arrived on the 13th, but Kitty came down with a nasty case of the flu so we have not seen them, but plan on it by Dave's birthday. Lots of stuff going around down here and everywhere. 

Our days have been filled with walks, beach time, grocery shopping, a few meals out at our favorite places, although not fancy just our go to PV places, Cafe de Olla, Los Liros, Freddy Tucan for breakfast.

Yesterday we walked from our place to the Marina since the weather is cooler than usual, clocked in 12 plus miles yesterday. Had lunch at a new to us place, Fajita Banana, had of course had fajitas, very good, would go back. We did catch an uber back which happened to be right at the area where we ordered and caught an uber when we arrived, so basically we walked to at the airport! So doable to walk from airport to romantic zone when arriving or leaving but not recommended!

Today after runs and walks we walked the beach to La Playita in Conchas Chinas, love the views there, chatted with 2 tables of young people, one table of 2  lovely young gals here doing a photo shoot, one a photographer the other a model, both originally from Washington, the Tri Cities and Vancouver, the model is now signed on with Elle, I need to pick up a copy! We enjoyed watching all the whale activity today from the beautiful beach here.

We have both finished one book so far and Dave has been diligent to work on his Spanish daily or numerous times daily, he is practicing it everywhere we go, good for him, he is in my opinion doing very well, although he doesn't think so!

Tid Bits

 We packed well and smart for this trip, each only taking a small carry on, as well as a back pack for Dave and a tote bag for me. It may have looked like we lived in the same clothes....yes and no! I had purposely booked airbnbs with washing machines. In Europe a lot of times the washing machines are also a dryer so hard to tell. In London it was a dual machine, in Prague it was only a washer, which I found out trying to find the dyer setting only to restart the washer. I should have been clued in when we found a drying rack in the closet. 

I just packed coordinating colors, black, white, cream, dark turquoise and 1 pair jeans. It is not exciting but it works and good colors for city travel. Love Hawaii Rip Skirt clothes for travel, tops and skirts weigh next to nothing so pack light. The freedom of lugging a little suitcase on trains and buses, down streets and up stairs is so worth it.  And no lost luggage! 

While in London we felt like we were sometimes on the set/cast of "Emily In Paris"! It is a very fashion forward city! Women wore dresses or skirts, men in suits/pants. No one wore athletic wear here so my leggings were never worn, only item I packed that wasn't worn. Big round wire rimed glasses were also a thing there! I was not comfortable taking pictures of some of the ultra over the top fashions of a few people but wish I had! I just love observing the local style and culture! 

We had read that biking was not popular in London. We didn't feel that way. We were staying in the business district and noticed lots and lots of people commuting on bikes. Lime bikes were all over and the bike lines busy. 

Crossing the streets in London was a bit nerve racking for me. Love that they have "look left" or "look right" written at the cross walks but was still a bit unnerving as cars/bikes are coming from other directions when turning. We are used to looking at the driver of the car to see if they notice us before crossing which didn't come naturally for us to look on the other (correct) side for here.

Love the terms the Brits use: rubbish (trash), chuck it in (our host on how to load the soap into the washing machine) mind the gap (subways), loo, chips (fries) crisps (chips), mate. 

Prague- We were surprised to find most restaurants only served traditional fare, such as goulash, braised steak, fried chicken or pork schnitzel, very meat heavy and very brown. Although with talking to our seat compartment mate on the train from Cesky Krumov to Prague he said those traditional foods are usually eaten for get togethers such as family dinners or holidays, or for occasional eating out.  It seems Italian is popular everywhere, so we did eat plenty of Italian, guess it's the universal food! 

Prague seemed to be very popular with the younger population, seemed to have more young people out and about as well as more younger tourists than London. We did hear that Prague is a very popular destination for bachelorette and bachelor parties from other parts of Europe. We did witness a couple bachelor parties.....one man being questioned by a police after he was leaning on a wall along the water walk way relieving himself. We weren't interested enough to watch longer but did notice his buddies continued walking, stopped, and watched from a distance! 

We noticed very little homeless in both cities. Only once did we happen upon someone in London begging, man was walking through the subway holding a cup out for money. 

 Begging in Prague was very different and very non threatening. We did see a fair amount of begging in the tourist areas. All of the people begging assume a crouched down position bent forward with their forehead usually resting on the ground, holding a cup in front of themselves. Many times with a dog laying beside them. We didn't see anyone begging in any other way.

Prague did not feel as crowded as a whole compared to London. It was a perfect way to balance our trip, start off with the crowds and wind down with the slightly more calm areas of Prague and Cesky Krumlov. I do get tired of the crowds, Dave much less so!  

We both said we would do this trip all over again! 

 

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Cesky Krumlov-Prague -Oct 1

 We went out in search of a morning cup of coffee and settled on a sweet little alley place. It was adorable and was ran by an older non English speaking woman, actually she understood but didn't speak much back. This was the first of the trip we experienced it. I am ashamed that we don't speak other languages and the rest of the world does. We said our thank yous to her in Czech. I ordered an Americano and a hot out of the oven cinnamon roll, Dave had her 2 egg breakfast and a cappuccio. I felt bad but asked for a refill of water for my Americano. It was served as a shot of espresso with a thimble (possibly 2 tablespoons) of hot water on the side (so I needed another couple of tablespoons) The lovely lady understood and refilled the little white carafe.

My cinnamon roll and Americano, Dave was waiting for his egg breakfast, which he said was delish!

View from our little table. 

We then checked out of our room and found the breakfast area for our pension where we dropped off our back pack to pick up latter. The lovely lady working reception offered to make us a coffee. We enjoyed our coffees while visiting with a couple of men who were each traveling solo having breakfast. One man was an older man from Germany and had never been here, the other was younger and a photographer from Vienna who travels on bike hauling 120 pounds of gear and only takes 4 pictures a year which he then makes into a big picture and sells only one of! I love all the interesting people and stories to be had during travel. He was very interesting and he gave us his FB page. 

Then we were off to get tickets for the castle. 

We were the first english speaking tour of the day, there were only 7 of us and we had the most charming young guide ever. We commented with another man we have never had a guide who skips up and down stairs! She was just great! The castle complex was built around 1250 for the Witingonen family, whose coat of arms was a 5 petal rose. When they died out it was inherited by the Rosenberg family around 1300. 

Bears have guarded the castle since 1707, and they do not get ride of  them! So there are many bear rugs throughout. Guide told us the live bears names but don't remember. They look like they don't work too hard guarding any more! 

A few of the rugs in the castle....

First off the beautiful little church inside the palace.

The many beautiful rooms.

And the carriage.

The ball room with fun frescos.

After our tour we headed out on a walkabout outside of the walled area. 

Made our way back into the walled area and had lunch at a little bistro with a cute bathroom! We each had a ham and cheese croissant and shared a little dessert. Cute bathroom!

We caught the 2:00 pm train back to Prague spending the 2.5 hour ride chatting with a young local man who had perfect English and no accent. We asked him about that, English is taught in grade school, he has family in US and he studied abroad in US and worked a summer life guarding in New Jersey. He was more well travel in the USA  than us!

Last night on our balcony enjoying the view. We loved Prague and the area. This was an amazing trip!