Praha (Prague), Czech Republic

Greetings to all, and welcome to your weekly dose of Alan's World, the latest trend in reality media, 'Let the tedious minutiae of my life invade yours!'

Hey I like that, perhaps my blogs new motto? We will see. So hurrah, the only complaints about last weeks blog were from my mother...which is either great in that everyone still enjoyed it...or tragic in that she IS the only one that reads it.

I have finally fixed the spelling error in my intro, to those nitpickers who spotted it. Also I believe I have enabled it so you can leave comments without having to join blogger. I will test it out myself. I accept all comments, BRING IT ON!

I am not sure whether I will be updating my blog over the holidays, it will be just a last moment sort of thing, so my circulation (of perhaps one?) does not need to check in with any regularity. I am returning this Sunday to the snow bound shores of Canada and am quite looking forward to seeing everyone. Speaking of home, I will use of this public forum to say congrats to Erin and Adam on the pending expansion(s) (Hey could be twins, I have twin nieces) of Clan Dyker. I hereby withdraw my submission of my name for the child, and I am throwing all my resources behind Obinna's proposal, Tochukwu. Seriously. Think about it.

I had prepared an entire blog on the banality of the nuclear family, but with my friends news, that seems scuppered. So instead...wait for it...more PICS. Now I have quite a few of my time in Praha, so I will separate them. In this blog I will show you Karlstejn castle. Now a little history. It was built by Charles IV (THE FOURTH, DUH). He is the most reknown Czech monarch (From around the 14th century I think, I cannot remember). He built...well loads, and, another important attribute for any successful ruler, killed lots of foreigners. :)


And here it is. It is rather striking, and it sits atop one end of a long valley, so quite defensible. It took about...40ish minutes to travel here from Praha, and you have a guide to lead about, so...yeah...go visit it. :(

This is looking back down the valley. We came up the path through the woods (Not seen, on the other side) and then went down through the town. It is almost composed entirely tourist shops hawking their cheap wares. That is one thing you will find about being in Praha itself. There are a lot of tourist shops across the river. But still many amazing sites...so you go visit...Now.

AHHHH the white tree of Gondor is not blossoming...sorry, went off on some strange tangent there. This was in one of the courtyards on the tour. In one room of the castle, we were not allowed to take and photos. In this room contained the skull of a dragon, sold to some king by an Italian merchant. I did attempt to sneak one but it did not turn out. I will let you in on the secret, it is an alligator skull. I am surmising that the Czechs are just embarrased about their history by not allowing any pics. It is really nothing to be ashamed of...it could be worse in fact, you could venerate a buck tooth gopher... like some country I have heard of.

LOL now this woman...totally forget her name (But American of course)...b!#@$ed the entire bloody time. 3 steps...they were too much. She did not even go on the tour, just kidnapped that poor middle eastern woman to keep her company. Anyways, this is why I am considering an experiment, that when I go abroad that I will be aggressive and uncompromising to every foreign person I see and claim to be American. The goal...well just to get the world hating America that little bit more...I am so altruisitc.

I will end the blog with a couple a nice shots, so everyone clicks off with a pleasant taste in their minds. Looking forward to Xmas in the Maritimes 2005...because it looks like next year I may be spending it alone in England...sniff...pity me.

York, England

Since it is late in the evening here (And I have had a few pints) I am going to keep this update short and sweet. York...it is a city...In England. There you go.

This is York Minster and Cathedral. It was first a minster and then became a cathedral but has retained both titles. For so grand a building you would think that I could at least walk across the street to get a shot without the powerline but...there you go.

Cripes, and this was just half of it, it extends the same lengh beyond the organ. If you look in the upper left you can see a what is in fact a dragon's head, used for raising and lowering curtains somehow.

And here it is, a little blurred though, sorry.

Here is the famous Rose Window. And I have to apoligize at this point for not being witty or interesting, but it is late. Hardly an excuse, now that I see it written down.

Like Durham I foolishly felt the need to climb to the top, again on narrow, dark steps. You would think I would learn...

Much of York had a fantastic medieval heritage, though a few support beams here and there could not go wrong. Right that may have been the worst joke I have ever told, so there you go Dad, I have finally reached your level of humor.

And that is it folks, there are more photos with more enlightening explanations, but my bed is just so inviting right now...I am not even going to spell check this, just throw it out there and count it as finished. Next week, better, I promise.

A B