2016 Highlights and Lowlights

As the sun sets on 2016, we look back.

Not our busiest travel year but we still managed to hit the travel trail a bit last year, including to major international destinations. Gotta get our money's worth for those passports, you know...

HOTELS - One of the best hotels we've ever had the pleasure of staying in...and we've stayed in many...was the absolutely wonderful Hilton Prague. From the moment we stepped in the door, to the duty manager showing us a selection of rooms we could choose from, accessible bathing equipment we could choose from, very comfortable beds, quiet room with good view, great location, top-notch service from beginning to end, this was the best hotel we stayed in last year. (NOTE: This is not to be confused with the Hilton Old Town Prague a few blocks away)

Another nod to the great RIU Palace Hotel in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. The RIU's comfort, service, and amenities are top-notch. Stay in one if you ever get a chance.

We didn't stay in any really bad hotels this year but the Oxford Suites in Redding did not live up to expecations, especially as we've stayed in some very nice examples of the chain in Chico and Pismo Beach, California.  The Novotel Schwabing in Munich, Germany was also not as nice as we'd hoped it to be.

AIRLINES - Two this year, Alaska Airlines to Costa Rica provided outstanding service, comfort, on-time service, and...best of all...price.  American (with a leg by British Airways) provided us with very good service over some very long hauls across the Atlantic. Again, no bad flight hassles due to airlines, which can be pretty rare.  On the other hand...

AIRPORTS - Munich and Liberia, Costa Rica airports let us down this year.  From waiting hours with no seating and no air conditioning tropical Daniel Odubor Quiros Airport to the lack of amenities in the older part of Franz Josef Strauss Airport (especially compared to the really excellent new terminal) was a huge letdown. Berlin's Tegel Airport wasn't much better.

RENTAL CAR - A huge raspberry for Alamo Rent-A-Car in Costa Rica for blatantly trying to rip off every customer to the tune of an extra $600 for insurance and making the check-in process as miserable and long as can be. Even when you showed written proof of extensive car insurance, valid in Costa Rica, that could cover everything imaginable, you are called a liar to your face and told no American insurance is valid there (which we found is not true). On top of that, you're stuck at their depot in the middle of nowhere with a two-mile walk back to the airport...unless you want to pay $35 per person to take their shuttle bus back. A true den of vipers there, taxis are much more honest, affordable, and even wheelchair accessible there. Skip the rental car in Costa Rica, it will truly ruin your trip.

On the other hand, Hertz in Berlin and Munich were very professional, friendly, and efficient in the handling of our vehicle there.

FOOD - We had some outstanding meals this year starting with a very memorable meal of pork knuckle and pirogies at Zajasd Lesny, a 24-hour truck stop diner in the southwest corner of Poland.

The Alte Heide biergarten had the best food in Munich with its pork Cordon Bleu, German meatloaf, and steak.

Again, Taste in the Motherlode town of Plymouth in California produced a wonderful dinner.

DESTINATIONS - We've cast our shadows on the beaches and jungles of Costa Rica; the remains of the Berlin Wall; the cobblestones of Prague; the truck stops of Poland; the biergartens of Munich; the waters and trees of Redding, California, along with the state's Motherlode country.

Costa Rica is much more accessible than I thought it would be and there are some great adventures to be had. Still, the beaches left something to be desired and I really felt I had to keep a good grip on my wallet for the next rip-off that could be around the next corner.  It was nice but not as nice as I'd imagined it would be.

Redding, and the area around it, is beautiful but a little on the quiet side.

Prague was too crowded and full of tourists to be really enjoyable but the residents of that old city are very friendly and accomodating to visitors like us.

Munich has been, and will always be, one of our favorite cities in the world to visit. Wouldn't even mind living there.

But this year's most enjoyable destination was the slightly grungy, sometimes dangerous feeling, always lively, at times drop-dead-gorgeous, and extremely drenched with history, Berlin. I cannot wait to come here again.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

Czeching Out Old Town Prague

(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) Yeah, I know...corny Czech puns. Sorry, can't help myself. Lucky for you, we're only here for a short time.

We have one full day in Prague so let's get to it.

Watch the Video!

It's a bit of a late start as we sleep in a bit. Easy to do in this very comfy Hilton hotel. We decide to skip the hotel cafe (good thing too...it's ridiculously expensive) and just head out. 

We'll grab a bite along the way.

A short block, downhill from the Hilton, takes us to the nearest subway station. Hidden behind an adjacent McDonald's is a lift down to the platform.

The station here is a bit dingier than we'd find in Germany but it's accessible and functional.
A few stops later we alight in Old Town. It's still quite a walk along bumpy cobblestoned sidewalks to the riverfront.

About a quarter mile of walking along the river gets us to a couple of riverfront cafes where we try to get a bite to eat.  Try is about all we can accomplish because the wait staff is determined to pretend we don't exist. We have to exit through a tight and crowded market at the foot of the Charles Bridge where we cross the street to go back to a couple of other cafes that looked a little more laid back.


An extremely narrow sidewalk, just about an inch wider than Tim's chair, takes us there.

Café la Crème offers up a sidewalk table we can sit at, and good food to eat. Service is friendly and we're soon sated. Back up the narrow sidewalk, we take on the Charles Bridge crossing.

Sitting across this strategic span of water for over 600 years, this bridge was a lynchpin for east-west trade over the centuries. It's massive bulwarks shake off ice in winter and slice through spring floods. It was the only river crossing in the area and carried a massive amount of traffic along the sixteen arches supporting its weight over the water before being restricted to pedestrian-only traffic in the last half of the 20th century.

With all the tourists crowding for a place to capture the perfect selfie, you'd think it was still the only river crossing in this fair city.

Tim's getting stressed with people haphazardly walking into the path of his chair without looking. I'm getting stressed trying to watch out for him. Letty's getting stressed that we're getting stressed.

It's not a good look for us.

We're trying to take in the scenery, majesty, and history of this beautiful bridge but it's more of a time of self-preservation as we try to work ourselves to the other side with our sanity in check.

Eventually, we do make it over to the other side where the crowd eases up just a hair. Once Letty catches up to us, we start to make our way upstream to the next bridge, pouring over our map to find the best, most-likely-to-be-accessible route there. Eventually, we end up in a quiet alley on another narrow sidewalk. A glance to the right reveals a little courtyard café...Café Soda...blissfully ignored by the traveling horde.

I need a beer and this is the place that's going to give me one.

Winding our way to the back table, we're cut off from the world outside. A very nice respite with a cold pilsner to help us recover from the chaotic streets outside. They also have nice, clean bathrooms here that are, unfortunately, not accessible.

Rejuvinated, we make our way across the next bridge upstream with no crowd at all and make our way over to Wenceslas Square to see the Astronomical Clock and to eat a trdelnik. This is a type of rolled pastry that is cooked over a wood fire. Some places put ice cream on it, others a sauce like Nutella.

We couldn't find a place that would do both so it was ice cream for us. Suffice it to say, we didn't think it lived up to it's status as a legendary Prague snack.

Again with the crowds in the square and we're feeling more run down than anything else and start to head into the direction of our hotel. 

The streets are teeming with people. I see a little break in the buildings on the edge of the square so we duck in to find a maze of alleys. It's seems us and maybe five other tourists are in this warren. It's wonderful.

Old, medieval buildings line crooked, cobblestone lanes with little shops, cafes and bars. We've finally found our sweet spot in Prague in this area that looks like it came from a Hollywood set or Disneyland, only it's real and devoid of the crowds we've been fighting for hours now.

Around one more corner and we come across Vycep Nastojaka, billing itself as "the smallest pub in the world." The name translates roughly into 'standing room only,' although there are about five barstools.

The bar itself is maybe four feet long. The shelves behind are well stocked, though, and there's even a flat-screen on the wall to watch your favorite sport, as long as it's soccer.
Inside, we have about as much room to move around as we do in our bathroom at home. Besides us, there is the bartender and the local barfly. Both are friendly and eager to strike up a conversation with these out-of-towners that landed in their bar.

When they find out we're from California, we're the recipients of a number of toasts to our state. Along with a shot of rum, the bartender gives us a taste of slivovitz, a plum brandy that is the national drink of the Czech Republic (according to him). It's very tasty.

The barfly shakes our hands and bids farewell...he has to go back to work after his lunch break here...but stays a few minutes longer when the bartender hands him another pint of beer.

After a slow start, a frustrating few hours of summer crowds, and finally breaking away, we find a little bit of the heart of Prague in these two, sweet gentlemen at the 'world's smallest pub.' It's nice to be able to put a good ending on our day before heading back to the hotel.

And that's how we'll end our Czech adventure...crazy crowds but friendly, heartwarming locals.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved
Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Pottery and Pig's Knuckles...Repositioning from Berlin to Prague

(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) The Ford Mondeo wagon is a nice car. It's got sat/nav, air conditioning (a rare treat in this country), a nice stereo with iPod dock, and cruise control. This will be a nice break in public transit for a couple of days as we journey eastward for a detour to the Czech Republic for a few days.

I just wish I'd checked with the Hertz agent at the counter on how to put it into reverse...

Watch the Video!

I'm in a narrow lane, with a tight turn, trying to exit the garage in a station wagon that's just a tad too long to make it in one pass. The manual shifter says reverse is way to the left and up. Every time I try that, I end up in first gear and edge a bit closer to the wall.

Pretty soon, there will be no more room to edge.

I figure there must be a button or something to press but I can't find it. I can't find a manual, either, in this dark car in a darker garage. Finally, I see a small ring at the bottom of the shifter...lift that...and I'm in reverse.

Whew! that was a close one.  Now, I just have to do this for five more floors in this cramped, little parking garage until I have to make a blind exit onto a busy, Berlin street.

I manage somehow and find my way back to Lindemann's Hotel on Postdamerstrasse...our home in Berlin...where the manager kindly let me park out back to pack our bags, wheelchair, and Tim into the car.

Before we leave, we notice that it would only be about fifty miles out of our way and only add about 45 minutes to our drive to take a detour through a corner of Poland. We hadn't planned on going there but we can add a checkmark to our list (we add a new place to our list if we do something significant there such as eating a meal...changing planes at an airport doesn't count).

Once out of Berlin, I see my favorite German road sign...a circle with five diagonal lines through it...that says there is no longer any speed limit. Yes, we're on one of the country's famous autobahns with little traffic.

The cruise control is set to 160kph (100mph) and, in no time, we've crossed the Polish border on a very smooth, well paved, high speed highway (Note: be sure to watch the video, above, to experience this).

Then we crossed the Polish border...

Suddenly, the smooth pavement turned into a cracked and potholed disaster. Speed limit was dropped to the equivalent of 45mph, and even that may have been too high. It felt like the tires on our car suddenly became square.

After about 40 miles of this stuff, my wife found a side road that would lead south about 20 miles to the highway we'd need to take back towards Dresden, where we'd turn off towards Prague.


This road's much nicer. Just a two-lane country road, it winds through some very nice scenery.  My wife tells me the map shows a village up ahead.  The village turns out to be Dabrowa Boleslawiecka.

The village has an interesting history. Before World War II, it was part of Germany. After the war, it became part of Poland and the German population was expelled so that Poles could move in. Despite the ugliness of the war, it's a picture perfect European village in the rolling, green, tree covered hills.

It's time for lunch. There's a restaurant in the center of town but parking there looks iffy as does the wheelchair access. We saw a little 24 hour, truck stop diner at the edge of town so we turn back to go have a quick bite there. There's plenty of parking and wheelchair access at the Zajasd Lesny.

We quickly realize we're not on the tourist trail anymore when the server does not speak more than two words of English and we speak even less Polish. Somehow, we manage to get our point across and, luckily, the restaurant has had the foresight to print one menu in English. Pointing will help at this point.

Tim orders a plate of cheese and potato pirogies, I get a plate of the meat variety. The plan is for each of us to eat half of the other's meal so we can have both. Letty goes with the pig knuckle and some red beet tea.

The guys get their pirogies and they're heavenly. Steamy little puffs of dough with such tasty fillings.

The star of the show, though, is Letty's pig knuckle.  It's a softball sized mound of pork that is tender enough to slice with a fork.

Happily, she agrees to share some with us. The savory broth that covers this dish up adds to the joy our stomachs are feeling after this meal. This will turn out to be one of the most memorable meals from this trip...here, at a little roadside 24 hour diner, far off the main highway in a corner of Poland.

Before we venture back into Deutschland, Letty wants to visit one more town appearing on the Polish map, this time Boleslawiec.  Expecting just another pretty Polish village, this is clearly a bigger town with old Communist factories and smokestacks dotting the landscape.

Some of those factories specialize in ceramics, a tradition in this town going back several hundred years, making this a hotbed for the product. My wife immediately wants out.

Tim and I pass the time in the parking lot while she shops for some plates to take home, picking up a nice little haul for only around twenty bucks.

Done with our side trip, we get back on a much smoother highway for the trip back across the border and on to tonight's destination, Prague in the Czech Republic.

Stay tuned for that adventure.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved


Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

The Local...Finding a Comfy Neighborhood Biergarten Upon Arrival in Munich

(NOTE: We're trying to see different things on this trip to Munich than we did on our last trip. You might want to check out our previous trip to Bavaria to see some of the big sites we won't be covering on this trip as well)


(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) One of the down sides to traveling is laundry. Not finding anywhere to wash our clothes in Prague, we're in desperate need of a laundromat. Our last purchase at the Hilton Prague was a couple of cheap t-shirts to hold us over till we could find one.

Video Tour of our Accessible Room in Munich

We've arrived at our hotel in Munich, the Novotel Suites in Schwabing. It's located in a very quiet business park. and the room is very basic.  Hard to call it a suite but I guess there's a sliding panel in the wall that can be deployed as a barrier between the bed on one side of the room and the twin-sized day bed on the other side.

The bathroom is fully accessible with a roll-in shower but the pocket door has several ventilation holes in it, which compromises your privacy in it.

In the shower, the hot water is very hot and strong. Scalding, in fact, and the handle is in a precarious position so we have to be extremely careful when bathing not to hit it or receive burns if we do.

After checkin, we put our dirty clothes in a suitcase, find a nearby laundry (about 5 blocks away), and start walking over.

It's a Saturday and the laundry is closed today so we walk back to the hotel. On the way over, I saw a sign for a biergarten among the dozens of apartment blocks.  I wonder if they're open and if they serve food.  It's dinner time and we're hungry.

In Munich, each apartment building is separated by a green strip. Residents use this area to grow gardens and to have a little outdoor space.

One of these plots in this neighborhood is given over to the Alte Heide restaurant, which uses the space for a small biergarten.

A little manhandling is required to get Tim's chair over the 1 inch lip into the gravel covered garden (his heavy duty chair, back at home, would handle it easily) where a lovely round table awaits us.  The locals already at some of the other tables raise their glass and greet us as we come in.]

This isn't one of the massive biergartens the city is famous four. Just a quiet, neighborhood joint with about a dozen tables under the shady trees.

Although I've been taking DIY German lessons for the three months leading up to this trip, my supposed "25% fluency" is not getting my point across. The server says she doesn't know any English but her English is better than my German. She does provide us an English translation of the menu, which is a great help.

While we ponder our food choices, three litres of their special Oktoberfest beer...tonight's special... are set before us. Yes, it was delicious, refreshing, and much appreciated on this warm day.

Letty gets a steak; Tim, some pork Cordon Bleu; and I get some German meatloaf with potato salad. The food is simple and outstanding. All first-rate dishes, with Tim getting the best of it.

For dessert, a little apple strusel a la mode.

Before we leave, the server gives us a special treat, shots of Bavarian schnapps. It was very good.

The others at the tables are welcoming, smiling, relaxed. While we have to swat away a bee now and again, it's just the perfect way to relax. Over four hundred of these little (some bigger...some huge) relaxing beer parks dot the city of Munich. Literally, every block.

It's kind of like the pub culture in England...the social living room everybody comes to for relaxing and hanging out with others. Except, here in Munich, it's more like a patio.

For our next week, we've found our local. The Alte Heide biergarten in the Schwabing district, a happy accident while searching for a place to wash our clothes.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Czeching In...Arriving in Prague and a Taste of Old Town. A Big Taste!

After our detour through Poland, we flying along very well into the Czech Republic only to find the car's GPS doesn't know about the road being closed and a detour around it. It takes a little fussing with the maps and the signs in a language we don't know but we finally find our way around a stunningly beautiful but very traffic clogged drive around a very pretty lake and river back to the main highway.

Watch the Video!

It's late afternoon when we arrive at the Hilton Prague. I present my reservation at the desk and we're introduced to the on-duty manager, a lovely woman  who says we might not be happy with the bathroom in the room we reserved.  She'd be happy to take us upstairs to show us a couple of different rooms and let us pick which one would be best for us.

Letty goes up with her while Tim and I hang out in the massive atrium lobby. A few minutes later, they're back and we finish the check-in process.

See a Video Tour of our Room!

Our room, three stories up, is very nice. Large by European standards (but about average for American tastes) has two twin beds, a queen size sofabed, a nice desk with fold-out vanity and internet connections, flat screen TV with plenty of English channels, lighted armoire with ironing board and a safe, a minibar with an empty shelf for our use, coffee, and a large accessible bathroom with a tub.

A few minutes later, the manager is at our door with a choice of two bath chairs. We choose one that is like a tractor saddle, mounts on top of the tub, and swivels to the side for easy transferring.

While pondering the lovely view of the atrium, I'm thinking this is some of the best check-in service I've every had in my life. It's a lovely hotel and the service is outstanding.

It's only a couple of blocks to walk from the hotel over to the Old Town section of the city. It's still daylight, although sunset will be soon, so we have time. We're not too tired from the drive and don't want to settle in yet.

Old Communist era trams mix with more modern models on the streets, rumbling along and we also bounce along the cobblestone sidewalks. We soon find a groove to the smoothest part of the pavement and try to stick to that.

We don't really have a plan tonight, so we just wander around, plaza-to-plaza, using the large Powder Tower as a landmark so we don't get lost.

A few alleys wander off here and there. Cozy looking restaurants hide in their nooks and crannies.  We're getting hungry.

After inquiring at a few that look good, we settle on the first one that affirms that they'll take our credit card for payment.

Thinking back to that delicate, juicy and moist pig knuckle Letty had in Poland, I order one for dinner but instead of her boneless, softball sized entrée, I get a bone-in monster that seems the size of a basketball.

It's good (but not as good as the one yesterday) and I can only make a small dent in it before I have to throw in the towel.

We wander around a bit, having a beer here and there...enjoying the exquisite old buildings, before heading back to our hotel to rest up.

Tomorrow, we're jumping in with both feet to experience what this city has to offer.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

YEAR IN REVIEW: 2016

We don't travel as much as we used to here at The World on Wheels but we still keep ourselves on the road a healthy bit.

2016 started off with a big bang for us as we toured and zip-lined through the jungles of Costa Rica.

The water on the Pacific Coast isn't all that clear, and there are a few people out there trying to scam you, but the Riu Palace was magnificent as always and the tropical jungles proved a lot more accessible than we'd imagined.

A Sunset article that glanced over our area without really knowing anything about it inspired me to write about some of the charming and overlooked downtowns in Los Angeles County.

A new light rail line made all the way out to our neighborhood in the eastern San Gabriel Valley which motivated us to explore our region a bit more and, since we weren't driving, led to not one but two Gold Line Pub Crawls.

It also led to a post about what there was to do in the immediate vicinity of the new line.

Another article visited some of the most historic restaurants you can still dine in in our neck of the woods.

June found us at the northern edge of our state where I stumbled up one of my old elementary school teachers completely by accident after 45 years apart in Redding, California.

After that, we got to deal with Tim's stomach issues back in the Motherlode.

The big kahuna of the year, though, was our grand European tour.

Starting in Berlin...

...a quick lap through Poland...

...a couple of nights in Prague...

and ending up with a week in one of our favorite cities in the world, Munich.

Along with Tim regaling with tales of living with cerebral palsy, me with some caregiver chronicles, and a few new Cocktail Hours sprinkled in between, that was our year.

Can't wait to see what 2017 brings.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved