Travel-scapes...Czech Republic

I am on a new Travel-scape today, in Chicago visiting my BFF#1 in her new hometown.  Plus, I get to check off one of my "Bucket List" items because we have tickets to see a baseball game at Wrigley Field (icing on the cake...the Phillies just happen to be there too!  Coincidence?).  I think there will probably be a few photos taken!  In the meantime, thought I'd pull up an older Travel-scape photo.  So, from CHECKING off a bucket list item to a different sort of CZECH....

"You Lookin' at ME?"

Czech Republic 

A few years ago my parents, better half, and myself took a riverboat cruise from Berlin to Prague along the Elbe River.  The main draw of this itinerary was the port day in Dresden, Germany from where our family descended.  Our day in Dresden had come and gone, when en route to Prague we docked in a little Czech town and found our way to a rustic Czech wine "tavern" complete with wine kegs mounted onto the walls and LOTS of levers and spouts.  Luckily, no Czech words were needed (the tongue twisting of the Slavic language had baffled us all) because everyone understood the international sign language of the pointed finger and a smile.  Feeling very happy and content we made our way back towards the riverboat when I noticed a rather worn down, dilapidated house.  Actually, not too different from many of the homes with their sad auras we saw in the former Communist country.  

What made this house different, and gave it a sense of joy,  was what I saw when I looked up to the second floor.  There sunning himself in the opened window was a most content Czech Chihuahua enjoying the gorgeous fall afternoon.  Obviously well-loved, for despite the rundown conditions the owner had taken the time and love to cushion the sill with a beautifully embroidered  tablecloth carefully folded for the pup to rest his weary head upon.  Just to be sure he was comfy while keeping watch over the street below him.  

Made me wonder what this Czech pup had seen from that window?  The house was a mere street away from the Elbe River.  Do you notice the faint horizontal line below the window, a bit darker in shade above and lighter below?  Only a couple of months prior to our visit the Elbe had flooded due to an unseasonably rainy fall for the area.  Many of riverboat cruises had been cancelled due to the high river conditions. The horizontal mark is the flood line where the waters of the Elbe had risen and engulfed the pup's home.  I'll bet he didn't move a muscle from that window even while the waters were rising.  That content look on his face is a dead give-away that he KNOWS he would probably be the first "valuable" his owner's would have grabbed if need be....and the tablecloth too.  He was safe.

--Kathy