Umbrellas of Kruezberg

The weather has turned cold and wet. Although this is disappointing, I suppose we could not have expected the sunshine and temperatures in the high seventies to last until August. The change has painted for me one of the main differences between living in a city and visiting on vacation. Had we been on vacation when the skies opened up, yesterday’s outing to Kruezberg would have been fraught with either desperation or depression—or both. If your time to see the sights is limited by a vacationer’s itinerary, when bad weather turns up, you plunge ahead regardless. For Julie and I, the solution was to duck inside one of the many cafes on Bergmannstrasse for an hour or so to refuel on coffee, tea and pastries. When we emerged, well caffeinated, the sun was back, the umbrellas were safely stowed, and Kruezberg’s cobblestoned streets were glittering.

Our frustuck on Rudesheimer Platz this morning (literally, “first piece” AKA breakfast) faced a similar lack of cooperation from the clouds. Our response today was to hustle home for a pot of tea, a retreat to the sunporch & the curling up with a good book for me (Julie’s curling up with her computer to continue revisions on her book manuscript doesn’t quite agree with the theme of this blog, so let’s ignore it for now), followed by an afternoon nap. A vacationer most likely does not have the luxury of a sunporch to which he or she can retreat, but more critically, does not have the luxury of time. It is far easier to postpone a stroll along the Spree for more clement weather when it doesn’t mean having to sacrifice that visit to the Historiches Museum to do so. Please remind me to re-read this entry when we try and cram seven centuries of Czech history into three days during our trip to Prague.