Check or Czech?

 Well, campers, all good things must end, even cruises.  Mrs J and I are safely re-ensconced at Rancho Juvat.  The bags are unpacked.  The washer and drier have been continuously running for a few days now (only a slight exageration).  The Dogs have forgiven us for leaving them, the Cats have not.  (Yes, Beans, we had a friend coming by twice a day to feed and water the horses, dogs and cats and let the dogs out in the yard to "do their business".)

But...You're still going to get vacation pictures.

The main portion of the trip was to cruise the Rhine, Main, and Mosel rivers.  The ship was built to hold 150 passengers, but, this was the end of the season (which is Swahili for "It's gonna be cold and will most likely snow) so there were only 65 passengers on board, which made it very relaxing.

Mrs. J being the "plan ahead" lady she is, had also arranged a pre-cruise 3 day visit to Prague, Czech Republic.  Back in my flying days, visiting Praque would have been the last thing I ever did in my Air Force Career. You know, that Iron Curtain Thing, the bosses kinda frowned on folks visiting places behind it. Things have changed quite a bit in the ensuing years.  Very nice place.  But, nobody we spoke to locally had anything good to say about the Commies.  I wonder why?

In any case, I highly recommend visiting the place.  

 For several reasons!

 For a country that had, relatively recently, come out from under a "God does not exist" political system, there sure were a lot of "God related" buildings.

And...

 As well as quite a few statues.

 

 

Oops, one more church!

Lot of history in that town. But, when the commies ran out of money and gave the country back, the Czech's had to make some compromises.  Most of the major buildings there were somewhat Church related, some were bought by "new" companies for offices or storefronts etc.

 IIRC, this had been a school building back in the day.

 I'm pretty sure Starbucks has more citizen support than the godless Commies did, but what do I know.

It was an interesting way to spend a couple of days getting acclimatized to the weather and the change in time, but it was now time to get on the boat.  Stopped in 10 or so towns along the three rivers.  

 Most were very similar to this.  A dock on the river for trade.  A castle on the hilltop to protect against raiders and, finally, business buildings to make money on trade.  

 

As part of our post sail package, we had a 3 day layover in France. We stopped at the America cemetery for US troops killed during the Battle of the Bulge.  Quite sobering.  Especially when you realize this isn't the ONLY US Cemetery in the region or in the Theater, or in the World for WWII casualties.

 

The MIA's names are listed on this monument.  There's a LOT of names!

 Many were just never found. Our guide told us that the search is still going on for MIA's.  When found, a black spot is painted next to their name so folks looking at this display realize they are no longer missing in action.  Still hard to take if you are family, but maybe a bit less so.

 Wishing for some lighter sites to see, we stopped by the Dom Perignon winery.  I'm not a big fan of Champagne myself, but it was interesting to see it being made.  Above is the statue of Dom Perignon himself, holding a glass of champagne in his hand.  Shortly thereafter, it started snowing.  Fairly heavily.  So we went inside the Chapel on the site, mostly because it was warmer and dry, but discovered something interesting.

Dom Perignon is burried in the Chapel on the site.

Our last Champagne site was Chateau Mumm, makers of, of course, Mumm Champagne.

Here is their facility

 Nice work if you can get it.

Finally, I saw this and just knew it would get a chuckle out of the majority of you readers.

Enjoy!

And..... Just because

 

Peace out Y'all!