The Saga of the Missing Luggage

I arrived at the Prague airport and got through the extensive Israeli security check, with an interview. (What religious community do you belong to?) The guy above in yellow standing outside the plane I will soon board, was the one who interviewed me.

Look! There is my suitcase being loaded onto my El Al plane, which will take me on a three hour, nonstop flight from Prague to Tel Aviv. How falsely comforting!

I love taking photos from the plane. Here are the lovely fields of the Czech Republic.

These clouds make me think of Zeus.

Not sure what mountains these are. 

But they are beautiful.

Israel above and below

I made it and stand in the passport line for about 15 minutes.

The luggage carousel is only about 100 feet from passport control. But this is what I find when I walk there: no suitcases or people.

I double check that I am at the right carousel. Yep. I mill around for about a half hour checking other carousels before I give up and go to the lost and found.

Where they have me fill out some paperwork and give me the above toiletries bag, complete with pajamas! There are stacks of these bags behind the TEN lost and found windows, making me suspicious that lost luggage is a common occurrence at the Tel Aviv airport. I spend the next 24 hours wondering if my luggage will turn up and how many clothes, etc. to buy in Tel Aviv if it doesn't. The next evening, I call the airline and a recording tells me my luggage has been located. I hope this is accurate and will try to claim it the next morning when I meet my tour group back at the airport.

In the meantime, people in the United States have been praying to St. Anthony on behalf of my missing luggage. Thank you to them and St. Anthony! I have him on speed dial.

It works! I hunt down an airline rep, she takes me into the bowels of the airport to the most beautiful sight! Not sure where it went, but very glad to have it back!

One last glimpse of the Tel Aviv Airport and the mylar balloons that have escaped to the ceiling. 

Parting Thoughts About Praha

Prague--love how they spell/pronounce it, Praha--really seems to have it together. A European capital in lovely natural setting

With historical, well-maintained, beautiful buildings integrated with capitalism.

Low crime rate, reasonable cost of living, free university education for citizens.

I was only there a few days, hardly long enough to get a complete feel for the place. But I sensed a kind of gentle melancholy about the city.

Maybe it's part of their national personality. Maybe it's a part of their World War II experience. The reason Prague was so untouched during the war is because parts of their country were given away under the Munich Agreement and thanks to threats from Hitler--Prague is so beautiful. It would be a shame if the Lufwaffe had to destroy it--the president conceded the rest to Germany.

There was a Czech government in exile and a resistance, whose greatest success was assassinating Reinhard Heydrich, an architect of the Holocaust and ruler of the former Czechoslovakia during the war. But the Czech's didn't pay the price the Poland and other countries did.

Them there were their decades under the Iron Curtain. They too came through this unscathed with the Velvet Revolution led by

High Above Prague Part 2 & the Charles Bridge

We climbed the tower at one end of the Charles Bridge for some more fantastic views of Prague.

Here is a not-very-good photo of the tower.

Overlooking the bridge. The Charles Bridge was built in the 1300's. Mind boggling.

It's a little bit scary up here!

Meanwhile, down on the bridge are statues.

Above is St. John of Nepomuk, the oldest statue on the bridge.

At the base of St. John, is this carving. Everyone pets the dog. No one really knows why (other than we like to put real life dogs)

Elizabeth has been a great tour guide!

The Charles Bridge from a distance.

The John Lennon Wall

The Lennon Wall was started in 1980 after Lennon was murdered.

It is a constant work in progress.

Before the Czech Republic was the Czech Republic, it was Czechoslovakia and part of the Soviet Bloc. In 1989, there was a peaceful end to Communism known as the Velvet Revolution. Writer, dissident, and statesman Vaclav Havel served as president during this transition time.

Elizabeth had been to the wall in March with her parents. She said the look of the wall had greatly changed since then. We read in Wikipedia that on April 22, 2019, environmental activists had covered the wall with slogans demanding action on climate change and invited others to join in.

Later in the week, we ate lunch at the John Lennon Pub.

There was other street art in Prague. This was under a bridge.