They Work on Saving Energy!

I keep remembering this and decided to write a short piece about all of the opportunities taken to conserve energy in the countries we visited.

1. First of all, the toilets are not water-wasting monsters. Little water sits in the base--probably all that is needed for a flush.
2. In the halls of most hotels and restrooms, the lights are on sensors which turn them on when you arrive and off when you pass. I was so impressed with this that I found a light switch with a motion sensor at Home Depot and Larry installed it in our guest room (more to come). It works well, but the light remains on considerably longer than they did in Europe and considerably longer than necessary.
   
3. This is my all-time favorite! When we got to the airport in Prague, we found that we had to go up a level. I spotted the escalator and my heart sank! It wasn't working and we were carrying lots of stuff. I got a little closer, and realized that [ta-DAH], the escalator doesn't move when no one's using it! As soon as the sensor at the bottom or top is activated, it springs into motion. Now I realize that we in the USA can't replace all escalators with motion-sensing models, but I don't understand why that technology isn't used in all new buildings.
   

Happy New Year from Nellie and Martin

Thanks to Nellie and Martin

Left to right: Ferdinand, Larry, Beverly, Dee, Dick, Rod and Jean at Gusta's


Left to right: Rod, Jean, Dee, Nellie, Beverly, Larry and Dick at Katka's

Left to right: Ferdinand, Marian (pronounced Mar-i-AN) who is Katka's husband (she is Ferdinand's daughter), and Rod

It was great to hear from them!

Lenka

Lenka is the daughter of Katarina (Katka) and the granddaughter of Ferdinand. She has recently graduated from law school and is enjoying having leisure time.

When asked if they would think about visiting us in the US, a number of family members said that they don't fly. Not Lenka!

Lenka is the one who loves to travel, and her grandfather said that he has a hard time saying "no" to her, so maybe Ferdinand and Lenka will turn up on our doorsteps sometime. We're hoping so!

Prague

Prague was beautiful and I hope to write more later. For the time being, you may check out the pictures we took while we were there. I hope to add more captions to the collection in the next few days.

Of course, my favorite scenes were architecture, especially the doors and windows.


For now, I'll just mention a few things that interested me–like the white pigeons. We saw them in both Prague and Budapest. Have I just not noticed? Do we have them here?






Or the sign we saw for a Toy Museum on the grounds of the Prague Castle–when I looked more closely, I saw they were having . . .

a Barbie Exibition!

And occasionally we'd see a sign that we loved, like the sign on the Chinese carry-out(?) near our hotel.

Kuty

One of the main things we wanted to do on our trip was to visit Kuty, the village where Larry's grandfather was born. Ferdinand was kind enough to arrange a day there, visiting family, going to a street fair, and visiting the cemetery (I collect cemeteries, as well as doors and windows). The picture at the right shows Ferdinand (a different Ferdinand) and Alžbeta (Elizabeth) Valachovič, Larry's great aunt and uncle. This picture was taken from their tombstone.

We rented a car and, in two groups, we headed toward Kuty. Not only did we have Ferdinand as a guide, the car came with a GPS (the story was that Rod told the car rental guy about his Slovak grandfather and he threw the GPS in free—don't know if that's true, but we kept urging Rod to tell the grandfather story whenever we thought it might help) and the GPS spoke English. We had great fun navigating, after we figured out the system. Like the story of storeys in buildings (where the second is the first), apparently the second turn off the rotary is called the first turn.

We enjoyed the 30 mile trip from Bratislava to Kuty, but were anxious to get there.

When you look at our Kuty photos, you may want to refer to the descendant chart (October)—or not. We had a lovely day!

Much of Kuty looks like most American towns. Then, there are the wonderfully Slovak parts--the soft lovely look of the old houses, the colors . . .

A new part of my door collection—
and Kuty has many wonderful old buildings.

Coming

Coming: Finally, the pictures from Kuty. Check the Links list to the right. If you don't see the link, check back in a couple of days. I'm working on it now.