Nuremberg, Germany - Rainy City Drive

The rain continued as we drove from the Zeppelinfeld to the old part of the city and the Christmas Market.  Here are some random shots along the way.

Prague to Passau - Farmland and Small Towns

[From the Bus Window]
The ride continues through farmland and our first small town.

 Yes, this one is crazy diagonal.  I started to crop it but I realized that what I was trying to capture was the sign in the lower left corner.  Universal symbols for the road warrior.

 These solar powered signs were located all along the road.

 I don't know if this is a personal collection of things, or things for sale.

 The sign says "Second Hand".  Pullover, bus driver. Yard sales!!

 This looks like another type of gas station.

 Mining operations?

 Looks like we may have a road expansion soon.  Or maybe we are riding on the road expansion.

 We later learned that these stacks of wood were intended to show where the road was when the snow buries it. Yikes! It was such a warm day that I can't imagine the entire area blanketed in white fluffy snow.

It was about this time that Pat Murphey moved from a seat across the aisle to the seat next to me.  She leaned over and quietly remarked that I looked pretty busy, which was a good thing, because the woman she was sitting with was talking her ear off.  We were travel buds from that moment forward!

Prague to Passau - First View of the Czech Countryside

[Through the Bus Window]
We had an early morning wake-up call.  The bags were put out the night before and were now loaded on to our assigned bus.  My luggage had a blue ribbon, and I was forever assigned to "Blue Two" bus.  Because I was traveling under the "Arizona State University Alumni" flag, I was grouped with the other two from ASU on the bus.  We were traveling the the UCLA group (a LARGE group) and other university graduates.  I boarded the bus and headed to the back with high hopes of getting a seat by the window.  As luck would have it, I found one with a wide window and claimed it.  I wedged my backpack between my legs and the seat, got my camera out and gazed out of the window with hopes of catching scenes as the bus zipped south from Prague to our next destination: Passau, Germany.  We would tour Passau and board our boat, Amadeus Silver II.  But more on that later.  We are now going to view the Czech countryside.

This map will give you an idea on our general direction.  The camera that I was using didn't have GPS, so I can only match town names every so often to have an idea on where we were. Prague is in the upper right corner and Passau is in the lower left.  We are going to take the center route through the countryside, farm lands and forested area.  There is a lot to see and the photos will be in groups of 20 over several blog posts. I will point out items that caught my eye and were interesting.  Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the ride.  Of note, there are a lot of the photos that have the reflection of the window from the other side of the bus.  I am not going to take the time to remove those reflections as they add to the look and feel of riding the bus.

We are queued and ready to board.

 A last few shots as we drove through Prague.

 One more photo of the wide array of recycling bins.

 Farewell until next time.  One last look at the castle on the hill.

 This appears to be a race track.

 This looks like a viewing tower.

 Digging in the fields.

 We are soon away from the city and in the land of wide open fields.

 Large utility structures.

 Towns nestled in the hills.

 A gas station. Yep, looks like a gas station.