Historical November 1995 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
One of George and Rosemarie Storey’s eight children, daughter Susan, is an expert in finance.
She presently is working under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development as an advisor to the government of the Czech Republic.
She is helping them to privatize government-owned businesses.
This past July George and Rose journeyed there.
It was a fascinating visit which included trips to the countryside and to what we used to call East Berlin.
The Storeys were interested in everything they saw.
The building where Susan has her office in Prague has a very oldfashioned elevator that travels around and around instead of up and down. You have to hop on quickly when it comes by your floor.
There are no doors on this contraption.
After one trip on it, Rose reverted to the stairs. Prague, of course, is a very old city. Many of the structures had not been updated under communist rule.
The Russian embassy was gorgeous. Both Rose and George were struck by the fact that there were no street people. No one was allowed to beg. Everyone had a job. Prague has an excellent rail system and a breathtaking museum with artifacts from previous centuries and even skeletons. Today, WalMart is the biggest store in Prague. Many of the city’s residents live in high rise buildings.
The city is not spread out like American cornmunities. Rose noted that people still seemed afraid of the government.
They begin lining up at 7:00am outside government buildings when they have business to transact there.
The Storeys visited the very famous Infant of Prague, a shrine at a church.
It is a statue of baby Jesus, put there by a Spanish princess who married a Czech.
The statute is always clothed in beautiful cloaks.
The infant is glass-encased. But, the steps were crumbling in the front of the church and the door was in disrepair. And, the church was dusty and dirty. Rose bought copies of the statute on a nearby street to take back to friends in St. Louis who had wanted a copy of this famous infant.
A couple of months ago, she learned that a priest from that church would be saying mass at the Old Cathedral.
He was trying to raise money to restore the church.
She went there and had her copies blessed and sent a donation for the restoration.
They stayed in a very modern hotel in Prague with all the western accoutrements.
A Jewish convention was being held at the hotel while they were there. One morning there was a bomb threat and everyone had to vacate for awhile while the premises were checked. Their daughter remarked that there was still a great deal of anti-Semitism there.
The Storeys went to the town of Budjar where the other “Budweiser” is made. George said it was a good beer; in fact, there were no bad beers during this trip.
They visited an old village in the hills–Cesky Krumlov.
It had very narrow streets and a castle complete with live bears. Susan took her parents to Berlin for 5 days.
They stayed in the eastern sector very close to what had been Checkpoint Charlie.
They were able to see Christo’s famous wrapping of the Reichstag.
In a park near the Brandenberg Gate, they heard wonderful music. Going to Berlin from Prague was like going from 1940 to the present time. Everyone was walking, riding bikes, or using busses.
There was far less travel by private auto.
They found out that there is $20 billion in construction going on in east Berlin which will be completed in a few years.
The city is full of cranes.
They were in Berlin at the time of a Love Fest in which 300,000 youth took part.
This was to celebrate the wall coming down.
They saw quite a few “hippies” (punk?) with green and purple hair and lots of leather miniskirts.
They also went to Spandau where Rudolph Hess was kept imprisoned for decades.
There was a wonderful microbrewery there down in a cave.
It was the only place they found cold beer.
It clearly was a trip not soon to be forgotten.
Original photograph caption
Eastern European city panorama accompanying the Storeys’ travel article. City not identified in printed caption; photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November 1995.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1995_11.pdf, printed page(s) 5; PDF page(s) 5.
