Checking in from Prague

We spent yesterday in perhaps the only town left in the world that thinks well of american citizens. We were in Plzen, Czech Republic, which was liberated from the Nazis two days before Berlin fell, on May 6, 1945, by the U.S. Army. Each year they reenact the dramatic last battle and then celebrate by drinking locally brewed pilsen (what else?) and listening to (czech) bluegrass bands.

It's impossible to underestimate the weight of the colossal footprints stamped on the local culture by first the Nazis and then the Soviets.