Day 4 - A quick jaunt in Prague the off to Berlin!

We sooo loved Prague even after 4 nights it was hard to say goodbye.  The gorgeous buildings, the ornate cobblestone streets, amazing sites, the list goes on...they were all so great but we had to head to our next destinate... Berlin!  But before we did, we managed to sweak in one more small tourist attraction, the Astornomical clock.  However, before we did that, it's important to point out that we went on a slight detour for our first destination...

Colleen had requested the Mo find a particular perfume that was only sold in Europe.  As luck would have it, we fond a 20% coupon to Saphora on the ground the night before so we decided to go back to Wencesleacaus square where we had been the night of the ballet.  There was a Saphora there so we thought we were just going to take a quick walk out of our way.  The entire time we've been relying on Google Maps walking, turn-by-turn navigation to get us around Prague.  It was a GOD send, without we'd be forever lost.  Espeically Mo, she has an amazing sense of direction back in the states, but so far in Europe, it's safe to say she's worthless when it comes to getting us around.  I've actually been the one getting us to our destinations!!!  Even without the help of Google Maps!?  I normally can't find my way out of a paper bag, but for some reason, I do pretty well traveling...guess that means I do too much of it!  Anyway, we thought we'd take a quick look at a paper map to remind us what streets to take, after a bunch of questions turns we realized we had no idea where we were until we accidentally walked by the restaurant we had eaten at the night before....ugh, how embarrasing.  We decided enough is enough and pulled out the google maps nav app and found our way to Saphora.  After all that, we found the perfume, but it was crazy expensive, much more that the Duty Free at London Heathrow, so we promptly left, kissed away the extra time and hoofed it to the Astromonical clock.  On the way there we did take a couple minutes to check out local street market.  Mostly tourist stuff but we found a very cute little wodden merry go round wind us music player that Emilie would love, we're excited to give it to her.  Only $7!  Woo hoo.

So every hour the Astronomical clock dings the bells like any other clock, but it also plays this elaborate little autmated show on the bottom of the clock and everybody hangs out to watch it.  A bit underwhleming but still fun and hey, we can now check the box.  We then climbed to the top of the tower after buying a ticket and the view was great!  Very well worth the $5/ticket.  Great view of Prague from all sides and a great way to end the trip.  The clock is in Old Town Square which was very close to our hotel.  We got back, got in our car to the train station and found our way to the platform.

We were in 2nd class and had a compartment to ourselves until Dresden when a couple of people came in and had reserved seat in the window seats we were sitting in.  No biggie, we still had plenty of room and the 5.5hr ride went pretty quickly.  Nice views of the Czech and German countryside at times but it was pretty cloudy and we were often tucked next to a hillside so half the view was blocked.  We did meander along a river for a good portion of the trip which was cool.

Upon arrival in Berlin we were both immediately struck by the grandeur of the Berlin Hbf train station.  Huge with multiple levels and very modern and VERY clean.  It was a model of efficiency in every way, true German ingeneuity at work! :)  We new the route we needed to take to get to the hotel but the tricky part was the public transit ticket.  We thought we be cool and go up to the platform and just buy our tickets there.  We fumbled our way through the automated machine and chose the option we thought would work, only to have it reject multiple credit cards, all while a line forms behind us.  So, we just gave up and decided to find the information center.  We got everything sorted out there and made our way back to the platform, on stop down the track we moved from the S "above ground" train to the U "underground train" and of course I was the one who helped us navigate the train station.  3 stops later we got off and made our way on foot to the hotel.

We got all checked in and the room is nice, but reeks of smoke even though it's non smoking.  We also quickly realized that Euros go a LOT faster in Berlin than Crowns do in Prague.  Glad were only here 3 nights! :)  Had a great dinner at a local German pub with 0 tourists.  We both got Currywurst which was fantastic, I wanted another order.  Might have to have it for lunch.

Not sure what's on tap but we'll likely head out to Potsdam tomorrow and check out the palaces.  More to come...

Day 3 - Prague, our 8th Anniversary!

We had yet another most excellent day in Prague today.  We got a bit of a late start once again given that we slept in pretty late, but that's only cuz we are still doing the European thing and eating a late lunch followed by a very late dinner.  But hey, does it really matter? We're on vacation with no kids!!! We'll do whatever the heck we please.

We hit the Hotel Josef breakfast buffet and loaded up nicely, gotta love the free breakfast, it's great. So much to choose from and most of it is pretty normal.  Eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, cooked veges, cereal, fruit, cheeses, lunch meats, a few pastries, including chocolate croissants, yum!!!  We will definitely miss Hotel Josef, hopefully the next hotel is just as great!

We headed back over the Charles bridge on our way to St Nicholas Cathedral which is down the hill from the Prague castle we were at yesterday.  We walked by it a couple of times and from the ground it's sort of hidden but has a pretty grand facade.  If you get up high, the dome is quite visible as it's the tallest dome in the city, albeit still a bit low on the horizon given that it's in a valley.  Upon entering, it was quite a shock to see such an incredibly ornate and highly decorated interior.  It's a vast cathedral with sweeping open spaces but the artistry is truly breathtaking.  This is a "newer" cathedral that was completed in the 1700s in Baroque style.  Every square inch of this place had some for of statues or elaborate alter carving.  You could stand in one place and take 5 minutes minimum just to properly soak up the beauty and detail in the small space before you.  There was no one there given it was winter so we only had a few others around which allowed us to take our time and take many pics.  Unfortunately there was no audio tour and very little written placards explaining all the various aspects of the church.  Nonetheless, this is definitely one of the if not the most artistic church I've ever seen, very glad we made the trek back to see it.

From there we headed back up to Prague Castle to check out the Lobcowitz Palace.  We didn't know too much about it only that it was a highly popular destination for tourists according to trip advisor.  We were thinking it would probably be an architectural draw given that it was a "palace" but upon arrival it was really more of a museum housing a vast collection of artifacts from the Lobcowitz family.  We wavered a bit on going in but Mo found a few good photos of the interior and we decided to take a chance.  The audio tour was included for free which ended up being one the best if not the best I've ever done!  It was narrated by the youngest Lobcowitz who is probably in his 50s and lives in Prague.  As you entered each new room of the palace it told a story of the several hundred year history of his family.  You really felt like you went on a journey through time and got a ton of awesome detail on how his family came to prominence in the 1500s and where they are now. The family's collection of paintings, really old china, guns, swords, furniture, artwork, etc is really awesome as there's a story behind all of it.  It ended up being fantastic and wildly beyond our expectations.  Would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone visiting Prague.  Even better, we literally had the place to ourselves, didn't see another soul, other that the little old lady curators for 90% of the tour.

From there we headed back to the Hotel as I had to prepare for and present during two media briefings for work.  A bit of a bummer to break up the day but for Mo it was great. She ventured out to hit the local swimming pool for a workout.  While she was nervous she got some great help from the hotel front desk and made here way to the tram (street car) and managed to get to the pool without getting lost. At the pool nobody spoke English but she managed to muscle her way through the entry fee transaction and got to swim with the Czechs!  She even made it back to the hotel without any major fuss.  She'll be ready for Barcelona when she'll be on her own cuz I'm working!

For our evening anniversary dinner Mo found a great restaurant called La Botega de Finestra.  It was a delightful little place that was a cross between a deli and a fancy restaurant.  They had a simple menu but with really good options.  I had an delicious kobe steak and Mo had a great pork belly dish.  We also had a bottle of wine, full bottle of water and dessert all for approx $70, would have been easily twice that in the US for the same quality food!  The atmosphere was just perfect and we had a wonderful time eat, talking, soaking up our surroundings and relaxing.  Definitely one of the best anniversary dinners ever!

That night after some lenghty troubleshooting with Papa, we were able to get a skype session going with Gamma, Papa and the kiddos!  We were in bed on the phone cuz it was 12:30am but it was great to see the kids.  They were quiet and Emilie was very reserved and seemed a little despondent about the whole thing.  Ian was a little more engaging but not much.  My guess is that while they're having a great time with the grandparents, Emilie is probably really missing us and was just sad to see us knowing that we were so far away.  Hopefully we'll do another session and they'll a little more happy!! :)

We're off to Berlin tomorrow, excited to see what this next leg of the trip brings! See ya then...

Day 2 in Prague - Prague Castle & the Ballet

Today we explored outside the confines of Old Town and crossed the river to the Progue Castle. What's funny is it isn't really a castle, it's a collection of old buildings with the most magnificent being St Vitus Catherdral.  It was originally built starting in the 900s which a damn old!!!  It took nearly 500 years for it to be complete and good things certainly are worth waiting for, it's incredible.  It's high Gothic style and insanely ornate details are something to marvel.  We started our tour of the Castle there and spent over an hour meandering through the various chappels handing the audio guide back on forth.  Mo got most of the good pics with the DSLR but my phone got some decent pics too!  It's really just amazing how much effort and time go into these structures.  Makes you wish we took the same approach  to the buildings we create in the US, nothing compares to magnifcence of Europe's Cathedrals.

After St Vitus Cathedral we headed over to Royal Palace.  It was fairly basic compared to the ornate detail of St Vitus but still pretty cool to get an inside view of how the early Hapsburg monarchs lived.

Next up was St George's Basilica, this was much smaller and simpler but it was crazy old too.  It was started in the 900s and had been through all sorts of catastrophic events and was finally restored in the 1960s.  Pretty basic, but rich with history.

Finally we headed to the Golden Lane.  This was at the perimiter of the "Castle" and was basically a long building housing all the castles workers...seasmstresses, goldsmiths, guards, even a small theater room.  Speaking of small, people must have been pretty short back then.  The ceilings and doors were quite short!  The Golden Lane also housed an incredibly large collection of old war regalia, full suits of armor lined the entire length of the hall dating back to the 1400s.  The swords went back as far as 750BC???  What???  Now that's old!

After all that it was time for some hot wine, or Grug as they call it in Prague.  Think Gluvine or Gloog, super yummy and a great way to relax and warm up.  While it was a little chilly in the mid 40s, the sun was shining bright and it felt GREAT!  Couldn't ask for better weather in February!!!  WE totally lucked out!

We had lunch at the bottom of the hill in a cool old bar with traditional Czech Food.  Mo had beef goulosh with dumplings and I had potatoe dumplings stuffed with ham over glazed cabbage.  It was actually pretty damn good!  I had to take a picture to commemorate the meal...yum!!!

We made our way to to the hotel once again crossing over the Charles Bridge.  Its a beautiful pedestrian bridge made out of stone witha number of very old statues adorning its sides.  Great leisurly walk with fantastic view of the city.  We hit it just before sunset...perfect timing!

We got back to the hotel and the concierge at Hotel Josef was great and helped us get tickets to the International Prague Ballet Gala at the State Opera House.  Got great seats and it was an awesome show.  The performers were from all over and were all principal dancers from their respective companies.  It was a packed house and attendees were dressed to the nines.  The venue was amazingly beautiful on both the outside and the inside.  Lots of clapping during the show and at the end it went on and on and on and on...it was comical after while.  Guess that's just how they roll...

The show was over just before 10pm and we managed to find a decent restaurant bar and I got some ribs!  Not quite Texas BBQ ribs but tasty nonetheless!

All in all a great day and we're wiped, looking forward to one more full day in Prague which unfortunately will be interuppted by media briefings from 5pm to 7pm, but hey, it pays the billz...  See ya later!