Prague Czech -
The Race to Prague
The day was starting out pretty well. It is Father’s Day and everyone was talking about Father’s Day. We left the hotel and walked to the Metro stop. At the station we bought some breakfast food and some sandwiches for the ride. In the station we at first had a challenge finding the train to Prague since it was a regional train. We found the right spot and had all our luggage waiting at the train strop.
The Race Began - Monica discovered she left her phone at the hotel. Ryan gave the hotel a call and they had it. Ryan and Monica raced back to the hotel. Grandma and Grandpa was left with all the luggage and the kids. Our train showed up so we thought we should go and secure some spots. Addie was GREAT! She found some spot and began to load all the luggage in. The train had two floors. Addie and Gracie began to load all the luggage in and had a seating spot saved. Grandma and Hudson raced off to buy some chips and stuff.
Then we started to PANIC! We were worried that Ryan and Monica wouldn’t make it back it time. Grandma and Grandpa began unloading the luggage and putting it in the entry way of the train. We thought we might have to evacuate the train if Ryan and Monica didn’t make it back. Then all the people started rushing in and looking for empty seats. Addie and Gracie were trying to keep people from taking our seat. Grandpa was panicing outside the train looking for Ryan.
Finally Ryan and Monica showed up. However, at that point people were rushing in so we had to leave the luggage in the bottom section. (at least it was inside the train on the first floor and the gang was on the 2nd floor.) We got everyone loaded on and seating JUST BARELY BEFORE THE TRAIN TOOK OFF! What a rush of EXCITEMENT of traveling with 8 people and lots of luggage. All's well that ends well.
Finally on the train.
It was fun to hear Ryan read his Father’s Day cards, from his kids. . You realize what are the important things in life. It has been fun to watch Ryan on this trip. He is such a good father and always looks out for his family. It is always fun to think about what a joy (and frustration at times) to be a father.
Well the SAGA continues. Part way through our journey they announce that they are splitting the train cars. One set will remain in Schwandorf and the other half will continue to Prague. It just so happens that we were in the section that split off. We scrambled to gather all the luggage again. We were lucky enough to find two train-cars with space and moved all the luggage AGAIN. It always pays to pack light. (Which we really didn’t do.) This train car was different from the others we traveled on. On the others we had two seats on each side separated by an aisle. This new train car has a club car with 3 seats facing each other for a total of 6 seats with a shutting door. Then it has a aisle on one side to walk down. The kids thought they were in a Harry Potter train.
Luckily we found a spot to put our luggage and have a place to sit.
Our train ride continued through some forested land. We really haven’t been through much treed areas on this trip, where it has mostly been farmland. It winds along small hills and opens to small villages and farm land.
It seems like the letters on the signs look different from German so I am guessing we crossed over into the Czech Republic. The buildings at the stations seem a little less maintained and a bit older.
Looking at the front of our AIRBNB
Building around the area.
Our place is amazingly spacious.
We were looking forward to meeting up with Becky’s family in Prague. It will be nice Father’s Day with having 10 grand-kids close to celebrate.
We spotted Becky's family coming down the street.
The Gang
Becky and Joshua brought their gang over and the kids had fun playing game and having dinner together.
Grandma picked up some ice cream treats for everyone.
Great Father's Day
One of the best parts of being a father is watching your children doing the right things.
Ryan taught the Come Follow Me lesson to his kids. It is so great to have children that are teaching their kids to be righteous.
Exploring Prague with Becky's Family
We had Becky and her family over for breakfast this morning before heading out exploring.
Ryan made us a breakfast of bacon and eggs cooked to order. We have been having basically bread , yogurt, and granola for breakfast. It was quite a treat. Addie say that we were back on the cruise. It if fun hangout of with the grand-kids.
Transportation
It seem like Prague is a little behind on their Metro system. Most of the transportation is by electric Trolly Cars that run on tracks through town. There are a few buses and they are updating their Trolly Cars. Lots of regular cars .
Although you are finding more and more rental scooters.
I think the kids would rather ride on the scooters
It is kind of funny. I see a few of these old looking convertibles going around as tour cars for tourists. Some say Prague Old Cars or something like that on the side. I saw one made from a Mercedes body but I am guessing the others are Kit Cars (cars made from a kit and not original antique.) They remind me of the old German War movies with the Generals being driven around in them.
Royal Castle
There isn't just one building for the palace. It is more of a compound covering many buildings .
Interesting to see the Formal Police and the Real Police together.
The real ones look a little scarier.
It seems like the emphasis in the church is more around Wenceslas, who was made Saint , rather than Jesus Christ. Of course there are pictures and statues of Christ, but in general there seemed to be more emphasis on the King. So it is good to know a little bit about the King, other than the Christmas song version.
Wenceslas I, also called Saint Wenceslas, (born c. 907, Stochov, near Prague—died Sept. 28, 929, ) Was called the Czech Saint Wencelas was raised a Christian by his grandmother St. Ludmila, but his ambitious mother, Drahomíra (Dragomir), a pagan, had her murdered and acted as regent herself, until Wenceslas came of age in 924 or 925. Her court intrigues and the wishes of the people to end the conflicts between Christian and non-Christian factions in Bohemia led Wenceslas to take the reins of government. As duke he was pious, reportedly taking a vow of virginity, and encouraged the work of German missionary priests in the Christianization of Bohemia. His zeal in spreading Christianity, however, antagonized his non-Christian opponents.
Faced with German invasions in 929, Wenceslas submitted to the German king Henry I the Fowler. His submission provoked some of the nobles to conspire against him, and they prompted his younger brother, Boleslav (Boleslaus), to murder him. Waylaid by Boleslav en route to mass, Wenceslas was killed at the church door. Frightened by the reports of miracles occurring at Wenceslas’ tomb, Boleslav had his remains transferred in 932 to the Church of St. Vitus, Prague, which became a great pilgrimage site during the medieval period. Wenceslas was regarded as Bohemia’s patron saint almost immediately after his assassination. His virtues are sung in the Christmas carol (19th century) “Good King Wenceslas.”
The stained glass depicts his life in the picture below.
Rest time
Throwing the Catholic Govenors out the window. . In the early 1600's most of the population was Protestant. Two Catholic Govenors were usurping their power and were put on trial. They were sentenced to being thrown out the window. As the story goes, they landed in a pile of manuer. (A miracle for the Catholics and good luck from the Protestant point of view. )
Painting of King Wenceslas' grandmother
The golden lane
The kids loved the dungeon and torchure rooms.
Ethan by the rack.
Others trying out other forms of torchure.
Food line
Street Performers - I am for some reason fascinated with street performers. These girls were pretty good. I wish I would have taken a picture of an old guy playing his guitar. (He looked like a Czech version of Willy Nelson playing a bad rendition of 'House of the Rising Sun' in Czech. He was pretty bad.)
Drink time
Gardens with pool
Love checking out fish
Crossing the bridge into OLD TOWN
Gracie hooks up with a couple Sailors
Candy Store
When we met up with the Swift kids they told us about a candy store that had all kinds of candy. Agnes and Asher started to lobby with Hudson about this candy store. While we were walking around Old Town we came upon this candy store. Then the pressure started.
Grandma agreed to have each of the 10 grand-kids pick out a small bag of their favorite candy. They had huge barrels and sold it by the pound.
Everyone sitting outside the candy store enjoying and sharing their candy.
Continue on the tour
Periodically I see Matryoshka dolls (the ones that stack together . I was surprised to see Seahawk ones.
Clock tower - and the ringing fun with Death and Apostles . It is kind of like a cuckoo clock but like the clock in Munich it has people come out and do things. The skeleton drops some money the Apostles come out and rooster comes out. All the tourists have some fun.
Waiting for the clock and Joshua took the girls to get their stuff for the sleep over.
Cooling off with the misters
Fancy Fries Snack
This was an interesting place. It had french fries with all sorts of toppings. Different kinds of sauces or cheese and other toppings. Interesting idea for a specialty fast food spot. The fries were a thick cut.
Dumpling Snack
The place we ordered dumplings was quite interesting. They had savory dumpling and sweet dumplings. We tried the pork and cabbage and the duck. Both were great. They are about the side of a baseball. The sweet one were also good. We tried ones with plum, coconut and berries, strawberry, but the chocolate ones were the best. You cut into them and chocolate would run out like a lava cake. They were very tasty.
Cool Toy Store
The boys were playing a puzzle game.
On the way to the ballet
Estates Theater where Mozart performed many of his operas and other musical performances
Inside the theater.
This is the first time we have been in box seats.
Asher is pretty excited to be in the Box Seats
Karen explaining Ballet
The ballet performers taking bows.
The crowd loved the parts with the traditional folk dance and costumes .
We came across the world to Prague.
We see castles, cool buildings, eat exotic foods, and see a ballet.
What will the girls remember???
Having a sleep over and watching TWILIGHT
Prague - Day 2 - It is all about the memories
Sleep Over -
The problem with sleep overs is that rarely anyone gets much sleet. Julia and Ages spent the night last night with their cousins.
We normally set an alarm on a tablet to get up and shower. However this morning we didn't need the alarm. We were woke by 3 grand-kids who wanted Grandma to tell them a story. Grandma is FAMOUS for her stories. A good way to begin the morning.
BTW some background - When we finished up our mission to Samoa we traveled with Ryan and his kids for about a month in New Zealand and Australia. During that time Karen started the tradition of telling the kids a nighttime story. These stories continued on from where they left off night after night. When we would visit them in Montana the tradition would continue and they would start up where they left off. Now Grandma is famous for her stories.
Trip to grocery store to spend their found kourna
Hudson and Agnes found some Czech money, kourna, and wanted to spend it. They talked Grandma into going to the store to see what they could buy with it.
Looking
Finding something they could afford
Buying it with their own money
Success
We also decided to pick up the kids a treat for lunch since the adults planned on going out for lunch to celebrate Fathers DayDonuts and Orange Fanta - what else?
Everyone is hanging out watching TV while we get ready to continue exporting Prague.
Jewish Quarter
Most of the morning the adults left and the kids stayed home to have a little 'down time' watching TV. Julia made them some spagetti for lunch. We also made sure they had donuts and orange Fanta.
Karen was our tour director, reading from a Rick Steves book,
I kind of thought Hitler was just demented or had a personal issue with the Jews. After visiting these museums, I discovered the Jews have been persecuted for a long while. Back in the 1400's they denied their books, limited on what careers they could have, and had all kinds of persecutions. About the time they were finally being accepted, the war broke out and Hitler did all kinds of bad things to them. Even after the war in the Communist side of the wall they were still persecuted.
Jewish Quarter Pictures
They made us wear a hammaka in some of the museums - synagogues.
Names of killed Jews on wall
Children's Art Museum. During all the Jewish conflicts a lady started an Art School with young children. She was eventually sent to a concentration camp. They were able to save some of the pictures, that are displayed here.
Cemetery where people are buried layer on layer
Surrounding the 2nd level of the Synagog they have little boxes that open up by key. These are reserved for people for their worship.
Out for lunch (Ryan's treat)
Lokyl Restaurant with pretty much locals not tourists
We went out as adults to lunch. Ryan picked out a place that seemed like where locals would go. In fact the place was called Lokyl. The restaurant was a long skinny hallway. A lot of poople just came in for a beer. Looked like local people and a fair amount of younger peole. They gave us an appetizer of sausage with bread. It came with mustard and a whipped up horseradish. We all tried different things and shared around. I got the goulash with bread dumplings. The goulash was really quite good. More like a stew. The dumplings were more like a dumpling bread that came sliced. Karen got the fried cheese. It was a soft cheese with a bread crumb coating and fried. It came with small boiled potatoes. I think Becky got a beef with mashed potatoes. The potatoes were a little runny, but still good tasting. All in all , the food was pretty good.
Appetizer of sausage, bread, and dips of mustard and horseradish
Dishes of goulash, fried cheese, port schnitzel
Back to our AIRBNB and a little Grandma time
In Prague they have their own version of waffle cone. It is called a trdelník. It is a little hard to see in the following pictures. They take a dough, much like a brioche type dough. They wrap it around a wooden spit. They cook it. The first picture is over a propane type fire heater and the lower one is over coals. They roll the cooked dough in sugar, and other things like cinnamon. Often they coat the inside with chocolate. They fill the cone with fruit (like strawberries) and put ice cream or whipped cream and toppings on top. It is like a super thick waffle cone.
Grandma let each kid (and adult) pick their favorite flavor.
I think everyone had a great time and Grandma was a hero.
Saying goodbye to Prague
Becky and her bunch packed up and are heading for home via London and New York. Joshua will head to Dublin for a conference. We enjoyed hanging out with them and look forward to seeing them in Park City Utah in August for a mini family reunion before Karen's Sibling Reunion.
We head out for Poland tomorrow morning .
