Prague

Apparently Rachel has some kind of faith that I will actually post a description of our visit to Prague. Ha! After reading her captions for the photos, there is no way I'm doing anything. They are cute and funny and informative. Or at least as informative as I could be. And I think she actually looked up the names of places and spelled them correctly.

So look here to see my sister Rachel's account.

They took the night train and arrived Thursday morning. We took a late Aer Lingus flight and arrived a little after 9 pm. So we were able to see Prague by moonlight. We bought tickets from the airport for less than a euro and took a bus and metro to the Charles Bridge. Trey met us to direct us to the less than obvious location of our apartment. It was very nice except for the being up a pretty steep hill.

Ellis was already asleep but we chatted with Rachel and Trey for a while and Silas ran around before being put to bed in his cot which we located in a large walk-in closet. I know it sounds a bit cruel but the otherwise open layout of the apartment (here's the floorplan of the apartment) would mean he wouldn't have gone to sleep until we did. Unacceptable- as the adults had to sit around eating assorted chocolate and cookies, making fun of each other, and planning the next day's activities.

Rachel did a really good job of capturing the main points of the trip. But she really failed to describe the exact craziness of the Tesco shopping experience in Prague. Once we actually found the floor with food on it, it was seriously a zoo from which I was not sure we would ever escape. Add two strollers and it was a nightmare. I love this picture taken there. Notice how no two people are actually moving in the same direction.

After Rachel procured some diapers, we made our escape and headed to find some lunch. The boys graciously took simultaneous naps in their strollers so we could enjoy the entertainment provided by Trey at lunch.
We spent the afternoon at the Mucha museum, which was small but very interesting. They had collected numerous works throughout his life and excellent descriptions, history, and analysis of the designs, including the politics behind many of the posters.

We strolled back to the apartment through St. Wenseslas square, past Frank Gehry's "Fred and Ginger building, among so many gorgeous building facades that my neck started to ache with all the looking up. The beauty of the city was so easy to take for granted; the winding river, the graceful bridges, the castle on the hill. We found a couple places to rent paddle boats and tried to convince Trey it would be fun, but in the end we were all too worn out to ever try them.

Charles Bridge was lovely, although I recommend a visit after dark, when you can actually stroll along it, rather then being bumped and herded by tourists. Apparently there was this priest to whom the queen confessed adultery, the king tried to make the priest revel the man, but the priest refused and was thrown off the bridge. Five stars appeared around his head. Now, there is a story that if you put a finger on each star on this plaque you can make a wish, but you only get one chance in your life. I guess I wasted mine. Stupid invisibility.

The evening was nice and homey feeling. The babies bathed together, Trey cooked a nice dinner of salmon and pasta and broccoli. I researched this because we had seen all sorts of these crazy statues around the city.

The next morning we decided to go up to the castle complex. Although it's a beautiful landmark in the city, I have to say it makes a better backdrop for pictures then actual tourist attraction. I mean, you would have thought Silas and Ellis were the reason these Asian tourists came to Prague. We waited in line at the cathedral, but at least we were occupied at laughing at the other crazy tourists. I guess we should have charge per picture, but it already felt creepy enough having strangers take pictures of my child. It would have been much worse to really been exploiting him by making them pay me for the privilege.

We climbed up the cathedral tower which had gorgeous views of the city. Although navigating the narrow stone spiral staircase of nearly 300 steps was probably a bit ill advised for anyone who is seven months pregnant. At lease Orrin was in charge of Silas at that point. The cathedral was pretty packed with tour guides and groups and was low on information. So we mainly looked at the vibrant stained glass, especially the one designed by Mucha.

Next we headed up the hill for lunch at the monastery brewery. The service was terrible, but the goulash soup in a bread bowl was delicious. Also, if you want the new season wine, it's best to use their term for it, not "new wine" and the waiter will bring you "gluh wine" which means hot. And let me tell you there is nothing so refreshing on a sunny afternoon as a hot mug of mulled wine. Here we are in the hot hot sun before Orrin our savior asked the waitress (after the waiter had completely blown off my request) if we could put the umbrella up. Moods were vastly improved once we had some shade. This was also the location of a favorite memory from the trip where shortly after waking up from his nap and eating a piece of bread, Silas shouted "poop!" and took off at a sprint, apparently in the direction in which he imagined the bathroom to be. Orrin had to hop up from lunch and chase after him to take him to the toilet.

Next was a peek in at the monastery as a wedding service was just concluding, then a took of the castle proper, and a place called the golden lane, which was a row of houses that used to shelter the towns goldsmiths as they could escape some taxes and levys by living and working there. Now it is a row of tourist shops. We ended the day by realizing that it would have been much shorter distance and faster to walk to the castle rather than take the tram, since our apartment was already about 2/3 of the way up the castle hill. So we drowned our sorrows in some Cream and Dream ice cream. Truly delicious stuff, that.
We walked over to Kampa Island just near the Charles Bridge to let Ellis and Silas run around a little bit. Rachel and I made a last attempt to investigate paddle boating, deciding it was getting too late and the kids were having fun in the grass instead of constrained to life vests and boats. We did stumble upon some festival on the island, with lots of music, food, booths selling glow in the dark things, dogs, kids, and bikes. I guess that describes 95% of festivals in the world, so we couldn't figure out what was being celebrated. We did see some folk dancers perform and Ellis did his own rendition of their dance.

That night there were stuffed peppers, with fried potatoes and leeks, beers, chocolate cookies, belly pokes, and magic carpet rides.

The next morning was our last day in Prague. We packed up, did the washing up, and dragged our strollers and backpacks down the to the metro station. We locked up our bags in the train station, after a short stop to buy gum in order to have enough change for the locker. Then we rode the elevators around for a while trying to figure out which subway platform would take us to the Jewish quarter. Once there, we toured a synagogue, holocaust remembrance site (especially heart rending was a gallery of children's arts from the concentration camp at Terezin) and cemetery.

We made a quick stop for lunch. where again miraculously both babies napped through a good portion of it. Silas struggled mightily, but gave in to the power of the stroller and the soothing words of The Lorax. (Where once my brain would have stored the intricacies of multi variable calculus, I know can recite numerous Seuss and Boynton books from memory). We stopped for more ice cream, then the Spanish Synagogue, the Old New Synagogue, and one other that had lots of interesting information about the history and background of Jewish customs. There were no pictures allowed inside, so though they were gorgeous, particularly the Spanish Synagogue, you'll have to settle for pictures of ice cream.

Because all of us were getting a bit cranky by this point we decided to look for a park for some of us to sit down and others of us to run around. Sadly the first park we found had been frequented by several dogs. Silas stepped right in a big pile, which hit our diaper wipe supply pretty hard, and Ellis almost did a face plant in another pile before we decided we should probably move on. But Orrin did get a mighty cute picture of the three of us.

The next place Trey found had a little playground with a sand pit for Ellis to roll around in and some water fountains which Silas loved. I'm sure a sandy Ellis was a delight to bunk with on the train back to Frankfurt.

We all walked back to the train station, past the Powder Tower (an original piece of the town wall) and the Municipal building which is covered and filled with Art Nouveau and Art Deco motifs. We didn't have time before our train went to Dresden to stop in but Orrin did stop inside the three restaurants when we had a couple hours to kill after coming back from Dresden before our flight back to Ireland. Although I was tired, it was nice to walk around the city one last time, and to see the castle lit up after dark.

We bought Silas his first Happy Meal at the Mc Donalds in Prague airport. Although, I ate the cheeseburger, and we all three split the fries, Silas did get the milk, and the crappy toy.

I had intended to include the Dresden pictures and stories in this post as well, but it's already too long and getting too late. So you'll have to wait another two weeks (I hope not) for that post.