Europe Trip 2010 Day 15-16 - Prague, Czech Republic

18-19 Aug - After a long drive and an adventure finding the hotel and a place to park, we settled into the hotel and had a good dinner.  Fortunately, Tina was there as our translator.  We all enjoyed it.  Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic and tourism is king much like DC.  Tourist everywhere. Prices are very reasonable compared to other cities in Europe.  The old part of the city is small and most vendors and tourist places speak English and Russian since alot of Russians visit the city.  I visited Prague with my aunt in 1980.  It has changed quite alot in 20 years but I remember the dark Budwar beer.....very good.  Fortunately, it is still there :)

We had a tour of the Prague Castle including the St Vitus Cathederal which is very nice.  It was built over a 500 year span - begain in 1300s and completed in 1870s.  If you remember your christmas carols about Good King Wenceslaus, he was the King of Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic).  He is buried here.  He was canonized as a saint by the Pope.  He was loved by the people.  The start of the Thirty Years war began here between Protestants and Catholics in the 1600s.  It was the most destructive war i Europe until WWII.

After the tour, we walked the Charles Bridge for great views of the city, we had lunch at a pub which was nice and then did a longer walking tour thru St Wenceslaus Square.  We saw the monument to Jan Palach and two others who were protestors of Communism.  In 1968, to protest the Soviet military coming to Czechoslovakia, Jan set himself on fire and died days later of his injuries.  He is a patriot in both Czech Republic and Slovakia.  We walked back thru the town, just looking at the beautiful buildings, hitting a few stores, etc. 

That night Tina's boyfriends, Jakub, and his family arrived.  They were going back to Slovakia from Germany where they dropped off their youngest son for his year as an exchange student.  We met them last year when we visited Slovakia.  They are a very nice family and Jakub is a very nice young man.  We were happy to see them again.  We had a great dinner together, with Pivo (Czech for beer).  Afterwards, we went to the small summer market for dessert - crepes and these things called Trdelnim - basically bread rolled on a wooden roll, cooked over hot coals and then sugar applied.  It looks like tree bark and is GREAT!!!  yummy.  We walked back to the Charles Bridge to see the castle and town lit up at night.  It was very nice and pretty.

The next morning, Tina and I took Anastaysia to the airport for her flight back to Tashkent.  We had a great time with her and enjoying having her on the trip!!!  We returned to the hotel and breakfast with everyone.  We did a little extra shopping and then packed and headed to the car.  We moved ALL of Tina's stuff in the van to Jakub's family car.  We said our goodbye's to our Favorite Slovak Daughter and we all departed.

We arrived back home about 6pm - 7 hours from Prague to home with a few stops.  Yana is the last survivor and will stay with us until Wed when she returns to Ukraine and university.

Overall I would rate the trip an A-.  The girls were wonderful and everyone got along with no complaining except when the next bathroom break was :)))  It was 16 days, 2800 miles and 9 countries.  We ate, walked, drove, rode, laughed, adapted and enjoyed the company of each other all the while doing things that are different.  The downside was we did not get into Notre Dame, and the weather cancelled our mountain hike, not the best views of the Alps and our beach afternoon in Holland.  We learned alot from the ladies and would do it again in a heart beat.  The girls are wonderful young ladies with very bright futures.  They are special to us in many ways.  They help Jamie to see different views on things.

In the Town Square

Town Square at Night

Praque from the Castle

Dinner with Jakub's family

Astronomical Clock - 600 years old

St Vitus Cathederal

Trdelnim - yummy!!!!

Tomb of St Wenceslaus

Sisters - Absolutely!!!!

Europe Trip 2010 Day 14 - Salzburg, Austria

7 Aug - Salzburg.  After breakfast, we headed out for a tour of the town.  It was raining so we decided to get a van tour with one of the companies.  The tour was OK and we saw alot of the outside of town and a little of the history. The guide was a little quirky......... After the riding tour, we walked the old town on our own.  Salzburg is a very pretty little old town. Mozart was born here and the Sound of Music was partly filmed here.  Despite the weather, we had a good time.  We finished at the market and bought items for lunch: bread, fruit, etc to eat in the car on the way to Praque for 5 hours in the car!!!!!!!!

Mozart Birthplace

Inside Hohensalzburg Castle
Built by the church to protect the citizens from an attack by the Roman Empire

Fruit Stand at the market - it all looks SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOD

Home where alot of Sound of Music was filmed

BIG pretzels - all types

Salzburg

Europe Trip 2010 Day 13 - Berstchgaden

16 Aug - We stayed in Hotel Bavaria in downtown. A very nice hotel with the best breakfast table we've seen in 7 years in Germany.  We ate, alot, and headed to our first stop - Salt mines.  I know you are saying, how fun can salt mines be - well the girls LOVED it - especially not having to wait in the HUGE line!!  You change into miners clothes, hope a small train to ride deep into the mountain.  There are two wood slides, a boat ride on a salt water lake and alot to learn about how they mine salt with water.  Really interesting and fun.  The girls had a blast.   We had a nice lunch in town of traditional food - Hawaii toast for the girls and a pig knuckle for me with yes, what was that drink - BEER!

Ready for the tour of the Salt Mines

Lunch

Our next stop was a very good one.  We visited the Eagles Nest.  This was a building build by the Nazi party for Hitler on his 50th birthday.  It is one of the last few standing Nazi era buildings.  It is now a privately owned restaurant.  We toured part of the bunkers for the old hotel used by the Nazis.  We then hopped the busses to take us to the top of the mountain.  You walk thru a long tunnel in the mountain to the elevator that will hold 45 people then abot 400' to the top.  Hitler only visited it 9-10 times.  Eva Braun visited very often.  It was basically an entertainment building to showcase German engineering superiority and the Beauty of the German Alps.  Check on both.  there are no bedrooms as it was not intended for living - only entertaining visiting heads of state, etc.  The trip was raining on the way up but we caught a good patch of clear space for some great views!!

In the Bunkers under the Obersalzberg

In the elevator

Tunnel to Elevator and Eagles Nest at the top

Eagles Nest with a GREAT view

After descending the hill, we drove to Salzburg, Austria for dinner and to spend the night.  dinner was very good and I think the girls entertainment was much more exciting than the food was good!!  We finished the night with a bottle fo Stoffel eiswein at the hotel as we just talked!!!

Great way to cap off a great day - Stoffel eiswein!!

Europe Trip 2010 Day 11-12 - Bavaria, Germany

15-16 Aug - Bavaria tour.  The night of 14 Aug, we stayed at the Edelweiss Lodge an American hotel.  We had an American dinner and one LARGE margharita there.  We woke and had a big American brakfast then headed out.

Our first stop was Linderhof Castle, the main living castle of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.  Oh yes,the girls liked it!!!!!!!

Linderhof Castle and fountain

We moved on the 1 hr north to Munich where we met Annika and her boyfriend, Tommy. Annika is a wonderful young lady who was also a student we knew in the US.  She is our Favorite Munchener!!  She lives there.  We met and had lunch at the famous tourist destination - Hofbrauhaus.  It was about 1pm but Annika and I had the Weisswurst and a beer anyway :)  Everyone enjoyed lunch and we began our walking tour.

Hofbrauhaus, Munich

Our tour took us up the tower of St Peter's Church, Marian Platz, Munich University, Frauen Church and the English Gardens.  the Gardens are HUGE and alot like Central park except there is a VERY LARGE Beer garden here serving, yes, beer, and alot of food like smoked mackeral, pig knuckle, kaiserschmarn, large pretzels, wurst, etc.  There was a band playing.  We had a beer, or two, and a snack. We walked over to the lake and took a quick paddle boat ride.

We finished back at the trainstation where we parked.  The parkhouse had a car elevator that takes the cars from the street to the top 2 floors for parking....fun!!!

Paddle Boat ride

English gardens Beer Stop

Marian Platz - Munich city hall

Girls are Angels....................about that!!

Thanks to Annika for taking us on a tour of Her town!!!

We had a guick Kabob and pizza for dinner and drove to Berschtesgaden to the hotel for the night.

Europe Trip 2010 Day 9-10 - Switzerland

13-14 Aug - We set off for Murren Switzerland. The drive was beautiful.  However, when we arrived in Grindelwald, the clouds had moved in and our plans for a hike in the mountains to a lake were cancelled.  We decided to go to the Rodelbahn which is a half-pipe track that you ride down on a sled.  FUN!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpDiP1HXKVY (video of someone else) The girls loved it and Tina is, well, let's just say she is not ready for the Indy 500 race.  We had a coffee and beer at the little restaurant then went to the hotel in Murren.

We drove to Murren and parked the car.  The Girls looked around and said - "Where is the Hotel?  this place is too small!"  I looked at the 300m cliff infront of up - pointed my finger and said "The hotel is UP THERE!!"  (http://www.muerren.ch/alpina/) We had to ride two cablecars to get to the hotel.  The town of Murren is a no car town on a plateau in the alps.  Remember the clouds were in so the area was foggy and not that pretty but the kids ENJOYED the idea.  We lugged everything up and went to the hotel.  We ate some local Swiss specialities - cheese fondue and Rosti.  The Rosti was excellent and the cheese fondue was OK but hardly a meal - melted cheese and bread........exciting.  Afterwards, we had a bottle of Stoffel wine and played card games. 

The next morning, the clouds had cleared a little and we had a fantastic view of the mountains across the valley.  We had a traditional Swiss breakfast and headed out.  We drove thru the Susten Alps Pass and saw some beautiful scenery and the girls took ALOT of photos.  We drove down the otherside of the pass and had lunch in Luzern, a beautiful city on a lake at the base of the Alps.  Then of course had some shopping.

We packed in and headed to Garmish, Germany for the night.  On the way, we took a quick detour thru Vaduz Leichtenstein so they could see it.  Vaduz is the capital and main city. The country is about the size of Charlotte - maybe.  Unfortunately, I accidently deleted the photo of the girls at the palace :(   

Town of Murren from the cable car

Looking out over one of the lakes around Interkaken

Getting on the Rodelbahn

At the top of Susten Pass by a glacier lake

Lunch by the river in Luzern Switzerland

Europe Trip 2010 Day 8 - Rest Day

12 Aug - We planned a Rhine River Cruise but it was raining so no point in going.....We rested, washed clothes, caught up on emails, etc and had a good time getting ready for Part II of Euro Trip 2010.  We ate lunch at the PX, saw a movie and had Thai for dinner.  Alessa left us to return home so we are down to 6 travellers so a little more room in the van!!

Also, today is Kim and Jim's 21st Wedding anniversary.  What better way to spend it!!!!  We are blessed with a great family, wonderful supporting parents and some great young people the exchange program brougth into our lives either as our kids (Ahyoung, Michael, Tina) or as our step kids.  We are not certain what the future holds but the past 21 years have been great and we're looking forward to more excitement, fun and challenges ahead.............together!!

Thai Chow

Europe Trip 2010 Day 7 - Return Home

11 Aug - We left N Holland enroute to Kaiserslautern. We visited the Alsmeer Flower Market. It is one of the largest in the world with over 19 million flowers sold daily and 12 billion a year. There were ALOT of beautiful flowers. We then travelled to Waterloo where Napolean was defeated by the British, Dutch and Prussians in 1815. We saw the films and climbed the Monument to fiew the battlefields. Not much left. Waterloo was another of the great battles of European Military history and forever changed the political and military future of Europe forever. After a lunch of pizza and Belgian Waterloo Beer, we drove to Luxembourg City. It was a quick stop to see the nice view of the city and the Royal palace. From Lux City, after a stop for coffee and to pee, we drove to Leiwen to visit Michael. Petra and Michael greated us and we shared a great bottle of brut. We had dinner at a great restaurant. After dinner, Michael gave the girls a quick tour of the wine making process. Petra was once again a wonderful hostess.
Michael giving the grand tour!!
 
Sharing some EXCELLENT Stoffel Sparkling wine!!!!!!!!

Waterloo Battlefield

Luxembourg Royal palace

Aalsmeer Flower Market - 19 million flowers a day. Boyfriends will have to work hard to keep up!!

Europe Trip 2010 Day 6 - Northern Holland

10 Aug - Our hotel was right on the harbor in Vollendam and the girls LOVED it.

We traveled around Northern Holland. The weather was overcast and windy so it spoiled our plans of spending time at the beach but we had a good time anyway!!!

After breakfast, we walked through Volendam shops. Tina saw them clean eels and was ready to try it. We took our photo in traditional Dutch clothes. It is a great photo!! We then toured a cheese farm. Our next stop was to Marken - a small fishing village across the See from our hotel. It is really quaint. After a snack meal of different seafood in Marken for lunch, we went to Bergen on the Atlantic Ocean side about 1 hr drive. It was windy and drizzling rain so we just went and took a few photos. We visited the aquarium and headed back to the hotel. We had a nice dinner - but SLOW service. We finished the night just talking at the bar with Guiness and Heineken and tea for some.

Marken Holland

At the beach.......

Our Hotel........right on the harbor.

Cheese Farm (kinda stinky!)

Big shoes to fill!!

Milestone alert - Gift Shop #100 on the trip!

Europe Trip 2010 Day 5 - Amsterdam

9 Aug - Amsterdam. The Netherlands is famous for many things: wooden shoes, cheese, flowers, windmills, and women in windows. The girls would see it all!! On our way, we took a detour to Kinderdjik. There are 19 original windmills there. It is a very nice site and the girls toured one of the windmills to see how it works and how people lived in them. We arrived in Amsterdam and went to the Rijksmuseum. It is the National Art museum of the Netherlands. It is a great museum. The display collection is small but fantastic. Some of the art work is amazing and just cannot be described how detailed it is. Some of the painting are better than real life with such amazing color after 400-500 years!! This is the largest collection of Rembrandt's works in the world. The girls really enjoyed it. We were going to the Van Gogh Museum but the line was LONG and we had other things to do. We took the bus, the best way to travel in town, to the Central Station, and then walked through the town. The girls toured a museum while Jamie and I shopped. We went to the Old Church and then thru a part of the Red Light district. I was not allowed to shop :(((( We saw many open coffee shops but in Amsterdam, these are drug shops where marijuana is sold legally but regulated and NO coffee. After an uneventful walk thru the Red Light district, we made our way to the Anne Franke House. We toured the house, pretty much in the original condition less furniture. It was very moving. The maturity, honesty and understanding that the 12 yr old girl had of the events is amazing and how much it has moved many people. It has probably moved many people to a better understanding and tolerance of others but the events she lived thru are still happening in the world today. Jamie is the same age as Anne was when she began the diary. There were probably many other kids that kept diaries that were lost or discarded. Any in the Eastern Europe were destroyed by the communist. One recently came to public from boy from Prague who tells the same stories as Anne - living in hiding before being found and sent to the camps. It was kept secret for years while Czechoslovakia was under the Communist control. After that moving experience, it was hard to be excited about dinner but we reflected and took the bus to the restaurant. We treated the girls to a traditional Amsterdam Rice Table. This is the best of Indonesian cooking. You are thinking - Rice and Indonesian traditional Holland??? Jim has had too much beer - close but........ Anyway, in the 1600s, Holland was 3rd behind Portugal and Spain in colonies. The dutch were a great sea nation and trading county. Much of present day Indonesia was under Dutch control....thus Indosesian cooking made its way to Holland. A Rice table is rice with ALOT of other misc foods - similiar to Spanish tapas but is ordered as one family style meal. Of course, beer was on the menu as well. The girls were AMAZED and ate everything!!!! Because of Kim's delicate palate, the cook made her a special plate of rice and meats without the spices!!!!!! After dinner, we said goodbye to Amsterdam and headed to Volendam to the hotel. Outside Anne Frank House Rice table

Kinderdijk Windmill Museum

The Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Europe trip 2010 Day 5 - Brugge, BE

8 Aug - Brugge Belgium. Brugge, BE is a VERY nice little old town near the Belgian coast. We started the day with a boat ride on the canal. It was nice weather as well. Then we toured the last remaining beer brewery in Brugge. Belgium is famous for their beers. Belgian Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!! It was a very good and educational tour. After the tour, we ate lunch at the brewery and had - beer!!! After lunch, the girls toured a Diamond museum and saw a demonstration of diamond cutting. Strangely, the girls paid more attention to this than my history lesson on Azincourt the day before???? some things are just not explainable!!!!! Of course the girls hit the gift shops and candy. Belgium is known for chocolate, beer, diamond cutting, waffles, Fries and lace. The girls saw ALL this in one day. Yes, Fries - French Fries - these are from Belgium. They were first made in Brussells - in the French part of Brussells, BELGIUM. We ran out of time and did not get to visit the Fries Museum :( We did tour the Choco story which has the history of chocolate and free samples. We wrapped the activities and put the girls on a horse carriage ride around town while Kim and I had a diet coke and beer. We had a great dinner with beer. Drinking Buddies Now that is some SWEET chocolate

Girls on the carriage

Brugge City Hall and Tower at night - BEAUTIFUL!!

BEER nursery :)))

Dinner - yes, Jamie had mussels

Tina with a Kwak Beer - notice the bottom of the glass.

Girls with diamonds -SHINY!!!!

CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!

On the boat for the canal ride