Kennedy's European Experience: Europe Trip 2010 Day 15-16

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.