Wow! ~ Grammy!

Mom's visiting Prague! She flew through Frankfurt, Germany and arrived this morning around 10am. After I picked her up at the airport, we went right to her flat (very much like the one Jeff & I stayed in in June). Maylia and Ella (who was fast asleep in her stroller) met us there. After checking out her place and having lunch, we set out to do some exploring of her neighborhood. We found a neat little park near the river.

Our "grande finale" for the day was Náměstí Republiky with its and art-nouveau Municipal House (circa 1910) and gothic Powder Gate (circa 1475) standing side by side.

We topped off the day with pizza at a kid-friendly joint just around the corner of Mom's flat. By the end of the day, Ella and Grammy were the best of friends. We're looking forward to lots more fun in the days to come!

Mom arrived with lots of goodies from the US...my night was made with this little piece of heaven.

Jeff

It's no Warhol, but...

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT WE HAD FOR DINNER?!?



Multiple Choice:

a) scrod
b) elbow macaroni with spaghetti sauce
c) tacos
d) more pohanka (see Aug 16 posting)

Ella at the Home Office

Reading Time means...
...occasionally reading a lot of books.
Yesterday afternoon's nap was one of the tougher ones.

Ella got her whole library read to her...that's 30 books, including the "bedtime 4" sitting above.

WIEN!

That's German for VIENNA and that's where we spent the weekend!!!!! Dad kind of stole our thunder with his comment to the last entry...

Long story short is that we decided the prior weekend that we should leave the Czech Republic ...with one week to plan the trip we madly looked at flight and train options. Vienna is the closest city to us that we were interested in seeing and the train was certainly affordable and available...so Vienna it was! Friday afternoon Jeff came home early, we took the metro to the train station, figured out where our seats were in a flurry of excitement ("excitement" always sounds better than "tension" doesn't it?), and we were off! I even got to practice some Czech with a man who was sitting in our seat. Ella did very well on this 4+ hour journey. (Better than I did, actually, as I was losing a fight with a cold.) The train ride itself was lovely, through the scenic Czech countryside. (Some parts really reminded me of Nova Scotia!)

We arrived in Vienna around 7pm and walked to the hotel we'd booked - Clima City Hotel. Got Ella into bed, Jeff ran out and got us some yummy pizza, and we hit the sack. We soon learned that Ella is no longer so easy going about just sleeping wherever we put her. She eventually ended up in bed with us...and with much more than 1/3 of it for herself. Of course, it was actually two single beds pushed together, as is so common in Europe, which made things all the more interesting!

After a hearty breakfast and lots of cappucino at the hotel we started out to see the sights. Armed with our "Vienna from A to Z" guide book we began our walking tour of this amazing city. Here are some of my first impressions/comparisons to our new hometown (I think Jeff would agree):
1. There are not as many dogs in Vienna as in Prague...by a long shot! (This does have the added benefit of less dog poo on the sidewalk.)
2. There is not as much graffiti in Vienna as in Prague...by a long shot!
3. Vienna feels alot bigger than Prague. (I think the difference is 1.6M to 1.2M.)
4. Prague is overall a more pretty city. Almost every building in Prague has some interesting or aesthetically pleasing aspect to it.
5. However, Vienna is more grandiose! Some of the buildings are simply magnificent! AND ABSOLUTELY HUMONGOUS!!!!! Truly awe-inspiring.
6. We love both cities!

OK...our walking tour of Vienna...it is really hard to choose photos. There was so much beauty and grandeur to capture and at the same time everything was just so darn big that you couldn't really capture it...but I will try...


St. Stephen's Cathedral...the most gothic building I have ever seen. Lies at one end of the pedestrian street, Kartner Strasse. Near the other end is the Sacher Café where we feasted on the world famous Sachertorte.


The Hofburg, former Imperial Palace of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Ella ate lunch in the Burggarten and fed some goldfish in the Volksgarten. She also admired the flowers...



The Greek Revival style Parliament building. (Some people we know punch swans...this guy takes on horses!)

The following three photos are from the Rathaus, or City Hall. Spectacular!


And the circus was in town!



We topped off the day with sushi at Naschmarkt. Yes, that is Ella eating maki with chopsticks. No, we didn't actually feed our baby raw fish.



The following day was spent at Belvedere Palace. It's museum houses some impressive artwork, such as original Klimt paintings. I was thrilled to see "Judith", "The Bride" and "The Kiss".


This day was topped off with Greek/Austrian feast before catching our train back "home" to Prague.

That's Vienna in as much of a nutshell as we can give it to you. We need to go back...there's so much more to see. One thing is for certain, we're reinfected with the travel bug...Prague may no longer be enough for us!

Auf Wiedersen!
Maylia

Just a quick "ahoj!"

As Jeff said it's been a crazy week! But I have a couple minutes (Ella is sleeping and Jeff is on his way home) to fill you in on some of the things we've been doing. The weather has been lovely...everyone warns us about depressing autumn with lots of rain (particularly November) and then the long winter. But so far, summer is hanging on by her toenails! We enjoyed Saturday by picnicking at Havlickovy Sady (mentioned in previous entry). We picked out some goodies from a local Greek deli...DELISH! Saturday night the three of us ventured upstairs to visit our neighbor, Roberto, who was having a homemade pizza party...this was kick-ass pizza!!!! Sunday was yet another trip to IKEA...

Jeff has been swamped this week with a very intense course (including homework at night) and still maintaining some of his regular workload AND his Czech language course! It's been crazy. Ella and I have had our share of adventures: repairmen, trying to replace my lost metro card, attending our first IWAP (International Women's Association of Prague) event, meeting friends at different parks in the area, and, of course, walking. (Stories to be shared later!) All in all the 3 of us are glad it is Friday!!!!!

We'll leave you with a few pics....


Meeting "Dad" at our our metro stop.


The picnic.


"Bye-Bye. See you soon!"

More later....
Maylia xo

We're Still Here...really
A few folks have wondered "Are you okay?" or "Is the blog okay?"...yes.
This week has been over-the-top busy for us, so writing in the blog will wait until early next week. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon for a short vacation and mental break. Till then...take care & see you next week. Love, us.
p.s. Yes, Ella's still practicing how to walk. :)

WOOHOO!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this video is worth a million.




(Mom & Dad are 'ecstatic'!)

And a bonus video of Ella's progress with walking.

This was shot at Karlovo Náměstí (Charles Square).

We REALLY do have friends in Prague...and here's proof!

Lately, when Jeff comes home from work, he has been teasing me that all of the "friends" Ella and I spend time with are imaginary. He wonders why he never meets them or even sees them in any of our photos. Finally, I was able to disprove his theory!

It started with Dylan's one-year birthday party. Dylan is from Great Britain and he turned one year old on Wednesday. His mom, Ali, hosted a little celebration and I got some photoevidence of our friends:



Then, Saturday (yesterday), we went exploring a part of Prague we hadn't spent much time in (southern Nové Město) and ended up at Children's Island (Dětský Ostrov) where we ran into Lucie, Jeremy and Alice. (See aside below.) Children's Island is a whole island dedicated to children as a playground. It is fantastic! Here are Alice and Ella on one of the swings...the girls weren't crazy about it but the parents were enjoying it!



To top it all off, as we were leaving the metro to return home, I noticed another mom and baby I had just met this week...I got Irina's attention and we had a chance to chat and meet each other's husbands before the babies insisted it was time to move on.


Aside: It's a small world (an aside about Lucie, Jeremy, and Alice)

One day early on in our time here, we were riding the metro after a day of exploring and we ended up "sharing a moment" with a couple and their baby daughter...the two babies were exchanging smiles and waves and so the parents ended up exchanging smiles, too. We all got off on the same stop. No conversation took place as Jeff and I assumed they were Czech and we would not be able to really say anything to them. The next week Ella and I were at the park and the same mom and daughter arrived. This time, the mom spoke to me in Czech and then in perfect English. This was Lucie and Alice. Turns out, Lucie's husband, Jeremy, is from the US. When I told Jeff about this meeting he was very interested to know where exactly in the US Jeremy is from...I thought this a bit strange...but things started to add up after our next meeting with Lucie and Alice when I was able to tell Jeff that Jeremy is from the Boston area and that they had vacationed in Florida back in June. Here's where things get really interesting! In June, the two Jeffs were here looking for our apartment and on their last day in Czech toured Terezin (former Jewish concentration camp/prison). There was only one other man on their tour. He was from Florida and was doing a house exchange with a young couple from Prague. He told the Jeffs that the wife was Czech and the husband from Boston and that they were very nice and he should give Jeff their contact info. He never did. But we met them anyway! Yes, it is a small world....


Some other photos from our walking tour of Nové Město:


Ella and "New" Town Hall (Novomětská radnice) circa 1367. Another link if you want to get married here.



Jeff and Ella share a laugh over lunch.



Orthodox Cathedral of Sts Cyril & Methodius. Note bullet holes.



The Dancing Building, aka the Fred & Ginger Building.

With that, I must start my Sunday!

Until next time,
Maylia