Happy Easter! (UNESCO Style)

We decided to take advantage of the Easter Weekend to see more of the Czech Republic. It has been a goal of ours to try to see all 12 of the UNESCO sites in this country. It's amazing to think that a country this size holds 12, while the average per country is only 5 or 6. Some of the spots are a bit out of the way, so we rented a car and took a road trip.

Day 1 included the beautiful main square in Telc, whose colorful houses date from the late 14th century. We absolutely adored it! I'm sure from the photos you can easily see why. We also visited the chateau located just off the main square.

From there we drove on to Trebic and just made it to the gothic St. Prokop's Basilica before it closed at sundown...it was a mad race up a very steep path, but we made it! We spent the night in the lovely Hotel Winkler.

Trebic makes it on the UNESCO list because it contains a Benedictine monastery (of which the basilica is a part) that has been there since the 13th century and a well-preserved Jewish quarter. The presence of these two areas within the same town is proof of the coexistence of these cultures from the Middle Ages to the 20th century in Eastern Europe. It is interesting to note that this is the only Jewish UNESCO site outside of Israel. The next morning (Day 2) we woke up and started exploring bright and early. We strolled through the Jewish Quarter, including the Jewish Cemetery.

From Trebic we made our way to Kromeriz and explored the baroque castle grounds, which included all sorts of interesting animals. Ella and Mattias loved the gobbling turkey! Of course, no castle visit is complete without a ride on some flying Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Easter Monday (Day 3) we were very pleased to discover that the Easter Bunny had found us in the less-than-lovely-but-certainly-affordable Hotel Hvezda. The kids were thrilled to have chocolate BEFORE breakfast!

Even though it was raining, we did a quick tour of the Pleasure/Flower Garden (which managed to be pleasant even in the rain) and then ducked into the castle to visit the picture gallery.

From Kromeriz we headed to Prague, stopping at Zdar nad Sazavou along the way. This star-shaped church in honour of St. John of Nepomuk was so architecturally interesting...it was more than worth the stop.

This brings our "been-there-done-that" UNESCO list for the Czech Republic up to 8 out of 12.

HAPPY EASTER!

Running with Maylia

Yesterday Maylia ran the Prague half-marathon, cheered on by her 3 biggest fans.

I, as her husband, think she kicked butt. May's clock time was 2:07:10 with a chip time of 2:01:21
Nice job honey!!!

For us non-runners, "clock time" means starts when the race officially starts. And "chip time" starts as the runner crosses the starting line.
Since not all runners can cross the line at once, every runner gets a little radio chip to help scan them when they do.

LOT of runners! Was fewer than 3000 two years ago. Then ~4500 last year. Now, with 8500 it's popular!




The kids and daddy watched and cheered runners on. Their route let us catch Mommy twice, at 11km and just before the finish. In between waiting to spot Mommy, we played with balloons. It's amazing how much time you can kill playing with a couple balloons!




Here's May around 11km, sort of hidden behind someone...




And May crossing back over Manesuv bridge, just a minute before finishing. She's looking better than that guy.

Sandra and Pictures

I've been very busy this week...HAVING LOADS OF FUN WITH SANDRA!!!!!! WOOHOO!

While on the blog, I also noticed a serious lack of photos. So here are three from the trip to Dresden. You'll see the kids checking out the great view from the hotel window, with Dad in front of beautiful Dresden architecture , and getting serious with a sundae.

Maylia

Considering Corning, CA?

Corning, California seems like a nice get-away locale for us. Maybe we'll move there.



Coming isn't as vibrant as say, Chico. But not nearly as sleepy as Vina. So, like Goldilocks says to Ella, it's "juuust right."

Anyone know anything about Corning or Vina or Chico?

Care to share? If so, please write. :)

Baby Steps...

Okay, it's March now, so we're taking baby steps to leaving Prague. You never know how rooted you are until you're looking to leave.

Some steps we took recently:

• Signed a contract with a local property management company to take care of our flat after we're gone. They'll handle utilities, maintenance and dealing with tenants. Yes, we're becoming landlords. And yes, it sounds crazy to us, too.
  
• Our bank. Czech banks know no boundaries when it comes to paperwork. The desire to simplify made for a lot of complex rubber-stamping. Maybe their tactic is to have so much paperwork, you're against closing anything? Of course, Ella talked about all this in 2006 when we opened her account, but we didn't get a cute ladybug doll for closing it.

Yeah, that's it. I didn't say we took a lot of baby steps.

Over the weekend, Jeff & the kids took a trip out of town. They decided mom needed a break. So Jeff, Ella & Mattias hopped on a northbound train and spent the weekend in Dresden, Germany. They took a tour of Volkswagen's "Transparent factory" and walked around old city center. Mattias' favorite part of the weekend was the factory, while Ella more enjoyed watching cartoons in the hotel. Dresden is only a 2 hour train trip, but it was a fun break for everyone home and away.