A Wall, Dinosaurs, Cate Blanchett....What do they all have in common?

Our weekend in Berlin!

Last weekend we rented a 9-passenger van with friends (Ali, Paul, Dylan and Bailey) and decided to see our "#1 City We Would Be Embarrassed To Admit We Didn't Visit While Living In Prague".

Here is a photo summary of our trip.

Day 1

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed we take the "scenic route" to Berlin.

Our great flat (Thanks, again, Apartments Apart!) was located just inside of former "East Berlin". It was interesting and eery to be so near this recent dark history. Berlin has done a great job of informing tourists - there are information boards all over the city. Here are the kids by a remaining portion of The Wall, just around the corner from our flat.

Some zoned-out kids enjoy a cartoon before bed.

Day 2

We started our tour in Tiergarten.

The government buildings were moved back to Berlin from Bonn after the fall of communism. Here we are approaching the Reichstag with it's glass dome. In addition to providing a great view of the city, the dome allows the public to watch its politicians at work...a symbol of the transparency of the new united democracy.

Here is Mattias in front of Brandenburg Tor. The only remaining gate to the city. Built in the late 1700s, it stood in a no-man's land for 28 years between East and West Berlin.

We were impressed by the effective Holocaust Memorial. 2700 concrete slabs (one for each page of the Talmud) of differing heights undulate across the huge space. It succeeds in creating a feeling of unease. Particularly if you keep losing your children.

No visit to Berlin would be complete without seeing "Checkpoint Charlie", the former checkpoint between East Berlin and portion of West Berlin that was under US control.

We finished off the cold and rainy day at the Museum of Natural History, which was well worth the visit. Among other things, it hosts the world's largest mounted dinosaur skeleton.

Day 3

Here is the gang (minus me, the photographer) at the start of Museum Island (another UNESCO site - see last post). It is beautiful architecturally and holds many treasures.

We dipped into the Neues Museum, which hosts the Egyptian collection. Amazing! But nowhere near as child-friendly as the Natural History Museum. We admired another mom who was crazy enough to have her 3 children there with her...and then we REALLY admired her...it was Cate Blanchett!

A little more sight-seeing...a little more playing....

And it was time to take the less-scenic-but-much-faster trip back to Prague. Good sign of a great weekend? We were significantly less bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

PS Other significant high-points of the trip included Dunkin' Donuts and Burger King!

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. :)