Vacation Video

Our vacation is a bit more than half over. Here's a video of it so far. Jeff had a lot of fun making it.

Week 1 of Our Vacation

Hi All!

If you’re still checking on this blog, we apologize for not posting anything for a long, long time. We could have written while we still lived in Prague, but that last month flew by so fast. We wish we had written then, when we had easy access to the ‘net.

On our 6th night and our 4th different campground, only tonight we got a place that offers Internet service. So we figured it’s a good chance to write “howdy.” (Although to be honest, internet and blogs have not been at the forefront of our minds.)

Since we’re paying by the hour to use internet – we’ll make it short and sweet and most importantly, upload some photos…’cause we know that’s what you all really want.

So….Day 1 (which is, conveniently, June 1) our dear and generous friend, Ondrej, drove us the 5 hours pick up our caravan. Here we are with our new home for the next 25 days.



Crazy traffic meant we got into our campground, which we picked due to its close proximity to Playmobil Fun Park, at 10pm. The kids were wrecked! So the next day (Day 2/June 2) we took it easy. Just relaxed and got accustomed to camper living.

We woke up June 3 (Day 3) to heavy rain – our world was gray and soggy and in no way reflected a day you would take your kids to an outdoor fun park. But we’re so glad we did! It was an awesome day…the rain subsided…didn’t disappear…but subsided. And we honestly didn’t care too much if it was raining! What an awesomely fun place! Way more interesting than the typical amusement park. All four of us had a blast!




After the Fun Park we made our way to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. Not only a mouthful…but an eyeful, too. In one word, I would describe this town as “seductive”. It was almost impossible to leave it. We set up camp in a parking lot outside the city walls and after supper did a first attempt at exploring the town. It is so remarkably unchanged…for over 800 years! The cool thing was, the kids loved it, too.

Needless to say, Day 4 (June 4) started off with more explorations of the town…including climbing WAY up into the Rathaus (Town Hall) bell tower (which MANY folks on their way down advised us not to do with the kids!). It was a great view. To be honest we’ve climbed much more hairy towers in Czech Republic, but this one was interesting in that only about 10 people could be at the top at a time. We also visited an unbelievable Christmas store. (Grammy would have never left this place). But mostly just toured around and enjoyed the ambience.



We finally pulled ourselves away after lunch and drove south into the Austrian Alps to set up camp on Am Plan See (or Amplan Lake). What can we say, but…”WOW!” The alps are….the alps! Totally majestic and awe-inspiring and breathtaking and….a little scary to drive in the caravan!

We parked ourselves at a lovely campground with this view:



And Ella immediately insisted on going swimming, which 3 of the four of us managed to do to some capacity in this glacier-fed lake. Can you guess who didn’t make it in?



(By the way, quote of the vacation so far is this: Ella found her bathing suit and put it on in the parking lot at RodT. We said, “It’s not really a day for swimming, Ella.” Ella said, “It’s a day.” Yaya and Baboo – are you proud?)

Day 5 (June 5) we played tourist and went to Neuschwanstein Castle – famous to us North Americans as being the inspiration for the Disney castle. It was definitely a “tourist trap” and definitely “inspirational”. We found our own way to get maximum satisfaction….opting out of the guided tour (required to get inside but also requiring a 4 hour wait by the time we got there). And instead paid 3.60Euros for a bus to drive us up to the castle. We wandered around outside, ate our picnic lunch in the courtyard and then ran/walked back down the mountain to our car.



Day 6 (June 6)…today…well, I’m sitting here in Chiusa/Klausen, Italy, sipping local Merlot with a view of the Saben convent, all aglow on the hilltop. The kids are asleep inside the caravan. Jeff is reading up on Venice, our goal for tomorrow. And what did we do today? Was it really just today that we drove to Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany and took the cable car to the top? Yes, it was. We had breakfast at our campsite in Austria. Lunch on the highest mountain peak in Germany. And supper here in Italy. What a day! What a week! What a vacation!

Two pictures of the Zugspitze... at the bottom and on the top:



So much more that could be said…but the bunk above the driver’s seat calls…


Much love to those in Prague (we miss you), the USA, and Canada (see you soon)…

Maylia, Jeff, Ella and Mattias
xo xo xo xo

PS Should really do a post about all the amazing ways our friends in Prague wished us well…their generosity is certainly deserving of that…but given our present situation we may just have to say “Thank you; we love you and miss you”.

PPS So much for the “short and sweet”. Did I at least get the “sweet” part?

Flat Available

Psst...want to move to Prague? Need a flat to rent?

Our place is now viewable online at:
http://www.bohemianestates.com/?page=property&id=807



Note to Eric K out in Vegas: your famous coconut lady gifts 'somehow' disappeared from the kids' shelves shortly before the photographer arrived.
I only noticed it after viewing the pictures online. :-(

I've since found them. But now I know, their safe shipment is my concern and mine alone. Don't you worry, buddy, They Will Make It To Canada!! They may be butt-ugly, but they carry great sentimental meaning. HAHAHA


At least the equally-ugly, super-sized fish vase make it the flat pictures (see living room shot, high above my desk)

-Jeff

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!