A weekend in Prague

One good thing about driving across Europe is the freedom to head in a different direction while going home and stopping in a former communist country - the Czech Republic. Prague is a town that wasn't touched in the war, so it maintains it's old world look.

We found this out the first night we were there - cobble stoned streets everywhere and none of the streets went in a straight line. They all led to the town square. We were within 5 minutes of walking to get there. We walked down a few quiet streets before turning into a crowd of thousands and then finally seeing the town square, which took our breath away. An enormous medieval church, which looked like it was from the dark ages and a huge Christmas tree beside it. It was truly breath taking!

After a night of hanging out at the Christmas markets and listening to locals sing traditional Czech songs, we headed back. The next morning we saw it again in the daylight. Still remarkable. We headed to the top of the town hall tower and looked at the city from a birds eye view. After, we stood and watched the 500 year old astronomical clock ring. I still have no idea what time it was or how it worked.

We spent the day walking to different sights. The Jewish quarter with it's cemetery of 12,000 stones, but estimated 100,000 people buried there. And then on to the palace and cathedral. That is when the complaining began from all three kids. Cold and tired, we stopped for hot cocoa. After we warmed up and spilled plenty of the cocoa, we continued on with the kids playing in the square. Tom and I knew there was so much more to see, but when you have kids, you see a different side of the city. So, we never made it to the museums, but we had a great Czech meal and did walk the Charles Bridge.

The highlight of the Charles Bridge is rubbing one of the statues for good luck. We each did it and as I touched it, Jeb awoke from his hour nap in a very foul mood. So much for good luck.

We had a great night with more mulled wine, crepes and trdelnik. Thus, ended our time in Prague and Eastern Europe. The ride home? Much better than the ride to Austria - we could see out the window and there was no snow. But there was when we came home! Funny, we had a rainy Austrian Christmas and England had a white Christmas. Go figure.