Before joining all the rest of the family on the main cruise, we took a one week trip with Judy and Bob to Eastern Europe. It was fabulous! I hope the Cannons enjoyed it as much as we did. Judy and Bob really know how to find the best tours, cheapest hotels, and most interesting places to visit, and they are the best traveling companions ever.
We left Billings on Friday 6:30 am, met up with the Cannons in New York, and arrived in Prague Saturday around 10:30 am local time. That long airline trip wasn't nearly as bad as I feared, and we hit the ground running when we landed.
Prague is unbelievably beautiful. I felt like I was in a fairy tale.
Every building, many of which were built in the 17th or 18th century, was a works of art.
Mom said that Prague was one of her favorite cities in the world. After roaming Prague for a few days, I totally understood why.
There is so much to see.
We took an excellent free walking tour of the city.
I'm pretty sure we walked an average of 79 miles a day that first week, but it kept us from feeling jet lag, allowed us to see as much as possible, and burned calories for refueling with gelato.
This is the St George Bascilica, with "Adam and Eve" steeples-the wider right tower represents Adam, the smaller left steeple represents Eve. Construction of the Bascilica started in the 10th century. One of the most mind-blowing parts of this trip was the age of things--the oldest building I've been in since living in Billings is the 1901 Moss Mansion.
Adam and Eve church from another angle.
Prague has an amazing astronomical clock. It was installed in 1410, and is the oldest clock working astronomical clock in the world. On the hour, four figures representing vanity, greed, death, and pleasure become animated. The town hall next to this clock tower burned down in World War II, but the clock and clock tower survived.
A couple of things that are MUCH younger than the clock.
Beautiful old buildings to the left of the clock tower.
We encountered very few cars in Europe. Most people walked, rode bikes, or took one of these horse drawn carriages. All of the horses wore these fancy, silky ear-cover thingers.
Intermission
Today is Hailey's 6th birthday. We celebrated by going to Costco to order her cake for her party on Saturday (chocolate with a rainbow and "Happy Birthday Hailey"). Costco is also home to watermelon and cute and cheap children's clothing.
Because it is Hailey's birthday, I personally blew up the plastic pool.
I've got to get a pump. I've got permanent brain damage from all the oxygen expiration.
The girls had great fun running,
jumping,
and lounging in the pool.
We now return to our regular post.
There are interesting sculptures everywhere in Europe; Prague is no exception. This is Clock of Conscience by Anna Chromy
I think this is the original gate to the city, built in the 900's. This is one of those things I may change my mind about later.
The first of many churches we visited was in Prague. St. James is located in Old Town. It is a Baroque style building, originally built in 1232, and rebuilt in 1689 after it was destroyed by fire caused by invading French troops.
Wow. The experience of walking into a European cathedral never got old.
This particular church has an *interesting* artifact: a 400 year old hand. Apparently a thief attempted to steal jewels left for the Madonna. The Madonna statue grabbed the thief's arm and the only way to free him was to cut off his arm. The hand hangs as a warning to would-be thieves.
This was definitely one of the most beautiful buildings we saw.
Mom always pish-poshed the LDS temples, and it always kind of irritated me, but after visiting several cathedrals that were a part of her life, I suddenly understood.
From the acoustics, to the colors, to the art,
these churches are indescribable.
I could not get enough of them!
We saw the world's oldest astronomic clock, but I think you and Judy have the world's most accurate gastronomic clock - at least as far as geloto. I think you were quite regular as far as that went. I take exception to the availability of veggies - at least later in the trip. Amsterdam, particularly, did not appear to believe in vegetables. Fun to have great traveling companions. Thanks for the memories.
ReplyDeleteYes, after the abundance of vegan options in Prague, I thought you'd do ok, but it seems the longer we traveled, the fewer and poorer your options were. And I think Amsterdam didn't believe in a lot of things....
Delete