La Dolce Vita

So our days were slightly busy. We went touring - down to Florence for a day, the next day we visited Charles IV's castle in Montecarlo, and the day after that we went to Volterra. In the evenings we swam and ate dinner in a garden overlooking Florence, and at night we slept in the guest apartment of a guest house (former stables) of the Medici Villa in Fiesole.

The day in Florence was just about perfect. David and I re-confirmed that we like touring like kids - don't go into any of the museums, climb any tower or dome you can, eat gelato twice instead of having lunch, find a comfy pew in the churches to rest your tired feet, and walk and enjoy the city.

The trip to Montecarlo was fun, even though we couldn't talk our way into the castle (the owner wasn't home.) We got back in time to explore Fiesole and Eleanor fell in love with Roman ruins (specifically, running around Roman ruins and walking every row in the ampitheater.)

We learned a valuable lesson on the way to Volterra - NEVER TAKE A SCENIC ROUTE IN NORTHERN TUSCANY BECAUSE THERE ARE MOUNTAINS IN THE WAY! But no one vomited so it was OK. Volterra is high, dramatic, windswept, and full of Dutch tourists.

But the sweet life really began when we got 'home' each afternoon to the Medici Villa. We would drop off the backpacks and hike uphill to the Co-op to buy our fresh pasta, parmesan, and pesto. A quick stop at the wine shop for some Rossi di Montalcino and the green grocer for some perfect tomatoes and fruit and we were good to go. The girls and David would have a swim while I cooked dinner (not a big sacrifice on my part because the water was COLD!)

We ate dinner in the garden, the most glorious part of the villa.

The garden itself was lovely- lavender, sage, basil, wisteria, oleander, and a host of other flowers competing for attention. Lemon trees in huge terracotta pots. Magnolia trees trimmed into cones. Boxwood mazes. Swifts flying around by day, bats by night, and the buzz of fat bumblebees and hummingbird moths.

All this beauty overlooked THE view of Florence. The red roofs, the Duomo, the Palazio Vecchio, the Pitti Palace - we could see it all. And we did, for hours at a time. The girls would gorge on fat spaghetti and parmesan, then take out their drawing books and draw what they saw during the day, list their favorite gelato flavors, sketch the plants and the bats, while David and I ate the last of the olives and finished the wine. Or opened a second bottle....

Ask the girls what their favorite part of Italy was, and they will say "The Food!" Pasta, all the parmesan they could stuff down, gelato twice a day (raspberry, strawberry, lemon, chocolate chip, chocolate, mango, coconut, peach, grapefruit, cream with sour cherry, dark chocolate, coffee - there are some more flavors we had that I'm forgetting.) Each cup was better than the last.

And they will always remember Elisabeth's garden. We all will. It was an amazing, once in a lifetime chance (Thank you Elisabeth!!!)

One night after dinner Eleanor wrote this poem:

The garden is one peaceful place.
You can look at the veiw and stair into space.
You can swim in the pool and the water's allway's cool!
Thoue the view overlooking Florence is nice,
Thre are Birds, Bugs, Bats and maybe mice.

Odd Prague - the TV tower

There are enough visually weird things we've encountered around the city that I decided they should have their own album, called "Odd Prague." I've been adding a picture here and there as I came across something strange.

But today the girls and I went to what might be the oddest thing we'll see in Prague - the TV Tower.

We live very close to the TV tower. Not quite in its shadow, but close. You can see the TV tower from all over Prague - naturally, since it is the tallest thing around.

Situated in Mahler Gardens in Prague's working-class Zizkov district, the TV Tower is one of the most fascinating buildings in the Czech capital - an experience not to be missed. It's a voyage back in time, yet also forward into an alternative future - one planned by the Communists in the 1970s1 that never came to full fruition. It's Prague's answer to London's BT Tower - a space-age rocket or needle 200 metres tall, conceived as a grand vision in 1978 and built between 1985 and 1992. Which, ironically, meant that the grand monument to the Communist technological future was only fully functional after the Velvet Revolution and the downfall of Communism - it has since acquired the nickname of 'Husak's finger'.

When it was built, the Tower was very unpopular among Prague residents - firstly, it was considered a modern eyesore casting a shadow over the Old Town; secondly, people suddenly found that the signals from West German TV stations had been jammed; and thirdly there were worries about the radioactivity given off by the transmitter. from BBC's h2g2 website

People said the viewing platform of the TV tower had the best views of Prague, because you couldn't see the tower when you were in it....

So, what do you do if you have a tower that everyone hates looming over your picturesque Old Town? You get an artist to decorate it! I can imagine the conversation between "The Powers that Be" and the chosen artist, David Cerny.

TPTB: Mr. Cerny, everyone hates the tower. We need to fix it up so people like the tower. What do you suggest?

Mr. Cerny: Well, we could decorate it in some way. Paint it a pretty color, or add something nice. What about flowers? Everyone likes flowers....

TPTB: Flowers, hmmm? Maybe... But my wife is allergic to flowers - she doesn't like them. But I think you're on to something. What does everyone like? Beer? No, that's not quite it... Babies! Yes, that's it! Let's put some babies on the tower! No one can object to babies!

So, Mr. Cerny designed 12 giant bronze babies and installed them in 2000 when Prague was an "European City of Culture." They were supposed to be temporary, but everyone liked them so much (everyone likes babies!) that they will be there for at least 10 years.

The view from the tower was very nice, but the glass was distorted so my photos didn't turn out that well. But I got photos of the babies. Everyone likes babies!

Storming the castles! A long entry about a short vacation

We took a lovely driving trip out of Prague last week. It was so nice to get out of the city and see the countryside and small towns. I love driving in Bohemia. To be precise, I love being a passenger in Bohemia. David is a wonderful driver in Europe. I do pull my own weight, though, by being a bang-up navigator.

The Bohemian countryside is so CUTE! The small roads are lined with trees on both sides - often cherry, apple, or apricot. The fields are small and varied so the colors change constantly. We saw fields of various grains, corn, some sort of purple flower, and fields and fields of white poppies. The Czechs love their poppy seeds. The rolling fields are interspersed with forests and tiny red-roofed villages.

We have figured out that the girls love visiting castles, but not going on the tours of castles. So we stopped at as many castles as we could for a quick peek around. On our first day we stopped at Zamec Orlik for a picnic lunch under the trees and a crawl around the castle foundations. Then we went to Hrad Zvikov. Zvikov might be my second favorite castle now (after Burg Eltz in Germany). It is semi-ruined, you don't have to take a tour so you can just wander around at will, and they have a hall and chapel decorated with 15th century frescoes! We climbed towers, wandered through the halls, ate ice cream, found the 'dungeons' (or cellars) and took lots of pictures for David's lectures. We also did some little videos of David explaining the different areas of a castle. Those will be fun for him to use in his classes.

We spent two nights in Cesky Krumlov, the jewel of southern Bohemia. We stayed in our favorite little head-bonker inn, Na Louzi. We had a great room - 2 beds in the main room with bathroom, and then a ladder-like stairway up to the attic with 2 kids' beds. The problem was that Claire is afraid of heights and didn't want to go up the stairs and Eleanor was worried about tripping when going to the bathroom at night, so David and I ended up sleeping in the kids' beds the first night. They were ALMOST as long as a twin bed. We also realized that we've never stayed in the hotel during the summer, when it is hot and you have to have the windows open. The girls slept fine, but David and I were repeatedly awoken by LOUD people wandering the streets.

But with a little extra caffeine we still enjoyed Cesky Krumlov. It has changed a lot in the 10 years since I was last there - it is almost a Czech Rothenburg now. Most of the medieval buildings have been fixed up, or at least given a new coat of paint. Almost all the shops are tourist oriented now with prices as bad as in Prague. But it is still wonderful to wander the little windy streets and gaze up at the fanciful pastel castle.

We toured the Eggenberg brewery for the first time. The brewery has just recently upgraded its equipment, changing from an almost-decent craft brew to a much more drinkable mass-produced beer. It was fun to see the old tanks and vats, but the girls got a little bored. They liked seeing the bottling line in action, though. They were bottling lemon soda when we visited and we got to taste 'fresh' pop from unlabeled bottles. Too bad it wasn't 'fresh' beer, though. The tour was in Czech and German and I was reminded that my German is SO much better than my Czech......

The girls loved the castle in Cesky Krumlov. The great attraction was the bears in the moat. The girls had been looking forward to the bears for our whole stay in Prague, and Maria Teresa, Vok, and Katerina did not disappoint. Eleanor loved the tour of the castle too, enjoying the renaissance rooms and figuring out the history of the Rozemberk, Sternberk, and Lichtenstein families. Claire mostly enjoyed finding the Rozemberk rose symbol everywhere and seeing all the bear rugs made from past inhabitants of the moat.

We ate dinner in our hotel one night, where the girls indulged their love of klobasa (Eleanor) and fried cheese (Claire). The second night we ate outside at a fish restaurant on the banks of the Vltava with the castle looming over us - quite possibly the best location, ever, in the whole world. And the girls begged for salmon when they saw it on the menu - that makes parents feel like they are doing something right!

After Cesky Krumlov we headed to the wine-country of Moravia. New territory for us, and full of people on bike holiday. We stopped at the ruined castle of Landstejn and had fun exploring the ruined rooms and up the tower for a view all the way to Austria (about 6 k away...).

We stayed two nights in the little wine village of Pavlov. Pavlov is on the banks of a big lake the Communists made by damming a river. I always think those kinds of lakes are sort of creepy - they just don't look quite right. The things to do in Pavlov are climb to the ruined Hrad Divci (Girls' Castle) and eat in the wine cellar restaurants, both of which we did. The hike to the castle was uphill through a lovely beech forest. The castle was totally ruined so we (and the other Czech hikers) could climb over all the walls, arches, and vaults and could scare David by getting too close to the edge to see the great views. The wine cellar restaurants were in old brick barrel-vaulted cellars built into the hillsides. Sort of dank and musty, but a fun place to eat hearty Moravian food and drink decent Moravian wine. (They should really stick to beer production and leave wine to the experts, but it was fun to sample the local grape.) Saturday was the happening night in Pavlov with live music at the restaurant - a middle-aged guy with a keyboard. We just had to laugh when he sang "Country Roads" in Czech. We never heard him sing "West Virginia", so maybe he just used the tune.....

Our last outing in Moravia was to Zamec Lednice. Rick Steves calls it Moravia's answer to Windsor castle. The palace was lovely to look at - it looked like it was made out of sugar icing (where it was repainted and repaired.) We didn't bother to take a tour as the main attraction was the huge garden complete with follies. We happened upon a birds of prey show - they had about 30 birds of prey on display on little stands, including a bald eagle, and they put some of the birds through their paces and showed them hunting, catching bits of meat, etc. Eleanor was entranced. Claire enjoyed looking for pebbles under the benches. After the show we had the highlight of the day - a horse and carriage ride to the minaret. Eleanor LOVES horses, and therefore Claire LOVES horses because she likes everything Eleanor likes. So we had a half hour ride in a wagon behind a pair of horses and the girls were thrilled.

The minaret is a folly that was designed by Joseph Hardmuth. He is important because he figured out how to mix lead with mud and cover it with wood to make the pencil as we know it. He started the Koh-i-noor pencil company which still makes pencils. We weren't going to climb the minaret as it was late and we had a long walk back to the palace, but Claire really wanted to so I took her 306 steps to the top. It was worth it for the great views - we could see the ruined Girls Castle - and for being able to wave at David and Eleanor WAY down at the bottom....

We learned a couple of lessons on the drive back to Prague. The first was if you say "Oh, we might as well stop at one more castle - it's on the way", you probably shouldn't stop at the castle. You should probably just go home. The second lesson was that cutting cross-country too close to Prague isn't really cutting cross country. It is cutting through too many feeder towns with too much traffic. The third lesson was that if you miss the entrance to the tunnel to Dejvicka, you can't turn around and get back to it and you have to take an hour detour out by the airport. But the girls didn't notice the delays because they were happily listening to kids' music on the ipod (which provided hours of ideal car entertainment. The kids were amused and they looked out the window at what we were passing by - something they don't do with the video machine!).

We also learned a few things about traveling with the girls. First was that 4 nights away from home is just about right (unless we're visiting relatives - then we can stay forever!). The girls are also interested in different things than we are. Just stopping at a cute town square isn't that fun for them, unless the town square has a tower to climb or ice cream to buy. Touring castles is way down on the list now unless it is a VERY special castle, but wandering through castle grounds is much more attractive, especially if there are horses involved in some way.

So now we've had a week of 'real' life before more guests come. After they leave it is just a week or so until we go to Italy, then a few days before we go back to the States! David's not ready to go - he still wants to get more work done. But after climbing a few more towers in Prague the girls and I will have done everything we want to do on this trip and we'll be ready to go home. To our real home in Cincinnati!

(p.s. - you can find links to the pictures from this trip in the bar on the right.)


View Larger Map

Baby Jesus

"It's a bit odd and off-puttin' to pray to a baby."

We went to the Church of Panny Marie Vítězné yesterday where there's a miracle-working Baroque statue of the infant Jesus. He has over 100 outfits.

We didn't get much time to admire the Infant Jesus because we were quickly surrounded by a very pious Polish tour group. We had to pick our way around kneeling middle-aged matrons with Eleanor asking what's the big deal was about the statue? Why are people praying to the statue? etc. That's my good Lutheran girl. It's been hard enough explaining the idea of medieval miracles associated with a particular place/statue/bone/relic, but this was worse because Will Farrell kept running through my head.

Look at this: http://www.karmel.at/prag-jesu/english/firsten.htm

Then this. It's Will Farrell, so don't let your kids watch....

Answered non-prayer

This week started out badly. The girls and I were grumpy and we were tired of Prague and not having any friends to play with. David was at a conference all week so we were more or less on our own. But, I figured we were half way through our time here so we'd make it somehow.

But on Tuesday David called with the news that he met an American family with a 6 1/2 year old girl at the conference and would we like to go out to dinner with them? Of course we would! The girls hit it off grandly and we decided to go to the zoo together on Wednesday.

Wednesday was great. The Zoo is fabulous and we really, really enjoyed the company. Our new friends are absolutely lovely. The girls hardly bickered at all because they had "new blood" to entertain them. I really enjoyed talking with another grown up! And the girls got to ride on ponies, which was the icing on the cake.

So, even though we hadn't prayed for this, God gave us just what we needed when we needed it. Pretty cool.

Magnum bars....

Magnum bars and a sunny day make the Mengel girls much happier. We found (very expensive) Fairy books for Eleanor at the Globe bookstore, discovered a new playground on an island in the Vltava, and ate ice cream. Life in Prague is much happier today.

Half way there....

We're half way through our time in Prague. The girls and I had a rough day. It was raining (again) and we couldn't figure out anything we wanted to do, so we stayed home and fought with each other all day. We got a card in the mail today (thank you Lynne!) and that brings the count to a grand total of TWO pieces of mail we've received. For dinner I made what might be the worst goulash ever - the sauce and veggies were fine, but the meat horrible! Despite having been simmered for 2 hours, the meat would have made better shoes than goulash. Maybe there's a reason the Czechs don't eat beef? I think I'll stick to pork from now on.

But, we discovered kids podcasts today. That's a good thing, though it gives the girls another reason to use my computer. But hearing them laugh at a Fetch story was a nice break from the whinging.

Tomorrow we will go do something, rain or shine, even if it is only going to McDonalds. Or maybe a trip to the English used book store to see if we can find chapter books (Eleanor has read all the ones we brought, some multiple times).

Zing - I've posted more pictures. I'm starting a collection of Odd Prague - I imagine I will have things to add to it as I keep looking!

Karlštejn Castle

On Thursday we took Grandma Zona and Lois to Hrad Karlštejn for an excursion outside of Prague. We had a fun time on the train and poking our way up through the little town (which mainly consists of tacky tourist shops and beer gardens).

Karlštejn looks magnificent on the way up, but once you get up to the castle there's not much to do besides wait for your tour (and watch the Polish bride and groom have their picture taken). We had read our guidebook so we knew that to visit the most important and impressive rooms in the castle you have to make reservations in advance, which David did the day before. The girls were so patient during the 100 minute tour. Eleanor got into it and was asking questions - she impressed the other people on the tour with her knowledge of history. Little did they know she comes by it honestly. I told Claire about how Uncle Buddy and I used to look for St. George and the Dragon everywhere we went in Europe, so even Claire managed to entertain herself on the tour. She got a kick out of donning the special slippers over our shoes so we didn't scratch the Renaissance floor tiles.

The highlight of the castle, and dare I say any castle in Europe, is the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It is a truly magnificent room - encrusted in gold leaf and semi-precious stones and decorated with 139 saints painted by Magister Theodoric in the 1360s. The Chapel was closed for over 10 years for reconstruction (including when we lived here before so this was my first visit).

The most exciting time of the visit came when the tour guide was explaining why visitors are limited to 15 people per hour now. She said that previously they let in up to 150 people/hour and the humidity from their breath and bodies contributed to damaging the precious chapel. Now visitors are limited and the scientists monitor the humidity in the room. Claire, with the perfect timing of a 4 year old, chose this moment to whisper in my ear, "I really need to go to the bathroom!" Now, we're at the top of the tower and there are at least 7 locked doors and numerous staircases between us and the WC, so I whispered back to Claire, "It's OK, just try to go a little peepee in your panties." The 100 minute tour had been too long for Claire and she SOAKED her clothing. But, thankfully, she did it very quietly and no one noticed - not the tour guide, not the other visitors, not even Papa or ever-vigilant older sister. It was a secret between me, Claire, and the scientists who were going to check the machines and wonder why there was such a spike in humidity around 5:00 on June 5. Perhaps Gregory the Great and the other saints noticed too.

Královský průvod

Yesterday we pretended to wear burlap and eat rutabagas (still my favorite description of life in the Middle Ages) when we went to the Královský Průvod in Old Town Square. This was the second yearly re-enactment of the procession of the Imperial Crown Jewels and Relics from the Prague Cathedral to Karlstejn Castle (about 30 miles away). The girls enjoyed the festivities. Eleanor especially enjoyed watching all the horses and Claire liked seeing the models of the places we've already been. I'm up for a parade in any form, so I had a whee of a time too. David took videos which will come in handy when teaching about the Middle Ages.

Křivoklát and Crossbows

The Prague Castle doesn't look very, well, castle-ish. So today we trained through pretty river valleys to Křivoklát. Thick walls, arrow slits, gates, towers, perched on a steep hill - the girls could imagine Kings and Queens living there. The 90 minute tour (in Czech) of the interior was a bit much even for me, but the girls were very patient (and we got ice cream and beer in the castle courtyard to raise our flagging spirits. I love that you can get ice cream and beer in castle courtyards here. The U.S. would be a much happier place if ice cream and beer -good beer in BIG cups- were more readily available.) We had fun crawling around the towers and peeking into shops, but the coolest thing was shooting crossbows. The girls' videos are on their own blogs. David doesn't have a blog so he gets to be on mine.

Barbies and Snails

I couldn't stand another day at home with the whiny girls, so I dragged them out into the rain and made them go to the Toy Museum up at the Castle. The girls were mildly interested in the turn of the (20th) century wooden, tin, and ceramic toys, dolls, and train sets (and, inexplicably, an 8 foot tall Jar-Jar Binks.) They got more of a kick out of the 2 rooms of cases and cases of Barbies - from the original 1959 version (which had a problem with pigment stability and turned white within their first year) to modern Barbies. The girls even found a Barbie that we have at home! Guess we should have left that hand-me-down Flamingo Barbie in her box...

But, even more exciting was the Hill O'Snails that we found on the way to the castle. We stopped at a new tram stop (the one Rick Steves recommends) and took a nice little lane through some overgrown hills. There were snails and slugs everywhere. The girls were fascinated. We might go back tomorrow with baggies and collect some to live on our terrace. Or maybe we'll send them to our friend in France. (Don't laugh - snails are exported from the Czech Republic to France. For some reason there are lot more snails here than there.....)

Claire's Birthday

Claire's birthday started with presents, and ended with presents - which she thought was just about perfect. She opened her gifts right after breakfast. The highlight was the marionette she picked out at the market.

After lunch we headed out to Beckiland. (Claire chose Beckiland over the Zoo because the weather turned cold and rainy.) Beckiland was everything the girls had hoped for and more - a bouncy castle, giant twisty slide that landed in a ball pit, a climbing/sliding tent thing (the green and cream thing in the pictures), rock climbing walls, 2 different climbing areas, more slides and ball pits, ball shooters, bumper cars, train rides, trampolines, a bouncy castle alligator that ate you, scooters and tricycles that you could ride anywhere you want, fussball tables.... I think that's it. We stayed there almost 5 hours. Claire had wanted to get pizza for dinner, but elected to go to the McDonalds across the street so she could have 1/2 hour more of playtime.

So after the Happy Meals we headed to Old Town to get Claire's birthday ice cream (she chose ice cream over a cake this time.) The four of us got every shade of pink gelato that was at the stand. We got to Old Town Square just before the centuries-old Astronomical Clock rang the hour. And then, despite insisting she wasn't tired, Claire did admit she was cold and she would like to go home.

When we got home Claire discovered that our landlord had left a present for her on the door. It was a Prague Castle pop-up book that his wife helped to edit. Claire said she loves the book and will take it with her forever so she will always remember her birthday in Prague. And that was how her birthday started and ended with presents.

My 4 year old!

Here's the big girl, exhausted from a day at Beckiland, covered in ketchup and strawberry gelato, standing in front of Tyn Church in Old Town Square. She had a fabulous last turning-4 birthday (she has had 3 birthday parties already.) I think this one was extra-special! We're all exhausted. I'll put more pictures up tomorrow.

Beer Marathon

Last Sunday was the Prague Marathon. I'm no where near being able to do a marathon yet (I blame most of that on the February O' Appendectomy.) But had I known about the Beer Marathon I might have been able to hold my own. The article in The Prague Post is a little sketchy on details, but I think I could have figured it out:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Alternative events

While there was also an inline skate race course, a family “mini-marathon” of 4.2 kilometers, an “eco-walk” of 2 kilometers and other fun stuff (paintball, anyone?) the new marketing event we liked best was the beer marathon, which had just 17 entries.

It seemed like such a great idea, too — anyone could participate in the “buy one drink, get a free beer” deal at 11 participating restaurants and bars around town, which included our Karlín favorite Gate Restaurant (Sokolovská 31, Prague 8); two Modrá zahrada pizza locations (Pařížská 14 and Národní 37, both in Prague 1); and two Potrefená husa locations (Bílkova 5 and Platnéřská 9).

Some folks filled out more than one entry form, apparently, since they picked up more than one prize.

Winner Miroslav Bouška received 5,000 Kč for getting at least six different beer marathon stamps on his entry form from participating locations.
Alena Mášová kissed her prize — a 5-liter keg of Staropramen given out to winners No. 2 through No. 11. She was cheered mightily by her compatriots in the bar, most of whom also received 5-liter kegs.

Sounds like a great exercise regimen. Pivo, anyone?

Knedliky

The girls have fallen in love with knedliky. Houskove knedliky to be exact. Dumplings made from bread. At dinner tonight (at home - being a good Maminka I made pork and knedliky for my děti) David realized the reason the girls love these dumplings so much. The are ideal kid bread - soft, white, with NO CRUSTS. And absolutely no food value I'm sure. But it's only 3 months, right?

There is a potato version of knedliky too, but continuing with their tradition of only eating a potato if it is deep-fried, the girls refuse to try it.

Let the Jogging Begin....

I found a post-communist running track yesterday. The discus cage is rusting, the long jump track is choked with weeds, and the concrete stairs are crumbling away. But there were some kids playing futbol and a guy practicing juggling (martini mixing glasses and bottles of liquor - he was trying to be Tom Cruise in that bar movie....) so it wasn't totally creepy. And the track would have an extraordinary view of the castle if there weren't so many trees in the way.

My excuse for not jogging here was that Europeans don't jog through cities. But now I have a track 10 minutes (uphill) away, so no excuses.

I learned some lessons yesterday:

1.) Hauling kids around town and on and off trams does not equal a real workout.
2.) Eating a klobasa (sausage) from the stand on Vasklavski Namisti is not a good pre-work-out meal.
3.) I have a LONG way to go to get in shape for the 2009 Flying Pig.

There are 3 beer gardens on the way down the hill between the track and my flat. Wonder how good a post-jog pivo would taste?

Photos

I'm adding photos to the slideshows over to the right as I take more pictures. So if you're interested in pictures of Prague, check the links to the right periodically.

Playgrounds save the day

We are so grateful that the Czechs have had babies while we were gone and have realized that children need playgrounds. I'm sure there were some playgrounds around 10 years ago, but we certainly didn't notice many (not that we were looking too hard for them). But now they are all over the place!

There's our main one by the Main Train Station - one tram stop away.

Today the girls and I went to Vysyhrad (site of the old castle - now a topped by a very cool Art Deco church and a graveyard full of important dead people like Dvorak and Smetana). We found a small older playground on the walk up the hill, and then a very cool new playground right at the top near the really, really (I can't remember how many 'really's) old round church. At first I thought it was a Wild West theme of forts and stockades (the Czechs have a thing for the American Wild West thanks to an author who made up stories about Indians...) but then I realized that it was based on Old Czech foundation myths. How cool is that - to build a playground based on the Czech equivalent of the Aeneid on the site where Prague was originally founded!

There's another playground up a hill from our apartment. David took the girls, but I haven't been there yet. It is situated between two beer gardens. That could be fun. Or dangerous.....

My Mother's Day

2 sweet photos of my darling little girls, taken in the window of Maly Buddah (Little Buddah), one of our favorite restaurants from 10 years ago. It is in the same place above the castle, still non-smoking, but now they serve pivo! We had a lovely day wandering some of my favorite haunts. We found my favorite ice cream stand near Charles Bridge and introduced the girls to Magnum bars.

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm never very good at getting things in the mail in time for Mother's Day (often I beg my brother to just sign my name to his flowers.....). But this year I have more of an excuse than most years.

So, a semi-public thanks to my mom for helping me become the type of person who is brave/adventurous/foolhardy enough to haul her family half-way across the world for the summer. Who thinks figuring out trams and metros and fending off pick-pockets and drunks is challenging, not intimidating. Who thinks pointing at menus in foreign languages and eating whatever comes is fun (Oh, wait - that was from Dad). Who will haul her kids through churches and art galleries (and buy them ice cream before they sit down on the curb and refuse to go any further!). Who for her own Mother's Day is going to take her family to her favorite ice cream stand on an island in the middle of the Vltava, then ride the funicular up Petrin Hill for a great view of Old Prague.

So, thanks for all the adventures and love and education that has helped me become the person I am! I wish you were here to have some adventures with us!

And for your present this year I'm NOT posting the only picture of you that I have on this computer (sleeping in your chair with your dog and cats perched all over you.) Instead I'll put up your newest (and dare I say most-trouble making?) child.

Prague Blog 2

We finally took the girls to the cute parts of Prague today. We had a nice wander around the castle, down the hill, across Charles Bridge and through Old Town Square. The girls were duly impressed. For dinner we went to one of our favorite old restaurants - the one Uncle Ralph dubbed "hearty Czech food" the last time we lived here. My, oh, my - the sticker shock. Over $50 for dinner. Not very expensive for dinner for 4 by American standards, but by Prague standards from 10 years ago.... Have I mentioned Prague costs more this visit?

Pictures from today should be showing up in a slide show below. I'll also include links to the albums over to the right. You can order pictures through shutterfly (and other places) through those links if you want. Grandmas and Omas - I've left the pictures of the girls in high quality, so they should print nicely if you order some.

IKEA

The girls and I might have found our regular hang-out spot in Prague - IKEA. I LOVE IKEA in general - it's just cool (almost as cool as Barack Obama....). But now I love this specific Prague IKEA. The main reason? The play place. We saw the sign walking in that kids 3 - 10 years old can go to the play place. 7 year old Eleanor was much relieved. After we checked the girls in, the woman assured us that she spoke some English and the girls would be fine, but we could only leave the girls there for 2 hours. 2 hours??? I can envision dropping the girls off and heading upstairs to the cafe for some book time with a cappuccino. I wonder how many times a week we could do that before the IKEA people catch on?

Our Byt

We went to IKEA today to get a few more things for the apartment. (More on the IKEA trip later....) We now have a very serviceable apartment for the next three months. Although I do miss living out in Worker's Paradise, our apartment here is much nicer and closer to Old Town. We're a good 10 minute walk from the main train station, but we haven't heard any trains so either the Czech Republic has converted to electric trains like the rest of Europe (which would surprise me) or we're far enough away that the regular city noise drowns out the trains.

When we entered our building I was immediately reminded of Italy - and then realized that was because the hallway smells of damp plaster. But it is a nice wide entryway with some cool stairs going to the upper reaches. But we've never been up the stairs because we're on the ground floor. Go past the mailboxes, turn left, go past the elevator, and you're at our apartment.

When you enter our byt there is a large and mostly useless foyer (not useless when we're using the space to dry laundry inside!). Immediately to your right is the water closet. After you use the loo you have to cross the foyer and go into the kitchen. To your left is the shower/sink room. The cabinet/counter top space is tiny but functional. We have a large 'fridge by European standards, for which we are very grateful. Keep going through the kitchen and you'll get to the "master" bedroom (master because it has the double bed.) From the kitchen you can also go to the living room, and from the living room you get to the girls' room. They don't get a door - just curtains. The other end of the living room has the door to the terrace. When we roll out of bed at 10 each morning we try to get outside as soon as possible so our bodies can learn that there is daylight at that hour!

The byt has nice 12 ft. ceilings and the windows and doors are in 8 ft frames, so it feels big and airy. The thick plaster walls will be appreciated when it gets hot this summer, but right now we have to wear our sweatshirts inside and then strip down to go out into the beautiful 70 degree weather.

Prague Blog 1

We started our second day in Prague by getting up at the crack of 10:30. The girls aren't adjusting well to the time change. They go to sleep fine, but around 12:30 they have woken up both nights and then can't get back to sleep. Poor little things think it is dinner time then. And then we have to work to wake them up at 10 am. But we'll keep drugging them with benadryl at bedtime and hopefully they'll adjust soon (although I wouldn't mind if they kept sleeping in a little bit!)

But despite being a little tired we've enjoyed our first 2 days in Prague! The girls have experienced some of the typical Praguish things we remembered from last time - a hearty czech meal of fried cheese and french fries (though they didn't care for the tartar sauce accompaniment), crowded tram and metro rides, eating sausages from the stand in Wenceslas Square, grocery shopping in the basement of Tesco.

I have noticed a few changes since living here 10 years ago. The major shock is that Prague is no longer cheap! Our hearty Czech meal for 4 cost $30! Last time it would have been around $12. Looks like we'll be doing more of our own cooking. Beer is over $1 too. Sigh. Well, we probably shouldn't drink as much with the kids around anyway!

The other big shock is that customer service people have been NICE! We went to the main train station to get our tram passes and we needed to show ID. David happened to have his drivers license on him but I had stashed mine (I'm not driving for a long time!). I had found my tram pass from 10 years ago, so David pulled that out and said, in Czech, "Well, she had to show ID when she got this last time - doesn't that count?" The woman accepted that argument - it was probably bending the rules. Official workers NEVER bent the rules before. In fact, I believe that they made up new rules expressly for us.

Other examples of nice customer service - at Tesco I bought a big tub of whole grain mustard. The check-out (or is it czech-out?) lady automatically wrapped it up in a produce bag. Sure enough, when we got home the lid had come off and the mustard leaked out. She knew that it had a leaky lid and took care of it - again, something that never would have happened during our previous sojourn. And the surly matrons at the sausage stand in Wensceslas Square have been replaced by young, smiley, and MULTI-LINGUAL girls. Maybe that's why the sausages cost 50 Kc now. My girls adored the sausages - Claire kept saying "will you put more hot dog in my roll?"

David is out right now at the T-Mobile store getting his cell phone tuned to the Czech network. He'll probably get me a pre-paid phone too. When I'm out and about with the girls, it will probably be useful for me to be able to reach someone if necessary (and to be reachable!). No more hours losing myself in art museums and cafes. Maybe we'll be able to do that for half-hours, though.

Ice falling from the sky...

One thing that will make leaving Madison easier - the frozen water that fell from the sky today. Make that three things - sleet, hail, and big puffy white flakes of snow. All fell on me today. April 28. I'm outta here.....

We're on our way (almost)

This is our last week in Madison. We took most of our worldly goods back to Cincinnati this weekend (the worldly goods that weren't already in our basement in Cincinnati, that is). It was nice to visit - our house has been well tended (thank you Crosses!) and it was wonderful to see friends again, if briefly. We felt like minor celebrities at church on Sunday. The girls stayed in Madison with Wonderful Cousin Martha- a good thing because I don't think we could have dragged them to Prague if they had experienced Rock Star Status back home.

So, one week from today we'll be on a plane to Prague via Zurich!!! AAGGH!