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.....)