Spring Break 2012 - Prague/Dresden

For spring break this year, we decided to check-off one of the cities in both mine and Greg’s top five… Prague!  And since we would be in the “neighborhood”, we decided to swing through Dresden, Germany on the way home.   It is widely talked about within the American community in Heidelberg, that you should not drive your car into Prague (especially SUVs) because car theft is rampant.  So, without any hesitation, I went online to book our train tickets and soon discovered that the train was going to turn what would be a 4.5 hour drive into an 8.5 trek via a very slow train and then onto a bus.  No thanks.  So, after much hesitation, I decided to drive anyway, find a secure place to park my car, and hope for the best.  Worse case, I would get a new car out of the trip.  Before we left, I stripped my car of absolutely everything except what we needed for the trip and then headed east.  On the way, we stopped in a cute, family-run German restaurant for lunch.  We placed our order with the waitress/owner/cook who wrote it all down and then changed the order by basically telling us what we should have ordered.    We understood about 75% of what she said and weren’t completely sure what we had gotten ourselves into.  To our relief, she knew what she was talking about and everyone enjoyed their meal (and most importantly got enough to eat - people underestimate how much our girls can eat!).  On the way out of the restaurant, I took a picture of the Easter Egg tree that decorated the bar.  At this time of the year, you see these everywhere in Germany.  I'm already collecting eggs for my tree next year!

We arrived in Prague, unpacked the car, locked it up in a guarded lot, and immediately hit the sights.  Within minutes of exiting the subway station, we ran into this beautiful building (see pic below).  We never figured out what it was.  However, one of the first things I noticed were the two homeless men sleeping on a bench in front of it (on left side of pic).  It reminded me that in the nine months that I have been living in Germany, I have never seen a homeless person living on the streets nor have I seen anyone begging for money. 

The girls and I on the Charles River with the Charles Bridge behind us.

 It is said that if you touch the statue of St. John on the Charles Bridge, then you will be sure to return to Prague one day.

On the Charles Bridge with Prague Castle in the background. 

Greg and the girls just coming off the Charles Bridge. 

We never knew that Budweiser is really a Czech beer! 

My favorite part of Prague was just exploring the side streets in Old Town.  The architecture was incredible to say the least. 

Greg and the girls enter Old Town Square. 

The Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square.  The clock is 600 years old and is the oldest of its kind that is still working! 

Enjoying an Easter Market in Old Town Square. 

A good end to our first day in Prague.  Enjoying our first Czech beer in Old Town Square.

One of Greg's Czech buddies from work was nice enough to hook us up with a room at the military dormitory in town.  Thus saving us a lot of money.  The rooms were sparsely furnished, but big.  Not surprisingly, the people manning the front desk did not speak a single word of English, thus making the check-in process of bit of a dog and pony show.  However, Greg somehow got his way through it mostly with a lot of hand gestures and smiles.  Meanwhile, I parked my car in the guarded lot at the Crown Plaza next door.  It almost cost as much to park my car as it did for our room!  But I just considered that a little extra insurance. Check out our Czech digs....

Huge walk-in storage area with three big (in European standards) closets and lots of hooks and drawers.

Greg and I camped out in the "living room".  Greg took the couch while I cozied up on the roll-a-way cot.

Each of the girls had their own bedrooms.

Our first night in Prague, we ate at this restaurant in Old Town Square.  The girls wanted some pizza and after I ordered, the waiter said that the salami on that particular pizza was spicy and he recommended another pizza.  However, the pizza that he recommended had walnuts on it and I explained to him that we could not have that one because Leena is allergic.  He said "no problem, I can tell the cook to leave off the nuts".  So, we agreed.  The pizza comes out and two bites into his slice, Greg encounters a walnut and tells Leena to stop eating.  Unfortunately, Leena is training to enter the eating competition in the Olympics and was 3/4 through her slice when Greg said this.  So, we all sat with baited breath and waited.  Naturally, I was in such a rush to leave the hotel and see the sights, that I forgot to bring along the Epi-Pen which made things a million times worse.  No mother-of-the-year awards for me.  The waiter was very apologetic and the girls got free Sprites and gelato out of it.  An hour passes and we think we are through the worst of it with no reaction.  So, we went to the Easter Market in the square and Greg decided to buy a Trdelnik which is rolled dough, wrapped around a stick, then grilled over an open fire and topped with a sugar and walnut or almond mix.  Unfortunately, we did not know that the topping contained nuts (they are chopped extremely fine), so Leena had a few bites (we did not discover that this treat contained nuts until the next day).  Later that evening as Greg and I were comfortably sleeping on our couch and cot, Leena starts throwing up in her bed around 11:00pm and this continues until 4:00am.  A big drawback to staying in a Czech military dormitory is that there is no one around to give you clean sheets in the middle of the night when your kid pukes her brains out.  And if there was anyone around, they would not speak one single word of English and our Czech is rusty to say the least.  So, it was a looooong night.  By the morning, Leena was fine and ready to see the sights.  She was a trooper!  And we are so thankful that it wasn't worse than what it was. So, we all set out to take in the sights but not after I checked on my car to ensure it was still in the lot.  Whew!  It was!

The following day, the girls discovered that they love the Czech baguettes.  Peanut-free, of course!!  Here they are enjoying them on an awesome Prague side-street.  LOVE all the cobblestone streets and sidewalks!

On Petrin Hill about to climb the Petrin Tower!

View of Prague from the top of the tower.

Fun times in a mirror maze on Petrin Hill.  You would never guess that one of these girls was up puking the entire night!

More mirror maze fun!

Time-out to check out a playground.

Riding the funicular down Petrin Hill. 

The girls having their fun on Children's Island which is an island playground on the Charles River.  We visited this playground twice in one day!  Where do they get the energy after all that walking??

Greg makes some  new friends on Children's Island.

In front of the National Theater.

One tired girl (Prague castle in the background).  Per Taryn, "I used up all my energy at the playground".

This is Greg's favorite sight-seeing outfit.  And yes, those are parachute pants!

On the tram (streetcar).  At one point, we were all doing a full-out sprint to catch Tram #22.  We barely jumped on as the doors were closing.  At the end of the day, I asked the girls what their favorite part of the day was and they replied "running to catch the tram"!

Taryn standing with the guards at Prague Castle.

Perfect timing.  We got to see the changing of the guards!

In front of St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle.

In back of St. Vitus Cathedral.  This place was HUGE!

Inside the Cathedral.

Inside the Cathedral.

In front of the Castle.

Cool knight armour that looks like a bird.

The girls on the Golden Lane at Prague Castle.  These little houses are built into the wall that surrounds the castle.  Way back in the day, this is where the castle guards used to live.  So cute!

Checking out the toy museum on the castle grounds.  There was a barbie exhibition there.  What luck!!!

Ahhh, enjoying some good Czech beer at the end of a looooong day of sight-seeing!

Greg and Taryn dance along to a band in Old Town Square on our way back to the hotel.

The next day, we are back at Prague Castle.  The place is so big, that we could not see it all in one day.  Here we are in St. George's basilica. 

Leena braves the rain while I get this shot of the front of the castle.  "Hurry mom!"

The sun comes out and we head back down to the Charles Bridge.

This fun band was playing on the Charles Bridge.  Check out the guy on the far left.... he is playing the washboard!!  And I thought that only happened in Louisiana!!!  I felt like I was back home!

The girls shopping in one of many marionette stores in town.  It took a while for them to select the dolls that they wanted.  Afterwards, we took in a marionette show! 

On the way out of Prague, we stopped by a bobsled track.  Here is Greg and Leena on a run!

Leena and I getting a lift back to the top.

We all did three runs on the bobsled track and I don't know who had more fun.... Greg and I or the girls!  These things could fly down the track (you controlled the speed) and at one point, Greg took a corner so fast that his butt popped off the sled!  We got there right when the track opened at 11:00am and had the whole place to ourselves.  Afterwards, we ate at the cafe there at the track with plans to head to Dresden, Germany after lunch.  When we finished eating, the girls begged to go down the track just one more time.  Greg and I gave in because honestly, we thought they would never ask!  So, we took one more run.  Immediately afterwards, Leena says she does not feel so good and needs to throw-up.  Oh no, here we go again.  However, this time we are sure it's the sled and not any nuts at fault.  So, we hang out in the parking lot and her lunch never makes a second appearance.  After about 20 minutes, we decide it's been long enough and it's time to get on the road.  As luck would have it, there is construction on the autobahn and we are re-directed.  The detour takes us through some mountain roads in the Czech Republic and I am thinking "this is not the best thing on an upset stomach".  Minutes later, my fears are confirmed when Leena pukes all over herself and the backseat of my car.  We pull over on the side of the road and thank goodness I had a new container of Wet Ones.  We proceed to strip Leena down and wipe down the car and seat as best as we can with Wet Ones.  Fortunately, Leena is feeling much better.  However, I can't say the same for my car.  And we all get to ride the remaining 1.5 hours to Dresden with that heavenly puke smell. 

Immediately after arriving in Dresden, we head for the sights.  Along the way, we stumbled along this biergarten along the Elbe River and had to stop for a drink.

 Life is good!

 The girls and I stop along our walk from the hotel into historical Dresden (behind us on the other side of the river).

 On the Augustus Brücke with the Hofkirche behind us.

 The girls have some fun in the courtyard of the Zwinger.

In the courtyard of the Zwinger with the Glockenspiel (clock with chimes) behind them. 

 Greg and Leena check out the Parade of Nobels.  This mural is painted on tiles and is longer than a football field.  It illustrates 700 years of Saxon royalty.  So cool.

 In front of the famous Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady).  This church was left in rubble after the WWII bombings on this city.  It stayed that way for 50 years and was finally pieced back together like a jigsaw puzzle.  They used as much of the original materials as they could and only reopened in 2005!

On the "Balcony of Europe".  An awesome promenade that faces the Elbe River.  So beautiful!

We loved Dresden and are so glad that we made the time to see this beautiful city!  It is amazing to think that this city was completely destroyed in WWII and even more amazing to see how they have painstakingly restored this city to its former glory.  



Füssen Trip - March 2012

Spring has started to show its face here in Heidelberg, so I did what any good Floridian would do.... headed to the snow covered mountains!  I must admit that it was hard to leave temps in the mid-50s to head to the snow, but this is actually a trip that I was excited about.  Greg signed up to attend Winter Warfare Training in Füssen, Germany and the families were invited to come along.  NATO made all the arrangements and even arranged for everyone to be bused down there.  That turned a 3.5 hour drive into 5 hours, but it actually wasn't too bad.  Turns out, the best quote of the trip came on the bus ride down there.  The girls had gone to the library and rented a couple of movies to watch on the bus.  One of the movies was "Barbie, a Fashion Fairytale" which neither girl had seen prior to the trip.  Naturally, about 10 minutes into the ride, the girls asked if they could watch "Barbie, a Fashion Fairytale".  We said yes and as we were setting-up the DVD player, Taryn gets all excited and says "This movie is soooo awesome!".  Greg then says, "Taryn, how do you know it's awesome, you've never seen it before".  To which Taryn answers "Uh, Daddy, just listen to the name of it... Barbie. Fashion. Fairytale.  It SOUNDS awesome!".  Yeah, Greg and I were thinking the same thing!

The girls busied themselves with reading and coloring, while.... 

.... Greg got caught up on his sleep.

When we arrived in Füssen, Greg went to attend the "training" while the girls and I killed a couple of hours shopping and enjoying a few of the beautiful sights in Füssen.  Wish we had more time.  We will definitely have to go back.

The girls enjoy some Eis (ice cream) in front of a colorful church.  

The girls still enjoying their Eis over the beautiful Lech River which runs through town.

Over the next two days, we got up early and headed over the border into Austria for some skiing in the Alps!  This was the first time that the girls and I have left Germany since our arrival last August.  Granted, we were only about 20 minutes over the border, but that still counts, right?   NATO arranged for buses to take all hopeful skiers to the slopes.  Prior to this trip, Leena had only skied twice and Taryn had only skied once, so we thought ski lessons would be a good idea.  We enrolled the girls and found that it was a bit of a disorganized mess.  The class was instructed in both German and English, which was good for our kids, but bad in the sense that it really slowed the class down.  Not good for short attention spans and anxious kids.  In addition, all the parents felt the need to be right there and offer their two-cents. 

The girls arrive at Biberwier Resort in Austria.  Let's go!!

The girls receiving some much needed instruction in ski school.

FYI, good news.... it is an international law that all ski instructors are required to be cute (in case you are oblivious, the ski instructor is kneeling down in green jacket).

By lunch time, Greg and I were over the ski school and decided to just instruct the girls on our own.  Leena, who had picked up skiing quickly last winter, was struggling a bit a first while Taryn picked it up after only a few runs. 

Taryn on the bunny slope "lift". 

Greg helps Leena to find her skiing legs. 

 Taryn takes a rest after a fall.

She's got it down now!! 

I am by no means a good skier.  I have only been about 6 or 7 times in my life.  However, after spending almost the entire first day on the bunny slopes with the girls, I was anxious to take the "big lift" up and try it out.  Turns out you have to take 3 separate lifts to get to the top of the mountain.  Greg did this and it took him 35 minutes to make the trek up.  I opted to just take one lift and see how I did with that.  Before I went up the mountain, I was told that the runs are color coded slightly different here than in the US.  Blue is beginner and red is intermediate (black are advanced as in the US).  So, I was on the look-out for the blue runs.  Unfortunately, they are not clearly labeled - or not labeled at all.  So, I just decided to head to a run that "looked" like a beginner run.  On the way up on the lift and as I started my decent down the mountain, I was totally struck by the beauty of the mountains.  It was easy to realize that "I wasn't in Kansas anymore"!

The view from my lift ride.  Wow!!  The weather was PHENOMENAL!!

I think the run I came down was marked as a beginner (blue over here), but it didn't feel that way to me!  Needless to say, I was not a pretty sight coming down the mountain and have concluded that the reason why none of the runs are colored green is because there aren't any beginner runs!  There is only intermediate (blue), advanced (red) and really advanced (black).  So, I decided to stay on the bunny slopes with the kids for the rest of the day and enjoy the scenery from down there!  I didn't want to risk another broken leg!

End of day one.... Taryn was too tired to look at the camera.  Both girls were asleep on the bus about 45 minutes later!

Day two on the slopes came and the kids were doing great!  The weather wasn't nearly as good, but we still had a great time.  Here is some video footage (Leena is in dark purple and Taryn is in light green)....

By the end of day two, the kids were ready ride the "big lift" and to tackle the big mountain!  Since I had already barely come down the "beginner" slope, I was a little hesitant, but Greg insisted.  So, up we all went!  The girls loved riding on the big lift, but quickly had doubts once we were standing at the top of the mountain.  Knowing there was no other way down, Greg and I quickly forced them to start the decent before they had too much time to think about it.  We skied single file with Greg in the lead, followed by Leena, then Taryn, and finally I had "clean-up" duty in the rear.  In the beginning, the girls continuously deployed their "emergency fall" that they had learned in ski school.  Not because they needed to, but because they were scared out of their wits!  This forced me to literally ski with my "brakes" on so that I could stop quickly in order to get the fallen girl back on her feet before we got leveled by a passer-by.  Then, half-way down the mountain, Taryn declares that she is too tired to ski anymore.  Oh, no!  I yell at her like a drill sergeant and force her back on her feet.  To anyone watching us, I am certain that we could have easily rivaled The Dunphy's from "Modern Family".  With about 1/3 of the run left, the girls finally got the hang of it and we all made it safely down.  Whew!  By the end of day two, the girls declared their love for skiing and were begging to come back the following day.  But, I had other plans....

That evening NATO arranged a Bavarian dinner night.  The entire group was bused to an undisclosed location in Füssen.  Once there, we got off the bus and everyone was given a torch to carry for the "torch walk" to the restaurant where dinner was to be served. 

 Greg thought it would be a good idea for each girl to have their own torch!  As I suspected, each girl was jumping around and waving the torch.  What fun!!  I quickly took this picture before they could set anyone's hair or jacket on fire.

Ah, much better!

The approximately one mile walk was beautiful.  About 75 people carrying torches walked through snow covered fields, at dusk, with low lying fog.  It felt as if we were walking through a painting.  Unfortunately, my camera could not capture it.  We arrived at the restaurant and quickly helped ourselves to some "refreshments"!

Loving the self-service here!

Dinner was fantastic and included some great Bavarian entertainment.  I was also pleasantly surprised that after two full days of skiing, the girls were able to catch a second-wind and stay awake!  Over the course of the evening, Greg must have looked at me at least 4 times and said "this is awesome".  I had to agree!

 Amazing Bavarian dancers.  The women just continually spun around and around and around!  I honestly don't know how they managed to stay on stage!

The band!

The third day was unfortunately our last day in Füssen.  Greg had to get back home one day ahead of the rest of the NATO group in order to attend a conference (real work this time) in France.  The girls wanted to spend their last day on the slopes again, but I could not possibly come here and not see "the" castle.   This has been something that I have looked forward to ever since moving here.  Surprisingly, on our final day, NATO arranged for us to have our own driver who would take us to see the castle, pick us up afterwards, and then drive us back to Heidelberg.  Talk about service!  So, we checked out of the hotel and were driven right to the castle ticket office.  There are actually two castles to see which are situated fairly close to each other.  One of which is the great Neuschwanstein and the other is Hohenschwangau.  Ideally, I would love to see both castles, but we were short on time.  So, we decided to stick with the most impressive and see Neuschwanstein which was Walt Disney's inspiration for Cinderella's castle.  We only had 2.5 hours before the driver needed to pick us up.  You may think this sounds like plenty of time to see both castles, but you would be wrong.  It's not like you can drive up to Neuschwanstein, get out of the car and see it.  This castle is located on the peek of a mountain!  Thanks to our Rick Steves' guide book, we were able to quickly access the fastest way to get up to and down from the castle.  At the base of the mountain, we got in line with about 1,000 Japanese tourists and two other American tourists from Colorado (who all must have also read the Rick Steves' book!).  We had to wait about 20 minutes, but were finally able to cram ourselves on a bus that took us almost all the way to the castle.  The ride up the mountain was a bit of an adrenaline rush for me as the bus was driving on the edge of the mountain while undergoing hair-pin turns on a single-lane road.  The driver looked completely relaxed as he drove the bus with only one hand, so I tried to reassure myself that it must be easier than it looked!  We made it to the stop where the entire bus got off and proceeded as quickly as possible to Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge).  This is supposedly the best spot for photo opts.  Once we reached the bridge, I stopped short!  No doubt, the view was amazing, but what I wasn't ready for was that this bridge connected two mountains and it was about a mile drop to the bottom.  To make things more fun, the flooring of the bridge was made of wooden planks.  Some of which creaked when you stepped on them (picture of bridge is below)!  With about 75 Japanese tourists crowding and shoving their way onto the bridge, I decided to hang back on solid ground and wait for the crowd to clear.  Then, I slowly made my way out, only about 20 feet, just long enough to take this picture.

Can you see the terror in my face!!  The good news is that the castle was just as impressive as I had imagined.  WOW!

Greg and Taryn were not phased by the bridge and against my wishes, walked all the way to the other side of the bridge to get this shot. 

This is Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge) as seen from the castle!

We left the bridge and walked about 10 minutes to the doors of Neuschwanstein.  Even though the castle is only 1/3 complete (construction stopped when King Ludwig died), it was still impressive.  The tour was only about 40 minutes long which corresponded with Taryn's attention span.  After the tour, we took a horse and carriage ride down to the bottom of the mountain. 

 On the walk from Mary's Bridge to Neuschwanstein.  You can see the other castle, Hohenschwangeau (King Ludwig's boyhood home), below us.

 The girls and I at the "front door" to Neuschwanstein!

 Inside the courtyard of Neuschwanstein.

 Another pic of Neuschwanstein.

Yes, another pic of Neuschwanstein.  Did I mention that this place is HUGE! BTW, this picture gave me my second adrenalin rush of the day as we are standing on a steel grated platform (that you can see thorough!) that hangs out over the edge of the mountain!  Oh, the things that I do to get a good picture! 

 The girls and I waiting to go down the mountain on the horse and carriage.

Greg and Leena get a front row seat on the horse and carriage ride.  But really, I was taking this picture of the Japanese tourists.  There were no less than about 1,000 of them touring the castle that day and about 1/3 of them were wearing these masks.  Did they have something against clean, fresh, mountain air or was it us??? 

Back at the base of the mountain with Hohenschwangau Castle behind us.  We did not have time to tour that castle, but we will definitely be back!

We finished touring the castle and were only a few minutes late meeting our personal NATO driver who was to drive us back to Heidelberg.  Strike one against us as Germans are known for their punctuality.  Fortunately, he did not seem to mind and we all crammed into the Ford station wagon and headed home.  Shortly after our journey began, I asked our young, German driver if he drove like most of the crazy Germans.  His reply was "not normally".  So with that, we hit the autobahn and from my middle seat vantage point in the backseat, I could easily see the GPS which clearly displayed the speed we were going.  It took us no time to reach our cruising speed of around 100 mph.  Not exactly my comfort zone, especially with the kids in the car.  I did my best to keep my composure and kept reminding myself that Germans are actually required to go through a driving school in order to get their drivers license.  Plus, this guy drives for a living, so he can't be that bad.  So, I sat back and tried to enjoy what felt like a 3.5 hour thrill ride.  Fortunately, we did drive through a few, brief areas on the autobahn that had a posted speed limit of around 72 mph.  Norman (our driver) would obediently hit the brakes in these zones, but as soon as we got the "all-clear" sign, his foot was heavy on the pedal and my head was flying backwards.  At the beginning of the trip, Greg and I tried to make small-talk with Norman and he was having none of it.  He sat there and politely answered our questions with the simple "yes" or "no".  Any further probing only got us very short and to the point answers.  I had the DVD player on my lap and the girls on either side of me with their headsets on.  And so we all sat, in virtual silence for the entire 3.5 hour ride home.  It was a very awkward ride home for me to say the least and I quietly nicknamed Norman "Mr. Personality".  However, I believe for Norman it was quite normal as most Germans do not engage in small talk with strangers.  A hard thing for a chatty southerner to get used to.  Fortunately, the ride came to an uneventful end and we arrived back in Heidelberg in one piece!