A quick jaunt to Bohemia

Since we've been here in Europe, I've tried hard not to get too complacent about the fact that we live so close to some pretty incredible places.  In fact, the town we live in is pretty freaking fantastic.  But no matter how many times we say that we are going to escape on quick day trips to visit some of these locations that are a mere stone's throw away, we just never seem to make the time.

This weekend we finally made time and drove into Bohemia to an amazing town that was literally only 50 miles from where we live.  Our destination was Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic.  What is a Karlovy Vary?  That's exactly how my sister responded, and honestly, that's what I was thinking when Big R first suggested we go there.  But after you look at the pictures we took, you'll be left with no question as to why people would visit.

Karlovy Vary is a spa town nestled in the hills of what used to be eastern Germany until the end of WWII.  For those James Bond fans out there, scenes from Casino Royale were filmed here at the Grand Pupp Hotel.  Celebrities started coming here in the early 19th Century for spa treatments and to drink the medicinal mineral waters found in the 13 hot springs located within the city.  Pretty fantastic.  People actually receive prescriptions from their doctors to get treatments in Karlovy Vary.  The town is littered with spas, fancy hotels, and high end boutiques for the shopping enthusiasts.  Although Big R managed to sneak in a quick massage at one of the spas, we were really visiting for the allure of the beautiful architecture and all of the amazing colors seen there this time of year.

Here are some pictures to show you just how beautiful this place is especially with all of the fall autumn colors...

The autumn colors created a beautiful backdrop

A view from a bridge crossing of the Ohre River

I am always in awe of the colorful buildings here in Europe

We alway seem to find time for fun on these trips as well.  The weather wasn't perfect, but it really could have been so much worse.  Knowing it would be chilly, we dressed for the occasion and just hoped our adventure would be washed out with rain.

When is the last time you saw a telephone booth?

Kisses while we waited for Big R to get his birthday massage.

Love those baby blues...

The architecture did not disappoint.  It was absolutely beautiful everywhere that we looked.

A gorgeous gazebo at the end of the promenade

Our regal pup

Such immaculate detail on all the buildings...

Me and my boys inside the promenade

One of Big R's beautiful photos

Ancient bath house in the center of Karlovy Vary

More fantastic architecture and color

This little man has already been to 7 countries!

Another beautifully decorated bath house in Karlovy Vary

Playing music in the street!

I mean, seriously?! So beautiful...

Little r enjoying having me to himself

Horse drawn carriage rounding the bend

We found a cozy place along the pedestrian mall for a traditional Czech meal.  We devoured the food, (even little r ate most of his) and we were impressed at how little we paid for such a great lunch.  We strolled down the pedestrian walkway toward the Grand Pupp hotel to get some photos of this amazing building - super fancy.

Right behind the Grand Pupp is a furnicular that takes you up to an old water tower they call "Diana" with an incredible view.  As much as little r loves to ride "trains," we were in the mood for a little family hike. So, we saved some cash, and and took the short 1.5 kilometer hike up the hill.  The views along the way were incredible.  Little r had a ball, and Big R took over baby carrying duties so that I could have a mommy break.  The hike was quick, but fun nonetheless, and you really can't beat the views we got along the way and from the top of Diana.

The Grand Pupp hotel - we'll be staying here next time - HA!

Just one of the many views we got on our hike to Diana

Little r and me waiving down at Big R

One of my favorite pictures from our day in Karlovy Vary

My amazing husband

More music!  So much fun!

a final photograph of the beautiful architecture on our way to the car

Such an amazing little trip.  I can't believe we saw all that we did, and it was only an hour away by car. We want to go back, and I really hope that we do and we don't just talk about it.  If nothing else, this mama could use a spa treatment or two.

You know us though, and we can't take a trip without making it an adventure.  We somehow managed to get pulled over by the Czech police.  Yep, your heard me, and believe it or not, I wasn't speeding - I swear!  The most bizarre thing about the experience was that we got pulled over backwards.  I was following a white van that looked like it had blue lights on top.  From behind, it could have been a vehicle for just about anything.  Something was telling me NOT to pass him even though he was going crazy slow.

Right at a pull off for a gas station, the blue lights flashed and a message came across the back of the van saying in three or four languages "follow me"!  Weird, right?  I didn't argue, and I looked over to see Big R squirming in his seat.  Knowing I wasn't speeding and we were driving our brand new car, I knew exactly the reason we were in trouble.  Damn vignettes... Seems that several countries in Europe require a "tariff" to drive on their major roadways.  We are used to the one in Austria, and you can't forget that you need one on your way to Prague because there are a million signs at the Czech-Germany border.  When I looked at our route to Karlovy Vary, I was under the mistaken impression that we would be driving back roads all the way there.  Unfortunately, our back road turned into a highway for the last 5-7 kilometers of the drive.  We thought we'd get away with it. Yeah.... not so lucky...

So, here I am watching the Czech police "suit up" to come talk to me.  They know not a lick of English, so we spoke German to each other.  That's always fun. I just prayed things stayed chill so that I could continue to understand them.  We could have been in a lot of trouble.  I've heard horror stories, and I know the Czech police are no joke inside Prague.  I kept my cool as I handed them our passports. They seemed shocked to find out we were American.  Happily, this worked in our favor this time.  I played dumb and they gave us a warning as they watched me head into the gas station and buy a vignette.  Ah, always an adventure with this crew...

Karlovy Vary is a beautiful town.  If you live in Bavaria, it is such an easy day trip.  I can't recommend it enough.  Most of the spa resorts will have same day treatments available, or if you plan ahead, you could easily schedule a couple hours of pampering.  Even if you don't take advantage of the spas, the jaunt is worth it just to see this amazing place.

Prague redux

I promised you Prague awhile back, so it's about time I got to it, don't you think? As part of crashing their honeymoon, I thought it would be fun to add Prague to the list of things-to-do with Jess and Ryan while they were here. Not a bad list, eh? I also fully wanted to redeem that beautiful city after our trip was overshadowed by horrible weather when we went over Easter.

Well, we went from one extreme to the other. The weather was anything but cold this time around. In fact, I couldn't have been happier that Big R kept the little bear at home for this trip because my crazy toddler would not have done well at all in the heat. We didn't let the heat get to us though, and instead just pushed hard to see as much of Prague as we could.

We were only going to be in Prague for about 24 hours, so we hit the road as early as possible and made our way to the Czech Republic. Big R and I now have a GPS, by the way, and this marked my first big adventure having a sweet monotone voice provide me with directions. Don't laugh at me too hard, but that thing can seriously make me crazy. We did a lot of giggling about it because not knowing how to help the computer reroute itself when we didn't want to go the way she wanted us to, we kept ignoring her every instruction. We finally got her to chill out when Ryan used his manly technological intuition to reset the directions. The only reason I brought the darn thing on this visit was to make sure I found my way to the hotel - getting to Prague is the easy part. And can you believe the freaking thing went dead when we were about two minutes from our hotel? Completely dead. No, I'm not kidding. It died. Ryan tried everything to get her to come back to life, but she was out cold. Well, that is until we found the hotel and parked the car. Miraculously she turned herself back on. Oy.

Anyways... The sweet Lida House was as nice and friendly as I had remembered it from our stay in April. We were greeted at the door, and we settled quickly and walked right back out to start our Prague adventures.

Our time was short, so we avoided museums or paying to go into Castles or other tourist draws, and instead just took in the beauty of the city. We started at Prague Castle and worked our way down toward the Charles Bridge. I knew they would really enjoy the Lennon Wall, even if it was a recreation of the original - the premise is so Bohemian making it a must-see for my sister. They took at least a dozen pictures, so I think they liked it. I only brought along my iPhone on this trip, bringing my picture count to less than a dozen on the whole trip, but I did manage to capture a few memories.

I think our favorite part of our trip to Prague was going on a boat tour. As it turned out, there were several different companies, but we happened to find one that fit our mood perfectly. The "cab" to the boat was a large canoe that felt more like a gondola ride, and for awhile we thought that was going to be our ride down the river.

It was such a cool way to see the city. If you ever make a trip to Prague, I can't recommend it enough. The views from the river are amazing, especially on a beautiful sunny day.

After our awesome boat tour, we headed over the Charles Bridge. Although it was well into tourist season there, randomly things weren't too hectic during our visit. I've seen the Charles Bridge so packed before that you can hardly cross, but we were lucky and instead got to take a leisurely stroll to check out all the artists' work.

Dinner was at a super touristy restaurant in the area between the Charles Bridge and Old Town. We were hungry and the dinner selections were abundant. Besides, it was a great place to people watch, which is one of our favorite things to do anyhow. To our surprise, the food was phenomenal and the beer was refreshing. We might have just been really freaking hungry from all the walking, but I doubt it.

One really awesome thing about traveling in this part of Europe during the summer months is that you have an amazing amount of daylight. The sun would be going down as late as 9:30 p.m. giving us ample time after dinner to take in all the sights of Old Town and New Town before the life of the city would shift to the night crowd. We found ourselves up in the Clock Tower right before sunset, so the honeymooners could get some great photos of this beautiful city. I grabbed a couple of my own...

And the Euro Cup was in full swing while we were there and spectators were crowding the square to watch and cheer for their team on the big screen. It was really fun to see all of this from the top of the Clock Tower.

We descended back to the streets after spending quite awhile on top of the city taking it all in. We sauntered through to New Town and finally nestled back into the old square where we found some cold brews and fabulous ice cream. It was a fantastic way to end a really awesome day.

We just barely caught the last tram back to our hotel, and I think we fell asleep before our heads hit the pillow. I think it's safe to say Jess and Ryan had a fabulous time in Prague, and that they fell in love with its Bohemian charm. And I was happy to rejuvenate the love I had felt for Prague the first time Big R and I were lucky enough to visit. Being that we live so close to this beautiful city, I think it will see us again, and probably soon...

 

Posted with Blogsy

Easter in Prague

We just returned from our latest adventure - spending Easter in the beautiful city of Prague. All I can say is that I am so incredibly thankful that we live just a short drive away from this amazing city because this weekend, as lovely as it was, also happened to be downright - COLD! I had been watching the weather for at least a week, so I knew it wasn't going to be the lovely spring weather we had hoped for, but never in a million did I think we'd be battling a blizzard and frigid temps. It made for some chilly memories, creative pictures, and a lot of snuggling and wine drinking. When you sum it up that way, it doesn't sound all that bad now, does it?

As I mentioned in my previous post (here), our friends joined us on this latest excursion. Our drive into Prague took us right through the town where they live, so we stopped off at their place to caravan into the Czech Republic. We were greeted with delicious french toast - can't ask for a more fantastic way to start a weekend with friends. The drive was easy as pie. A mere three hours from our house near Bamberg. When we visited Prague almost five years ago, never did I imagine I'd have the opportunity to live just a short drive away from Prague.

Through our favorite tour guide, Rick Steves, I was able to find a great B&B that sat in an easy to get to location just south of the Old Town called Lida Guest House. The accommodations provided everything we needed and our hosts were amazing. As soon as we arrived, he met us with a smiling face and after we got our things inside, he sat us down over a cup of tea and gave us the lay of the land. We were told about all the best public transportation options, what to see, how to get there, and what to avoid. If we had been ready and willing, he also could have signed us up for a concert, a tour, or anything else our hearts desired. Here is a peek at our cozy little room:

The biggest reason we chose Prague for our Easter destination was because we had heard amazing things about Prague's Easter Market. Not unlike the Weihnachtmarkts here in Germany, they set up wooden huts throughout Old Town and Wenceslas Square. Once we got our things settled into our hotel rooms, we packed up the kids and headed into town to enjoy the Easter Market. We figured despite the frigid temps, we'd still enjoy the handmade crafts and traditional goodies you could find there this time of year.

Our first stop was taking the street car to Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí). Big R and I both liken this area to perhaps Time Square in New York City. It's not really a square, per se, but instead of wide boulevard full of posh hotels and both high end and commercial stores. This time of year, it is also one of the locations for the Easter Market.

It didn't take long for us to discover Trdleniks - our new favorite market treat. It's a hot, sugary coated pastry.

They roll sweet dough and wrap it around a metal rod and then place it over hot coals to let it bake. Then they roll it in sugar or coat it with Nutella - literally anything your heart desires. It's delicious!

Our leisurely stroll through the Easter Market took us from the New Town (Nové město) to the beautiful Old Town (Staré Město) - my personal favorite location in Prague. Here we found more handmade crafts like brightly colored hand painted Easter eggs...

or handwoven bags and clothing, which I quickly fell in love with so much so that I found a handbag to proudly call my own...

It was a really nice Easter Market, but I have to be honest, it hardly stands up to some of the Weihnachtsmarkts we were lucky enough to experience this past holiday season throughout Germany. Are we spoiled or what?!

Because we have little r and our friends have a sweet little six-month old girl, we weren't exactly set on visiting museums or even doing much touring through castles and churches. Instead, we soaked up as much of our surroundings as we could. The weather and terrible lighting simply created a challenge for Big R to capture the character of Prague in the most artistic means possible. We ended up with some great pictures despite the lousy conditions. Here are a few of my favorites:

In front of the Powder Tower (Prašná brána) heading into Old Town

The Clock Tower in Old Town

Church of Our Lady before Týn in Old Town

View from the Clock Tower looking down onto the Old Town square

In front of the astronomical clock in Old Town

Yes, that is snow!

The Lennon Wall... place where protested by painting graffiti of John Lennon to protest communism

Knights of Malta now own the wall and still allow graffiti to portray messages

Church of Our Lady before Týn in Old Town by night

Gateway to the Charles Bridge by night

Prague Castle (Hradčany) by night

To say it was uncomfortably cold is by no means an exaggeration. There's something about the cold coming uninvited in the spring after you've already been teased with warm rays of sunshine for several weeks. You could feel it in the air. We weren't prepared for it, and I don't think the locals were appreciating it much either. We actually found ourselves in a blizzard when we were entering the walls of the Prague Castle! Yes, a blizzard. It was unreal and just no where near as welcomed as it would have been in November when we rejoice in the first snow fall.

We still managed to have a wonderful time with our friends in Prague. We ate at some fabulous restaurants - everything from a "train" themed eatery where your drinks arrive by model train...

...(there was at least one of us extremely excited by this unique way to receive your beverages), to lunch below the castle in a charming local restaurant, to eating outside (yes, outside, it's amazing what a few space heaters, a tent, and warm fuzzy blankets can do to keep you toasty) at an Italian restaurant (the food was so good little r ate an entire pizza on his own!).

My personal favorite part of the trip though was our Easter Sunday morning ride around Prague in a horse carriage. My hubby is a hopeless romantic, and I'm liking this new family tradition we've started. What a fabulous way to see the romantic side of an old city... it's worth every penny...

Our last morning in Prague we were welcomed by some sunshine (finally!), so we visited the grounds of the Vyšehrad castle, which was just a short walk from our hotel. The castle gardens provided a really pretty view of old Prague from the south. Big R enjoyed getting a few pictures with some decent light. I just enjoyed the morning stroll and the beautiful rays of sunshine.

We'll be going back, and you know I mean that :)

Posted with Blogsy