Prague, Czech Republic

Our very first "across the border" weekend getaway was for our 10th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately (fortunately?) we had to take the kids with us because our usual go-to extended period babysitter, Nana, was off on her own big European/Middle Eastern adventure.  No problem, as she promised to come back and watch the kids while Todd and I go somewhere to celebrate my 40th (cough cough, 29th!) birthday in 2016.  

 After we checked into our cool VRBO apartment (in a wicked good location), we walked over to see the Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall.  I don't think I ever realized how low to the ground the whole thing was. 

After the clock chimes, a man with a trumpet comes out and plays a tune.

We climbed the Tower at the Old Town Hall and look, there he is!  The trumpeter!  Apparently he should be wearing red and yellow, but it was kind of cool out so I guess he needed a jacket.  He waves to everyone when he is done.

Pretty colorful buildings of Prague.

Because we have kids, we sometimes have to do activities that we wouldn't normally do as adults.  (And no, kissing Heidi Klum is most certainly something Todd would like to do as an adult!)  While we would rather hit up an art or history museum, the kids would be incredibly bored (read: whiny).  So the tourist office had a little pamphlet about the local wax museum, and it was actually really fun!  Here's Todd smooching on his main squeeze, Heidi.

Here's the littlest dictator of our family, in the Hall of Dictators.  Notice he's got his buddies Lenin, Stallin, Kruschev, Mao, Fidel and others behind him. 

OMG I did not ask him to make this face, but could he BE more sassy here!?!  He totally looks like he fits in with Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner!  He should have totally been in he Twilight movie series!

Time for a little dinner and a Pilsner Urquell.  Yes please.

The next morning we got on the local bus and traveled around the city.  In Wenceslas Square, I saw this beautiful building.  Too pretty not to snap a pic!

Speaking of ol' King Wenceslas, this is the statue of him in the middle of Wenceslas Square.  This square is where locals gather during political protests, uprisings, and other celebrations and demonstrations. 

Back on the bus, we made our way across the Vltava River and over to see the Church of the Lady Victorious.  It was built in the early 1600s and houses the famous Infant Jesus of Prague. But this church?  This isn't that church!  That church wasn't as pretty on the outside.  I liked this one, St. Nicholas, just a bit north of the Church of the Lady Victorious. (HA!)

The Infant Jesus of Prague is a wooden doll covered in wax that was originally owned by Saint Theresa of Avila.  It's now pretty old and fragile, but they still change the vestments with the different times in the Holy Year.  In Ireland, they believe this statue influences the weather.  (Weird!)

We should immediately go drink more beer?  OK!

 

 Next, we walked down to the Charles Bridge.  This is on the west end of the bridge, one of the towers.  It's really a nice bridge, but the number of people painting and selling things gets in the way of it's beauty.

 Then it was off to the famous Prague Castle!  It's the largest castle in the world!  (Ok, Ok, some dispute that, and for whatever reason, the Guinness Book of World Records has many "largest castle in the world" record holders. The Prague Castle is the "largest ancient castle in the world."  If you google Largest Castle in the World, this is the one that comes up.

Up at the castle, which is naturally up on a hill, there is a big church called St. Vitus.  It's really big and pretty and has a really neat section of jewels and other cool relics that you can look at but can't take pictures of.  (And Natalie kept getting yelled at for touching the glass!)  There's even the arm of St. Vitus!  And the sword of St. Wenceslas!

This is the back side of St. Vitus, and of course, we are drinking Gluhwein and hot chocolate (I'm guessing you can figure out who is drinking what here!)  Gotta stay warm somehow!

Next up, we decided to take an evening boat ride along the Vltava River.  This is Natalie giving us a thumbs down because we won't let her get a mug of beer keychain.  Maybe when you're 21!!!

We saw the most spectacular views of the Charles Bridge from this boat ride.  It was evening and the lights just came on on the bridge.  The whole city was just so beautiful and I love the early nighttime coloring.   

Afterwards, there was time for one more farewell dinner to Prague with these two crazy kids.  I ordered meat on a stick!  It was amazing!  We can't wait to visit Prague again - there's so much to see and do!

German Sunsets

I can't get enough of the fall sunsets here.  So beautiful.

This one was taken from our upstairs balcony, as was the one below.

I promise, I didn't Instagram or filter any of this!  Just a regular iPhone shot.  

This one was taken from our exit off of the highway.  Super pretty!

Various October Events

Naturally, other than traveling, we have been insanely busy.  You know we do more than travel, right??  October was a great month, as initially, we received ONE (just one!) of our crates with some of our things in it.  And of COURSE, it was the crate with all of the useless junk from the basement in it.  But then, thankfully about a week later, the rest of our stuff arrived!

Hey look the truck is here!  Aaaaand now I have to unload those suckers!

One box at a time, Colleen.  One box at a time.

Our giant maple in the front yard was super pretty and very red! It reminds me of Massachusetts, so I love this tree. 

Grant turned 6 at the end of the month, and I made some cupcakes for his birthday.  Unlike Massachusetts (TOTALLY unlike Massachusetts!), we are allowed to bring in food treats for birthdays.   Much to this mama-of-a-severe-food-allergy-child's chagrin.

It doesn't seem possible that he's 6!  Isn't he the sweetest!?

The kindergarten classes get to dress up for Halloween, but it's for a rhyming parade.  So all of the kids have to have rhyming costumes.  Grant had "leaves on his sleeves."  It was the best I could do without all of my art supplies that are still on a truck somewhere in Germany!  I happened to find some little clothespins with wooden leaves on them in a local store, and I clipped them all over Grant's sleeves.  Haha, not super original, but it was fine in a pinch!  This is his kindergarten class at their new school, Vilseck Elementary.  Originally, they started out at Netzaberg Elementary but then we quickly moved, so the kids weren't there very long.  His teacher is on the left and her assistant is on the right.

Poor Grant.  The truck arrived with all of our other crates on his birthday, so he opened presents in the living room, on our loaner furniture, while his sister gave him bunny ears.  Gotta make it up to him next year!!!

It doesn't seem like he minded too much.  Cool!  I got Minecraft stuff!

Mommy's homemade cake!  (Wow, I will NOT be winning any awards for best cake decorator anytime soon, will I!?!)

Last but not least, we rounded out the month with Halloween!  We went over to Rose Barracks to do some trick or treating, with our Princess Leia and Steve from Minecraft.  I was rather shocked at how popular Steve was!  Of course, half of the base are young guys who actually still play Minecraft ha ha.  They have MUCH in common with my 6-year-old!  Pretty much everyone was out of candy pretty quickly, so we'll have to remember for next year that you need to get there EARLY!

Bamberg, Germany

I had heard a lot of good things about Bamberg, and the drive isn't too bad (about an hour) so we went there one Saturday in October.  People really rave about this town, and now I know why!

Almost as soon as we got out of the car, we saw this graffiti. I HAD to take a pic.  Months later, the kids were still talking about this!!!  Shhh!  Don't tell my mom!

 Nat looked so cute here and I love the architecture of the building behind her.  Too cute!

A view down Dominkanerstrasse.  The building to the right (in yellowish on the FAR right side) is the Heller-Trum Brewery (Schlenkerla).  It dates back to the 1300s and brewes Rauchbier.  If you've never tried a Rauchbier, you're in for a REAL treat.  Two words:  Smoked. Sausage.  Yes, it's like you're drinking a liquid sausage.  Todd and I (along with our friends Chip and Dara) tried one years ago at the Brickskeller in Washington, DC.  NEVER AGAIN!

This is the beautiful Bamberg Dom (or Cathedral).  I feel like at any given time, half of Europe is under reconstruction.  There's scaffolding everywhere!  This church was completed in the 1200s, and houses the grave of Pope Clement II.  It also houses the marble tomb of King Henry II (later Saint Henry) and his wife, Queen (and later Saint) Cunigunde. 

 And here they are!

This guy is the Bamberger Reiter, or the Bamberg Horseman.  It's thought that he was modeled after Stephen I, a Hungarian King in the 1100s, but no one knows for sure.  To quote wikipedia, "The Nazi's thought he was a knight who symbolized German perfection, looking toward the east for new lands to conquer."  Except that he's not even looking east, so show's you how much those dumb Nazi's know!  Anyway... it was thought to be a pretty strong Nazi propaganda.  

Once we left the Cathedral, and we headed toward the Rathaus, I saw this!  From 1554!  Please do not drink the water.   (What you can't see on the far right is "Kein trinkwasser.")  Apparently the brewers used to get their water from here, because it was much cleaner (at the time) than the water in the nearby river. 

Water control structure!  Water control structure!  I'm SUCH a floodplain management geek.

Me and the hubs in front of the Bamberg Rathaus (Town Hall) which is on an island in the middle of the river).  It was built in the 1300s. Super cool!

As I was walking along the cobblestone streets of Bamberg, I occasionally saw these small little plaques on the ground.  This was only three of a bunch that I saw.  These are known as Stolperstein's and they are all over Europe.  "Hier wohnte" means "here lived."  To date, there have been more than 53,000 Stolperstein's placed in cobblestone streets all over Europe.  

Meet George Jetta!

I got a new car! I got a new car!

Ok, I was admittedly sad to give my beloved Sally Civic to my niece Madison but after 16 years, it was time to finally get myself a new car.  After all, don't I deserve it!?  

Of course, part of the deal to save some money was that I would have to drive up to Bremerhaven to pick it up and drive it back myself.  No easy task, since the drive was about 6 hours long and Bemerhaven is on the North Sea!  I took the train up there early in the morning on Thursday.

 Sorry for the blurriness of all of these photos.  The windows on the train weren't the best.  Fall along a river in Germany.

I just love the German countryside, dotted with little towns.

 

 A vineyard growing on a hill. 

 

 Beer and a sammy.  No one even judges.  It's just a thing here.

It was a sign! Literally and figuratively!  I saw this big VW sign at one of our stops along the way on the way to Bemerhaven.

I had to get off of the big boy trains in Bremen and switch to a local train, but I had a few minutes so I left the station and checked out this cool carnival.  It looked like so much fun!  Too bad I didn't have time to ride any of the rides!

 

There's a ton of paperwork to be done to pick up your car, and I had just traveled many hours to Bremerhaven.  So imagine my panic when the guy at the counter informs me that I don't have power of attorney and I am not authorized to pick up my car!  WTF.  He said he was okay with me picking up the car, but he couldn't be certain about the customs guys I would encounter down the road in my final stop before heading home.  Had to snap a Colleen-George selfie first.  

So I'm very nervous, but trying not to be obviously so.  The two guys seemed to take forever and of course, I don't speak any German so I have no idea what they are saying.  At one point a truck drives up and I hear one of them mutter "Scheisse" (which is um... the bad word for poop) and I start giggling.  (Because of course the only word I can understand in their conversations would be a curse word, right?!)  Thankfully, the guys stamped my paperwork and sent me on my way! I have no idea what I would have done ha ha!

Finally home, safe and sound in his new driveway.  Welcome to the family, George!