Day 5: Prague

 We started out our day today in Prague Castle - the largest compound in all of Europe with an active President's office still !  We did a tour with a tour guide and learned all about the castle and surrounding area.  After the morning tour, our group went up to a nicer restaurant and enjoyed some local flavors and a healthy lunch!

 

The Coronation Hall which was also used for Knight tournaments!  They even had a separate staircase just for the horses with a cut out in the molding for the King's crown!  

St. Vitus Cathedral

The Good King Wenceslas is buried in the cathedral!  Of course, the kids had no clue who that was!

One of the interesting things we saw on the tour was a monument set up by the Prague firefighters in memory of the NYC firefighters who lost their lives in 9/11.  It is always so nice to see how other countries memorialize things that are important to us!

A few of us hung around to see the clock strike 12 this afternoon.  The astronomical clock was built in 1410 and still works with 75% of its original parts!  It rings at the top of every hour, and the blue doors open to see a little "carousel" of the apostles spin while the bells ring.  It is amazing that it can still work after all those years! 

Then, we took a river cruise on the Bitava river. 

 After the river cruise, our group decided to enjoy a little ride around Prague in the "old Prague car".  It was a nice breeze, didn't require walking and allowed us to see more of the city!  

Crossing the street with 45 people is no small feat!  The "walk" sign does not typically stay lit long enough for everyone to get across, and pedestrians are not really a top priority here!

 We all tried the Trdelnik which is a local treat!  Chase and I had one filled with Nutella, but you can get them empty or filled with ice cream, too.  It was a type of toasted cinnamon bread.

I did not get to visit the candy store, but the kids apparently had a blast with all the unique types of candy!  Chase enjoyed a 6 ft gummy worm!

 We also visited Europe's oldest active synagogue which was completed in 1270. 

It was a busy day with lots of information and over 17,000 steps in the book!  We are now back at the hotel and ready to pack our bags to move on to Krakow tomorrow.

 At dinner, we tried a local dumpling that disappointingly tasted like Mrs. Baird's white bread.  It was not what we thought of when we think of dumplings.

Day 4: Dresden to Prague

We made it to the Czech Republic this afternoon!!  I still cannot believe that this is one of the countries we get to add to our list of places visited.  It seems like such an add place for us to visit because we don't know much about it, but we are learning.  For me, I think it is difficult to recall the history of these countries because so much of what is currently in place happened while I was in middle school.  So, it wasn't in the history books, and it wasn't happening during a time when it mattered to me as a middle schooler all the way across the world.  Maybe some of you can identify!?

Anyway, we left Berlin this morning and took about a three-hour bus ride to Dresden.  We were able to walk around for a little while and enjoy the city and lunch.  Germany has 16 states, and Dresden is in the state of Saxony.  Dresden was completely destroyed during WWII and has been rebuilt.  

 The first parts of the city that we saw were buildings like the one above....very dark/charred looking buildings that certainly did not look like they were less than 100 years old.  Our tour guide said that these important buildings were rebuilt using the materials from the ones that were destroyed.

 Dresden is known for its porcelain.  The "Procession of Princes" mural above is of 93 different people (35 royal men) and was created between 1906 and 1907 with close to 25,000 ceramic tiles from the porcelain manufacturer Meissen. The tiles miraculously survived the devastating aerial bombardments of February 1945!  That is really amazing considering almost every building was destroyed!

 This Lutheran church has a statue of Martin Luther in front.  It was destroyed during the war and was not rebuilt until 1995 - after the communist regime fell.  Some of the facades are new, but it does also have some of the older material from before the war.

Our small group decided to climb to the top of the dome.  (It was the kids' idea!)  But, it turned out to be a great one!  We could see the entire city of Dresden.  We also got a beautiful view of the inside of the dome! I had to laugh as I was walking up, huffing and puffing, and noticed an AED machine!  This climbing stairs is no joke, but at least we got our exercise in for the day!

Jordan volunteered to find out what this rock was during our free time and return to the group with the answer.  It is a piece of the church that fell when it was bombed and stays as a memorial for all those whole lost their lives in Dresden during the war.  She received a beautiful postcard as her reward.  By the way, she was not allowed to use technology!  She had to ask someone in the city.

 After a few hours in Dresden, we jumped back on our bus for another 2-3 hour ride to Prague, Czech Republic.  Vanja, our tour director, taught us a little about the area as we were riding on the bus.  We learned that Czech Republic and Slovakia once made up the Soviet country of Czechoslovakia.  After the fall of communism, the two countries wanted to be separated and consider their split a divorce - a Velvet Divorce, actually, because it was so smooth.  Their was no revolution.  It was a peaceful split.

When we arrived in Prague, we did a short walking tour through the old Jewish Quarter.  This is the oldest synagogue in Europe.  It was built in the 1300s.  We are looking forward to learning more about it tomorrow.

As in Berlin, there were many Jews living in Prague before the Holocaust and WWII, but they are starting to come back to the area slowly.

 Fun picture of our tour director - Vanja!!  She is probably the best tour director I've had!  She is fun, on time, always prepared and knows how to handle a large group of people!!

 Before dinner, we viewed one of the old entrances/gates to the city of Prague.  They began building the tower in 1475!  The music hall next to it was built in 1383!  Of course, it was destroyed during the war and rebuilt in this "Art Nouveau" style.

We had a good dinner and arrived at our new hotel around 9:00 this evening.  Everyone is down for the night and preparing for a day of walking tomorrow!  Thank you to everyone who made it possible for us to come on this trip!  We are learning a lot about history, other cultures, language, and each other!