Prague's St. Vitus Tower and Mala Strana

Prague, known as "Praha" in Czech, is the capital of the Czech Republic. What you are not going to be able to tell from these pictures is how many tourists there are here. Be prepared for heavy crowds:  Prague is the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Istanbul and Rome.  Even at 5am I am hardly alone; there are hundreds of people walking around the old part of town. 

Entrance to "Lesser Town" from Charles Bridge

Sunrise over Charles Bridge

Old Town Square

The Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall in Old Town Square is widely regarded as the best preserved medieval mechanical clock in the world. 

Prague's Old Town Hall is currently undergoing renovations for the next 15 months.  All but the clock is covered in scaffolding.

The Astronomical Clock is one of Prague's dearest treasures

Uncle Craig likes to take the picture on the count of one

Prague Castle is the biggest ancient castle in the world.  Its cathedral, St. Vitus, is visible from all around the city of Prague.

Climbing the 287 steps up the Great South Tower of St. Vitus Cathedral

On the viewing gallery at the top of the bell tower

View over all of Prague

After lunch Jeremy and I walk the cobblestone backstreets and small shops of Mala Strana, across the river from the Old Town.

The John Lennon wall has been covered in John Lennon and The Beatles graffiti, lyrics and quotations since the 1980s

Prague's narrowest street, called Vinarna Certovka, has a traffic light to stop people from colliding. It's less than 20 inches wide!

On Our Way to Prague

On the move again!

Running around to get pictures of our group leaving Cesky Krumlov (on the slippery cobblestone with my travel pack on), I see the kids laughing. "We're making fun of you."

It's not nice to make fun of your mommy (but it's fun)

We were supposed to take the train to Prague, but our driver recommended the "Student Agency" bus. It's the same price ($10), quicker (3 hours vs 3.5 hours), much closer than the train station, doesn't require a change of trains, and you don't have to be a student to take it. It has wi-fi, seat-back screens showing lots of movies, outlets, food service, free drinks, and a bathroom. Sounds like a no brainer!

Taking the Student Agency bus from Cesky Krumlov to Prague

Eating picnic lunch in Prague's Old Town Square, waiting to check into the apartment

Jeremy likes Prague right away. "This is cooler than you made it sound. You need to work on your phrasing."  Apparently pointing up a big hill and declaring, "We're going to the metronome" lacks allure and also needs to include "where you can get beer, listen to music, and see all of Prague."

Looking over Prague from Letna Park  "This is cooler than you made it sound" --Jeremy

The view from Letna Park

We're staying our last 2 nights in a nice and large apartment (Prague Stay's Zatecka N14) around the corner from the Old Town Square and overlooking the Jewish Cemetery with a view across the river of Prague Castle.  After dinner we went walking to some nearby beautiful sights.

View of Prague Castle from our bedroom window

Prague Castle view from riverfront (near Karlovy Lazne tram stop)

View of  Charles Bridge

Dawn in Cesky Krumlov

Come with me to the castle, for the best view of the sun rising over Cesky Krumlov...

Through the town square

Over the bridge

Turn left before the arch

Through the castle corridors

  

To the beautiful, breathless view over all of Cesky Krumlov!

There are 3 activities to choose from today but we did none of them. A big reason I chose to visit the town was because of its river rafting but, responsible for too many people, I chickened out after reading a few horror stories of Americans breaking bones on the concrete weirs combined with being stranded by the rental agencies as well as all the young drunks on the river.  That activity was replaced with a walk up Klet Mountain (returning by chairlift and train), which was also nixed today when we opted out of the 10 mile hike. The Castle offers several tours but they didn't pique our interest. Instead we had a casual day of walking and shopping. 

Rafting down the Vltava River is very popular

Trdelnik, a cinnamon pastry, is sold around the town. Dough is wrapped around a cylinder, glazed with sugar and grilled over open coals until cooked. Then it is rolled in a mix of sugar, cinnamon and chopped nuts.  We had ours shaped like a cone and filled with ice cream.  It tastes a lot like a dried-out cinnamon roll. 

The trdelnik dough is wrapped around spindles and cooked over coals

Eating trdelnik filled with ice cream

Eating trdelnik isn't exactly graceful for me - taking a bite means getting a strip of the pastry. "That's so attractive," the kids said, making fun of me. 

For dinner we went to the restaurant belonging to our guide, Jan's parents. He repeatedly joked it was the best food in town, so we figured we should try it. We were so excited to try the dishes he recommended, which smell soooo good through the streets of the town - but the potato omelet and roast pork with dumplings were "finished". 

Dinner at Hospoda Na Louzi

We "finished" the smoked pork with dumplings

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Time for us to leave Germany and change countries - we are off to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, a place we have never been.  Destinations make it on our itineraries when random google searches result with pretty, quaint scenery - so this beautiful cobblestone village with a castle makes the list!     

For our 4-hour drive from Munich, rather than drive our rental cars (with expensive fees for leaving the country) or take a long train ride via Prague, the most reasonable way for us to get to CK is to hire a private driver through eushuttlebus.com. I highly recommend them!

Automatically we make up pseudo names for our destination:  Crunchy Town and Krusty Krumlov, but the locals refer to it simply as "CK".  Cesky actually means Czech (or Bohemian) so many towns start with it. 

We all are instantly bewitched by Cesky Krumlov, except maybe Kate who is tired from the drive and wants to know why I picked such a touristy place. (There are a lot of people here.) Jeremy says to me, "This is a lot cooler than I thought it would be," to which Kate warns him, "You're going to go in the blog now."

Svornosti Square in the center of Cesky Krumlov

We are staying right next to the town's square, but have arrived 30 minutes before checkin. So we stow our bags and plop down smack in the center of town to enjoy our picnic lunch. 

Eating lunch under the plague column on the square

Waiting to check in to Castle View Apartments, recommended by Rick Steves

First on the list was a private tour which I arranged through Wiseman Free Tour. Our guide was Jan (pronounced "Yawn"); he was excellent. He told us so many enchanting tales about the history of the town, mesmerizing us even more. 

Cesky Krumlov surprised us with its Renaissance architecture, maze-like alleyways, and medieval pubs 

Cesky Krumlov is dominated by its 13th century Castle

The castle's tower is the symbol of the town, and nicknamed "birthday cake" by the locals. It towers over the Vltava River and even over the church tower of St. Vitus.

Learning about the bear moat and outer courtyard

Bears have been kept in the bear moat since 1707

Lonely Planet describes Cesky Krumlov as one of the most picturesque towns in Europe

My "twins" didn't realize until 6:45pm that they are dressed the same.  As a joke we start calling them by the other's name.

Even with a bad exchange rate, $1.50 for a beer is crazy cheap!  Each beer set us back 30 koruna.

Eggenberg, the local brewery, makes s delicious dark smoked beer

Silly tourists!

It's a good thing we are no longer in Berlin.  Yesterday and today they've had the 'heaviest rain in a century' with water levels reaching up to knee height, and subways flooded!

Tour of Munich and English Garden

 It was a quiet day for us in Munich - after a 3-hour lackluster "free" Sandemann's walking tour of the city (do Rick Steves' instead), we went back to the English Garden. 

Munich's Englischer Garten

The park's Monopteros was completed in 1836

View of Munich from the Monopteros

The Chinesischer Turm is probably the most famous beer garden in Munich

Enjoying a beer and large pretzel at the Chinese Tower beer garden in Munich's English Garden is a classic German experience 

As usual, my most adventurous child Chris dragged me up another church tower (or maybe it's the other way around) - Peterskirche Turmbesteigung. St. Peter's Church, from 1180, is the oldest in Munich.  

Chris and I climbed 306 steps to the top for the best view over the city. 

It happened to be 5pm which means for the second time today we found ourselves watching the dancing figurines of the Marienplatz's glockenspiel.