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Prague

Our final stop with CJ and Jen was Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. We once again hopped on the train to head north and after about four hours we landed in this beautiful city. We arrived in the evening and were pretty tired from traveling so we didn’t have much energy for exploring the first night so we grabbed some pasta for dinner and made plans for the next day.

For our first day in Prague we knew we wanted to go up the hill to the Prague Castle. According to the Guinness Book of World Records this is the largest castle compound in the world. It certainly was huge. My favorite part was the church in the center of the compound but we also were able to tour the old castle living spaces, a second smaller church, and other buildings on the ground. We learned about the defenestration of Prague in the castle. Basically a mob of common people got mad at the Town Castle in 1419 and stormed the castle and defenestrated seven people. Not sure what defenestration is? It’s when a person is thrown out of a window! All seven people died from the fall from the castle window. By the way, that is technically called The First Defenestration of Prague since it happened for a second time in 1618 when two regents and their secretary were defenestrated but survived the fall. The defenestration was part of a religious feud that led to the Thirty Years War. Catholics claim that the men survived the fall because they were saved by angels. Protestants claim they were saved by landing in a huge pile of dung. I’m not judging.

There was an amazing collection of medieval arms and armor that CJ really enjoyed. He and Jen also got to shoot a crossbow and CJ was very close to a bull’s eye! We thought the torture chamber was also pretty neat. A small street with a mix of souvenir shops and model exhibits of what the shops looked like centuries ago was very cute. We were able to walk down the hill and take the tram back towards our neighborhood to find some lunch. We wanted to try some traditional Czech food and the girls both loved the fried cheese with French fries. This was served at many restaurants and was basically a huge breaded cheese stick and some fries and was a favorite meal on our trip.

We spent most of the rest of our time in Prague walking and wandering around the beautiful city. One of the things Prague is famous for is the astronomical clock...but that is undergoing repairs so we didn’t get to see that! We were a little disappointed but the city was so beautiful we got over it. We stayed quite near the main square so we were able to walk around the shops and the square every day. It was very hot in Prague so we limited our walking time and made sure to take some breaks where we could get some reprieve from the heat throughout the day. We did a lot of shopping in Prague because the Czech Republic is well known for its wooden toys and marrionettes. After seeing the marionettes in Vienna both girls decided that would be their souvenir for the trip and we also bought several different wooden toys for some friends. Jen was able to stock up on a variety of high quality toys for her preschool classroom.

Adam and I were also able to sneak out for a night on our own and enjoy the beauty of Prague at night. This was such a treat - the city is gorgeous and it was so nice to have some time to ourselves while CJ and Jen stayed with the girls. We walked through the old town and down to the famous Charles Bridge. This bridge connects the two sides of Prague over the Vltava River and was completed in 1402. On one side lies the Prague Castle and on the other is the Old City of Prague. Thirty statues adorn the bridges that were added in the early 1700s but have now all been replaced by replicas. Despite not being the original they were still really beautiful. The bridge is for pedestrians only and was packed and is apparently crowded at almost any time of the day. Seeing the castle, bridges and churches all lit up was really beautiful. Our night out was also our chance to try a “turtleneck” - the most amazing Czech treat sold in practically every other store throughout town. A turtleneck is made by baking a tube of dough covered in cinnamon and sugar. The tube is then filled with different choices of sweetness - usually vanilla ice cream. Some tubes are first lined with Nutella or melted chocolate. Some are topped with whipped cream, fruit, or more chocolate. All I have to say is that it was delicious and I would return to Prague just to have another.

One of the coolest stories we heard while in Prague was about the Basilica of St. James the Greater. The legend says that a thief tried to steal the jewels from the statue of the Virgin Mary. When the thief reached for the jewels the statue grabbed the arm of the thief and held on until the parishioners found him the next morning. They could not free the man from the statue’s grip and were forced to cut his arm off. As soon as it was severed the statue dropped the arm and returned to her original pose and the arm was hung from a meathook on the ceiling of the church. The mummified arm has been hanging there for 400 years as a warning to any would-be thieves. Pretty gruesome but also pretty cool.

Our time in Prague came to an end too quickly and it was the end of CJ and Jen’s trip. They had to take an overnight train back to Budapest to fly home and our next stop was Germany so we needed to go our separate ways. It was so much fun having them on our trip - and even more awesome that we were the first ones to see them after they got engaged! We still have about ten days of our trip left and are looking forward to slowing down a little with more time to relax and less time seeing famous sites. I hope Adam’s family is ready for us in Germany!

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