W5 of Y2

Czech Republic - The Pearl of Europe

Jeremy got home after being in Italy all week and we turned around and made a quick get-away to Prague, the capitol of Czech, this weekend. Since the fall of the iron curtain this bohemian city has been a popular tourist destination and was on our top 10 places to see when we found out we were moving to Europe.

We both agreed that Prague definitely had a very different, unique feel to it. So many interesting things to see here. We were actually only in the City for about 6 hours, not nearly enough time to see it all. However, we were able to see some of the top attractions. We left the kids at home with Alyse so all of our pictures seem quite boring without any cute little kids in them. Jeremy is not nearly as good of a model for me as the kids are!

The city was packed! They had Easter markets going on everywhere as well as a half-marathon that seemed like people from all over the world came to run. We were surrounded by so many different languages! I loved it!!

The language is so different from the other languages that we can at least recognize.

The money was equally as foreign. We had 115 Euro and exchanged that for this! We thought we were rich until we realized how far 1000 Kronig got you.

Old Town

Franz Kafka Square - 85,741 keys make up the word "Revoluce" (Revolution). The keys were collected by people all over Czech to remember the Velvet Revolution that toppled the Communist regime out of the country.

Old Town Square - 27 crosses marks the spots where protestant leaders were executed, one of the turning points of Czech history in 1621

Old Town square and the Gothic Church of our Lady in the background. This is where we had lunch. It was great for people watching. You can also see some of the Easter Markets here.

Pig knuckle for lunch.... before

..... after. That was the best tasting knuckle I've ever had!

7 people would ride these bikes with drinks in the middle and seemed to be having a great time! Right in front of us at lunch one of the bikes ran over a pedestrian! The Policia even showed up. It was quite exciting.

This is the girl that got ran over. She seemed to be really hurt. She iced it for a while and then ordered lunch like it was no big deal.

More Easter Markets

Old Town Hall and the famous astonomical clock. The clock shows figures of the 12 apostles every hour. It was built in 1410 and is unique in that its' original clockwork has been in operation from the beginning to present time - for 6 centuries! It was out of commission for the first 100 years though. After the clock maker had completed the clock, the Prague Councillors burned his eyes, blinding him, so that he wouldn't replicate his work anywhere else. Out of revenge he stuck his own hand in the clock, breaking it. No one knew how to repair it so it just sat for 100 years!

Side view of Old-Town Hall

Here is a video of the clock right at 2:oopm

Walking the streets of Old-Town
Powder Gate: Built in the 11th Century and was one of 13 entrances into Old Town

New Town

The Coat of Conscience (or The Empty Coat). A famous sculture by Anna Chromy outside the Estates Theater where Mozarts' Don Giovani was first premiered in 1787.

Municipal House. The independence of Czechoslovakia was claimed here in 1918.

Parizska Street. This is their version of Champes d'Elysees

TGIF!!! Can you believe it!?

We had to go in, just for a minute!

In the distance you can see the famous Charles Bridge (famous for it's Gothic statues) and behind that, on the hill, is the Prague Castle. It is the largest Midevil Castle in the world! Inside the castle grounds are churches, palaces, towers, courtyards, basilicas, etc... The Gothic towers in the middle is St. Vitus Cathedral.

The Ghetto

There are 6 Jewish Synagogues left in Prague. This is the Satronova, the oldest built in the 13th century.

Maisel Synagogue

Old Jewish Cemetary with Ceremonial Hall and mortuary.

There are over 100,000 bodies buried in this very small peice of land. They had to pile the bodies on top of each other. This was a very somber part of the trip. It was Saturday, the Jewish day of worship, so we couldn't go inside.

Well, I know that was a really long post and maybe a little boring for some of you. But, it was a great trip for us and one that I don't want to forget. It's nice to be able to go somewhere like this and learn so much all in just a day! Where can you do that in the US??

W4 of Y2

Jeremy HAD to go to Gibraltar all week for work (poor baby, huh). People are always asking me what Jeremy does. It's rare to work over here if you aren't working for Army or Dept. of Defense. He works as an acquisition manager for an agency of the Federal Government called the General Services Administration or GSA. Dept. of Defense is one of their customers in Europe, and helps with ordering different types of vehicles in Europe. I took this picture a while ago of his office. His office always looks like this too! I don't understand it. You can't even see my desk from all the papers in my office.


A few things to know about Gibralter (if you're interested):

Gibraltar is actually a territory of the UK but it the southern-most tip of Spain. It's called "The Rock" because it is basically just a small city surrounding a huge rock that is right on the water. The Strait of Gibralter separates Spain from North Africa. He was in Gibraltar meeting with a potential vendor that could provide vehicles for his customers in Africa. The best part was probably being fluent in just about every language spoken there (English, Spanish, and Portugese). Gibraltar is also the only place in Europe that has free-roaming apes. Apparently the locals have learned how to barter with them when the apes steal things. We are staying about 45 minutes away from Gibraltar when we go to Spain for a week in a few months so we are planning to go back for at least one of the days so the kids and I can see it too! For now, Jeremy was nice enough to take a few pics for us. :)

View from his hotel room

The border


View from on top of the Rock

Where all the tall, tan buildings are is Spain. The road in the middle separates Spain from Gibraltar. At the bottom of the picture you can see the runway where the planes land. When a plane comes all the cars and people have to stop and wait for the plane to land and then they keep going.

Isn't he cute?? :)

So, while Jeremy is away I get to work double-duty working full time and taking care of the kids, house, dog, etc... by myself! We had a fun week though. Friday night I took the kids and Alyse to see Alice in Wonderland.

I was a little worried because it was Tim Burton and the ads make it look a little weird. I read the reviews from parents online and thought it didn't sound too bad. There was one scene that I was expecting that I told the kids they had to close their eyes at ahead of time. Otherwise, it wasn't bad at all. They all love it! Even Whitney!!

The weather is finally getting so nice! Saturday we pulled out the bikes, pumped up the tires, and went on our favorite ride to Hemsbach Lake to play at the park and have a picnic. Just like we did almost everyday last summer. It felt SO good!

We have Kayla this year though so I thought I would try it with her and Whitney in the trailer. For the most part she did ok but when people would walk or ride by us she would freak out and jump out of the trailer while I'm going really fast. I won't be doing that again!

This is our half way point. We were all hurting on the hills. We used to all go up them without walking by the end of last summer but the boys couldn't make it up any of them this day. They'll get used to it again. It's 2.5 miles each way so it's a pretty good distance. They did Great!

Finally at the park!!! :)

It was like seeing an old friend. The kids all ran to their favorite spots right away.

I have to show off Whitney's outfit of the day. She is such a fashionista! She seriously picks out all of her outfits. From head to toe!. The dress she has on here is her FAVORITE! She will pull it out of the dirty close and put it in the dryer. Then she'll come and get me and show me that it's in the dryer and that means "it's so very clean" so she can wear it again. I need 20 more just like it!!
Lunch in the club house!

Right after we rode our bikes home and packed everything inside it started to pour! It rained for the most part for the rest of the weekend so I'm really glad that we had such a nice morning/afternoon together outside! Jeremy flies out tomorrow to spend a week in Italy. It will be another long week without him but hopefully we'll have plenty of nice days to help the time to go by faster.

W3 of Y2

I think I took too many pictures last week because this week I didn't take ANY!
I did, however, record Whitney singing another song. This is her new fave.





Let's see... other highlights of the week (sorry no pictures):

Jeremy joined the local German choir in our little village. There is one other guy that speaks English there (he's Irish), so it will be a good opportunity for him to improve his German. He says the youngest guy there , besides him, is in his 60's. They all bring a 6-pack of German beer with them. They put the beers under their seats while they are singing and by the end of the night all the beer is gone and everyone is best friends. I can't wait for their first concert!

Jeremy and I went to our favorite Greek restaurant. It's just a couple blocks from our house and it is sooo good! Everyone there is from Greece. It is very authentic food. They know us by name now. It is my absolute favorite restaurant these days.

Connor had 2 5th-grade girls flash him on the bus. He said they pulled their pants and underwear down and pulled their shirts up. They were sitting right next to him too so he got a good look at everything! Of course, I called the bus office. The bus driver doesn't speak English and barely even speaks German, he's Russian. The bus office informed the principal, the principal called Connor into his office and then called other people from the bus in one by one and made them give their side of the story with Connor in the room. It was an awful position to put Connor into. He was really embarrassed.

The weather is finally starting to get a little better. I think next week will be the first full week that the high stays in the 40's. This has been the longest winter that I can remember in a long time.

Other than doing GOBS of laundry, getting caught up from our trip last week, that is about it for the week.

W2 of Y2

Bavaria

We finally went on our long awaited ski week trip in the Alps!!! We went to Garmisch again (on the Austrian border). *** warning: LOTS of pictures***

Ready To Go!!!

Stop for last minute supplies... homemade donuts... yuuummmmm!

We made it!!!

This part of Bavaria is known for their beautiful painted houses and buildings.

You can see the Zugspitze in the background... Germany's tallest mountain.

Within minutes after arriving we were in the elevator heading down to the pool.
Can you tell the kids were excited??

Whitney is such a little fish! She never wanted to get out of the water.

They also couldn't wait to ride the little carousel.
It's free so the kids go on it as much as they can when we come here!

Sleeping arrangements

We had one day to play before ski-week started so we went to the Neuschwanstein Castle, more popularly known (at least to Americans) as the "Disney Castle". The castle at Disneyland was modeled after this Castle made for 'Mad King Ludwig II'. It was beautiful! Of course we were not allowed to take pictures inside though.

It was a 40 minute walk up to the Castle. We decided to skip the horse & carriage ride and walk up. I felt really sorry for those poor horses. They would carry 10+ people at a time!

SKI WEEK!

We signed the boys up for Ski Week which is from 9am-3pm Monday to Friday. I thought that was way too much skiing for the first time but Jeremy was sure they would love it! Turns out they DID love it and can't wait to go back next year.

All suited up!
They have no idea what they are getting themselves into. Right now they are just hot and sweaty and want to take all these clothes and boots off! lol!

While the boys were skiing, Jeremy and I got to ski. Whitney was at the lodge with Alyse swimming and playing. She can try skiing next year when she is 3.5!

There are these little "Biergartens" at the end of the runs.
Bavarian music filled the air, the sun was shining, and the brats never tasted soooo good!!

Jeremy is a much more daring skier than I am.
He was always looking for jumps, dips, and forbidden areas to ski.

We went down to get the boys early so we could watch them skiing a little.

I was surprised how much they learned on their first day!

Connor had excellent form!

Aiden was kind of all over the place.

Here's a video of Aiden after the first day.

Aiden Skiing Day One

Hot chocolate at the lodge after a long day of skiing was a MUST!

By the end of the next day you could tell that the boys had really improved!

Boys Skiing Day Two

Waiting for the boys to come in

Whitney is so proud of her brothers!

Back at the hotel: all the things we love about Edelweiss

Relaxing by the fireplace

All you can eat buffet

Playing at the park

Playing on our balcony


Every day after swimming the kids all ran straight to the pool.

This night Jeremy went and got McD's for everyone. Obviously a great idea!

The kids crashed every night! They were so exhausted from skiing all day and swimming all night. After they were all settled in bed Jeremy and I got to go out while Alyse stayed with them.

One night we went toured the Griesbräu Brewery and learned how they make German "Bier".

Our tour guide was awesome! Our van ended up having to give him a ride home when we left!!

I had to leave early because of my job. It was really hard to leave, we were having so much fun! Jeremy and the boys got to have a little CDC time (Cool Dude's Club).

By the last day of ski-week the boys were carrying their own equipment like pros!

They survived the week!!!

There was a race on the last day. Aiden got second place! The other 2 boys are from France and this was their second year going. Connor got last. He is a very cautious and careful skier, but not too fast! Slow and steady wins the race. He's more like his Momma!! :)

The boys LOVED Tom, their instructor. He gave them each a certificate and a really nice photograph of the group. I was really impressed with the instructors there! They were all great. However, on the second day they tried to put the boys with a girl instructor and they were so upset about it that they switched all the kids around so that the boys could have Tom every day of the week!

My little ski bums!

So what did Whitney and I do while the boys were away???





Girl Party of course!!!

They boys got home safe and sound but their 4 hour ride home ended up taking 12 hours. The van battery actually died and they got stranded in a very small village in Austria. ADAC (German AAA) was there within an hour with a new fuse but they also had terrible road conditions and stau's (traffic jams) to deal with on the way home. They didn't get home until very late. I was so happy they all got home in one piece!!!