Prague Next

Prague Next
The second half of our trip we went to Prague, Czech Republic. This is the home of of my dad's side of the family and I was SOOOOO excited to go! Prague had so much of an old medieval feel. To me, Paris felt like New York city, a mix of old and new at a rather fast city pace. Prague was old and beautifully so. There were so many buildings decorated in frescoes, statues, and art nouveau style. I just kept looking up and around. We also became "the stair master" there. We walked up every single tower ( and there were many that had over 150 steps each) plus counting the castle steps, and the replica of the Eiffel Tower ( yes, I saw two Eiffel Towers on this trip) but this one had 300 steps up with NO elevator! The struggle was not the tower. It was the 45min walk up hill to get to the park that had the Eiffel Tower first on a 80 degree day. We even found my family crest ( Vlk means "wolf" in Czech and there is a black wolf on a silver crest). the names even dates back as far as 1303! I would recommend Prague to anyone!

( by accident I out the pictures in backwards from last to first :))

This is called the "Bone Church" in Kunta Hora which is a city south east of Prague.
The monk in charge of this building, from what I figured out, used many of the
Black Plague victims bones to create the "decorations." And "ground" from
Jerusalem was shipped to this spot to make it more sacred.





This is Prague from the Charles Bridge (Stephen) and the castle (me).





Czech is known for it's beer. Budweiser and Pislner was the two most popular.
To give you a feeling of the importance of beer to them this pop and beer were the same price!




This was part way up the 45 min uphill walk to the Prague Eiffel Tower.


This is a medieval restaurant that use to hold prisoners under it.
They have a fake man there now and people leave coins :).


St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle.


One of the many statues that "overlook" Prague.


This is The Astronomical Clock that does many things such as chime on the hour having apostles that that move cross the top, to having other moving figures as well as give time.

Paris First
Stephen and I took a two week trip this summer that started in Paris and ended in Prague. Like many family and friends this year we appreciated Kim's Parisian hospitality and stayed with her on our trip. During that time we saw every thing from Notre Dame, Versailles and the Paris Opera House to a medieval castle on the out skirts of Paris and a Renaissance castle along with the Royal stables in Chantilly. It was amazing. i didn't have to worry about working off what we ate since we were constantly walking from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. I loved every minute of it! And, to those of you in my doubting family, Stephen spoke MORE then I. Now seeing as how he could speak the language and, according to him, I gave it a "good try" learning my 10 French sight words. But as you can guess I was limited in my communication. However, when we were waiting in line to Sainte Chapelle we were in front of a gentleman and his wife from CLEVELAND! I had a great time in line (LOL)! Overall it great. Stephen eve got tickets for us to attend a concert at the Paris Opera house! Below are some, not all or you would be here for ever, of the first half of the trip.

Right in front of Sacre Coeur




The Princes Renaissance castle in Chantilly




The night we went to the Paris Opera there was a beautiful sunset!




The Paris Crypts it was kind of creepy.
And, as you can see, I was dressed for the occasion;)




Showing our love for Paris!