Prague...toys, antiques, & art!

July 17th

Today was a free day in Prague. Lauren and I went all over the city again and pretty much felt like a couple of travel savvy Americanas. We went to the Prague Toy Museum and took a walk down memory lane due to the extensive Barbie collection. One of the oddest barbies we came across was “preggers barbie”. See photo. This Barbie quite literally has a bun in the oven that you can remove. Weird. We also saw barbies that had actual mink stoles. A piece of plastic got a real fur coat!

After the toy museum, Lauren and I ran into some peeps in our group. As we were wandering around, I happen to look into a tiny antique shop window as we passed and spotted a clock of a girl riding a horse. I shouted at everyone to wait up a second ran in and asked the woman (who could barely speak English) about it. She pulled it off the shelf and said it was a 17th century, Baroque clock and it was 2500 crowns. I smiled and wished and then left… So halfway down the street I was going back in forth in my mind… On one hand if Antique Roadshow ever came into town, I’d totally have something to take, but geez it was like 120 bucks! So I made a split second, do or die decision and ran back to the shop and asked if she’d take 2000 crowns for it. She called the owner and had a lengthy discussion in Czech while I tried to act casually like I bought 400 year old antiques everyday… Aaaaaand I am now the proud owner of a 17th century Baroque clock. Yeah I’m cool.

We also spent some time in the afternoon at the open air market...where there are numerous artists selling their work. We each left with some great paintings!

Laundry. So later in the afternoon my travel buddy and I decided that unless we were going to take the suggestion of turning our undies inside out, we were going to need to do a load. Our current roomies, Jackie & Markie, sisters from Kentucky, wanted to do laundry as well so we set out for a Laundromat that was supposedly close to the hotel… After a couple laps around the city lugging dirty clothes, we finally found it after a fellow American traveler asked if we were looking for the Laundromat… I guess he could tell we were getting desperate enough because at one point we did sniff the air and say “I think I smell laundry…? It’s gotta be close…” So laundry was done! Our panties thanked us kindly.

Tomorrow we are heading to Heidelberg! Jenny's old stomping grounds :)

J & L

Terezin

July 16

Lauren has been on me about my lackluster attempt to keep up the daily posts about our trip so Jenny’s back to share our first full day in Prague. In the a.m., our group met a little old man up near the palace and the church of St. Giovanni. Although somewhat difficult to understand his version of “English”, we did pick up on the fact that he was absolutely obsessed with Prague. We were introduced to the story of St. Sebastian and saw the most beautiful church dedicated to him. It was built over 3 different architectural periods, so essentially its designed in 3 layers. Pretty cool. The stained glass on the inside is actually somewhat of a phenomenon because it was designed to flood the church with color and the glassmakers never shared their secret of how they got this glass to reflect the way it does. It’s like looking at an inside sunset. The story of St. Giovanni was a curiosity. This guy was a priest back in the day, and he was opposed to something going on (no surprise there…) and they basically threw him over one of the Prague bridges. Well his body washed up a little ways down and as he was dying apparently 5 stars appeared around his head. (Can someone say the witness must have paid a little visit to Amsterdam…). So now he’s the patron saint of the city and I think of sailors too. Everywhere there are statues and paintings of him and there are always 5 stars around his head. After the church we strolled down the cobblestone roads and crossed the famous Charles bridge. We went through the Ignatius college and saw a monument made entirely of keys. When communism finally fell in the Czech Republic, they called for bus drivers to turn in keys and so they have thousands that they made into a monument celebrating freedom. I can’t recall why the bus drivers had to… You’d think that they still want to be able to get around with the new gov and all…? Had a great lunch right off the square where we watched the Astronomical clock perform its 12 o’clock cuckoo show. Lauren tried the cuddle fish pasta, which just so happens to be made out of squid ink. She wasn’t impressed. I had an amazing dessert that was too fancy for words. It was like food network material. And I ate every bite of it.

Later in the afternoon, we chose to go on an optional excursion to the Terezin concentration camp. It was overwhelming. We went through the museum first and were crying when we walked out. The very first room there was dedicated to the children of Terezin who lost their lives there. The walls are covered with the names and ages of each child that died. There are little drawings of what life was like in the camp and poems that were recovered. The last room chronicled the extermination process and had pictures of mothers and children in the left line bound for gas rooms and fathers in another to work to death. Bodies piled in massive heaps. Starved. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.

After the museum we got to go through the concentration camp and jewish cemetery. They grossly overcrowded the space and ended up burying about 700 dead bodies in a shallow, communal grave. After the war, they tried to separate as many as they could and so they’re buried in a field of roses now.

It was definitely an eye-opening day. –Jenny & Lauren-

Bottomless fountain drinks=Happiness!

July 15th
Today we left Germany and headed to Prague, Czech Republic. Jenny and I had absolutely no expectations for what Prague would be like, and in fact sometimes I forgot we were going there altogether. But we were pleasantly surprised! On the way there, we stopped for lunch in a little town called Ragensburg (still in Germany) and we ate some Thai food (delicious) and strolled around this little medieval German town. This is the hometown of the best busdriver ever—Herbie. See pictures.
So once we got to Prague, we checked into the Hotel Legie and got settled in. Once again…no air conditioning. Let me tell you…these Southern girls were melting. Our TG walked us to the center of town, where we immediately noticed that the architecture here is very different from anywhere else we’ve been so far. Prague is more gothic style…and to add to that they have had a pollution problem in the past so many of the buildings have a black tint…which makes it seem even more gothic. But it’s just a coincidence. The group went to a bagel shop called Bohemia Bagel for dinner. What are they famous for, you ask? Bagels and BOTTOMLESS FOUNTAIN DRINKS!!! We were all soooo excited…as these are a rarity in Europe. Tomorrow we have a walking tour of Prague...

J & L

Disney called...they want their castle back :)

July 14^th

After a fabulous night out in Munich, we woke up bright and early to drive out through lovely German countryside to the crazy King Ludwig’s fantasy castle: Neuschwanstein. There was so much excitement in the area, everyone immediately went to sleep on the bus drive out, but the landscape was amazing (We stayed awake). It was like a slice out of the movie Heidi, little brown and white cottages with windows spilling with bright red geraniums. There are legends swirling around the King Ludwig, mainly that he was obsessed with swans (that’s an understatement… the castles filled with them!) and that he committed suicide when he was forced to abdicate. He chose the location out in the middle of nowhere and would ride in a white carriage drawn by white horses in the middle of the night. The castle was amazing. Just go watch Sleeping Beauty and you’ll see what I mean… We got to hike to the bridge behind the castle and get some sweet pictures as well.

When we got back we went to the famous 5 o’clock Glockenspiel cuckoo clock show. It’s been said to be one of the top 4 sights to see in the whole world.

The Augustiner monks, who originally founded Munich, to this day still have a world-famous restaurant and brewery. So that night we decided to partake in yet another great German tradition and go eat there. Pretty much had the most fabulous German meal until about 11:30 at night and then got to experience a true German thunderstorm. The fountains in the middle of the town center are available for running through if one catches the desire. Earlier, when passing through in the middle of the day, our tour guide recommended that everyone do it at least one, taunting us with a: “well I’ve ran through at midnight..” , but these southern girls weren’t about to ruin their makeup just to say we did it. I mean middle of the day mascara run? What a nightmare! But leaving the Augustiner with 30 minutes til midnight and a thunderstorm crashing around us, we decided to run through the fountains. It was great. Except Lauren didn’t. She went straight for the taxi… (Lauren note: Someone had to be responsible with all of the cameras! I know Chris is thanking me right now!)

Back to Hotel Maria and tomorrow we leave for Prague.

J & L

Guden Morgan

July 13th

The drive today was gorgeous! We were able to drive through Italy and into Austria on our way to Munich…and wow. (Jenny inserts here: "the hills are alive... with the sound of music...") We went through a portion of the Alps (Dolomiti), and Jenny and I were wishing for our skis! It was about a 7 hour drive to Munich, and once we arrived we checked into the Hotel Maria and got settled in before walking down to Marien Platz for a bike tour. Our bike tour guide was a one of a kind Canadian with a Mohawk who told us stories of Munich’s history with his own special flair. (Let’s just say he told us to just youtube the Glockenspiel clock show …need I say more?) He took us through the center of town and to the English gardens with it’s famous nude meadow. Jenny and I nearly fell off of our bikes from craning our necks … But we didn’t catch even a glimpse of any German bums. Our next stop was the famous Munich beer garden… With it’s liters of beer and delicious food. Needless to say….the ride back with this group was far from uneventful.
We finished the night at the Hofbrauhaus, Munich’s original beer house (did I mention that Germans love their beer???) This place was great because the waitstaff is dressed in old Bovarian style dress…and the girls bring out a minimum of 5 liters of beer at a time in each hand. Impressive. Jenny randomly ran into ome of her sorority sisters from UCA…in Munich of all places. So that was fun! Going to the Disney castle tomorrow!

Love ya, Lauren & Jenny

Venice

July 12th

Arriving in Venice is no small feat…considering it is a island city that uses only boats for transportation. So our water taxi arrived in Venice this morning, and we immediately met up with a local tour guide for a walking tour of the city. This city is amazing. It’s comprised of hundreds (thousands?) of tiny “roads” (alleys?) that are intertwined and TG informed us on the way over that most of us would probably be lost at some point today. I can see how that would be possible…however I tend to stick with my very own personal GPS (aka Jenny Willey begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting) so we never get lost. Knock on wood. So the walking tour was interesting to say the least…our guide was a 4 ft. feisty Italian woman who was constantly calling our group out for sitting down at every opportunity. So after the walking tour we went and watched a glass blowing demonstration, which was amazing. These Venetians can create a glass vase from nothing in about 30.43 seconds. He also made a horse for us to see…and I literally saw Jenny’s eyes light up. I knew then that we would be on a mission for a glass horse. So we were given free time for a couple of hours in which Jenny and I did a little Venetian shopping (surprise!) Jenny found her horse, but sadly all of the vases I loved were 500 euro. Surprise surprise. So needless to say I left empty handed.

We had a gondola ride booked for noon, and of course our gondolier (sp?) looked like a Venetian Fabio. This was the highlight of the city for me. We floated our way around the city’s canals…thinking of how different it would be like to drive a boat around town instead of a car. After the ride, we strolled around Venice, going to the Doge’s palace, which was interesting. Pretty much the equivalent to the White House for us American folk. We got to walk across the Bridge of Sighs, a bridge in the lower level of the palace where the prisoners would walk across and see Venice for the last time before being locked away forever. We made our way over to the Rialta bridge, and looked around in St. Mark’s church, where the gospel writer is buried.

Once back in Lido, a group of us went out for a traditional late Italian meal at a restaurant called Hemingways. We overheard blues music coming from down the street, so we stopped and listened to “Sweet Home Chicago” (our group’s request) and before we knew it there was a group of people standing around in the street listening as well. Random fun times in Lido!

Venice didn’t disappoint! Headed to Munich tomorrow…ciao!

Lauren and Jenny—aka Venetian gondoliers

July 11th, Another great beach
July 11th

We are currently in Lido, a resort town outside of Venice, Italy flooded with Germans… Yeah don’t worry about it… It’s basically the Florida for Germans. They need their topless sunbathing too. So apparently a quick pee pee around here is fairly precious because the b-rooms (aka "water closets" per European term) cost about 3 euro to partake in. Imagine that Americans… could you go to Micky D’s and ask Ronald if you could ask him to pay for his potty… Somehow it caught on here. Regardless, it is once again a fabulous location. Lauren and I dozed on the beach and cooled off in the amazing (sea-creature free) water and enjoyed a leisurely dinner with American 80’s music jamming in the background. Yes they played Rock Me Amadeus Chris… And we also ate the best Tiramisu known to man! We were definitely licking our lady-fingers on that one... We’re currently viewing the final World Cup game and enjoying the AC that we bought for about 2.50 each per day that we hear but can’t feel… awesome.
Tomorrow we water taxi into Venice and will visit St. Mark’s Square (pidgeons) and possibly a gondola ride!
Until then --- We’re having a blast. Miss yall.
-Jenny & Lauren-

Free day in Florence

July 9th

Ok considering we are a week behind on our posts…this one will be short and sweet! Today was our free day in Florence. We went back to the Pont de Vecchio, the famous Medici jewelry bridge, and explored the other side of Florence. Lauren got a book at a book store… English version. We met up with some of the gang and went to hike the 463 steps up to the top of the Duomo church. That’s not a typo people, 463 spiral steps. It’s said to be one of the greatest sights in all of Italy. Ironically, we waited in line for the privilege to flex our quads 463 times. However, it was so so so worth it. And as we neared the top we were reduced to about 2 feet of space and a completely vertical staircase. It’s like nothing we’ve ever done before. We also got to walk along the rail of the inside dome. Right next to the painted ceiling. You can’t imagine how high it is.

When we got back down, Lauren and I had noodle legs. So we went ahead and counter-acted with gelato. A great day.

We went out with a few peeps in our group to the San Lorenzo square for dinner. Quick trivia, this was the square where the author of Pinocchio lived. There’s Pinocchio stuff everywhere. We split the highly recommended “Florentine Steak”, this is a quickly charred steak that is still mooing on the inside. A local treasure. It was delish.

Tomorrow we’re going to help hold up the tower of Pisa.

-Shenny & Loren-