Poland/Prague Weekend Day Three

My Birthday and the Czech Republic!!!

Okay everyone! Here is the last day of our Poland/Prague weekend.  I hope you enjoy the pictures. :)

If you would have told me last year that I would be having a birthday in Prague, Czech Republic this year - I would have never believed you!!!  Isn't it funny how things work out sometimes?!  Anyway, here are some pictures from our day.  I had a very happy and adventure filled birthday - thank you to my wonderful family!!!

They surprised me with a birthday song and a few gifts that morning before getting on the road.

Shen and I

Sayer and I

Seth and I

Stasia and I

Sienna and I

Sabrina and I

Daddy, mommy, and I (taken at a later date! :)

Visiting with our wonderful host before leaving.

He heard it was my birthday and gave me a German birthday blessing - I couldn't understand what he said, but I understood his intent and appreciated his kindness!

From the car window...

We took some beautiful back roads that day through quite hilly regions as well!!

Lots of evergreens!!

We enter the Czech Republic!!  There was an interesting group of buildings that are no longer used, but we assume was the former check point between countries.  It's interesting to just be able to drive through!

A Czech town.

A little taste of Czech countryside.

Upon arriving in Prague, we quickly tried to locate a place we felt comfortable leaving the car for the day.  We were also in a bit of a hurry as we were trying to make it up to the castle complex in time for a classical music concert!!  Thankfully we were able to leave our van in the secured parking area at the Hilton for the day and after a bit of negotiating, get two taxies to take us up to the castle.

In the taxi (I wonder what Shenandoah was thinking?).

We learned how to make fast tracks!!!

Do you think we'll make it?!

Just in time - Yay!!!

The concert was beautiful - definitely a highlight of the day!!

Look at the ceiling!

The program - we heard some new favorites that day!  Be sure to listen to Smetana's "Luisa's Polka".

I think the walking wore him out.  Either that or the music put him to sleep! :)

After the concert.

We got some ice-cream!  This was the first time in our travels that we actually ate ice-cream with it hot outside!! :)

Me and my birthday ice-cream.

The cathedral up by the castle.

Here are a few closer views

It's very tall!!

Overlooking Prague.

I wish I would have counted the stairs leading down into the city - there were lots of them!!

Entering the city.

As we were making our way to the old Charles Bridge, we stubbled upon a statue of Winston Churchill.

There's something about driving on working tram tracks that just isn't too appealing...

Look what we found!!

A refreshing treat.

We arrive at a very full Charles Bridge!

Tight holding of hands was in place.

The view out each side of the bridge was beautiful.

Quick picture!!

There were lots of different performers on the bridge - Shenandoah loved the puppets!!

Making our way to hear the atomic clock chime and watch it do its "thing".  If you remember the Glockenspiel from when we visited Munich, this wasn't near as involved, but still drew a very large crowd!

In the square of the Huss monument.

Daddy talking and reading to us about the reformer John Huss.

In front of the Huss monument.

We ate at this traditional Czech restaurant for dinner.  It was very good!  The interesting thing though is that the food very much had a sweet flair to it.  The gravy is more of a sweet sauce etc.

An idea of what we had.

A birthday picture in Prague with my birthday dessert!

Shenandoah loved watching the big bubble blowers.

I liked the horse's pink head-do.

My little Shen-ny partner.

Another highlight of the day was riding the subway for the first time!!  Seriously, it was fun!! :)  

Waiting for our transport.

We switch trains and go down some more!

I wonder how far under the ground we were?

We're on track!

We made it!!!  Daddy did a great job navigating and getting us to where we needed to go.

It was nice to have a short walk back to our van for once! :)

That concludes our time in Prague.  What a wonderful day full of great memories!!

Headed home.  On the way we enjoyed listening to a couple new classical music CD's that we picked up after the concert.

The sunset was beautiful on the way home.

Restroom break!

I took a picture of this inside the gas station because it was awful funny to see a "Texas" pizza in Germany!! :)

These will make any car ride enjoyable!! :)