Czech it out!

 I really enjoyed our time in Prague, Czech Republic.  It's certainly on my list of places I would like to return to someday.  Here is a little sampling of  what we experienced while there.

An old cemetery that was overgrown with ivy and bushes

Eating at an outdoor cafe.  They are NOT concerned about getting you in and out quickly

So many of the buildings are absolutely beautiful .  We didn't go in so I can't say if they are as beautiful on the inside. 

The sidewalks were all made of the same stone, but  each street had a  different pattern.  

Street performers playing beautiful classical music.  Notice the different pattern of sidewalk

We spent a day at Charles Castle, which was actually a whole complex of buildings inside the castle walls.  While there we took a turn shooting a cross bow.  Any guesses who got the best shot in our family?  Let's just say that my dad would be so proud of me!

Shooting a crossbow

Seth, Jenna and Joe with a Knight

We visisted Wenceslas Square (which is really a street and not a square) and saw the statue of Good King Wenceslas.  I thought about singing the Christmas carol about him, but I couldn't remember the words.  He was a 10th century king and is given credit for Christianizing his nation.

In front of the statue of Good King Wenceslas

We watched the Astronomical Clock put on it's little show at the top of the hour, then climbed up to see the views from the top.  I like looking out at cities from high places.

Astronomical Clock

The Astronomical Clock and tower

Joe and I at the top of the Astronomical Clock

View from top of Astronomical Clock Tower

Another view from top of Clock tower (notice the TV tower in the far distant right)

Another View from the tower

We walked across the Charles Bridge along with hundreds of other tourists.  It was built in the 1300's and for nearly 400 years it was the only bridge in Prague to cross the Vitava River.  There are statues lined up along the bridge and a big tower at one end.

Charles Bridge

Seth and Joe on Charles Bridge.  Prague Castle is in the background. 

Seth with Charles Bridge to the left and Prague Castle in the background.  

Tower at one end of Charles Bridge.  

And one slightly strange part of Prague is the baby tower.  It's a tall televesion tower that has statues of babies climbling up and down.  I'm not quite sure how that fits into the beautiful archicheture of Prague, but it's there.

Baby tower

Close up on the babies on the tower

Temple and Church in Germany

The main reason we came to Germany was to go to the temple in Freiburg. We went to it a few days ago, and it was pretty neat. Besides the usual super awesome spiritual feeling that you get in the temple, we got baptized in Hungarian. It was pretty neat, but we had no idea what they were saying. The Freiburg temple is assigned to 7 languages, that is pretty amazing. They are: German, Czech, Romanian, Russian, English, Polish, and Hungarian.

The Freiburg Temple, even though you can't see Moroni on top.

 We wandered back to the train after that and took a little detour through this market type square thing. We got bratwursts, a typical German food I guess. It was basically a huge hot dog on a tiny dinner roll. It tasted like that too.

Today we went to church in Germany. Our family has made a kind of commitment to go to church for the full 3 hours every Sunday, whether we understand the language or not. We left an hour early, figuring that would be plenty of time to get to the church on time. Of course, we didn't count on the trams arriving at odd times, or not understanding a single word of German. Due to those two things, we did pretty well arriving at church only 3 minutes late. This has been kind of a repeating thing, we are late to church a lot, it seems.

The church building we went to today, you can see the sign between the pillars a little bit.

After church they had this dinner thing, that they apparently have every week, so of course, we stayed. They served sauerkraut, and if you don't know what that is, I'll describe it. So you know when you carve jack-o-lanterns, and you have to scoop out all the goop? Ya, imagine that goop, but with veggies instead of seeds, and you have sauerkraut. Needless to say, it wasn't my favorite.

Anyway, Germany has been pretty cool so far, even though I spend most of my time doing school it seems like. Our apartment was great, and we even got to play some soccer with the family downstairs.

FOOD

On our trip so far we have had to eat out a lot and we have tried many places, but these are the most recent restaurants we have been to. When we went to Philadelphia we ordered some Philly cheese steaks. I thought that they were okay. They were not the best thing ever, but not the worst. In Boston we got some Lobster and Clam Chowder. The Lobster was pretty good, it tasted like normal fish. The Clam Chowder on the other hand was Really Good! The sauce was creamy and warm and the potatoes tasted soft, the crackers made it great with a slight crunch. The Clam in the Clam Chowder tasted like a lighter Salmon making it the Best food we have had on this trip! We also stopped in New York City and got some New york style Pizza where you fold it in half and eat it.

Lobster roll and Clam Chowder

 While in the Czech Republic we tried a little bit of Garlic Bread and beef goulash. The garlic bread was really good! It was at a restaurant called: Lavica. In the restaurant I found out about a new fruit called a Physalis. Also in Czech Republic we got some breads and danishes. They are not as sweet as in America. Here in Germany we had sauerkraut witch looks like the inside of a pumpkin. It did not taste very good to me. Also, here in Germany we had a Brautwurst which is a big sausage stick with ketchup and a bun. 

Physalis

This is a great restuarant if you go to prague go here

Brautwurst

Check on this later it will be updated

Freiberg Temple [BY JENNA]

We went to the temple.  It was a small temple.  The visitor's center was closed so Joe and I got to sit in the temple waiting room because daddy, Sam, Seth, and mommy were in the temple.

The Freiberg temple was built for the German people because they couldn't leave to go to another temple.  They kept sending in applications to go to Switzerland to the temple and the government said, "No."  The people would immediately re-apply.  One of the church members had friends in the government.  His friends called him to talk and told him, "Your people need to stop making all of these applications.  Why don't you build a temple in Germany?"  That's how it started.

Here are some pictures.

This is the temple.

This is me in front of the temple.

Prague 10k - Rich's Version

Wow.  Elaine and I ran in the Prague 10k Saturday night and it was different in several ways from other events we've participated in.  Elaine's post has pictures.

• The race was at night.  I wasn't sure how it would be running through city streets (some times on cobblestones) in the dark.  My opinion is mixed on this.  The parts of the course that were along the Vltava River and/or in view of the Prague Castle were awesome.  The castle sits up on a hill and was brightly lit.  Seeing it from across the river was truly spectacular.  Several parts of the course were on cobblestones.  They are pretty to look at but are not an even surface to run on.  It wasn't so bad where there was enough light to see but there were several places where the course was completely dark and those times I prayed that my feet wouldn't find any holes or unevenness that could cause me harm.  My prayers were answered.
• It was a HUUUUGE event.  The scope and scale of everything was just huge.  There were thousands of runners.  During the whole race I had to watch out for other runners.  It felt like rush hour.  It didn't feel like it ever really opened up.  It felt much bigger than anything we had run in before.  There were "elite" runners that were treated special.  There was a procession of flags at the start for each country represented by a runner.  There was a "lead" car that had the race timer on top.  There was a cameraman on the back of a motorcycle.  There were at least 4 bands playing on the course.  City streets and trams were shutdown just for the race.  There were spectators all along the course.  It felt really big.
• The course looped back on itself.  There was one part of the course that we passed 5 times.  I was a little worried that I might make a wrong turn but there were always enough runners around me that I followed the flow and never had to make a decision about which way to turn.  In one way the looped course was nice because I actually saw the lead runners several times as they flew past going the other direction.  They probably didn't even hear me cheering for them.

I would totally recommend running this event if you are ever in Prague.

Elaine mentioned the funny instructions in the race guide:  "Women will appreciate elastic leggings that stop just below the knee."  That was probably written/translated by a man and should have been, "Men will appreciate..."

Prague 10K

I'll start right off by saying what a cool race!  On Saturday Rich and I ran in the Prague 10K,  an evening run through the streets of Prague.  This is the biggest race I have participated in.  I think there were about 3,600 runners (or as the race guide said “six hundred thousand”, I think that translation is a bit off!)   Not only were there lots of participants, but the course was lined with spectators which was really fun even though I know they were not there to cheer for me.

We picked up our race packets earlier in the day on Saturday and I laughed reading the race guide.  Here is my favorite part.  “How to Dress for the race.  Women will appreciate elastic leggings that stop just below the knee—they make for a better figure and function better than the longer ones”    I'm not sure if the translation came across just right or what.  After getting our packets, we spent the day touring Prague Castle before returning for the race.

Pre race area

At the race, there were changing tents to change into our running clothes (and no I didn't wear the elastic leggings for a better figure).  Just outside the changing tents there were several people smoking.  I didn't know that running and smoking went together.  I went to the port-a-potties and noticed there were pink ones for women (Jennys) and green ones for men (Johnnys).  After using the port-a-pottie I went to the hand washing station only to realize it wasn't a hand washing station but a men's outdoor urinal.  Welcome to Europe!  

In the Pre race area.  Notice the pink port-a-potties.

Closer to the actual starting line.  

I was in start group D and when it was time to line up I walked past group A, B, and C thinking next would be D,  but instead it was E.  I didn't know where to go so I just got in at the end of C/beginning of E group (isn't that where you would think D would be?).   Later in the race I did see the group D start area down a different street.  I was so far back I the pack that it took 4 minutes to walk to the starting line once the race began.   There were so many runners that the first K was not really running, but rather a slow jog trying to not trip over the other runners. It did open up as the race went along, but I was never alone.  

This was the start of the 5K race before the 10K race.   It was dark by the time the 10K started.  

The course was a bit confusing as it looped around the same area several times in different ways.   It's a good thing I was not the lead runner.   I was able to see the lead runners two times and they were fast!  I passed the same point on the course 4 different times so that is where we had our kids watch.  It was fun to see them 4 times during the race.  The run went through the streets of Prague in the  the Old Town Square area and across three bridges.  Absolutely beautiful!  But I had to spend more time looking at the ground than scenery because running on cobblestone requires more attention.

View of Prague Castle and Charles Bridge.  I told you it was beautiful!

At the aid station (or refreshment point as it was called in the race guide) I got a cup of water only to discover it was gassed or carbonated water.  I guess I haven't acquired the taste for it yet and it certainly didn't “refresh” me while running.  Good thing this was just a 10K so I didn't really need the water anyway.

I finished

And so did Rich.

It's always a good feeling to cross the finish line.  Soon after the finish line  there was a path for the participants to walk down to the post race area.  Once again it was congested, only this time it was full of sweaty stinky people.  But I got through and got my finishers medal, an emergency blanket that all runners received and my finishers bag of fliers and coupons all written in Czech.  I really enjoyed my first international running event.  I hope we can find a few more to participate in before this adventure is over.

First Days in Prague

After our whirlwind visits to Philadelphia, Boston, and New York we arrived in Prague tired and ready for a break.  So that is exactly what we have done for the past few days.  We have not done one tourist thing yet.  That will change tomorrow when we tour the Prague Castle.  So what have we been doing here?  Recovering from jet lag, getting cell phones/internet set up, laundry, catching up on school, walking around the neighborhood and trying out some different foods.  It has actually been a very relaxing few days.

Even though this is a big city, the area we are staying in doesn't feel big and crowded (at least not compared to NYC).   The streets have lots of little shops that specialize in one thing.  For example, one sells lights, one sells meat, one sells school supplies, one sells cell phones and you get the idea.   We have found the people to be friendly and willing to help.   The language really hasn't been a problem as enough people speak a little English.  When they don't speak English a little charades usually gets the point across.  So overall, even though we haven't seen any of the usual tourist attractions yet, we are enjoying our time here in Prague.