Actually, it turned out to be a pretty good plan as I really like Prague, and it is an affordable city to be in (as long as you don’t drive in the pedestrian areas). Especially when you travel with the guide we selected for our Prague castle tour, who apparently ignores the trolly honor system and just hops on without a ticket.  We hadn’t realized how it worked before this, but did buy tickets for our next trip.

Some of the highlights of our day, a few Prague photos:

Our family on the Charles Bridge in Prague

This pedestrian road is so narrow, it has traffic controls (you can see the stop man for our direction, as Sarah is headed the other way)

Prague has so many adorable restaurants. This is Melissa and I at our lunch stop.

Us with the Prague castle in the background

Hubby has a look at some of the old weapons at the Prague castle.

At night we drove to Regensburg in Germany, as we couldn’t get accommodation in Munich, and it only left an hour drive for the next day.  We got into town around 10pm and I was busy staring at the Tom-Tom to help with the navigation. As we approached the hostel, one of my girls said,

“I don’t think mum’s going to be too happy.”

I looked up and saw we were in a rather seedy part of town, above a casino.  It was only one night, and at least they provided linens and towels.  Regensburg  turned out to be one of Germany’s oldest medieval cities whose narrow streets turned out to be a delightful place to spend a few hours.

A view from the pedestrian bridge in Regensburg

The main cathedral in Regensburg.

The afternoon was spent at Dachau, a very sobering experience, which I will blog about next Wednesday on kibitzspot

All photos on this page © Rhonda Albom 2012

Travel Counter: We are in week 8 of our 250 day overseas adventure.

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More Prague Photos, A bit of Regensburg and A Lot Less Munich

Feet Eating Fish

Have you heard of garra rufa fish? Apparently they eat dead human skin, and Melissa was just too tempted. So, into the window she went, feet in the fish bowl and . . . 25 minutes later she had incredibly soft feet.

Melissa's feet as the garra rufa fish remove the dead skin.

The crowd watching Melissa and the feet eating fish

Severed Hands

Near the entrance to St. James church hanging on a chain from the ceiling is a severed hand from the 14th century. The legend tells of a thief who caught around the wrist by the Virgin Mary statue. The only way to release the thief was to severe the hand, so now it serves a reminder to others.

Other than that bit of grossness by the door, the church is considered to be on of the most beautiful Catholic churches in the world.

Shiny Boy Bits

Another legend has us rub one of the statues as we crossed the Charles Bridge, which ultimately resulted in a very shiny statue parts. Later that day we walked by a very dark statue of a naked boy whose bits were quite shiny. This resulted in one of my girls quietly whispering to me a joke – “Are people rubbing that part mum?”

Can you see how shiny the shiny bits are?

Turns out to be true. A quick aside, one of the things we have noticed so far on our trip to cross cultures is that the butt of most jokes seems to be people from neighboring countries. So, when our guide saw us giggling about it he said, “It’s cause the Russian and Polish women all have to touch it.”

And sure enough, along came a women who posed with penis in hand and our guide said, see she’s Russian.

All photos on this page © Rhonda Albom 2012

Travel Counter: We are in week 8 of our 250 day overseas adventure.

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Feet Eating Fish, Severed Hands and Shiny Boy Bits

Czechoslovakia was a protectorate of Germany, as a result of the the Munich agreement in which England, France, Italy and Russia traded Czech for protection. The Nazis decided to expand the existing Prague Jewish Museum to contain all of the Jewish artifacts they gathered with the unimaginable intention of creating a museum of an extinct race.

Now the world has a beautiful museum filled with Jewish treasures, yet surrounded by sorrow and loss.  The artifacts are housed in several locations through out Prague’s Jewish Quarter, and no photos were allowed in most of the indoor areas.

The Old New Synagogue, built in the 1200's it was the new synagogue when it was build, now it is the "old" new

This is the Maisel Temple in Prague's old Jewish Quarter

The Old Jewish Cemetery was in use from the early 1400s until 1787. In the Jewish religion bodies cannot be unearthed and moved.  So, as the cemetery become too small new graves were built on top of other graves, only the stones moved to the surface. It is estimated that there are approximately 12,000 tombstones presently visible, and there may be as many as 100,000 burials in all.

Interestingly, Prague’s largest and possibly most beautiful synagogue does not reside in the Old Jewish Quarter.  I blogged a few photos of Prague’s Jerusalem Temple today at my other blog: www.kibitzspot,com

All photos on this page © Rhonda Albom 2012

Travel Counter: We are in week 8 of our 250 day overseas adventure.

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A Tour Through Prague’s Jewish Quarter – One Of Europe’s Oldest

With half of our party under the weather, Melissa and I made an easy day of the National Museum in Prague and then a few other sites. The main building is under renovation (until 2015) so we went to the new building across the street.

The main building of the Prague Museum

We never realized how many things were invented or researched by Czech scientists. Some of the more interesting items were the first classification of blood types by Jan Jánský, the boat screw propeller by Josef Ressel and František Burián who gave birth to the field of plastic surgery. Not to mention the work by Karel Raška in eradicating smallpox.

We were also surprised to see the drafting pencils that I used in high school on display.

I didn't think that I was that old that the pencils I used in high school would be in a museum!

And since we didn’t take any other pictures of the exhibit, here is where we ate lunch:

After lunch, we visited the Prague astronomical clock. The clock is the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working.

The Prague astronomical clock was installed in 1410. The lower dial has one day for each day of the year.

All photos on this page © Melissa Albom 2012

Travel Counter: We are in week 7 of our 250 day overseas adventure.

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A Daddy and Daughter Day in Prague

As soon as I met my nurse I knew the error of my ways. (Berlin was former eastern block, at least part of it anyway.)  Physically my nurse fit the East German stereotype, and she introduced herself as:

“Sister Imgonnahurtyou”

“Pardon?”

“My name is Sister I’m-gonna-hurt-you”

Ok, I am sure that is not what she really said, but it may as well have been.

She took me into a room, attached a bunch of electrodes to me, ran a monitor and then aggressively ripped them off one by one. In the next room I could hear two people practicing their English:

“Hey dude?”

“What’s Up dude?”

“Mother F@#^er”

No kidding, that part is not exaggerated.

Next it was time to take 4 tubes of my blood.  She sprayed my arm and wiped it so hard, I knew it was going to hurt – and it did.

Finally, I met the doctor had an x-ray, was given a treatment and sent home with a respiratory infection and slight inflammation in my blood (what ever that means).  No travel for a few days.

Did we listen?

No.

We had already stayed in Berlin two extra days and I was feeling slightly better when I woke up.  The treatment must have done some good.

Of course, by the time we were packed and loaded in the car, I was ready for my four hour nap – the perfect amount of time needed to get to Prague.

We stopped in Dresden, a charming German town with cobblestone streets for lunch.

Finally we reached Prague.  Our tom-tom was great and gave us clear and precise directions.  The only problem was a new regulation that prohibited cars from driving on the street with our apartment on the first Sunday of the month, and that was the day.  So round and round we drove trying to find a way in.

Finally hubby found one.

“I don’t think you are supposed to go this way.”

“No, probably not.”

“Oh look, the police are at the other end of the road, maybe they will help you.”

And not just one car, half the force.  So, the flag him to pull over.  They said something to him in Czech, then in English,

“Passport and Driver’s license”

Hubby still thinks they are going to help him show them the address he is trying to get to:

“Passport and Driver’s license and get out of the car.”

Now I can only hear part of what is going on, plus, of course the girls want to know if daddy is getting arrested.

“The fine is 2000 Koruna, but if you pay cash now I will let you go for 200 Koruna.”

Of course we don’t have any Koruna yet, but the let him go to the ATM, while we sat in the center of the road surrounded by police and being laughed at by all the pedestrians.

In the end, they did help him and they allowed him to drive down the closed road to get to our apartment.  And it turns out 200 Koruna is only about $13 New Zealand ($10 USA).

An hour later and the street was open, life was back to normal.

Sadly, I was too sick to take photos of the hospital (which was lovely) or of Dresdin, and I was not stupid enough to take photos of the police activity.

So, for those who came for photos, here is our street the next morning:

Wenceslas Square Area - the street we are staying on.

Photo © Rhonda Albom 2012

Travel Counter: We are in week 7 of our 250 day overseas adventure.

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Hospital and Police – Not our best two days