texans on the autobahn

Czech it out!

Prague is the place to be! Can you believe it? We can now add the Czech Republic to our list of European places we have visited! Last weekend we drove 4 hours in a small American convoy with our neighbors and their children. Never, ever, ever would I have imagined that any of us would visit the Czech Republic! Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic. We walked from our hotel through the Royal Gardens to spend the remainder of the day at Prague Castle, the largest ancient castle in Europe, which was constructed in the 9th century! There were so many parts to this enormous castle that visiting it all was impossible, especially with 5 boys in tow, though they all did quite well minus the occaisional brotherly bickering. Within the walls of Prague Castle is St. Vitus's Cathedral, the largest and the most important church in Prague. Apart from divine services the coronations of Czech kings and queens also took place in it. The remains of provincial patron saints, sovereigns, noblemen and archbishops are interred here. Within St. Vitus's Cathedral is a bell tower. To reach the top of the bell tower you must walk up 287 steps. . .we told Joe to count them, but he lost count along the way.

One evening during our brief holiday, the adults had dinner with a colleague of our neighbor. The food was incredible, but the best part was the moving sculpture of two men peeing in front of the restaurant. I know that doesn't sound very funny, maybe one of those "you have to see it to believe it" things. The man we had dinner with is personal friends with the restaurant owner. This is one of five restaraunts he owns in Prague and his idea is to have something to attract people to his restaurant. So for this particular restaurant, he has this sculpture which certainly draws many people in. . .the funniest part is that near the sculpture is a phone number which you can send a text message to in the form of someone's name - so if you're having a bad day, perhaps PISSED OFF at someone, simply text the person's name and one of the sculptures will then "piss" the name! You have to admit, that is pretty funny and original! Unfortunately none of us had our cameras and so we don't have a photo.

On our last night there, the Czech Republic National Hockey team was playing in the championship and the town square was set up with screens for watching the game, a stage with a band and thousands of people having a great time. The next morning in the local paper was a photo of the winning Czech team!

We would like to visit Prague again to see all we were unable to see!

posted by stuckinthemiddle @ 4:11 PM