Prague Castle with the Ficks

Day two in Prague was spent at the castle, which is on the other side of the Charles Bridge from the Old Town.   It provides some great views of the city, as well as some great sight seeing itself.

All I really remember about the Prague Castle from our last visit was the walk uphill to get there.  We didn't go inside and the walk up the stairs to get there was a trek.  This time, my lack of lung capacity due to the little guy made that climb a little more intimidating, but I knew we'd go inside, so it was totally worth it (I'm also being very dramatic and the climb isn't that bad. I just like to complain.).

Once you make it to the top of the hill, you get to the castle, which is actually a whole complex.  You can walk around the complex for free, but to go in different buildings, you need a ticket.  We bought the middle ticket, which gets you into the mid level selection of buildings, including the cathedral.







After the cathedral, we went into the Old Royal Palace.

Anna was so excited to see this window where the Defenestration of Prague took place.  She was having flashbacks to her high school European history class!

We wandered around the castle grounds for a while

before bidding farewell to the castle and heading back across the Charles Bridge. Naturally, we had to take some photos.  

We asked this woman to take a picture of the four of us and ended up getting a full photo shoot!  I'll spare you the plethora of pictures and just share this one because I think it's probably the best of 20.

The guys didn't want a picture of them together. It's fine because there's no way to capture how happy those two were to be back together.  They were giddy all week.  Anna and I would walk behind and just laugh at how happy they were. There were lots of times where the four of us would be walking and Anna and I would go to stand next to our husband, while our husbands would go and stand next to each other.  #priorities. :D 

We ended the afternoon with traditional Czech street dessert, a trdelnik.  It's fried dough with cinnamon sugar on it (I'm pretty sure you can get other toppings, but the cinnamon sugar is my fave) and so good.  Not overwhelmingly sweet, but definitely does the job. The guys got their millionth cup of coffee of the day and we headed back to the hotel to warm up before going to happy hour in the lounge and dinner. 

The Ficks Come to Visit!

We love this experience we're on and there a plethora of experiences that we know we get to have that many other people don't.  That being said, one of the hardest parts about this experience is we don't feel like we've made any lifelong friends.  Part of it is that we travel so much so we aren't around on the weekends to hang out with Mike's classmates. A problem that I don't even feel I can complain about! That being said, when friends come to visit, we get excited! When they're our best friends, we get REALLY excited!  I think Mike was excited to have a guy to hang out with (most of his classmates are girls and then me) and I was thrilled to have Anna around to talk baby things with.  Plus, it's just fun to show off your home and new town.

Anna and Mike arrived around mid-morning on Saturday and we loaded them up into our car and headed west to the Czech Republic.  We originally had planned to spend the night in Cesky Krumlov since we had all heard great things about it, but some car trouble forced us to stop early in Prague.  Not a terrible thing!  We had already been planning to spend the following few nights there, so having an extra night there really wasn't that much of an inconvenience.

That night, we ventured out for dinner and Mike and Mike stayed out for a night of Czech beer drinking. Luckily, they were able to recover the next morning as we set out to follow our buddy Rick Steves on his walking tour around Prague.

That baby bump is starting to make an appearance!

I love Prague

I'm sure Rick Steves told us why this horse is upside down, but I don't remember and it just looks like a weird statue in the middle of a mall to me.

We ventured in to the Czech/European version of FAO Schwartz, which was fun, even for four adults.  They have a merry-go-round in the store and a slide that goes from the second level to the one below.  Mike even found a life size bear.  He's now determined to get one for the nursery when we get back to the states.  

The entrance to the Charles Bridge

After our walking tour, we went and got Mexican for lunch.  I'm always glad when guests don't want German food because, as good as meat and potatoes are, I can only eat but so much.  Czech food is basically the same, so I was glad they weren't dead set on Czech food.  Plus, who can resist a good burrito?

That afternoon, we headed to Jewish ghetto which was super interesting.  Mike Hogan and I didn't do that last time, so I was glad to add something new to our itinerary.  The main attraction of the Jewish ghetto is the cemetery where they think over 100,000 bodies are buried, but there are also six synagogues you can go in and there is all sorts of Jewish history throughout.  While there was almost too much information (a trend we've noticed in European museums), we all learned a lot about Jewish history. It's definitely worth an afternoon if you're in Prague. 

We retired to the hotel for a little nap and happy hour in the lounge before heading out to watch the Ravens' game at an Irish pub.  How's that for cross cultural? Eating at an Irish Pub in the Czech Republic while watching American football.  It was a great way to end our first full day in Prague and we went to bed with tired feet and happy hearts.  It's fun having your friends visit. Really fun.