Adventures through Central and Eastern Europe

So we had the extreme pleasure of having the Grumps in house these past three weeks and Cyd and I (yes it's Jason posting), decided to take advantage of the free babysitting by going on a road trip. We flew into Frankfurt Hahn airport via Ryan air (it really is the Greyhound of the European skies), rented a car and headed east.

Our first stop was Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, but hey they should speak english right!?) It's a great little mideaval (how do you spell that?) town that's been pretty much intact since the 30 years war in the 1600's. Our Gasthaus was in a beautiful little square, you can see some of the pictures.



Here's Cyd having a "sparkling beer", German beer with Sprite. I mean really, what's the point. I guess if it's the only way i can make her drink beer, so be it. The next shot is of the main fountain in the square. Apparently this was the only source of water for the folks in the town. I hope that's not the case now because there were a lot of pigeons. The next shot is of me at the town wall. I think at this point we were so tired from the first day's trip that we just walked around and tried to soak in what we could. There was a wine festival going on that night, and there were a lot of drunken Germans floating around. Drunk Germans, really gave us the "Real Experience" of Germany.

I would have to say that Rothenburg was probably one of the top five highlights of the trip. If we do get back to Germany it would be nice to go there again.

This is the square, immediately to the left was our guest house. It's like Disneyland isn't it? I kept expecting Snow White and Goofy to pop out of the alleys and start singing "It's a Small World".

Time for an espresso in the European style. They also had something called "snowballs" (of course it was in German). They were like fried doughnuts in a ball. The Germans really know how to fry things.

Here's big lova at the fountain. She wanted me to delete this, but hey, I write the blog this time I get to pick what photos are on.

Here's some picture of a "Christmas town". Cyd and I split up and while I was learning about the long and illustrious history of Rothenburg, Cyd was getting her "shop" on by going in some of the crafty stores. Christmas stuff is a big sell there in Germany, Cyd made quite a few purchases. I didn't get a picture, but my big find was the oldest kitchen in Germany that was in a nearby Abbey; I don't know, which is best, crafty stuff or history?

Here's a view down the road to our guest house, we were really lucky with the weather the whole trip. It got a little cold at the end, but the first few days were amazing.

Now onward, to the Czech Republic! Somehow it would sound so much more romantic to say that we headed into Czechoslovakia, but alas, those days are over. It's amazing that just a few years ago it wouldn't even have been possible. Besides the transition from uptight Germany to the more g0-go captialism of the Czech Republic, it's not really that big of a deal to cross the border. We weren't even stopped. We had to get some Czech Crown money vs. the Euro and the language was indecipherable, but otherwise smooth sailing!

Ah Prague. What a beautiful city, and in it's day a political powerhouse. Communism really dimmed it's lights, but for us tourists, really kept it as a snapshot of time. Lots of gothic architecture and buidings stuck in time from the 1700's. Some fun communist block buildings too just to mix it up. I was surprised at the amount of art nouveau buidlings. I guess nothing was torn down from the 50's until the Velvet revolution in the 90's. Good for them. I'm standing in the middle of Vene lausch square in Prague. It felt like a real city with real bums and pollution. So much for clean Europe right?

Part of Prague Castle. Seat of power for the Czech royalty for over 800 years, for what it's worth.

Astronomical clock in the main square. When it chimes, a little skeleton rings a bell and characters from the 1500's (the first animitronics, screw Disney) come out and do a jig. Tourists love it (and so did I of course).

Charles bridge. Layed down in the 1500's. Great statues. Beautiful and romantic at night.

Here's a beautiful art nouveah town hall in Prague. It's really something with the stained glass and great turn of the century decor. They still put on Mozart and Dvorak operas there. It's a wonderful piece out of time

Finally, a shot at a true Czech wonder of cuisine. The roasted pig leg (or knuckle as Cyd likes to call it). It's all the rage in traditional Czech pub cuisine. They give you a whole pig leg on a spike for around 10 bucks. It's actually really good, but suspiciously, the next day i had a really bad case of the Czech revenge (ala Montezumas revenge, I'll let you figure it out).

O.K., that's enough for now. I'll give you more Czech tomorrow, finish up our trip with a tour of Pilzen, Munich, Heidelberg, and our hillarious passport adventures next time along with a great post of Colby and James first days at school, a must see. Stay tuned!!!!