Prague

While our visitors were here, my sis Kristin and brother-in-law Richie, Kyle had a stretch of four days off.   We wanted to do a short trip during those days, so we were deciding between Berlin and Prague.  After hearing such wonderful things about Prague from everyone who has been, and watching Rick Steves on Hulu, we decided on Prague.  It is an easy five hour drive from our place, and as usual, it was a gorgeous  and scenic drive.

We got to Prague in the afternoon and checked into our apartment in the Mala Strana neighborhood with a beautiful view of the river and the Charles Bridge. 

Kristin enjoying the view from the apartment

View of the Charles bridge from the apartment window

We headed out for the evening, with no particular destination in mind. One of my favorite things to do in a new city is wander aimlessly, and walk in whatever direction looks interesting. That's exactly what we did that first evening. We strolled across the Charles Bridge to the Old Town, taking pictures, looking at street vendors selling jewelry, paintings and sketches, and listening to the unique sounds of street bands. We made our way to the main square, which is so beautiful with it's Gothic towers, Baroque churches, and brightly painted facades. We decided that this would be the perfect place for our first Czech beer. The Czech Republic is famous for their beer, in particular, the pilsners and lagers. We were not let down!

One end of the Charles Bridge

It's easy to see why Prague is called the "City of Spires

 

Interior of a church off of the Old Town Square, now used for concerts

The Old Town square

We had dinner reservations that evening at a Medieval Tavern where there's a little show to go along with your dinner in a candlelit, pirate looking cellar.  I know, very touristy, but we are tourists, and it was fun!  In between dinner courses we watched sword fights, belly dancers, and musicians.  For a main course, Kyle, Kristin and I ate pork knee...I bet you didn't know that you could eat a pig's knee, did you?  Well, you can, and it was pretty good if you can get over how it looks. It was a great first night in Prague!

Kyle and Richie with their tasty dark lagers

An awesome view of the Prague Castle on our way back to the apartment

The next day we got up early, ate at a great breakfast place called Bohemia Bagel, and began our full day of sightseeing.   We started in the beautiful and impressive St. Nicholas Cathedral, which was just around the corner from our apartment. Then, we started the steep climb to the Prague Castle.  The castle is more of a huge complex of buildings and churches rather than what you picture as a castle.  It sits on a hill with amazing views overlooking the city.  (Right outside of the castle, I was very excited to see a band that was on the Prague episode of Rick Steves!)

The interior of the beautiful St. Nicholas Cathedral

View of the Prague Castle complex from above

The band from Rick Steves! (I'm a nerd, so what?)

St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague Castle

A close up of Mucha's Art Nouveau stained glass window.  Gorgeous colors!

The burial place of St. Wenceslas

The working class houses of Prague Castle

After a full morning of Castles and Cathedrals, we headed to the apartment for some lunch and to rest up for the rest of the day.  Once we were recharged and refueled, we made our way to Wenceslas Square.  (Wencelas, as in the jolly good king, who was considered a martyr and saint, and is an important Czech figure since he's from Bohemia.)  Wenceslas Square is an important commercial and social center of Prague's New Town (it's not new though, it still dates back to the middle ages).  That day, they happened to have a street fair set up of traditional Czech food.  Lucky for us!  We got to try a really good sweet bread called trdelnik, where they roll the dough into a long rope, wrap it around a round metal rolling pin looking thing, and rotate over a fire to bake.  Once it's baked, they slide it off and roll it in sugar and nuts.  We enjoyed our trdelnik with hot wine, while Richie stuck with some beer and sausage.

The gigantic Czech National Museum at the top of Wenceslas Square

Trdelniks rotating over a fire, mmmmmm!

Warming up with hot wine and trdelnik (aka rolly bread in my language)

That evening we walked through the park near our apartment to a great restaurant, recommended by a local, called Olympia.  They had a large menu to choose from of traditional Czech food.  Kristin had delicious beef ghoulash with bread and potato dumplings, Kyle and Richie both had beef roast in a cream sauce with dumplings, and I had roast duck with dumplings.  I was very surprised when our food came out and they set half a duck in front of me!  It was melt in your mouth goodness!

Both dishes were mine!  I can't believe I ate the whole thing...just kidding! 

The next day we started out in the Jewish Quarter to see the Jewish Cemetery and a few of the city's historic synagogues.  The cemetery was really interesting and sad at the same time.  It was the only place available to Jews for burial for over 300 years, so it's said that some of the graves are stacked 12 deep.  The oldest gravestone there dates back to 1439.

After touring the Jewish Quarter, we admired the gorgeous Art Noveau buildings on our way back to the Old Town Square.  (Prague is said to be the best Art Nouveau city in Europe.)  We had lunch at a Spanish/Mexican restaurant that was actually really good!  We chose that restaurant because it was in the perfect location to eat outside and watch the famous astronomical clock in action. It's a tower clock that keeps track of not only the time, but position of the sun, astronomical signs, the saint of the day, ancient Czech time, etc.  Needless to say, we weren't quite sure how to read it, but it's really cool! It was built in 1410, making it even cooler!

 

 

You can see the Apostles parading by the top windows

That afternoon we hiked up Petřín Hill, a really nice park on a big hill. At the top of the hill is a small version of the Eiffel tower where you can go to the top for an amazing view of the city. It had been cloudy most of our trip, which made Kyle not overly happy with his photos. On our way down the hill, the sun decided to make an appearance, which made for a much more energetic Kyle! He went to morph speed to get in some good shots before the sun left us again. The city really did look much more cheerful in the sun, and so did Kyle!

Pretty sites on our way to the park

Petřín Tower

View from the top

Looking down the tower

Here we come, walkin down the street...

Soaking up the sun

A cool candid shot Kyle caught of a Czech woman.  What an interesting life she's probably experienced!

For our last dinner in Prague, we ate at a small Mom and Pop kind of restaurant, where we had another wonderful dinner. The Czech food is extremely hearty and filling, which is perfect for tourists on chilly days. (I wonder what they eat when it's really hot out?)

On our way out of the city the next day, we went to see a special sight that is important to our friend, Jason N. (who gave us awesome insider tips for our trip) and his family. His grandparents are Czech, and escaped Prague in 1938 before the Nazi invasion. They left behind a beautiful home and a bank, which became the Gestapo headquarters, and is now the Ministry of Industry and Trade. They moved to New York City, where they became successful once again.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry

Prague is a unique and wonderful city that we definitely plan to visit again. We loved the beautiful sights, intriguing history, tasty beer, and great company. 

The First Guests of the Guynn B & B

Sorry it's been a while since our last post, but we've been very busy with our first guests! My sister and brother-in-law, Kristin and Richie, came for an awesome two week visit. They had a very long list of places they wanted to visit, so we were always on the go, squeezing every last minute of German (and Czech) fun into those two weeks!  All of the pics from our travels while Kyle was at work are thanks to Richie's photographic artistry.  Thanks, Richie!

Richie came ready with some lederhosen!

Kristin and Richie arrived on a rainy Sunday morning, and to get them acclimated to the time change, we started off with a full day. After some strong coffee and pumpkin coffee cake at home, we headed to a nearby castle, Hohenzollern. What better way to start a German vacation? Although we didn't get good views because of rain and fog, we toured the inside of the castle which was very impressive. After our castle tour, we headed to Tübingen, our favorite local town. We strolled the quiet streets and Marktplatz and had some hearty German food at a great brewery, the Neckarmüller. We spent the evening at home getting ready for the first of several trips. A castle, a quaint town, and lunch at a brewery; not too bad for a first day in Germany!

The fog made the castle seem moody and mystical.

Kris and Richie in front of the Rathaus in Tübingen

Tübingen

Early the next morning we headed out to visit the German Alps in Garmisch on the southern border of Germany. It was about a three hour drive full of beautiful scenery of mountains, rolling hills, cows and sheep in green pastures, and the colors of fall leaves. Once we got tho Garmisch via a short jaunt into Austria, we headed straight for the train station to buy our tickets to head up to the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany. We made our way up to the top on a cog-wheel train followed by a surprisingly fast moving tram. (Richie was ultra excited to ride the cog-wheel train! You could tell by the grin plastered across his face the whole time!)

The tram to the top of Germany!

Stepping out onto the peak of the Zugspitze takes your breath away, not only because of the thin air, but the indescribable beauty that surrounds you. It was a clear and sunny day, so we could see over 400 mountain peaks in four different countries. There was already some snow at the top, giving it that distinct Alpine look. We ate a really good German lunch at the top, and had probably the highest beer (and wine for Kristin) that we've ever had. We spent a while up there, getting pics from every angle, but not really being able to capture the beauty.

The actual peak of the Zugspitze

Garmisch in the valley below

That evening we spent window shopping and walking the quiet streets of Garmisch. It's a quintessential Bavarian town with Alpine style buildings covered with beautiful paintings. We found a nice little Italian restaurant for dinner (I was a little bit tired of sausage and kraut!). There were several shops we wanted to visit that were closed, so we hit those the next morning including a chocolate shop, a Christmas shop, an old hardware store, and a shop where you choose a bottle, and you can fill it with a number of things like liqueurs, scotch, olive oil, vinegars, etc.

We stayed in an upper floor apartment here in Garmisch

View from our apartment

On our way home, even though it was rainy, we stopped for a visit to Neuschwanstein castle, Germany's fairy tale castle that inspired Disney's castle. Despite the rain and the scaffolding on the castle, we had beautiful views from the top and we got a cool tour of the inside. We'll definitely go back to see the castle after the restoration is complete! At the beginning of our tour, we got to see someone propose to his girlfriend. So sweet!

View from a window of the castle (we weren't allowed to take pics inside)

View on the way to the castle

We spent the next couple of days in the local area. Kyle had to go back to work. Kristin, Richie and I spent a day shopping at a local grocery store, a drink market, a mall, and a Home Depot type store. (Guess who wanted to visit the hardware store :-) We went to downtown Stuttgart and visited the central Schlossplatz and a cool indoor marketplace. After that went spent the rest of the day at the Volksfest. It is so much fun!

Enjoying the Volksfest.  Prost!

The three of us also took a train to Munich for a day.  The weather was decent when we got there.  We checked out the main sites and had lunch at a nice biergarten in an awesome outdoor market.  After lunch, it pretty much rained the rest of the day, but that didn't stop us!  We toured the Royal Residence, saw the Glockenspiel in the Marienplatz, saw the relics at St. Peter's church, and of course we checked out a couple of Munich's infamous beer halls.  

The Glockenspiel

Relics at Peterskirche

We had dinner at the Brauhaus of one of Richie's favorite German beers, Ayinger.

Enjoying beer and pretzels at the infamous Hofbrauhaus

 We were pretty tired after our Munich trip, so the next day we took it easy and stayed local. We did a little bit of shopping in Tübingen since most of the shops were closed when we were there on Sunday. We ate lunch outside at a Mexican restaurant. Based on our previous experience at a German-Mexican restaurant, I didn't have high expectations. However, the food was very good even though it was very different than the States' delicious version of Mexican food. Our tacos looked more like enchiladas, but I would still go back. We also took a walk on our usual path along the edge of the park across the street from home where we usually walk Gizmo. It's so beautiful, it's hard to believe that it's just out of our front door! That evening we cooked some amazing, homemade German food. We made sauerbraten, which is a beef roast marinaded for a couple of days in a vinegar based marinade with vegetables, homemade spaetzle, and red kraut. It was absolutely delish!

Enjoying fall colors along the path by our house

Some sis time in the kitchen making homemade spaetzle, which turned out amazing!

Sauerbraten, crumb coated spaetzle, veggies, red kraut, and bread from the bakery

Kyle had the next four days off, so we took a trip to Prague.  It is such an amazing city and Kyle took tons of beautiful pictures, so we're saving it for a separate blog post, coming soon!  The evening before we left, we dropped Gizmo off at the dog sitter's house in a cool village called Weil der Stadt.  We took a walk around town to check it out; here are a few pics of the beautiful little town. 

When we got back from Prague, Kris and Richie only had two days left in Germany, both of which Kyle had to work.  The first day back we enjoyed the beautiful weather and fall colors by taking a walk through and outside of the ultra scenic and quaint Monastery town of Bebenhausen, about 10 minutes south of us.  We did some tasting of local wines just outside of Stuttgart.  We met the owner of the winery and got to see a little bit of  the wine-making process.  Usually when you do a wine tasting, you get to choose about 5-8 wines.  At this place, she just kept pouring samples, and we must have had at least 12 different types!  That evening we made good, old-fashioned grilled American burgers for dinner.  Sometimes, a burger just hits the spot.  

The cute town of Bebenhausen

Unfortunately Kyle had to work, but the three of us took a trip to the Black Forest for their last day here.  It was about an hour and a half drive to our first destination.  We went to an open air museum (kind of like a German Connor Prairie for you Hoosiers out there) where we saw a lot of really neat Black Forest homes and buildings dating from the late 1500s through the 1800s.  There were homes, mills, blacksmith shops, and outbuildings from the Black Forest set up like they would have been during those times.  

Richie is quite proud of himself posing on the john in the outhouse

Baaaaaa

 Our next stop was Triberg, where Kyle and I had visited earlier in the Spring.  It's a cute, little town where you can shop for cuckoo clocks, master wood carvings, Black Forest ham, and schnapps.  By far, the best thing about the town is Germany's tallest waterfall at the top of the main street.  We hiked to the top, stopping to take pictures along the way.  Every turn of the path has an amazing view. After our hike and a bit of shopping, we of course had to stop for some Black Forest cake and coffee. Mmmmmmm!!

Black Forest Cake and coffee, mmmmmmm!!

 For their last dinner in Germany, we could think of no better place to eat than a biergarten.  We went to the one in the park by our house.  It was already dark when we got there, but we still enjoyed our curry wurst with pommes and maultaschen with potato salad along with our beers and apple strudel for dessert.  We had an awesome time with Kristin and Richie and were sad to see them go.  We already know that the next time they come out we're heading to Belgium!  

Stay tuned for the Prague post!