Castle hill at night
Sophie and mom on the Charles bridge with castle hill in back
Inside St. Vitus on castle hill
A funky one-man-band playing on the Charles bridge.
Sophie asleep in the Jewish quarter in Prague
Sophie helping dad steady the umbrella during a sprinkle
Hanging with dad in Prague
Old town square in Prague
St. Nicolas church in Prague
The old town from castle hill
Tyn's church and historic buildings of Prague
We spent three awesome days in Prague. What an amazing place. From Prague we drove three hours south to a little hamlet called Cesky Krumlov. Krumlov was important at one time in the past but for many reasons it fell into sedation between the 1700 and 1945. It was mostly inhabited by Germans and was one of Hitler’s rationales for “re-taking” the Sudetenland at the start of WWII. Well, after the war the Czechs booted all Germans out and Krumlov basically became a ghost town. I’m sure its castle was never abandoned but the town itself fell into decay. Then in the 80’s tourists discovered the place and it’s been a hit ever since. So it really feels like you’re in a time warp there. In the historic part of town, filling a bend in the river, everything is 3 to 5 hundred years old.
Where's Sophie?
Family picture at Cesky Krumlov
The town of Cesky Krumlov
Sophie after mom and dad ate all the cotton candy - she gets the cardboard stick, and is perfectly happy
Anneka outside the Baroque theater of Krumlov castle and the view of the town
The castle is what you go to Krumlov for. It is a sprawling complex only slightly smaller than that of Prague. Considering Prague’s importance for centuries it is pretty impressive to be second largest and be so small a town. One of the castles most amazing features is its Baroque theater. It is the most well preserved Baroque theater in the world. Like I said earlier, the place essentially fell into disuse centuries ago so they packed up all the theater equipment, the costumes, the special effects stuff and turned the lights off and closed the doors. They started restoring the place in 1962 and finished, partially, in 1996. The theater only opened then.
Almost as amazing as the theater was our tour guide. She was a spritely older lady that tried through extensive use of make-up to look 30 years younger. I thought she looked like a spritely older lady with way too much make-up on. Anyways, her English was quite good but you could tell she learned of an exceptional way of expressing grandeur by using the word “wonderful” a lot - a whole lot. What made it so special is that she didn’t say wonderful she always said, in a booming voice, “Bunderful!” The theater is the most bunderful in the burld. You people are bunderful. Cesky Krumlov is bunderful. Bebberyting is bunderful! I don’t really know what she talked about on the brief tour. I just kept hearing sentences punctuated by loud and excited “Bunderfuls!” It was incredibly comic. She had eyed Sophie a lot during the tour and as we left guess what she said Sophie was?
“A bunderful little boy!”
The theater is very dimly lit for reasons of preservation and they also keep the lights low to mimic what it would actually have looked like in the 1700’s. So I guess that’s a good reason for Sophie’s gender to have been misinterpreted despite her blazingly pink outfit.
The town is a great little place to stroll around in and so stroll we did. After spending the night we hopped in the car again to make the trip to Innsbruck, Austria. It’s about a 4 hour drive and we stopped in the middle at Salzburg just for grins. We took some pictures of Sophie at the Mirabel gardens famed for their appearance in The Sound of Music. After a couple hours there we got back in the car to finish the drive. It was another two hours to Innsbruck. We got in a bit late and just went to bed.
Little Miss in Salzburg
Where's Sophie?
Salzburg in the early evening
Sophie having an after dinner snooze at Mozart's house in Salzburg
Curious George
The Cindrich's at Mirabel Gardens on our very mini Sound of Music tour
Next day was a bit overcast in the morning as I went out to find breakfast. Just walked into the tourist center of town turning neither left nor right and ran straight into the McDonalds. I got something to eat and to bring something back for the girls. Then we left to explore. It started to sprinkle a bit then sprinkling turned to rain. We dove into a pricey church to see the tomb of the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian. We’d actually never even heard of him but he’s got a nice tomb as tombs go. Sadly he bankrupted himself building it while still alive so when he died they didn’t bury him in it because I guess it wasn’t paid for. So now it’s just a pricey tourist stop. Innsbruck isn’t famous for its sites since it hasn’t got many so the rain didn’t preclude us from seeing virtually everything.
Loving my nifty plastic cover - keeps me dry and prevents me from tossing Teddy Lion out
The church where Maximilian is buried, sort of
We could have gone to Max’s palace but the guidebook said not to if you been to a couple others in the area. We’d been to those others so we opted out. Instead we hopped in the car for the drive through the Alps to Bolzano, Italy. It was overcast, gray and rainy as we left and about 68 degrees. In about the hour and a half it took to get to Bolzano it turned to sunny and about 92 degrees. The only complaint is that on the Austrian side of the mountains it was hard to see the mountains themselves, or at least the dramatic peaks. But the scenery was breathtaking otherwise. I totally lolly-gagged my way to Bolzano just soaking it up. We got to Bolzano in the early afternoon and checked into a really modern Sheraton property in the business district. It has a rooftop pool and nice views of the surrounding mountains. We went into town to walk around and see one of the city’s main attractions – the Iceman. The Iceman is a 5,500 year old dude that was discovered at like 10,000 feet in elevation by some German hikers back in 1991 or 1992 I think. Anyways, they find this guys head and torso partially sticking out of the snow so they snap a picture then go tell the authorities. They come up in a helicopter and with pick axes and hack what they think is a dead hiker out and put him in a body bag and take him down. Only later do they realize that they’ve found the most well preserved human ever. The scientists were pissed at the way the whole thing was handled because as the local sheriff type guy hacked him out of the ice they damaged parts of him extensively. This guy is so well preserved that they know in what area he was born, where he spent time as an adult, what he had for dinner the day he died and where the water came from that was in him from 12 hours before death. As forensic experts analyzed him over the years they shot video and it was part of the display and you could see that the guys flesh was still moist and pliable. It was morbid in one sense but I was thoroughly amazed by the whole display. They have the guys clothes and hunting equipment. Even the grass mat he slept on was totally preserved. They built an entire museum around this guy and then loaded it with other mummified remains that have been discovered all over the world. There were peat bog people and animals there, Peruvian mummies, Egyptian mummies, the mayor of some Hungarian town from 1830 was there still in his burial outfit. Like I said it was a bit macabre on one hand but really, really amazing on the other. It was also interesting to note how possessive the Italians are of him. They make reference over and over to the hotly contested fact that he was found in Italy. It was a big dispute since Austrian authorities got him first and their scientist were first to examine him but had to give him over to the Italians when the Italians were able to prove he was found like 10 meters on the Italian side of the border. And, unlike other museums we’ve been to this one had a play area for children. Anneka was done in a fraction of the time I was in terms of seeing the museum so she took Sophie down to play there. From what I hear Sophie was in 7th heaven. She pushed boxes around the room like there was no tomorrow. In fact I left the top floor of the museum as it was closing and could hear blood curdling screams from four floors below and I knew that voice. I thought Anneka would be miffed at me for taking so long. But it was that Sophie had to leave the play room and so she totally wigged out. I think we’re in for a rude awakening as Sophie begins to find herself as the months progress and she turns two. As for this trip, by and large she was astoundingly good. Case in point was today. I got up early and went for a swim. All of us went to breakfast in the hotel and then we loaded up the car again and headed out to explore. This time it was in the Alps. We drove about an hour north up the side of the mountain on these really narrow super winding roads to the base of a tram that would take us up several thousand more feet to a high alpine meadow.
My first Gondola ride
Sophie was diggin' just looking out. Daddy is afraid of heights so he was wiggin' out
When we got there we were a little confused at exactly what to do with ourselves. I mean, it’s a sprawling area with ski lifts going off in all directions. There are extensive paved and unpaved roads and trails. Our guide book laid out a couple recommended hikes but the minimum was four hours long. I didn’t think I could carry Sophie on my back for four hours and hike up and down on a trail. In the end there was a bike shop up there and we had an idea to rent some bikes. So we found out they have mountain bikes and one had a little baby seat in the back. So we strapped Soph in and went off riding.
Note the omni-present Teddy Lion, I should do a where's Teddy Lion series of pictures
It was really a groovy experience. It was sunny and beautiful and despite being really hot at lower elevations was not too bad at the altitude we were at. We biked around for about two hours and decided to quit when Sophie started falling asleep in the seat back there but had nothing to rest her head on but my butt. This is I guess a long explanation of why I think Sophie was so good this trip. She just went with the flow. Never getting too picky or too needy. We tried our best to anticipate what she’d want in terms of eating but she was so good. Anyways, apart from the fact that Soph was falling asleep in back our butts were KILLING us! Tour de France riders must have butts of steel or something. We were on the bikes for two hours and we both thought we’d need surgery after we got off. But it was super fun and rewarding.
Biking in the Dolomites
Ah, the fresh air and the views
Soph just wanted to crawl around in the grass. She freaked when we picked her up to put her back on the bike after we tried to feed her some lunch
I wanted to continue driving around in the mountains afterward but it was getting late. We were on the 15 minute tram ride down and realized we couldn’t find Sophie’s noonie on a string. I remembered having it at the bike rental place but not after that. So I talked the lift attendant into letting me ride back up to see if I could find it while Anneka fed and changed Sohp and let her sleep. I was walking along the road back to the shop and a cement truck drove by on his way to a new hotel being built up there. Moments later I saw the noonie on the ground. The cement truck had driven over it seconds before. So the little clippy thing was crushed. Back at the bottom I went to a ski rental shop and borrowed some pliers and straightened it out enough to clip. We’d go through a dozen noonies a day without that clippy thing as Soph spits those things out like watermelon seeds when she’s done with them and that could happen anywhere. So I was determined to find hers and despite its mangled state we’ll be glad we have it. Anyways after we got back to Bolzano we went to dinner then to grab a gelato then back to the hotel for a swim. Anneka brought Sophie some swim diapers, which I don’t understand the concept behind them, and we swam once in Prague and once here. She loves being in the pool.
Its getting late now and I want to post this and go to bed. I think this will be my last post for this trip. Tomorrow we go to Garmisch in Germany then to Munich only to catch a plane back to Paris then spend the night at a Paris airport hotel before flying home to Salt Lake. As always the trip has left me with many great memories, about 1,200 pictures, and a sore butt. I always find amazing things when I come and truly enjoy seeing new sites and hearing foreign languages. But I also am grateful for where I come from and look forward to going home. We’re blessed to travel away from home and blessed to be able to return home.
If any of you have actually read this next time you see me ask me what Sophie did in the shower back in Reims.
See you all in a couple of days. Alf Weederzehen!
Chris, Anneka and Sophie
