Summer Trip 2018: Day 8 Travel to Krakow

We left our apartments at 8:45 on Saturday morning and walked to the tram stop.  The trams weren't as frequent, but we caught one and arrived at the train station by 9:20, which was an hour before our train was scheduled to depart.  We had to wait until about 30 minutes before it came before we knew what platform it would be on.  We went there and waited and were part of the mad rush to get on the train.

We were happy that we had reserved seats.  It took about ten minutes once the train had started until we were able to get to our compartment and get settled in, but we had a space, and it was comfortable and nice.  The air conditioning was weak, but worked well enough when the train was running.  We enjoyed the trip - it was very smooth - through the countryside.  The first part of the journey was especially nice travelling through the low mountains with a river alongside the tracks.

Train from Prague to Krakow

The Czech countryside

The trip took us most of the day - we were scheduled to arrive at about 5:30 in Krakow.  After about 2.5 hours, the train had emptied quite a bit, and so our girls went and hung out with the Stice girls and the adults shared a cabin.  I read, and we talked and just had a nice day.  For the kids the highlight was probably the assortment of candy that I had bought at the train station that we ate for snacks while we traveled.

Our apartments were in different buildings a few blocks away from each other, so we split up at the train station.  We needed to be at our apartment before 6:00 so that we could check in.  The Stices had been sent a code for their apartment, so didn't have the same time constraint.  We planned to meet them in the morning to go to Auschwitz.  We found our street and our apartment quickly.  It helped that I am pretty familiar with this part of Krakow since I was at a conference here two years ago.

We checked into the apartment, which was the nicest one we've had on our trip - and probably ever in all of our travels.  Then we went and ate - a quick dinner at McDonald's since we'd just had road snacks all day and were hungry.  The McDonald's had seating in the basement which was very neat and fit in with the architecture of the old city very well.

Sodispar Luxury Old Town Apartments - stay here if you come to Krakow!

The kids room - biggest room with the best bathroom ever!

Basement of McDonald's

 After we ate we wandered a bit, and found out that it was Krakow days.  We saw the old square and a bit of a concert with a Polish rock band.  We then found a place with ice cream and got some cones.  We found a grocery store and stocked up on breakfast items, and then headed home.  We got a bit turned around and ended up circling around the old town for awhile.  We arrived home in enough time to get settled in for the evening.  We had an early day planned for our trip to see Auschwitz.

Art along the wall in Old Town

Archway

Inside the walls  of Krakow

The main square and old market - with traditional horse carriage for flair.

Souvenir market in center of old square

View of people on square

Exploring old town.

There's always room for Ice Cream (Lody)

Summer Trip 2017: Day 7 - Last full day in Prague

Our last day in Prague we planned to have a bit lighter than usual.  Our plan was to walk to the Prague Castle, and then to see the sculpture of Franz Kakfa's head (done by the same artist as the peeing men from the day before).  We woke up and went early in the morning before it got to warm and too crowded.  The walk up to Prague Castle wasn't too bad, and we were there about the time it opened. Prague Castle is the biggest ancient castle in the world and was a residence for the kings and Holy Roman Emperors, and is still the residence for the president of Czech Republic.

The view on our way to the Prague Castle.

We opted to just walk around the grounds and not go into any of the museums.  There was lots to see, including the changing of the guard, beautiful landscaping and fountains, and beautiful architecture throughout.  We spent a few hours on the grounds and really enjoyed it.  We also really loved the view of the city from the hill - it was worth the climb just to see that view.  One thing that we noticed is that there were lots of Asian couples taking wedding photos - we saw probably five or six different couples.

Christmas in July. Well, it is almost July

St. Vitus Cathedral

Gargoyles on the Cathedral walls

Family with a view!

Lexa, the model!

View from the other side of the cathedral

Little courtyard by the Cathedral

Sending a post card from Prague. Who is the lucky recipient? That person will find out in a couple of weeks.

Courtyard with a statue.

A view of St. Vitus Cathedral from lower grounds

Gardens inside the castle grounds.

Guards

Changing of the guard

Changing ceremony

More Gothic architecture.

One of the beautiful views of Prague from the castle.

Lots of girl-tourist were striking this pose for their pictures. We decided to have fun and copy them. This is Nika. She took the modeling very seriously!

Lina

That's Lexa's regular pose, so she didn't have to work on anything.

Sophie

Mama.

And the winner is ... Papa!

Another beautiful view of Prague

We walked down the hill and caught a tram to the mall where the Franz Kafka head was located.  The statue moved around in very interesting ways and was completely fascinating.  We stopped and had Subway sandwiches for lunch before walking back to our apartment.

Getting on the tram. We used them a lot while in Prague.

Franz Kafka statue.  Each level moves. There are a total of 40 plates/levels that make up the statue.  The entire head also rotates around once in awhile.

The walk back to the apartment led us through the souvenir district, and so we spent some time looking at things and bought a few keepsakes while we were there. Yulia got a new bag to replace the one that had broken on our second day in Russia, and I got a stein to drink my herbal tea out of.  My dad used to have a set he got on his mission to Germany that we would drink lemon herbal tea out of - so I got it in memory of him.

Checking our a puppet shop.

We also happened by the astronomical clock when it was set to chime again, so we stayed and watched it a second time.  We spent a few hours at home packing and staying cool, and then went out to dinner.  We went to a place just around the corner from where we were staying and had another amazing round of Czech food.  We were very happy with our culinary choices in Prague!  That was it, our time in Prague was at an end.

At dinner Mimi and Taraz were making Lexa laugh. Of course, one doesn't have to work too hard to make Lexa laugh.

Summer Trip 2017: Day 6 - River Tour and Model Trains

Our third day in Prague was planned to be a bit lighter.  It was our hottest day so far with temperatures above 90 all day.  We walked first to the Old Town Square and saw the oldest working astronomical clock in the world.  On the hour two doors open up and the twelve apostles cycle around (6 on each side) and death pulls a bell that rings throughout.  It was very neat to see.

On the Old Square 

This is the church we think looked like Hogwarts

Waiting to see the clock strike 10.

The astronomical clock.

After that we walked down and saw a sculpture at the public library that is made out of books.  The sculpture is neat on its own, but it also has mirrors at the top and bottom, which make it like an endless well of books that is fascinating.  We stopped by the Marionette theater, but it wasn't open, so we didn't buy tickets.

Book sculpture from the outside.

Looking into and down the sculpture.

We walked from there to the Charles Bridge, where we spent about twenty minutes listening to a group consisting of two violins, two cellos, and a percussionist (with a box she sat on) playing pop and rock songs.  We decided to take a river tour, so we went and bought tickets.  On the boat tour we saw the sights and sipped lemonade.  It was a beautiful view and a nice way to avoid the worst of the heat.

On the street.  This was where they made the tower cakes.

Walking in the city.

Statue of Charles

Group of musicians playing pop and rock songs.

Ladies on the bridge!

The bridge was built in the 14th century and the sculptures were added in the 18th.

More sculptures.

Yulia on the bridge.

Police women on horses coming over the bridge.

View of the city (and Prague Castle) from the bridge.

The bridge from the boat dock where we began our tour.

Waiting for the boat.

Settling in for the ride.

Swans on the river.

Neat sculptures on one of the bridges we passed under.

Enjoying the tour

Sisters sipping lemonade on a boat.

From the river tour we went looking for the Franz Kafka head statue.  We found two statues of men peeing instead by the same artist.  It was pretty funny (and the girls were all appropriately embarrassed and shocked). We found a nice little cafe and ate lunch and then got on a tram to go to the model train museum.  There was a bit of miscommunication between Yulia and me about who was responsible for knowing how to get there.  I remembered.....mostly..... how to get there.  It turns out we went one stop too far.  We ended up at a mid 19th century cemetery that was being restored after years of neglect.  Yulia and I left the girls and Ramona there sitting in the shade and went and found out where we went wrong.  Once we found the museum, we came back and got them.

A canal.

Peeing statues outside Kafka museum.

Lunch

The museum took up two basement floors of a shopping center and had an impressive collection of model trains with scenes from all over the country.  There were also busses and trains that the kids could get into and pretend to drive.  In addition to all the model trains, there was an entire section dedicated to models of all types - aircraft, cars, military equipment, racing cars - that was quite impressive.  The place had the advantage of being cool and dark and we spent two hours letting the kids be kids.

Details of one of the train sets.

Large view of the train set up.

Watching the trains.

Model race cars.

The girls driving a tram

We ate at the McDonald's next door and took the tram home.  It was a nice third day with plenty of interesting sites seen.

Evening thunderstorm outside the window.