Prague

I posted a number of pictures from our time in Prague last week. I plan to do the same with the Vienna pics later tonight. Follow this link. https://flickr.com/photos/76997459@N00/sets/72157651718043785

Top of Petrin Tower by Mark Carpenter on Flickr.

Just follow this link to see and comment on this photo:
http://flic.kr/p/s4dnQf

Sent from my iPad

Glee

All the area grade schools that feed into Edison High School are performing tonight in the high school gym and they don't have beer vendors. Thanks Obama.

Easter Boys

We didn't force them to run around the yard looking for eggs this year. We were all too jet lagged.

Long Day of Travel

Early Flight

Good thing the Vienna airport has these sweet seats.

Goodbye Vienna

We had a great time.

Belvedere

We had our last dinner in Vienna tonight and have an early car to the airport in the morning. It's been a fun trip but it's always good to head home. This shot is from the upper Belvedere Museum. It's looking at the lower one with St. Stephansdom to the left.

The Kiss

We saw a lot of Impressionism this morning, including the famous Gustave Klimt painting, "the kiss". I wanted to see   the  Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I which is the painting at the center of the new movie "Woman in Gold" but she is in Paris right now. We did see lots of Monets, Degas and other artists but our time was limited due to fidgety boys. We made our way to another neighborhood later so the Sam could get an Austrian soccer jersey, but when we got there, he decided to get an Italian jersey instead. 

Sent from my iPad

We Keep Going

After the Hapsburg winter palace this morning we climbed the 343 steps to the top south tower of St. Stephansdom. This is the third tower with 300 or so steps we've climbed this vacation. The new knee is handling the stress just fine but my calfs hurt. We went to a concert with pieces from Strauss and Mozart played along with some dance and opera at a 16th century palace tonight. The boys were not thrilled but I think they enjoyed it a little. One more day then back to DC.

Fountainhead

Some early morning snuggling in the cold Viennese weather.

Schonbrunn Palace

We got up early to beat the crowds to the summer palace of the Habsburgs. It was a quick Ubahn ride away and was beautiful. Not sure the boys appreciated it much but it was worth a visit.

St. Stephans

The weather has been cold but mostly dry. We have a full day planned tomorrow.

Four Horseman

We slept in a bit this morning the took the trolley up to see Nicole's school apartment, the Naschmart and the Austrian History Museum. We had a little lunch then did some shopping on the way back to the apartment.

Znojmo

We left Prague with Pavel in his mini-van at about 8am for our trip to Vienna with a planned stop at Mikulov for some sightseeing. It was snowing when we left and only got worse and about an hour out of town we hit standstill traffic. We believe the highway was closed so we managed to get off the main road and headed straight south through the countryside. The snow gradually turned to rain as we got closer to Austria and we decided to visit a little medieval town called Znojmo. It was a quick visit but a very pretty town. We arrive at our extremely spacious apartment in Vienna at 2:30 and have been snacking and getting ready to go out for dinner since.

Charles Bridge

We have crossed this bridge a dozen times now and their is always something interesting going on. We are heading back over it tonight for dinner the back again with gelato in hand no doubt.

Jewish Cemetary

We toured the Jewish quarter of Prague this afternoon and then had lunch at a very Czech restaurant. It has gotten cold, but the sun was out for a lot of the day. We could spend another couple days here but it's on to Vienna in the morning.

Spring in Prague

From the Prague Castle.

Golem

We met a Golem on the way down from St. Vitus. Got up there early and did a nice walk thru the cathedral, golden walk and the palace. Taking a short break before heading to the Jewish quarter.

Terezin Walk

We have gotten a lot of walking in the last couple days. My dogs are barking.

Terezin

Too much to communicate in this blog about the Terezin camps but we learned a lot in our tour with Pavel Batel. He picked us up at 8am in Prague and told stories for the entire 40 minute trip north to Terezin. He has written a book about the camps and filled us with a ton of information about what went on there from the Middle Ages to Soviet Occupation. Most of the tour focused on the Nazi occupation and the use of the camps. Fascinating stuff but we didn't get back until 4:30 and we were tired.