Happy 2019! We started the year off with a bang while touring Prague. We enjoyed a close-up firework show as well as an unreal showing of hundreds of constant bangs and booms and lights across the city skyline. We’re hoping this means our New Year will be full of adventure and excitement!
However, our adventures didn’t begin in Prague. Instead they started on an adventurous train ride from Dusseldorf to Dresden on December 26th. During this train ride, we learned our lesson to always reserve a seat on the train… we spent the 6 hour train ride hopping around from seat to seat as people with reservations climbed aboard (it didn’t help that the electronic system in the train was down so we had no idea what seats were/weren’t reserved). That excitement only added to the adventure!
We arrived in Dresden and spent the evening adventuring around the town taking in the sights and stumbling upon a Christmas market, the Procession of Princes (a giant porcelain mural) a tasty restaurant decorated with aspen trees. With luck, we flagged down a taxi-van and headed to our cute Airbnb, chatting with the driver about his adventures in the U.S. and admiring the giant castles along the river.
 |
| Procession of Princes |
We started Thursday off by admiring the Dresden Zwinger and touring the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (art museum) that houses Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, The Holy Night by Correggio and a special exhibit featuring The Chocolate Girl. It’s always fun to see famous art! However, after staring at the Chocolate girl for so long, we all developed a craving for hot chocolate... Luckily there was a delicious local chocolate shop near by that helped us out! We continued our day by admiring the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) and Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, trying to imagine what the churches and city looked like after the WWII bombings (The churches weren’t fully reconstructed until the early 2000’s which is crazy to think about!). We took a stroll to Brühlsche Terrasse and across the bridge enjoying a panoramic view of the city skyline and making our way to Newstadt (New City). We finished the night by taking some memorable jumping photos in front of the Semperoper opera house before heading back to the Airbnb.
 |
| Raphael’s Sistine Madonna |
 |
| The Chocolate Girl |
 |
| Dresden Altstadt Skyline |
On December 28th, we woke up early to continue our adventure and make our way to Czech Republic. We took a train to Prague (with reserved seats this time) and picked up our rental car, which we drove to Cesky Krumlov, enjoying the back-country views of Czech Republic. On the way, we stopped at the Karlštejn Castle which was founded in 1348 (talk about an old building!) and narrowly escaped a parking ticket. We hopped in the car as the ticketers approached and sped off to the adorable Cesky Krumlov. When we arrived, we checked in at Hostel 99 (Amy's first hostel ever!) and were pleasantly pleased with the size, location and atmosphere of our sleeping quarters. It helped that we had a private room so we didn’t have to worry about any crazy roommates. After dropping off our bags, we bundled up and set out to see the town. We found a cute Christmas market in the center of town and discovered a very tasty, addicting and popular Czech treat called a Trdelnik. It’s a pastry that’s grilled on a stick, covered in cinnamon and sugar and if you wish, you can spread caramel or Nutella in the middle or fill it with berries, whip cream or ice cream. Our favorite was the caramel spread! We continued our adventure around the town stumbling upon the local dive bar where we stopped to warm up. The bar was neat in its own way with multiple levels and parts that looked, felt, and smelled like a real cave (kind of like Casa Bonita’s caves) but the drinks were a different story… we had to mix our own hot wine and grog and let’s just say they were about as good as Casa Bonita’s food... However, as we continued our walk around town we found the Apotheka Café Bar whose drinks were quite delicious and a lot more fun (they lit one of them on fire!). After warming up at Apotheka, we continued our walk to the second largest castle in the Czech and were pleasantly surprised by the size, architecture and views the castle had to offer.
 |
| Karlštejn Castle |
 |
| Karlštejn Castle |
 |
| Cesky Krumlov |
  |
| Trdelniks! |
We started our second day in Cesky Krumlov with a walking tour of the city, learning about the history of the town and details about the castle. We learned that at one point Cesky Krumlov and Prague were competing over who would be the bigger city. We also learned about the bear moat at the entrance of the castle that dates back to the 1700s where the royals kept a few bears (who knew that was a real thing ?). There is still one bear that lives in the moat today but she wasn’t out when we went looking for her. The tour ended near the best overlook of the city, which, with a light dusting of snow, looked like a true snow globe. Picture perfect! We warmed up from the inside out by enjoying an Italian meal at Papa’s for lunch followed by some quiet time enjoying a small museum that featured some of Alfons Mucha’s work. We enjoyed a tasty Czech dinner (meat and dumplings) and Eggenberg beer at Hospoda Na Louzi while chatting with our international table mates, a couple from Australia and another couple from China and learned that if we're ever in Australia, "Just keep walking and don't get in the water" (apparently that's how you avoid the snakes, spiders, and crocodiles). We finished the night off with another walk through the city and drinks and live music at a pub near the water. If you ever get the chance, we highly suggest taking a trip to Cesky Krumlov, it was a fantastic town and well worth the visit!
On December 30th, we packed up the car and made our way to Prague. We had a little hiccup with the hotel situation (apparently you can only have 3 guests in one room…?? No one said anything when we reserved it...) so we used our millennial super powers and found an Airbnb that was available that day. We took the train to the Airbnb, dropped our bags off and headed out to see one of the largest castles in the world which also had a Christmas market within the castle grounds (we told you, Christmas markets are everywhere and we still think they’re wonderful!). We continued our adventure of Prague by admiring the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square and the astronomical clock, Wenceslas Square, three more Christmas markets and a giant toy store with a slide in the middle (and yes, we did go down it).
 |
| Astronomical Clock |
 |
| Wenceslas Square |
We started New Year’s Eve off with a walking tour of the city and Prague castle, learning about the history of Prague and the impact Charles IV had on the city and castle (talk about an influential guy!). After the tour we found a quaint little restaurant on the side streets to grab a bite to eat and relax before wandering the streets some more. We decided to cook New Year’s Eve dinner at home and spent the evening in the warmth of our flat playing cards before adventuring out to celebrate with the city.
Now for the good stuff, the firework show. It was U.N.B.E.L.I.E.V.A.B.L.E! The official firework show was scheduled for New Year’s Day, but the city did not disappoint for New Year’s Eve. There were fireworks EVERYWHERE. Literally everywhere. We walked to the park near our Airbnb which provided the perfect view overlooking the city as well as some close-up entertainment from other parties who chose the same location we did. The fireworks were in full boom when we arrived around 11pm. There were constant explosions both close up (10-20 feet away and one mishap narrowly missing us…) and far away (safely exploding across the river above the city). The pre-show was crazy, with constant booms and bangs but nothing compared to the 12am show. As the clock struck midnight, the explosions took off and it was unreal. We popped our bottle of bubbly and stared in amazement at the hundreds of fireworks blowing up over the city. The view was incredible and even when the haze from the smoke tried to obstruct the view, the colors and flashes continued to shine through. Around 1 a.m. there was a small lull in the fireworks near us and we decided we better escape while it was safe. We scurried home, listening to the explosions that lasted well into the night, blown away by what we had just witnessed.
We woke up on New Year’s Day ready to enjoy our last full day in Prague. We took one last walk around the castle and watched the changing of guards at the castle entrance. We wandered down to John Lennon’s wall and to the Vltava Riverbank for a few fun photos with the Charles bridge behind us. As the day continued, we made our way back to Old Town and found the perfect location on one of the many bridges to observe the city’s New Year’s Day firework show. The show was picturesque with the river and clock tower as the centerpiece and a little girl sitting on her dad's shoulders singing her own songs in Czech throughout the entire show. It was great, however, it’s hard to beat what we saw the night before. We finished the evening off by celebrating at Las Adelitas with some tasty Mexican food and margaritas cheersing to our adventures!
Our trip ended the next day as we said bittersweet goodbyes to Julie, Paul and Sarah. We’re so thankful they were able to celebrate the holidays with us and create so many new memories!
So many fun adventures! Thanks for having us along for the fun!
ReplyDelete