Month: August 2018

Our last day in Prague, we finally got up to Prague Castle (“castle” just means official-type buildings behind an enclosed wall) and did the cathedral tour and everything.

Of course we sang the Christmas carol at Good King Wenceslas’s tomb, like dumb tourists. I mean, you just have to, right? And all the stained glass — whoa.

There has been a church on this site since the 10th century. The current St. Vitus Cathedral was started in the 1300s and finished in the 1920s. Persistence!

We are glad we did some of these must-see things, but I have to say, the thing Prague does best (besides awesome playgrounds everywhere)

is public art. There are some pretty cool statues and monuments and plaques and memorials just around the city.

And now we’re off to Germany to figure out the next 8 months (at least) of our lives! Eeeek! Wonder what will be the best things there??

*And I realized I didn’t do a very good job describing the awesomeness of the water park in my last post. So I went back and added some details and slide descriptions. You can go back to it if you’re curious to know more about it.

So we have 2 days left in Prague. Should we spend today going to the Old Jewish quarter and 5 synagogues and a cemetery and a Holocaust memorial? Or a water park?

We chose amazing water park. This place was huuuuge. Several lazy rivers (why walk through the large complex when you could swim between buildings?), a wave pool, kids splash areas (indoor and outdoor), a swim-up bar. And lots and lots and lots of slides. Like, at least 12, including the Czech Republic’s longest. Favorites were Canyon (which goes outside for part and includes a rapids section to bounce and spin and dunk and terrify mom joyous swimmers); Chocolate Drop (in which the slide dumps you in a huge bowl that you go around until you drop down the hole in the middle — picture those penny-racing funnels in the zoo and imagine you’re the penny); Black Hole (pitch black except for occasional dim lights above you); Tube-y (also pitch black but with a partner on a double inner tube); Speed Slides (see the videos below — they felt much faster than they look); and The Lame One (mom’s favorite easy ride).

Such a fun 7 hours! Good choice today.

We took ourselves on another day trip. This time we traveled an hour out of town to Kutna Hora, a mining town that peaked in the 15th century.

First stop, another ossuary. This one was an entire church decorated with bones of plague and Hussite War victims. Highlight was this coat of arms. Love the Raven pecking at the eye of an Ottoman invader.

Best tour of the day was the guide down into a silver mine. 20,000+ tons of silver were mined here, starting in the 1400s. Check out these ladders; anyone want to go 12 stories underground via these bad boys?

It was very narrow and very short down there. (I was walking sideways and hunched over during many parts.) And very dark. (We turned off all the headlamps at one point. Wooo-ee. Couldn’t see your hand touching your nose.) They made 2.5cm of distance down a shaft per day with their hands tools, and we walked more than 250m in these limestone labyrinths. Talk about perseverance!

The town is full of all sorts of Gothic delights, like this water tower that had to be built for piped-in water after the toxic mining water couldn’t be drunk.

And the cathedral (half its planned size) with flying buttresses and gargoyles galore.

Of course we also found a playground. Best (aka, mom’s scariest) zipline so far!

Yeah, so this is a real place, a real town where people work and live (and dodge tourists like us who come to gawk and gape at this exceedingly well-preserved 14th-century castle town).

Although the bear family was hiding from spectators (they’ve lived in the moat here for centuries), we did get to wander around this incredible castle!

Some hoity-toity princess wanted to walk to the theater and gardens without having to descend to walk on the ground, so they built her this lovely bridge.

And some prince’s bastard son convinced a village girl’s parents to have her live in the castle with him. After he beat her, stabbed her, and threw her out the window twice (!!), they imprisoned him behind this bricked-in window. He missed out on one heck of a good view for the rest of his life!

To escape the castle crowds, we rented a raft for a little float. I think we lucked out with the rental company we choose: it was cheaper than competitors and came with a van ride up river to a further put-in, thus a longer and more tranquil float and an extra rapids segment.

Now, when I say rapids, don’t get nervous. These are actually boat-sized chutes that take you over little dammed sections of the river. They are exciting! But in a “I’m not going to die” sort of way. Like a fun water slide, but in a raft.

We also ducked into a mirror maze on a whim. I had never experienced one of these before. I was sceptical of the cost, but it was worth the 10 bucks! It is totally disorienting and illusion-y in there. A child turns a corner you didn’t know was a corner, and they’re gone forever, having turned the next corner which you can’t distinguish as a corner either. We all ran into a few walls a few times. I highly recommend the experience (if you know the space is not large and your child won’t actually disappear forever).

Worth the 2-hour bus ride out of Prague for sure!

Tessa lost her first tooth! We were on the metro coming home from a park. She and Maggie were imagining something wonderful, and Maggie gave her an imaginary crown. Which made Tessa smile. Which made Maggie comment on how her tooth was sticking out weird. Which made Tessa reach in and just grab the sucker. Tooth out!

I had luckily asked some moms at the park what happens to Czech children when they lose their first tooth. Consensus seemed to be: nothing. Then when you lose the second tooth you go to the dentist and make sure they’re falling out right. Bummer.

So the tooth fairy is making a special trip to Prague to leave a few krona and a little stuffy. I hope she enjoys her vacation!