Month: August 2018

Our first week in Prague is just wrapping up. Along with tons of park and free-play recuperation, we’ve done a lot of walking and self-guided tours. The Old Town Square with its famous astronomical clock is undergoing serious reconstruction. Beautiful, nonetheless, especially if you get there early on a Sunday morning and stick to the shade.

Of course we walked across the Charles Bridge and touched the plaque of St. John Nepomuk to make a once-in-a-lifetime wish. (It would be even more lovely to be there without the crush of selfie-obsessed tourists.)

Than we went to Venice. Oh, wait, no. Still in Prague. This is Kampa Island, the other end of the Charles Bridge. The island (technically it is, although that’s as far as it is separated from the mainland) was created by digging this stream for mill wheel power. It is a peaceful place, particularly considering the great hub-bub just above. We found a walled park quite near with a playground, fountains, orchard, ornately carved beehives, and a handful of peacocks. (Have I mentioned, Prague is really great on parks.)

Then we devoted a day to Art Nouveau. Czech artist Mucha was a major player in this movement, and I bet you would recognize some of his advertising posters from the turn off the 19th century. Even the girls enjoyed the little museum featuring his art. “Look at her tiara!” “Her hair is soooo long!” “I like her pretty dress!” And to make the day of art nouveau complete, we headed over to the Municipal Building to gawk at the chandeliers and stained glass and beautiful tiling.

We’ve been taking good care of our appetites too — don’t worry!

Na zdraví!

Here we are in Prague! We will be here for a total of 3 weeks. And since we’re here for awhile, we figured we could spend our first week recovering from all the intense grown-up touring that we did in Rome. So we’ve been hitting parks and playgrounds!

Prague has, by far, hands down, no contest, the best parks of any place we have visited this summer. The beaches at Lake Maggiore are going to make there and Prague a tie for best vacation spot to Maggie and Tessa.

Of course as we walk between parks, we are starting to get the lay of the land and seeing some of the things the guide books tell us we should see.

The city is beautiful (and less intimidating in one’s mid-30s than when a teenager). Although the Czech people have not embraced us with open arms (they are tough nuts to crack), we are settling in to our neighborhood and ready for some more adventuring!

Maggie and Tessa are showing you the proper technique for drinking out of one of Rome’s fountains. Originally we were cupping our hands underneath and drinking from them. That’s when we were tourists, before we became acculturated!

This water was better than what came out of our tap, even. It was cold and sweet and on virtually every other corner!

(The bucket under this one belonged to a florist down the street. Pretty good business model, getting your water for free!)

Did we do more in Rome? Oh yes, we did!

There was the zoo (almost nobody else was there!):

And the Baths of Caracalla, built in the 3rd century and with a capacity for over 6000!

And the San Giovanni Basilica, the seat of the bishop of Rome (aka, the Pope):

And just piazzas and fountains and obelisks everywhere we walked:

Now we are on to the Prague section of the Grand Vacation. Thanks, Italy, for the pizza and wine and history and beauty and (most of all?) gelato!

Boy, we’ve stuffed a lot into our less-than-a-week in Rome.

Next on our agenda was to bike along the old old old Appian Way. (Tessa was especially excited to have a big bike with hand brakes. Yes, let’s teach our 5-year-old to use hand brakes biking on a line of half-submerged rocks on a bicycle one size up. Worked out fine!) It took us a little bit to figure out how to bike over those things, which really was a line of half-submerged rocks. But so cool — in places you could see carriage ruts in the stones. Luckily for our bums, the road is now mostly small bumpy bricks.

The road is lined with ancient mausoleums and memorials

and lovely villas

and, look! Acqueducts!

Afterward, we got a special treat. No, not gelato. We’re not 100% pushovers all the time. These watermelon slices looked sooooo good. And they were the best after such a hot ride!!

We hit a couple of other biggies too.

The Pantheon, of course, was amazing. So surreal to stand in something built in the 2nd century, famed for being the biggest unsupported dome in the world. And Raphael is entombed there too.

At the Trevi Fountain we cooled off a bit by dipping in our hats. Other people were filling their water bottles — gross.

And the Spanish steps and so many piazzas and pilfered obelisks. We saw a street artist make a sand sculpture on the sidewalk, jammed out to a sax-playing panda and a drumming horse until they got evicted by the cops, and watched a lady make fresh pasta in a bowl made of flour.

Tomorrow we leave for the next leg of our adventure, but we still have the morning to do even more of Rome!