AFA - Prague (Praha) Czech Republic February 2009

We spent two days in Prague (locals say "Praha") and loved it. Prague, like Budapest, was Communist just 20 some years ago but, unlike Budapest, did not get destroyed during the wars. In Budapest, most of the sights come with an asterisk ("*") telling you that it was rebuilt after the war. This was toward the end of the week and we were running low on energy, so we didn't see as much as we would have liked. This would be a place to come back to.

The Toy / Barbie Museum
Being a family of five daughters and one Mom - all who grew up with Barbie, we had to stop and see the collection. They had one whole floor dedicated to Barbie and her friends. Mom found the barbies she had as a girl, as did Amanda and Brittany. John also got to pose with a couple favorite Star Wars statues.

The Changing of the Guard at Prague Castle
It was so cold the band didn't come outside, they just played with their horns sticking out of the windows of the building behind them. The rightmost picture was to be with two of the friendly guards, but at the last second, two very pretty female police-persons walked up and distracted the guy on the right.

Loretta Church
This is the holiest place in the Czech Republic. Inside the walls they have a little chapel in the courtyard they call 'Santa Casa' also known as 'Little Bethlehem.' This was the traditional departure point for religious pilgrims. Embedded in the left hand wall of the little chapel is what they claim is a beam from Mary's house. No pictures were allowed. There is also a chapel there that is very beautiful. In it is a statue to "St Bearded Woman" the patron saint of unhappy marriages. The story is that her parents promised her to an unbeliever that she did not want to marry. She prayed for help and grew a beard. The potential groom changed his mind, but her Dad was unhappy about it and crucified her.

The Dancing House
Designed by famous designer Frank Gehry (Derek may know him from Seattle's Experience Music Project building). Amanda has actually studied this guy in school. American architecture buffs have nicknamed it "Fred and Ginger." (after the famous US dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) On the left side is "Ginger" with a dress, on the right is "Fred" with the round head. The top floor is a restaurant, it wasn't clear what the rest of the building was.

The Effiel Tower - East (Petrin Tower)
They built a 1/5 scale version of the real tower two years after the orginal was built for some 1891 exibition. They placed it on the hill so that the top of the Petrin tower is exactly the same height as the top of the Effiel tower in Paris.

St Vitus Cathedral
This church is inside the Prague Castle walls, and is the dominant sight. It is huge!! Inside there is a little chapel to King Wenceslas. (of the song)

The Charles Bridge
Maybe the most identifiable landmark of the city, this bridge is amazing. About every 100 feet or so is a sculpture on either side of the bridge. Most of the sculptures have stories, the guy with the five stars around his head was a guy named John of Nepomuk, a saint of the Czech people. He was a priest that the queen confessed her sins to. The king wanted to know, but he refused despite being tortured. He was eventually pitched off the bridge. When he hit the water, five star appeared. (awwwww) It was beautiful at dusk, but the pictures came out very dark.

Miscellaneous Pictures of the city ...

Snow!! 2 Feb 2009

Supposedly the most snow in 20 years! Something like 5 or 6 inches.

UPDATE: It snowed again 3 Feb 2009 (several light snow showers)
UPDATE: It snowed again the evening of 4 Feb 2009 (a couple of inches)
UPDATE: And again the following day (another couple of inches)
But all together it really didn't amount to much because it would melt as it fell.

Neighborhood Shots - Misc

At Christmas we realized that we don't really have much time left here, so thought about what we want to be sure to do before we move back home.

One of those things was to take some shots of the cool things here in our neighborhood to remember them.

We live in a very fancy ("posh as we say") neighborhood. We were told, "the posh houses have names (ours is called 'The Berry Cottage') and don't post the house numbers." All well and good, but no one could find our house. So we put up some numbers.

We saw a wedding procession. In the US, we trash the car. Here's they decorate very neatly, and all of the cars in the procession were decorated the same. You have to look close, but you can see the streamers coming to a point on the front of the expensive looking car.


The first establishment you pass on the High Street is a Jaguar dealership. I don't think I can recall seeing a car dealer that sells exclusively Jaguars.

We took a ride over to Windsor and caught these shots - "Windsor Great Perk" is a play on the 'Windsor Great Park' (covered in another post), the amazing Royal park.

Neighborhood Shots - Tittenhurst

Tittenhurst Park is about a mile from our house. It is huge, 72 acres, but the only evidence is the brick wall that goes on for quite a way. You can't really see anything but the big brick wall from the street, but it is a very famous place.

This is where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived for two years starting in 1969. John built a recording studio there and recorded "Imagine." The last photo shoot of the Beatles took place there and the pictures were used as the front and back cover shots for the 'Hey Jude' album.

Ringo Starr then bought it from them and lived there until the late 1980's.

Ringo sold it to the Sheik of Abu Dhabi (say it fast three times and try not to laugh)/ President of the UAE. He flies in one week a year to attend the Royal Ascot horse races. He flies into Heathrow on a private jet, takes a helicopter to his house, and then another one to the races - flying right over our house. He paid 30 million pounds for the place and only lives there one week a year!!

Neighborhood Shots - The Royal Holloway

The Royal Holloway is a university, just a few miles from our house. It is just down the street from the kids' school.
It was founded in 1886 and officially opened by Queen (tiny crown) Victoria. It has a little over 7,000 students. There are 120 different countries represented in the student population. It is affiliated with UCLA, NYU, and Berkeley in the states. The building is stunning, and is referred to as "the summit of high Victorian design."
The story goes that Thomas Holloway started a debate in The Founder, a local paper, on "How to best spend a quarter of a million or so." His wife said, "How about a womens' college?" And so it originally was.

Christmas 2008 - Girls Night Out in Raleigh

My bevy of beauties with their blooming onion.