The Snells: The Hidden Jewel of Europe

Well, the Goplen parents arrived in Berlin on Thursday, June 30th. While we sight saw a little in Berlin that first day, the big first adventure was going to Prague, Czech Republic. I have to saw that before we went, I was a little nervous traveling to the Czech Republic. Although I don't understand any German, the Czech language made me even more scared. However, during our time there, we discovered a wonderful city! The people were so friendly to us and I never once felt unsafe. We took the train through Germany and into the Czech Republic. We could immediately tell when we entered the Czech Republic as all of a sudden many new symbols appeared over letters. It has to be an extremely tough language to learn. The train was about a 4 1/2 hour ride of beautiful country. When we got to Prague, my parents and I went to a restaurant that our hotel had recommended. When we walked in the door, we were greeted in English! The hotel must have warned them that we were American! To our surprise, we were the ONLY people in the entire restaurant. We asked our waiter if people ate really early or really late. He told us that everyone had left Prague for the long weekend since they had a holiday coming up. Needless to say, we had excellent service that night, on top of a wonderful dinner. After Ryan arrived late that night, we all went back to the hotel and crashed. The next morning, we headed out to our first destination: the Prague Castle (Pražský Hrad). The Castle was most likely founded around the year 900. The complex was huge, including St. Vitus' Cathedral, the Basillica of St. George, the Old Royal Palace, the Story of Prague Castle and lots of little lanes and alleys. We toured around most of the buildings and learned alot about the history (although I really can't remember much of it now...if Ryan were writing this, I'm sure he would!) After the Prague Castle, Ryan and I walked through some beautiful hilly streets over to an old monestary that had a very old library. The Strahov Monastery (Strahovsky kláster) and library dates back to the 12th century. There were books that were that old as well. The library was absolutely gorgeous. I just wanted to run in there and start looking at all the books. Unfortunately, they had it blooked off...probably to prevent crazy people like me from ruining their books. After the monastery, we met back up with my parents at the Church of St. Nicholas (Chram svateho Mikulase). The church was beautifully decorated in gold, with many paintings (frescos as they call them) on the ceiling and walls, as well as a large organ. On this organ, the very Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart played his music. After the church, we walked across the famous Charles Bridge (Karluv Most). On this bridge, you could take in beautiful views of the city. You could see the Prague Castle nestled on the top of the hill. Directly across from that, there were many buildings lining the river. As we walked across the bridge, there were many vendors trying to sell various jewelry, pantings, and drawings. After our walk, we decided to get some dinner and head home for the night. On Sunday, we headed down to the Old Town Square (Staromestske namesti) to watch the astronomical clock chim at 9:00. This square has been the heart of Prague since the 10th century. It is surrounded by several churches, cafes, shops, and the most impressive thing is the astronomical clock. The clock was built in the 15th century. Not only does it tell the time of day, it also tells the day, month, zodiac, position of the sun, and position of the moon. When it chims on the hour, the 12 apostles walk by little windows, and 8 other figures appear including death ringing the bell, vanity looking in the mirror, a miser holding onto jewels, and a turk. It was quite the intricate clock! After watching the clock chim, we walked around some churches that were near by and then headed to Josefov, the Jewish Quarters. We walked around the Old-New Synagogue, the oldest remaining Synagogue in central Europe. We had never been in a Synagogue before, so it was very interesting to see. After this, we went and found some lunch at a restaurant that had Budweiser (not to be confused with the American Bud). Both Ryan and my Dad had to try a "Bud" from the Czech Republic and concluded that it was much better than "Bud Light." After our lunch, we made our way back to the hotel so Ryan could catch his train. Since it was a cold and rainy day, we decided to relax a bit in the hotel before finding some dinner. The next day we caught our train back to Berlin and decided that Prague was a very unexpected surprise! It truly was a gem! Enjoy the pictures!