Prague - a day trip

The second race was Saturday, and the afterparty was Saturday night, so Sunday morning we were dragging a little bit. I felt ok, just a bit off, but we all slept in until 8:30 or so. Ate breakfast, finished packing, and hit the road for Prague.

We left our sliding gear in the boys car, in the underground parking at our Altenberg hotel, since Prague is a bit sketchy where rental cars and expensive contents are concerned. Cassie and just packed tiny day bags, me in my shoulder computer bag and Cassie in a canvas shopping bag; the boys, however, packed, um, "day bags."


On the way, we passed a sledding hill.


And followed a sign that led us on a roundabout trip through some villages.


We discovered at the last minute that the Czech Republic is now part of the EU - we came up to the border station and it looked abandoned. Blowing through, we had second thoughts and turned around to double check that they didn't need to check our passports (the last time Cassie and Daly went through there were guards with guns and the whole typical border crossing experience). Nope, we were clear to go, though I was disappointed not to get a stamp in my passport. Cheesy, I know.

Once across the border, we saw some pretty architecture and towns.


Then we were driving in Prague itself.


We hopped on the subway and rode to the old town. The subway escalator was really trippy, super steep with the posters at an angle; I got some vertigo actually.



Lots and lots of walking ensued, to the point that my hamstrings and hip flexors are still sore! These pictures may seem out of order, night and day and whatnot, but we walked so much that we hit all of these places in both daylight and dark.


Endless options, little alleyways that got us lost a couple times but always dumped us back out in the main square(s).


The boys went to the museum of torture implements; we had gotten separated and Cassie and I were on our way to the museum when we we ran into the boys again. Then we decided to skip the museum in favor of dinner.


The old town is beautiful.


Since it is near Christmas, the square was occupied by a Christmas market. I ate myself silly! The best, I swear to you the BEST, bratwurst ever, made my stomach happy. Then I proceeded to stuff down a marvelous crepe with cream cheese and nutella as well as a local specialty dessert, kind of a cinnamon-sugar roasted bread wrap. Hard to explain, and I didn't get a picture. Here's the Christmas market though:


The Charles Bridge, apparently the oldest (or one of the oldest) structures to survive all the bombing in WWII, dating to the 1400s or thereabouts.




We went up the stairwell in the Charles Bridge. It was so tight and windy that I got dizzy going up AND down. 3 steps, turn, 3 steps, turn, and so on. Here's Cassie in the short and tight little entrance.


And here she is showing how tight the stairwell is.


We walked out on the bridge; it was under repair so we couldn't have the full experience, but I was able to take some night shots of the city.


From there we walked to the square (and back, and back). On one of our long walks, we saw this mall and it's advent calendar in the windows:


The clock tower in the square.


And later, as it chimed.


We didn't have time to take in a tour, or go visit some specific sites I wanted to see, but it was still a great time. We did a little Christmas shopping, and just drank in as much as we could. Prague is SO beautiful, and we all agreed that it is the city of love more than any other place. People holding hands and kissing everywhere, long gazes into each others' eyes, a general mood of happiness, and the beauty made the place so. I need to go back with several days and lots of money to spend!

The next morning, we had to bail quickly in order to make it to Igls at a reasonable time. Including the backtracking to Altenberg, we were looking at over 7 hours of driving (and Cassie and I took over 9).

Driving back wasn't as fun.


We finally busted out of the fog, got back to Altenberg, loaded up both cars, and hit the road for Igls Austria. We passed this house/hotel in Dresden and I had to snag a pic of the eyeball windows.


The rest of the day was spent sleeping and driving, eating at a McDonalds for the first time (and hopefully the last) this trip in an effort to save time, recovering from a detour that left us quite lost and approaching Poland (don't ask), and settling into our hotel in Igls. It was a long empty day to say the least, though Cassie and I did meet some really friendly hairdressers in a small suburb somewhere.