Prague

A wonderful thing about living in Vienna is its proximity to many other beautiful European cities. Really what it means is that we can travel to these places for next to nothing and on a very tight budget. We've been able to go to Salzburg, Austria (with my parents); Milan, Italy (father son getaway); Bratislava, Slovakia (day trip with students); Budapest, Hungary (getaway for Rebecca and me); and, this past week, Prague, Czech Republic (family trip for "Energy" break).

We very much enjoyed seeing the beautiful buildings and historical landmarks that make up the skyline of the city. Europe has been in the middle of a bitterly cold end of January, and we were welcomed to Prague by a gentle snow fall...so we got to slip and slide our way through the city.

Please enjoy some pictures from our trip:

On our Ubahn platform waiting to begin our trip.

Waiting on the platform for our train to Prague

Kailyn's first big train ride (and first family trip)

Having a fun time with brother.

Justin was a bit cold.

random narrow Prague street

Statue of Jan Hus...early reformer. Was burned at the stake at the age of 44...which lead to some brutal years of war. He remains a beloved Czech here.

View of the old town square from in front of the Astronomical clock...ticking since 1410, haven for pick pocketing experts for decades (maybe longer)

super old church.

family picture. Directly behind us and across the river from where we are standing can faintly make out the shoreline where 2 members of Tom Cruise's spy team was killed at the beginning of Mission Impossible.

We met the Nevels, who serve at Prague Christian School, at PFO. They were kind enough to meet us at the Train station on Monday night, and they invited us over for dinner on Tuesday.

View from our rented apartment.

In a restaurant on the grounds of a monastery...

The view from the monastery grounds.

Rebecca and Justin excited to go into the Miniature Museum

Checking out some of the exhibits.

This is my attempt to take a picture through a microscope. The camel was part of a caravan that was on a strand of hair, going through the eye of a needle. To the naked eye it looked like a very small speck. The detail was amazing.

Rebecca approves of the guard's guarding style.

such a beautiful city.

At this point we were crammed in on all sides by a group of high school aged kids from Spain...As I was taking the picture, I was answering one of the kids who had asked to take the picture for us. Believe it or not, this was the better shot.

It was in this square where tens of thousands of Czechs demanded a new government in what was called the "Velvet Revolution". We went to a museum of communism that depicted the rise of communism in the nation, life under the communist leadership, and the eventual movement to topple the Soviet influence. It's amazing what the Czech people had to endure, but also inspiring to see how they finally fought back. It blows me away that this all happend so recently.