Christmas in Prague - Part 2

Monday

We had been told that as Christmas Eve is a public holiday, and is actually more of a holiday than Christmas Day itself in the Czech Republic, that nothing would be open on Monday; even the Christmas markets were due to close at midday! So after a little sleep in, we headed back to the Old Town Square once more to get our last taste of the little doughnut things and hot roasted nuts. These did not disappoint, and nor did the hot dogs we bought. Tim is willing to stick his neck out and say that that was the best hot dog he has ever eaten.

As 12 noon was approaching we wandered off to walk the streets and explore some more of Prague. We managed to find our way to the Charles Bridge, a magnificent huge bridge, lined with statues of various saints and religious figures down either side, and with a beautiful tower archway at either end. Charles IV had the bridge built in the 14th century, and the first statue, the crucifix pictured below, was erected in 1657.

We crossed the Charles Bridge, fighting our way through thousands of tourists, many of them in big clusters gathered around a tour guide holding an umbrella aloft to signify their importance. We also passed an organ grinder (see photo below) and several vendors selling artwork or beautiful photographs of Prague.

Across the bridge we had to stop in for a drink, as our fingers had lost feeling once again. The bar we stopped at was nice enough but the service was poor, something we had got used to unfortunately, and we had to ask a few times for the bill and then wait for almost 15 minutes before they brought it to us. No tip for them.

Back on our side of the bridge, we strolled some more narrow cobbled streets, marvelling at the beautiful old buildings all around us. Prague really is beautiful. To our surprise, most shops and bars were open all day, as were the Christmas market stalls...seems we were misinformed!

Another stop off at a bar (this time an Irish pub) to warm the hands, then back to the apartment to sort out our key issue. When we had left in the morning, our keys would not fit in to the lock on our apartment door any more. The door had locked, but now we could not get back in. We were delighted when a locksmith appeared just as we got back there, as the receptionist we spoke to earlier in the day just didn't want to know about it. With a new lock installed, we were away laughing once again.

We ventured out to a mini mart and picked up some beers and bubbles for Christmas Eve and then we had a beautiful dinner (and extravagant desserts) at Cafe Wow...the sort of restaurant name we got used to in Vietnam!

Tuesday (Christmas Day)

We had a big sleep in on Christmas Day and after Tim eventually got over the fact that Santa had not found his way to the Truhlarska Apartments in Prague, we set off for Christmas dinner. We snaked our way though narrow streets and once again crossed the amazing Charles Bridge and explored some more of the other side of the river.

There are hundreds of hidden shops, bars, art galleries and cafes tucked away in the back streets, where many tourists will never venture. Prague Castle is built on a hill over-looking the beautiful city below. So we made the steep climb to the top of the hill, which was actually good, as it warmed us up a bit and made us more hungry for Christmas dinner!

We'd booked a Christmas dinner at a restuarant at the back of Prague Castle, it was one of the only ones we could find that wasn't going to force us into the previously mentioned carp speciality as a main course. Instead we dined on turkey (with a slightly odd side of mushroom lentils) and baked apple/chocolate cake for dessert. Not as good as our mums' dinners but still very good.

After lunch we wandered around Prague Castle which is absolutely enormous. It is almost a small town in itself. It is the largest ancient castle in the world at 570m long and an average of 128m wide. It dates back to the 9th century and it has grown haphazardly as various rulers have made their own additions over time. The castle has always been the seat of Czech rulers as well as the official residence residence of the head of state.

The grounds are split into three separate courtyards, one of which houses the magnificent St Vitus cathedral, and then several cobbled alleys with shops and cafes. One of these alleys, Golden Lane, is a beautiful lane full of tiny, colourful cottages, which were built in the 16th century for the castle guards, but were later used by goldsmiths...hence Golden Lane!

One thing we noticed about Prague is that it is heavily populated by dogs. Of course the down side is that the footpaths of Prague are heavily populated by dog shit. So we had to balance taking in all of the beautiful sights with balance being very cautious where we stepped! We got through unscathed!

Wednesday

Boxing Day was a rest day for us. After an early start to check out of the apartment and get a taxi to the train station, we then had an 11 and a half hour train journey from Prague to Zurich, with a stop over in Munich for an hour and a half.

The train was pretty good and the time flew by. The scenery was amazing, especially through Germany, where there was thick snow on the ground. While they won't count for our official country tally, we passed through both Germany and Austria en route to Switzerland (four countries in one day!).

We liked Munich from what we saw of it...that is, the inside of the train station and a lot of snow. We are sure to be back there next year for Oktoberfest.

We arrived in Zurich just before 9pm and enjoyed the short walk to our hotel. After dropping off our bags we headed out for some dinner at a big beer hall. The food was brilliant and reasonably priced.





Megan with yum
doughnut thinger












Tower at end of
Charles Bridge

















Charles Bridge














Crucifix statue











Castle side of
the Bridge













Christmas
dinner











Prague Castle
from afar













Front of the
castle












St Vitus
cathedral












Pretty
buildings













A street













Christmas Day
beers...

Christmas in Prague - Part 1

Fans,

Saturday

After several very busy and stressful weeks, Christmas was finally upon us and we set off early on Saturday morning for London Gatwick airport...via three different underground lines and the Gatwick Express, which was significantly less than express. However, our time at Gatwick itself was fairly easy going, other than Megan having a blowout on her boot zip following the compulsory shoe x-ray at Security. With a brand new pair of shiny boots in tow, we boarded our plane and two hours later we were in a very chilly Prague.

The ground and all of the trees around the airport were blanketed in snow, and we thought we were bound for a white Christmas! However, once our taxi made it in to the city itself, we were a little disappointed to discover that there was no snow at all, yet it was still about -5 degrees. Ripped off.

After checking in to our very flash apartment in the centre of Prague, we set off to explore the city. Before long, we managed to get side-tracked by some fine Christmas market stalls down the end of our street. As it was getting dark, and was by this time about -7 degrees, we were easily sucked in to buying some mulled wine, some roasted hot nuts (ridiculously tasty) and a hot dog. There is nothing finer than a hot dog in -7 degrees.

Prague is such a beautiful city, but the magnificent big Christmas trees and Christmas lights everywhere made it even more so. Once again we found ourselves snapping photos left, right and centre like Japanese tourists! Perhaps it was the excitement of the Christmas lights, or maybe the mulled wine had gone to her head, but as we were crossing the street we looked up and saw a tram coming towards us and Megan panicked and, instead of realising that we were already 80% of the way across the street and that it made sense to keep going, Megan stopped, turned around and ran in front of the on-coming tram, back to the footpath we had just come from...almost getting run over in the process...

After exploring the first set of Christmas markets, we made our way down to the Old Town Square, where there were more Christmas markets...and about 5,000 more people! It was so cold by this point that Tim's head was starting to hurt...probably not a good sign. So Tim stopped in to a little shop just off the square and invested in a stunning hat with side flaps for his ears...the finest 450 Czech crowns he has ever spent...see spectacular pictures below.

With flaps sorted, we strolled around the Old Town Square some more and then found ourselves a restaurant, which was just as well, as we were starting to seize up in the cold. We found a great place with a very Czech sort of menu. Tim ordered a 1/2 duck with bread and potato dumplings (a Czech specialty) and Megan had the roast pork. Tim decided to go for the large beer and was presented with a 1 litre stein of the Czech's finest ale, again see picture below. Nice.

Dinner was made more entertaining thanks to the couple next to us. The guy, we think he was German, was clearly upset that their meals had not arrived in the 50 minutes since they placed their order, but even when the chef came out and apologised and said that their meals would be on the house, the guy threw his toys and said he didn't want his dinner any more and that he would go somewhere else. His wife / partner was, we think, Czech, and was clearly embarrassed by his outburst, apologised to the chef and insisted that they would stay. Anyway, an argument ensued and she refused to eat any of her dinner, and when the waiter returned to ask how their meals were, the guy said they were terrible and that he (the waiter) had ruined his night because now his partner would not speak to him...we had to chuckle.

Sunday

Sunday was by far the coldest day we spent in Prague. It must have been around -8. It was so bad that we could not stay outdoors for longer than a couple of hours at a time, despite wearing about five layers of clothing, including thermals and woollen coats...

In the morning we grabbed some supplies from the supermarket (it's always humorous to visit a supermarket in a foreign country) before heading back to the Old Town Square. We had to laugh as we passed a man selling carp out of a big barrel of water on the side of the street (carp is a Christmas favourite in the Czech Republic). Anyway, a customer was buying his Christmas carp and this feisty one managed to jump out of the seller's net and on to the pavement, where it wriggled and flapped around for a good few seconds before the seller could scoop it up and put it into a plastic bag (still live and flapping around) for the customer to carry away!

Given that it was now daylight, and there were fewer people around, we could actually see a lot more of the Christmas markets in the Old Town Square. We also got a close-up of the Astronomical Clock, a beautiful big clock that not only chimes on the hour, but has a procession of the 12 Apostles marching past above the clock face and a little bell, which is rung once the chiming has finished. Needless to say, this is quite the tourist attraction and at around five minutes to the hour a massive huddle forms around the clock, dispersing the moment the chiming has finished.

Next stop was Wenceslas Square, a huge wide road lined with shops, much like the Champs-Elysees in Paris, and famous in Prague as the venue of many political demonstrations, particularly during the Velvet Revolution in 1989, when peaceful protests led to the end of Soviet occupation. There were also more Christmas markets in Wesceslas Square, and we just had to try the crazy round doughnut type things that seemed to be all the rage. They were pretty good. After a couple of those, some mulled wine and a stroll up and down the street, we made our way to the Museum of Communism. Apart from being a very interesting place to visit, it was somewhere to hang out for an hour or so that was 22 degrees rather than -8 degrees.

Next up was lunch and, after the first place we tried refused to serve us a side of french fries with the soup that we wanted, we found a more reasonable place down the road that actually let you order whatever you wanted off the menu (how novel) and it was very nice.

Before we arrived in Prague, Tim had investigated the possibility of going to a live ice hockey match. Ice hockey is the national sport in the Czech Republic, and the Czechs are amongst the best in world at it. As it turned out, Sparta Prague had a home game against Vitkovice on Sunday. It proved impossible to get tickets online, so we decided to try our luck by rocking up to the T-Mobile Arena and looking for a ticket at the gate. We were very confused when we arrived at the gate and were ushered inside despite not having a ticket. We were almost an hour early for the 5pm start. However, we soon discovered that the game was in fact half way through (possibly why we got in free) so it was lucky that we didn't arrive at 5pm. The game was great, so fast! It's amazing how quickly the players cover the ground, even while controlling the puck and/or crashing into an opposition player. And Sparta Prague won 2-1 in extra time. However, we were concerned for the poor cheerleaders who were skating around in next to nothing in freezing temperatures...

After the hockey and finding our way back into the centre of Prague despite jumping on the wrong tram, we had an amazing dinner at an Argentine steak house. The steak was absolutely perfect, although Megan was more impressed by the live iguana in a little display case in the middle of the restaurant!






Tim in his
stunning new hat










Megan...
still not too
cold for a beer












After a kilo
of duck, a litre of
beer seemed only fair














Old Town Square















Christmas markets
in Old Town Square












One of the
Christmas stalls












Cold times in
Old Town
Square














Astronomical Clock
in Old Town Square















Fast food in
Wenceslas Square











Wenceslas
Square











Ice hockey -
Sparta Praha v
Vitkovice











Cold
cheer-
leaders

Our hood

Hello fans,

Very short blog this week, mainly to show you a few photos from around our new hood.

On Friday night we wandered along Upper Street and tried out a few bars and a Thai restaurant, which were all very nice. On Saturday we did some more shopping - the hunt for a wardrobe is proving harder than we expected, but we believe we may have one by this Friday! And Sunday was "Grand Slam Sunday", with the top four premiership teams facing off against each other. So it was a rather lazy day in front of the TV watching Manchester United beat Liverpool 1-0 and then Arsenal beat Chelsea by the same score. Huge result for the Gunners.

We are very excited about leaving for Prague on Saturday. It has been a very busy few weeks and we are looking forward to a break from work. We will have loads of photos and, no doubt, interesting tales to share over the next 2 weeks.

Our apartment
building

Our street











View of the
Emirates from
outside our flat











Our train
station...
nice








Gateway to the
Emirates...

















Megan in the A
















Holloway Road












Tim's new favourite
place...
Dixy Chicken.
Juliette will
find it funny

High Tea at the Ritz

Fans,

It was another busy weekend in London town. We were out early on Saturday morning - in the wet, miserable London weather - in search of another wardrobe and some shelves for the flat. After much frustration we managed to get some shelves but no wardrobe...small steps. We particularly enjoyed Homebase - where a trolley to carry your prospective purchases around the shop costs £1 and Argos which promises to deliver within 35 days but not on a weekend.

Tim also squeezed in a trip to Oxford Circus, which is ridiculous at the best of times, but two weeks out from Christmas, on a Saturday afternoon, in the rain (enter 10 billion umbrellas), it was a nightmare. But Tim managed to survive and emerged from the bottom of the largest ruck in the world with a DVD, two work shirts and a tie. Nice.

On Saturday night we tried out a Chinese restaurant near our new flat...and while it was ridculously cheap, it was a little lacking. A case of getting what you pay for. Megan then set off for an engagement party, while Tim actually managed to get some sleep...a real novelty these days.

On Sunday, Tim was up early and in to work for a couple of hours, then it was time for some lunch and off to the pub to watch Arsenal. Sadly Arsenal put in a poor display and lost for the first time in the premiership this season. But the Gunners maintain their spot on top of the table!!!

Then we got changed into our Sunday best and met Simon and Anthea for afternoon tea at the Ritz. We had booked in for this around 5 months ago, and we had nearly forgotten about it! However, it was well worth the wait. The Ritz is outstanding - very swanky. They even had a guy playing the harp in the corner!

The afternoon tea was "all you can eat" - as Simon pointed out, it was just like all you can eat Pizza Hut back in New Zealand! We had all sorts of sandwiches - cucumber, smoked salmon, egg, ham and cheese, and more that I can't remember. Then they brought out some scones with jam and cream - Tim ate 6, not very proper of him - and some exquisite little cakes. We enjoyed the fanciful Christmas decorations and silver service, but unfortuantely were not surrounded by the host of celebrities we had hoped for...indeed, seemed to be all overawed tourists!

Lobby of our
apartment building

Our building























The Ritz

Megan at
the Ritz





















Rather large
Christmas tree
Ritz lobby

Very nice...





















Megan and Tim
(Tim full of scones)


















Anthea and
Simon with some
pretty flowers (nice tie!)

Moving flats

Fans,

Firstly, apologies for the poor display of form on the blog over the last month or two. We have the excuses of being flogged at work (including many late nights and weekends), the change of seasons, meaning we are now limited in our weekend activities and moving flats recently. But we assure you that things will improve from here on in.

As of Saturday we no longer reside in Westminster. We are now residents of the vibrant borough of Islington. In fact, we live a stone's throw from the Emirates Stadium...we are officially true Gooners now. Our new place is great. It is in a new complex that has literally just been finished, so everything is brand new. Other than a few minor teething problems, we couldn't be happier. The complex also has a gym, so now we have no excuses about it being too cold/dark/wet etc etc outside to go to the gym.

We have taken a few snaps of the new place, see below. Exciting events coming up: we are having "High Tea" at the Ritz Hotel this Sunday with Simon and Anthea, which should be quality. Bravo old chaps.

It is also just 2 and a half weeks until we leave for Christmas in Prague, followed by a trip around Switzerland. We are both looking forward to out first winter Christmas and we are told it will indeed be a white Christmas! On the travel front, we have also just booked in for a trip to Croatia in June next year (Croatia is high on Tim's list of countries to visit - everyone who has been there has raved about it!). But the really exciting part is that on the way to Croatia we are stopping in Zurich for a night to see France play Italy live in the Euro 2008 championships. It doesn't get any bigger than that - these two sides were the World Cup finalists in 2006. Very exciting.

Keep an eye on the blog, it's alive once more.

Bonnie Scotland

Fans

Last weekend Anna and I hopped aboard the Highland Chieftain for a trip up to the land of Braveheart, haggis and (as I was later to discover) a dessert which is best described as cold porridge. Our destination was Auchterarder, a village near Gleneagles which is home to Renee and Bob - Renee is our grandfather's cousin - who have been surrogate grandparents to Anna while she's been so far from home. Just when they thought that was over, I arrived!

We had a lovely time seeing the family and pouring over family trees and the countless old photographs, including ones of Anna and I growing up that somehow have found their way to Scotland over the years. We were lucky that by chance, Renee and Bob's daughter and son-in-law, Julie and Victor, were visiting from Hong Kong so we got to catch up with them as well. We went out for a great meal in Auchterarder's "high street" which was very impressive, small town NZ could never match that standard!

Scotland blessed us with some very Scot-like weather and brilliant autumn colours (see below). For the wildlife fans, I did try to get a picture of the robins in R&B's backyard but they and the rabbit at the station proved too elusive, as did the moles which left trails of mole hills everywhere. In fact, all I ended up getting was a sheep. Disappointing.

Our time in the north was very relaxing and over all too soon. It was very kind of Renee and Bob to put us up and I hope we keep in contact and see them again...perhaps in summer!

Anna, Renee and

Bob at the bustling

Gleneagles station.

Beside an eathquake

fault line which

resulted in a wee

cliff that amatuer

rock climbers now

practice their moves on.

The high road.

Or the low road.

Difficult to tell.

Everyone.