New Years & Prague

New Years in Amsterdam

Well, we have lived through our first European New Year's celebration. Before the real excitment started, An, Steven & Vincent came over for dinner earlier in the night.

Our friends had warned us about just how crazy it would be. Their warnings didn't do it justice. About a month ago we received a catalog in the mail for purchasing fireworks. This catalog put anything you might find on a US Indian reservation to shame. The Dutch are only allowed to shoot fireworks on New Year's Eve so they go a little crazy with them. During the day it is just firecrackers, lots of noise and smoke. It was a little like being in a war zone.

The real excitement started just after midnight and then proceeded to go on for an hour and a half. Our neighborhood was lit up like a grand finale on the 4th of July but it was nothing as compared to what Centrum was doing.

The dogs were both throughly freaked out and would have crawled under the covers had we let them.

Prague

Several weeks ago we had found flights to Prague for super cheap. We left Amsterdam on Jan 3 and came back on Jan 6th. We really only needed 2 full days to see Prague, but I didn't know that when I booked the flights and it was only 29 euros for the Tuesday flight.

We made it a pretty lazy trip. We would sleep late on the morning and then return to the hotel in the afternoon for a nap before dinner.

Day 1:

King Wenceslaus (ok really a duke), who knew he was a real guy.

King Wencelaus Square

The National Museum. The mis-matched patches (lighter splotches) these are the patches for the bullet holes made by Soviet tanks.

King Wencenlas on an upside down horse, you can see the tongue sticking out of the horse's mouth.

The Powder tower, one of the last towers for the original wall of "Old Town", where gun powder was stored.

The Muncipal House, designed and decorated by Alphon Mucha in Art Nouveou. It was a beautiful building where we later went to a concert.

The front of the Muncipal House.

Jan Hus memorial. A predecessor to Martin Luther. He was burned at the stake 100 years before Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door.

Tyne Church

The Old Town Hall and the Astronomical Clock. Can you tell it was FREEZING while we were there?

View from the Charles Bridge.

Kevin on the Charles Bridge with the castle in the background.

After walking around all afternoon (and freezing!) we made our way to the "Little Quarter" where we warmed up with tea (me) and beer (Kevin). We then took a tram to a monestery by the castle, for dinner. (a Rick Steves recommendation). We had contemplated walking, man am I glad we opted for the tram, as it would have been a long, up hill walk in the cold and dark. The tram took 10 minutes and cost us about a 1.50 euros, total!

Day 2

Sunday morning we woke up to snow.

The crowd of people waiting for the Astronomical Clock to mark the hour. Granted it is kinda neat to watch, but this crowd is ridiculous, almost as bad as the one surrounding Brussels' Maniken Pis.

The escalator, down to the Metro, it goes straight down! I don't really like heights, so needless to say this escalator made me a little uneasy. It took 3 minutes and 10 seconds to go from top to bottom.

Inside the Muncipal House, prior to the concert.

Day 3

Monday we woke up to even more snow...

Park outside the castle.

Kevin outside the castle.

St. Vitius Cathedral, in the castle grounds.

A main hall in the Old Palace. Large enough to be used for indoor jousting. Horses could be ridden up the stairs, indoors.

Me outside the Summer palace. Why am always a the summer palaces when it is freezing!

View of Prague from the castle.

Fresh strudl, as recommended by Samantha Brown. We ventured far out of the city center for these. Less then a Euro each!

Kevin enjoying the apple strudel in the park and snow.

Satisfying Czech food!

Half devoured Honey Cake.

The House of the Black Madonna.