Our Russian Relatives

Moscow

St. Petersburg

#37 -- Finland

#36 -- Sweden

#35 -- Czech Republic....PRAGUE

We took a train from Vienna to Prague. I am pretty terrible at reading military time. When I booked the tickets I remember thinking that the train would be 4-5 hours, but when we got to the station again I looked at the times and realized it would only be 3 hours. So we all sat in our compartment playing games and having a great time. After three hours we packed up our things, got out into the hall and ready to exit the train as it was slowing down. Well, no one else was getting off, and we looked like we were in the middle of nowhere, so we asked a conductor. He informed us that we can't read military time, and indeed the train would be another 2 hours. I am lucky that everyone was so nice and in good moods. We just laughed about the whole situation, unpacked our stuff again and started another rousing game of Phase 10. It was pretty hilarious.

Prague itself was gorgeous. Our hotel was in walking distance of the train station and every place in Old Town that you would like to go. We dropped off our stuff and walked 5 minutes to the main square that houses the oldest functioning astronomical clock in the world. We sat right next to it in a lovely cafe and ate dinner. The next day we spent wandering up to the castle, finding the Little Prince (first try) and eating more great food. Highlights: finding a KFC with AC, bathrooms, and FREE REFILLS!!! Diet Pepsi has never tasted so good. They even had ice. It was wonderful. Other great food was a shiskabob on a baguette from a farmer's market that looked more like a Christmas village. Fab.



One of the last activities was a 6 person circular bicycle ride. Ty was insistent that we went on it. We all dragged our feet, but in the end this was the funnest thing we did. We had a driver from the States who drove us all at break neck speeds through crowds of people fearing for their lives. It was quite a challenge to hold on, pedal, no kill anyone and not laugh so hard that I had bladder control problems. It was awesome!!!

Friday morning we woke up at 3:00 am to catch a 3:30 taxi to make a 6:10 flight that landed in Brussels and put us on an 8:15 am bus that took us to a train station where we took the metro back to my apartment. Exhausting.

Vienna

We spent 24 hours in Vienna. There was some great window shopping and food. Ty and I also went to a classical concert with a symphony, ballet dancers and opera singers featuring music by Mozart and other Austrian composers. It was definitely a highlight. I also got to return to the DeMel chocolate cafe I had visited three years ago.