...Amazing, huh? I mean, her presentation was just so gorgeous. I totally felt inspired to do more with my presentation the next time we host something. Petra made for us: fruit salad, fresh squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs, sweet potato and ginger soup, chilled roasted duck slices, beef and ham rolls with seasoned cream cheese, tomato and mozarella skewers, and additionally served us all sorts of fresh breads, cheeses, and meats. Plus, for dessert she made us red wine cake (her specialty) and tiramisu--by far the best we've ever tasted! I managed to convince her to share the recipe, so if you want it just send me an e-mail. :)
Now that I have finished posting about our Christmastime here in Germany, it's high time I told you all about how cool New Year's Eve is here. In my opinion, in the US there's not a whole lot to look forward to on NYE. Maybe you have a party to go to, but as far as the hours leading up to a grand event, the "ball-drop" just doesn't do a whole lot for me. Not the case here!
The Ossuary Chapel in Kutná Hora
Bone chalices decorate the entranceway
Inside, a huge chandlier hangs from the ceiling,
Large coat-of-arms
In addition to checking out the ossuary, we also enjoyed very much our visit to a local brewery, where we had a very nice lunch and some more excellent Czech beer. The beer was called Dačický, and seriously rivals my previously mentioned favorite, Velkopopovický Kozel. Unfortunately, the Kutná Hora beer is only available in Kutná Hora, so you'll just have to hop on over to the Czech Republic and taste for yourself how good it is.
On the way back to Prague with our driver, Vladmir
Ceiling Frescoes in U Pava's Restaurant
The location was great because we were right by the Charles Bridge, which is one of the biggest attractions in Prague. It's a long bridge over the River Vltava, commissioned by Holy Roman Emporer Charles IV in 1357, with scenic views and bronze statues up and down the sides. Very pretty.
On our first day in Prague, we headed to the Jewish quarter. Probably the most famous thing in this part of town is the Old Jewish Cemetery. Since the Jews weren't allowed to bury their dead outside of their district, this cemetery was used for more than 400 years. When it became full, they would add a new layer of dirt to accommodate the bodies, then shift the previously laid tombstones up to the top of the new layer. The end result is a cemetery 12 layers deep, containing an estimated 20,000 bodies and 12,000 tombstones. Really incredible to see. The most famous tomb is of Rabbi Loew, who, according to legend, created a monster called Golem to protect the Jews and help keep them safe.
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Throughout the trip we saw lots of marionette puppet stores, and some of the puppets were just so incredible. Andy and I ended up buying a Jester puppet as a souvenir. Here were some of our other favorites:
My favorite: The Dragon Puppet
Andy's favorite: The Eskimo Puppet
In the town square of Prague's "Old Town" there was a Christmas market (are you seeing a theme here? Europe loves these things!). We bought a Prague pastry called a Trdlo, that was delicious. It's basically yeast dough, wrapped around a cylinder, rolled in sugar and cinnamon, and roasted over an open flame. Sooooo good. Also in the square we saw the Astronomical Clock which displays the current zodiac sign, the phase of the moon, the patron saint for that day, and the time. It also puts on a show at the top of every hour: two windows open to reveal statues of the 12 disciples parading past and a skeleton representing death pulls a cord to ring the bell. It was neat.
Astronomical Clock
The Clock during "The Show"
Our last big excursion was to the Prague Castle. The castle is pretty cool because it has been home to the leader of Prague since it was completed in 850 AD; the current president resides there now. The most famous site there is the St. Vitus cathedral. Inside it is filled with beautiful stained glass windows, one of which was designed by the famous Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha. It also has a tower with spectacular views of Prague, as long as you're willing to climb a spiral staircase with 287 steps! Well worth it though. :) After all that exercise, we treated ourselves to a relaxing lunch (excellent goulash!) at a nearby restaurant.
View of Prague from the Tower
Posing with the St. Vitus Spires behind us.JPG)
Fun Times at Lunch after our Castle Excursion
All in all, it was a great trip. I would highly recommend Prague to those looking for an exciting European adventure. The architecture there is just beautiful, so just walking through the city streets was a treat. Plus they had gorgeous art glass and cut crystal boutiques, and some of the best beer in the world!! If you ever see Velkopopovický Kozel on a menu somewhere, you have to try it!
...and after! (pay no attention to the silly antlers on my head :))
My two Christmas gingergread houses (on display before consumption)
Pretty carved wooden creche Mom bought at the Weihnachtsmarkt
Showing off our Christmas hats
The traditional Christmas Canasta game
Pretty gingerbread men :)
Once at the palace, it was immediately obvious that this place was HUGE! We found out later during our tour that there are nearly 300 rooms in the palace, of which we only saw 70 during our 90 minute tour. Unbelieveable. Apparently the palace was originally built by a Duke who wanted a small hunting lodge, but due to demands from his mistress it was expanded into an enormous, ornate, far-from-humble dwelling.
Our tour guide, Laura, was super. She was fun and told us lots of interesting facts and stories along the way. I'll try to hit all of the highlights... The first room we saw was a large open space that was used as an entranceway, and sometimes a dining hall. The ceiling had large crystal chandeliers and a natural-looking, open sky painted on it, complete with flying ducks. The room was designed with one unusual feature: If you clap your hands loudly, the sound bounces of the walls and echoes so rapidly that it sounds like the ducks are flapping their wings. Cool.
The next cool, albeit random, item we saw was a "lunch cannon". The King of Baden-Wurtemburg (who moved in after the Duke) was a large man -- like 400 lbs large -- who took his meals seriously. He had a device that was kept in the garden to signal lunchtime on the palace grounds. When noon-time arrived, the strong sunlight would be focused via a magnifying glass, which would then ignite a small amount of gun powder in a mini-cannon, giving off an explosion so loud that everyone at the palace would know it's chow time!
The last fun pictorial highlight goes to "The Mirror Room". This room was all gold and mirrors, all over the walls and ceiling. Really neat. Apparently only very special guests were allowed to experience it. Back in the day, mirrors were really expensive, so it was a real show of money to have a whole room decorated with them. Laura told us that the room used to also have a mirrored floor, but it was taken out because the ladies of the court complained that you could see up their skirts...hmm, that might've been intentional. ;)
There were lots of other neat stories, like how it was a privledge to watch the king get undressed at night, and how if you were too low on the totem pole the king would make you wait 6 hours in the foyer before he would come to greet you, and how the king had a private balcony in the palace church complete with a day bed in case the sermon was too boring and he wanted a nap...stuff like that. The rest of our pics from the Ludwigsburg outing can be found here.
We also saw one the biggest attractions: a miniature choo-choo train that parents and kids can ride together:
And an organ grinder too. :)
The next morning, day two arrived, and brought with it it's own adventure. You see, just before coming to the US, my poor Mommy had to have an emergency root canal, and was put on antibiotics. Well, as she found out after flying across the Atlantic, she's allergic to that antibiotic. Which leads us to the next "first-time-for-everyone" experience: visiting a German doctor. Luckily, the doctor in Busnau is very nice and speaks pretty good English, so it was pretty painless. She even let Mom take a picture with her to document it. Sweet.
With our newly purchased prescription in hand (5 drug stores later...), the whole family was ready for a trip to Esslingen to check out the Christmas market there. You may remember that Andy and I previously visited this market with friends earlier in December. Anyway, it's a really cool market with one part traditional and one part medieval. Purely by luck we discovered a really cool new place on this trip. Apparently, Esslingen is home to the oldest Sekt cellar in Germany, called Kessler Sektkellerei. Sekt is the German word for sparkling wine or Champagne. Jesse bought a bottle of their Jägergrün, and it was freakin' awesome. Turns out we can also get it at our local grocery store, so come on over if you wanna sample it!
