Swimming and biking

This picture doesn't do our bike ride justice, but it was the only picture I took today because we really relaxed our pants off. After breakfast, we jumped on the trampoline, and rented some bikes to get over to a swimming pool and some water slides. The ride there was gorgeous, and the swimming pools were refreshing and perfect for the kids. After 5 hours, we came back home, swam in the pond, and crashed in the hotel room while Steve went to get pizza and salad.

A perfect last day.

Tomorrow we'll be leaving Bad Reichenhall on the train to Zurich to stay the night before we head to New York and then home. Booooooo!!!!

A beautiful paradise

Somewhere nestled in the mountains of Southeastern Germany lies Bad Reichenhall, a little town devoted to water healing and ski enthusiasts in the winter. For us, it was everything that we needed to relax and get ready for heading home.

This place is gorgeous and I can't rave enough about our hotel which overlooked a little pond which the girls loved.

And, all of the things that they had to keep our kids happy- especially this trampoline, which they couldn't get enough of. I seriously want one of these for our backyard- but not sure we have enough space!

In the morning, we were greeted by a wonderful outdoor breakfast (tons of cherries!!). I think I ate three bowls of yogurt with cherries/raspberries- yum.

This little swing was perfect too- with cows in the distance... could you get anymore idyllic?

This was the hotel.

And the view of the little pond from our balcony that woke us up each morning.

A walk to the lake.

Our balcony was in the middle and sooooo relaxing to sit on at night and in the morning.

Steve jumping right in! This little pond was perfect for swimming- it seriously was warmer than some of the pools we swam in.

My two little fishes.

And the cute little boat we sat in on and off for 3 days.

Put on your sunglasses, folks, yes, I am florescent white.

We took a tram to the top top of the mountain.

I'm not usually that afraid of heights, but for some reason I couldn't stop thinking about these cables snapping! It kept on going higher and higher and higher.

And higher!!

We were so high- we arrived in the clouds!

These were right below us- which seems really crazy, because I've only seen these types of clouds from the airplane! We were really really high!

Emi wanted to ride the ski chairs!

After we rode the tram, we headed home for some more swimming and a lakeside picnic dinner. So relaxing. I could sit on those chairs for days.

When Steve saw some fish, he immediately jumped up and asked the hotel owner if there were any fishing poles... and started to train Maddie.

Super happy.

All throughout Germany, we saw these grill sets they sell in the grocery stores, and wanted a chance to use them. Finally we seized the moment! We bought "American marshmallows" and went to town.

LOVED this boat.

He caught some fish!!!

One of my favorite pictures for the trip!

Or maybe this one?

Emi turned into quite a little jumper!!! Whoo hooo!!!

Some trampoline love.

A view of the mountain we climbed (not with our feet, sadly, but with the tram!).

A very very relaxing day in bad r. We don't want to leave.

A Travel Day

Today we woke up in Prague and ended our day in Bad Reichenhall with 8 hours of train travel inbetween. On one hand, traveling on trains is super nice because you can just check out, relax and someday you'll get there. But, on the other hand, some of the trains aren't that fast (ours), so it stops a lot, or sometimes the air conditioning can break (ours), or teenagers can decide to turn your train car into a discoteque (ours)... hee hee.

For the first hour, the train seemed like it was going to be awesome, but as the air conditioning stopped, it got mighty warm, and not so awesome. Emilie and I walked to the other trains and tried to stay in the restaurant car as long as we could. For some reason, it was only our car that didn't have it!!

Half way inbetween, some teenagers hopped on and for the most part were pretty quiet (they were passed out with hangovers?), but then we heard "It'ssss aaaa Paaaaarrrrttttttyyyy," for 6 hours every 20 minutes. Let's say we were about to throw them off the train after the 50th time we heard it. Ah!

But, we did eventually get here, and it was worth it. We had dinner and walked home in a thunderstorm which was so refreshing. This part of Germany is beautiful and our hotel is perfect for the kids and for us (who have needed some time in the country before we head home.)

Can you see Prague in 1 day?

Probably not- but we didn't have a choice! We only planned for 1 1/2 days in Prague, so we had to book ourselves around to the key sites :) It is a beautiful city!!!

After our 2 hour train ride from Dresden, we got into the train station crazy zoo... and I was so so happy to see our hotel come and pick us up. They helped us with our luggage, put it into their mini vans, and we got to sit in a car (which we haven't done in a long time). Oh, the pleasures of life. Love them.

Our first introduction to Prague was this "dancing" house which was super interesting. I want to read more about the history of this building.

And then of course, the gorgeous bridges :)

After our hotel staff gave us a warm welcome (I'm going to highly recommend them on trip advisor-they seriously went out of their way), we walked down to one of the islands which is designated pretty much to an entire playground. The kids loved it.

We decided to walk across the most famous bridge, which was PACKED with tourists, but still fun. When we got to the other side though, it was a little too much of cheap plastic stuff, so we tried to get off the common path... had ice cream, and then headed home to get some rest before the next day.

Bright and early, we took a little train to the base of a tram that takes you up the mountain and drops you off at a gorgeous park overlooking the city. Luckily, there were also horses there, so Maddie was super supa excited!

I need to buy one of these for her.

The sign for the tram we took up.

In the park they have an observation tower, that looks like a mini eiffel tower...

Beautiful rose gardens..

We took the steps up the tower and were rewarded by this!! What a great view of the castle!!

And city.

When we got down, we let the kids play a bit after they worked so hard climbing those steps. I love it when people put parks everywhere. It is sooo helpful.

We then took a hike through the park down to the castle (which was my favorite memory for the day). It was so beautiful to walk through the orchards, looking at prague below you- I wish I could do it again and again. The only minus was that Emi decided that she didn't want to have anything to do with stairs- which was a huge bummer because there were tons of stairs. Needless to say, it was a lot of waiting, and a lot of crying until she finally settled down and ate this peach :)

Once we walked through the park, we entered the enormous castle gates, and started to walk through all of the buildings and streets...

The main gates to the older part of the castle.

I love these emblems- I've never seen anything like them in REAL life- only in movies or described in books. It was super cool.

Check out these amazing books?! Not fake.

This is a dome in one of the basilicas.

The main gorgeous cathedral.

And when I say gorgeous- I mean gorgeous stain glass windows. They almost didn't seem like they should be in the church...

In the old castle, there is a street where the artist Kafka used to live? Kind of strange, but was fun to go in an out of the little houses which have been converted to little stores/recreations of what it may have looked like back then/museums with artillery of the period.

When we finished the castle grounds, we stopped at a very old winery and had ice cream, and Steve tried the traditional Czech bread- which was basically cinnamon, sugar, goodness.

These are the old stairs leading out and into the castle walls.

I looked down at my little companion, and said "Are you ready for the stairs now?" And she says, "Mama... lots of stairs!" But- with an adorable smile on her face.

Cute cute cute.

After all this walking, we were sticky and very hot. This drinking fountain was everything that we wanted. They got a kick out of it.

From this side, we walked over the bridge to the old Jewish sector- but we then remembered that it was SATURDAY! Urgh. Of course everything was closed. Oh, well. We did get to peek into the old Jewish cemetery.

A view of one of the towers in the main square. I love the roof!

The old astronomical clock- very very neat.

There were tons of weddings going on, and of course rose pedals everywhere.

A quick shot of a kiss!
And a SUPA cool car. I would love to ride in one of these.

We did a lot more walking and walking, which was getting a little exhausting especially when I saw all of these bikers. Pushing umbrella strollers on cobblestones was starting to get to me.

But- we pressed on, because all we thought about was getting to the paddle boats on the river. And, we made it! It wasn't a moment too soon because I was sweating like crazy.

A happy girl right after eating an icy.

Another one.

After the paddleboats, we decided to head back up to catch some dinner by the river.

Our view crossing the old bridge. So cool, right?

While we re-entered the other side of the city, these horn players gave all the tourists a free concert. It was very nice.

Lots of neat puppets.

The restaurant we ended up choosing was so relaxing- right on the river, and we immediately ordered cold drinks and relaxed our pants off. It was a perfect dinner to the end of a very long but amazing day.

Of course we couldn't NOT stop at the park right next to us, and the girls were in the best of moods. Emi sang and sang on this little swing. We couldn't get her off of it.

And this was our Prague in 1 day! I already miss it.