First, before we talk about Prague, I should tell you about how I split up the group a few days back in order to go visit my family.

Leaving Berlin, the guys headed straight for Prague while I detoured and hopped a train to Nuremberg in Eastern Germany. In a small army post about 30 minutes north of N-Berg, my cousin Lydia lives with her 6 awesome kids. I haven't seen them since they moved to Germany from The States, so I was really looking forward to it. After a day of traveling, I arrived in the small town of Vilseck and met Lyd at the station with the kids.

I had a great night visiting with everyone- and it also happened to be Lydia's birthday, so I was lucky to get sone of the celebratory dessert. After the kids went to bed, Lydia and I stayed up talking and just catching up. It was a really nice chance to see her, and a welcome break from the rigors of traveling. I went to sleep in Lydia's oldest son's room, and found a few presents waiting for me in the top bunk: dolls that made noise when touched inside the pillows and a huge plastic spider down by my feet. It was pretty hilarious.

The next day, the 7 of us took off for Nuremberg. They had all been there plenty before, but they offered to be my tour guides for a few hours. Nuremberg was such a quaint little Bavarian town, complete with open air markets, lots of grand churches and a huge castle that overlooks the whole thing. We all had a great time running up and around the castle, eating ice cream- just enjoying everything.
















When I said goodbye to everyone at the train station I was genuinely sad to see them go. I am really lucky to have such awesome family all around the world and it was so great to- even for just a day- see some of them. I can't wait for them to come visit :-)

I said goodbye, grabbed my bag and headed East toward Prague (and my two handsome travel partners).

---


Prague is one of the most naturally beautiful cities I have ever been to in my life. The story goes like this: when Hitler was planning world domination, he decided he would have a political capital in Munich, and a "cultural capital" in the city of Prague. For that reason, the city was spared the destruction that most of Europe faced, and has some of the oldest, grandest buildings on the continent as a result.

When I arrived in Prague, I made my way to the hotel where the guys were waiting for me. It was, most importantly, The Bear's 23rd birthday!! They had already picked out an amazing mexican restaurant not far from where we were in the North of the city. I ordered a burrito and enjoyed every bite... I think I miss Mexican food more than anything else at home (sorry, family). Afterwards, we went to a local Prague bowling alley nearby. This was very not-touristy, and we managed to jump on one of the four lanes that were there. Because it was Steve's birthday, Dave and I planned to let him win at bowling... Which he did quite easily.

The next morning, after absolutely stuffing our face in the included breakfast buffet, we walked down into Old Town and did another free tour, this time with a canadian girl from Vancouver. Over 3 hours or so we saw most of the sights in Prague, including the famed Charles bridge, the Jewish Quarter, powder tower, the cathedral and lots of others.

Interestingly, Hitler left the Jewish Quarter intact because he wanted it to serve as a museum of the extinct Jewish people. What an ass. Either way, his asshole-ness is our gain, because now there are two beautiful synagogues that are hundreds of years old, along with lots of other old Jewish buildings.

Mostly though, the thing to do in Prague is just walk around with your eyes open. The city is stunningly beautiful, an incredible mix of extremely old and new. The open markets at city center offer great street food and these tasty rolled dough desserts that I kept coming back for.








The following day, we conquered Prague Castle, allegedly the largest castle compound in the world. It sits up on a hill overlooking the entire town and e river, and from ground level it seriously looks like Hogwarts. We took a combination of trams to the top and then saw the sights while descending back to ground level. The most prominent feature, St. Vitus' Cathedral was started over 700 years ago and the stained glass inside is absolutely stunning. With the help of trusty old Rick, we learned about the significance of different things while just enjoying the beautiful views of the city below.





At night, we went to an American bar in town because we heard that they were playing the Capitals vs. Rangers NHL hockey playoff game. We had a great time watching the caps win the series and then topped off the night with a midnight stroll around old town and Charles Bridge. As beautiful as the city is during the day, it doesn't hold a candle to it once the sun has gone down. It is absolutely stunning.




Today was spent doing laundry and then lazily walking around the city, my favorite activity in a foreign place. Since it was Easter Sunday, the crowds were out in force and it was fun to just walk around, up and down the Charles Bridge watching the street performers, artists and musicians do their thing. Before we knew it, it was back to the train station, final food shopping and then Prague was in the rearview mirror.

And here we are, about 1.5 hours away from the Bavarian city of Munich. We have so far held down our own compartment from intruders for the past 4 hours or so by using an ingenious method of pretending we are sleeping every time people try and join us. Hah! Genius!

We are so excited for Munich, Prague was absolutely beautiful and we hear that Munich has so much to offer!

Enjoy the pictures, and then book a ticket to Prague!!!

Greg