May 23. . . ahh sleep

Connor havin fun with Aga, Gregor and Tytus

     So today we decided since we walked around Poland and Czech the past few days that we would take the day off. We were up at 8am (Connor was having a bad dream and was crying in his sleep poor guy) but we got up at 8am, fed him, fed ourselves, did a bit of laundry and then I was bad in bed by 10:30 (ha ha) But we finally woke up around 1:30, took a little stroll and lunch in town and came back home and waited for everyone to get off work.  We then headed out with our host family for some good ol fried fish that is just up the way from where they live.  It was nice relaxing day here. Not sure what is on the menu for tomorrow, but I guess we'll find out when we get up!

May 22 - Prague, Czech Republic

Prague behind us

   Today was a perfect day to drive 125 miles to Prague, CZ.  The drive took a few hours and our cousins Tomek and Pawel went with us.  I'm so glad they did for I'm not sure where I would have even BEGUN to start in this city. The moutains between Poland and Czech are pretty much the same and really pretty.

Connor is already thrilled

     First thing about Prague, wow.  What amazing buildings and statues that this town has!  I was in complete awe of it.  Jon and I were discussing on the way home how we have this video camera and we never use it anymore (I know. . .so not like me) But I'm taking pictures of everything and I don't want to miss it with my own eyes, so the pictures will have to do.  Also, today was hot, I know it wasn't Arizona hot but it was about 75* with about 75% humidity.  Pawel and Connor seemed to be the only sane ones, wearing shorts while Jon, Tomek and I suffered in shorts.  No sunburns though (unless the top of my head got burned)  but otherwise it was beautiful!  We walked about 5 miles round trip today and I'm exhausted.  So enjoy some of the few pictures we took :)

Entrance to Prague Market Street

Of course, had to get the Great Lion on top of the bank

Not sure what's happening here, I didn't even take this one lol

Royal Castle that we WALKED to. Ugh

Market Street Bridge

Poor guys had to carry the stroller up (and down) alot of stairs.
Europe is not "handicap" friendly with ramps

Prague

Royal Palace
I asked about "The Royal" Family and Tomek says
they are similar to the Brits, more for show than anything
no real power. . .well the Queen Mum has some power

So seepy

Kolsons, so tired

This church was amazing. Also, The boys are
under the white sign on the wall, crazy
how TALL this thing was!

St Pawel?  No. . .St "Paul" is behind him

My handsome man and me :)



Living the high life in Czech!!
(1100.00 Kron = 65$ US)

      We had an another amazing day here in Europe. I'm so glad that we went to Prague but I'll admit that this lazy American thinks the Europeans walk too much (LOL)  We will most likely take the day off tomorrow and just chill, after that we'll have 3 days left before we head to Berlin and then back to the states.  We have a few more towns to go to here in Poland and hopefully we can make it back to a different park of Czech to see their famous Land Bridge (yeah!!) If not then hopefully make it to a city that has awesome rocks in the mountains!

Dinosaurs in Poland

    Cant leave you without a funny Polish sign.  Evenidently, dinosaurs are still alive and well in Poland :)

Night!  

May 21 - Karkonoskim Park

Connor, the escapee

    So this morning as we were getting ready to head over to Cesar and Mira's house for breakfast, while daddy was hanging laundry and mommy was getting ready, I looked around and Connor was MIA, this is where I found him, he had crawled himself OUT THE DOOR!  He was just out there, playing with some sticks and in the dirt, like a boy.  Lucky he was not far away and there is nothing dangerous out there (like a pool) so I really wasn't worried, I though it was rather funny. Silly boy.  There was a snail though a few feet from him though, might have been worried about that.

Breakfast

   When the Polish do breakfast, they are serious about it.  We went to Uncle Cesar's house for breakfast.  We got to meet Michal (prounced mee-how and is Michael in English) who is his youngest son, his other sons Tomek and Pawel were also there.  Aunt Mira had made bread for us, there were meats and cheeses, breads, drinks.  So good!!  We were there for a while which was nice, all the guys got to visit while Cocia Mira played with Connor.

Chris, Jon, Connor, Tomek, Michal, Cesar and Pawel

   After breakfast we went on a hike in Karkonoskim Park.  Now I dont have much information on this park since all the websites are in Polish.  But this hike is not for the weak.  I give props to Jon, who carried Connor is is Bjorn all the way up and all the way down.  It took us about 3 hours to get up there and it was steep at times, but the views were beautiful.  I could post many more shots but I'll take up too much room :)

Church at the bottom of the trail, completely wood

Family's all here, lets hike!

A view from about the quarter of the way up

Yup thats snow behind us

Many creaks thru here

Prince Caspian is hiding in here :)

Cousins Chris and Pawel

Small waterfalls for Mom :)

Finally!  At the top!

Amazing cliffs

   It took about 2 hours to get down and it was alot easier, but it was hard on the knees since we were going at such an incline.  Connor slept the whole way down which was great and I was educating Pawel about "Glee" (that was a funny conversation between two people who don't speak the other's language well.  Just put on "Jump" and he understood the music lol) Again, thanks to Jon for carrying the Happy up and down this insane mountain. 
  After that we did some Polish sledding.  Now this is a metal track that is on this mountain and you literally sled down it, on a track, with breaks and no seatbelts.  I'll admit that I was a bit scared and wasn't sure how fast this was going to go. I went with Jon first who went easy on me and it actually wasn't that bad.  I went a second time by myself but Jon should have gone ahead of me for I was breaking too much.

Hooking up to the track that takes you up

Im gonna die for sure

One of many loops

Eating Polish ice cream. . .yum

It was an awesome, yet exhausting day. Connor fought going to bed tonight but he finally crashed around 9.  I can already see the "don't put me down" phase coming about from all the holding he is getting from his Cocia Mira. No worries though, we'll get him right outta that when we get home.

Tomorrow. . .PRAGUE!!!

May 20

Castle Czocha

     So today we ventured out to another castle, Castle Czocha.  This castle was about an hour away from Jelenia Gora and was a bit smaller that the one we saw the first couple of days we were here.  That is Chris in Connor in the front there.  We didn't get to go inside the castle, for they were filming some German movie here, but it was still interesting to see this castle.  Although this castle is in Poland, I guess it was German occupied for a while for most of the stuff was German.

Outside the castle

German motorcycle

   Now I know what your thinking, what the heck is this?  This is actually a stroke of brillance if you ask me.  This is where archers would stand post and they would fire their arrows outside the tiny crack.  Arrows could get out, but nothing in! Genious!!

     While the archers were on the 2nd level, these guys were on the 3rd, they would open this trap door and could pour things out like hot tar or throw tomotoes or something. Cool huh!

Bridge to the castle

Say cheese!



"Dueces"

      After we had spent the day driving to this castle, it actually rained on the way back. It was a really good rain too, it was nice to actually see this rain, since it was the first time I actually saw it. Not that I wanted to raining the whole time I was here, but I was glad to see this mysterious rain.

Ok, so don't cross here, guaranteed you'll get hit.



Absolutely no pooping (LOL)

      After we got back we decided to go with Gregor over to a hotel/spa to use their swimming pool. It was very nice and this hotel actually used to be a castle that was remodeled. 

   While on this little trip to the pool, Connor also got to do his first SWIM!  He seemed to liked. Daddy dunked him and he really didn't seem to like that too much, but I just swam him around the pool and he seemed to enjoy it!

Yeah! Swim trunks!!

I love swimming with mommy!

Till next time!!