Blogs from Czech Republic, Europe - page 16

Mosaic House is a very nice hostel which is well worth the slightly higher than average costs for a 4 bed en-suite (a bargain at about €35pppn), it's very modern, has great bathrooms and has a good vibe to it. It's clearly been recently renovated and they have probably spent a fair bit of money doing so. They should have pushed the boat out just a little further and sprung for soft close doors! It sounded like a building site outside our room this morning thanks to the hallway door slamming off its hinges ever 30 seconds! Apparently our hungover roomies didn't mind as he were still soundos, so we showered and packed up quietly and popped down stairs for another decent brekkie. We also, finnaly, got around to booking an AirBnB place for Barcelona where ... read more

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Today was a simple day to explore the alleyways and shops of Old Town Praha. We quite literally spent the day walking around in various circles and eating. Our initial plan had been to go to the castle, but I knew that was not something that Anthony really wanted to do, after all I'm the one that fantasizes about living in a castle. Since it's the beginning of the weekend, we watched as the city came alive, in the middle of the old town square, a HUGE stage was being set up, the amount of tourists had at least doubled. There were teams and school groups everywhere. Street performers were out in droves, and the number of beggars also seemed to double. The weather has been spectacular all week, the sun is shining and it's a ... read more

Thursday was a national holiday in Poland – Corpus Christi – so most of the shops and businesses were closed. We took this as an R&R day, and traveled south by bus about 3 hours away to the Karkonosze Mountains, which are part of the Czech-Polish border. We found a bobsled roller coaster, and decided to take a quick ride. It was lots of fun! We then took the cable cars/gondolas up from the Czech side to Sněžka, the highest peak in the Czech Republic, at 1600 meters (5250 feet). At the top, we hiked down a bit to a mountaintop restaurant for lunch. After walking down a bit further, we then took a single chair lift all the way to the bottom. Spectacular views! We then stopped at the Wang church, a Norwegian stave church ... read more

Well today we all felt a bit more rested and ready to face the day. The weather has been beautiful and promises to continue to be all week. This morning we headed out to begin our day on a walk through the old Jewish Quarter. Dad was once again the ultimate tour guide, as we made our way through the Old Town Square he talked to Anthony about living there and explained the massive statue even "googling" to make sure he had the dates right! We managed to take our own tour of the old synagogues and learned about their histories. We started in old church just of the square where my father and aunt were baptized in 1937 as my grandfather grew concerned about what he was seeing coming out of Germany. My grandparents made ... read more