Belgium

It has been awhile since our last update! We want to share a fun trip we took this spring to Belgium.

Our friend Meredith came to visit us in Prague during my spring break which also happened to be Easter weekend. We explored the Easter markets and on Green Thursday (Zelený čtvrtek) we enjoyed green beer.

After showing Meredith around Prague we jetted off to Brussels for a few days.

We stayed in an AirBnB in the center of Brussels where we were close to great frites, beer, mussels, chocolate and waffles. Needless to say it was a very delicious vacation!

Our favorite frites place-Friterie Tabora

On our first day we joined the Sandemann’s free walking tour to learn more about Belgium. If you are visiting a city and they offer free Sandemann’s tours I really recommend them. So far we have joined their tours in Brussels, Prague and Barcelona. Although it is free, you are expected to leave a tip at the end based on the service you received.

Tim and Meredith made sure to taste test all the great Belgian beer while I tasted the wines and gluten free beers.

We also explored the EU Parliament Parlamentarium which was pretty cool. I highly recommend this. It is free and showcases world history and the history of the European Union. It is interactive and everyone receives a audio guide set so you can go at your own pace.

We took a day trip to Bruges and it was beautiful! We soaked in the sunshine while exploring the city.

We walked to the old romantic looking windmills that are located alongside the old moat and medieval city gates.

It was great to see Meredith and show her our home.  Who wants to visit next??

Amsterdam

Last month we took a quick trip to Amsterdam to meet Bob, Tim’s Dad, for the weekend. It had been many years since I was back in Amsterdam but the visit brought back many memories! I had a few laughs when I thought back to freshman year of college when a group of my friends made Amsterdam their spring break destination and we all stayed with my family for a week.

Here is a throwback photograph from 10 years ago…

We arrived in Amsterdam on a Friday night which coincided with the “beast from the east” so the airport and surrounding hotels were packed with travelers who had their flights delayed or cancelled. It was also the first time in 8 years that the canals froze which made for some beautiful pictures. There were some brave souls walking and skating on the ice but we did not join.

Here is a picture of my former apartment in the background and the neighborhood grocery store- Albert Heijn.

Skinniest house in Amsterdam-

We walked around the beautiful Begijnhof courtyard which is a former women’s religious community with houses and a church dating back to the 15th century. Today it is still women only housing and it is a nice escape to a quite courtyard in the heart of Amsterdam.

A floating playground which further fueled Tim’s barge yoga dreams-

We visited the Rijksmuseum, crossed over many bridges and canals, viewed the pretty yet leaning houses, attended mass on Sunday morning and enjoyed the winter sun.

It was a great weekend catching up with Bob, relaxing with adult beverages and showing Bob and Tim around Amsterdam.

Roma

To celebrate Tim’s return to Prague after his 3 weeks away, Valentine’s Day and my February break we (+Flat Stanley) traveled to Rome for 4 days.

It was a lovely getaway and we stayed at the nicest hotel thanks to my brother Alan. The Boscolo Exedra Roma was a hotel situated in the Piazza della Repubblica and next to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs. Here are some pictures from our room balcony. Over a month later and we are still talking about the amazing breakfast and fresh orange juice they served at the hotel each morning. Alan- when is our next getaway!? 🙂

 

 

We arrived on Ash Wednesday and attended mass at one of the many churches in Rome. The mass was in Italian and to our surprise the ashes were sprinkled on the crown of our head.  We were confused by this method and after mass over a glass of Italian wine we did some research. The placing of ashes with the sign of the cross on the forehead is the most used method, however, the older practice of putting ashes on the crown of the head is still practiced in Rome.

The church we attended for Ash Wednesday-

The chic bar we grabbed drinks at after.

We enjoyed many cups of caffè standing at the bar like a local. Caffè literally means “coffee” but in Rome, it means an espresso: a single shot of coffee, no water or milk added. We knew this ahead of time so we tried to be like a local and order espressos by asking for due caffè . Without fail the barista would double-check to make sure, asking, “Espresso or Coffee?” Oh well, we tried!

We visited the Colosseum-

 

To celebrate Valentine’s Day we visited the skull of St. Valentine at the Santa Maria in Cosmedin.

We hiked up Aventine hill to see the church where the Pope said Ash Wednesday Mass and the Aventine Keyhole. The keyhole is part of the property owned by the Knights of Malta, a Roman Catholic religious order of crusader knights. Here are a few of our pictures and the last picture is from google. We were not able to capture the view of St. Peter’s Basilica with our camera. As you can see from the google picture it was a beautiful sight!

 

We visited Vatican City and took Flat Stanley with us.

 

We had beautiful days in Rome and enjoyed the sun and blue skies so much! We also found gluten and dairy free gelato at Fatamorgana!

How awesome are these UPS delivery trucks? We would love to see John riding around the back roads of New Hampshire delivering packages in one of these bad boys! 🙂

If you are taking a trip to Rome please let us know so we can share our restaurant, cafe and wine bar recommendations with you!

Happy Easter to everyone!

xoxo

2018!

Happy New Year or Happy Spring? It has been a while since we updated everyone but the last few months have been busy! We rang in the New Year in Prague with the most amazing fireworks show and friends. The lack of an open container law here makes for great celebrations!

The year 2018 is a special year here. It is not only the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Czechoslovakia but also the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Czechoslovakia split into two independent countries on Jan. 1, 1993, in what is called the Velvet Divorce.

There are many special events and exhibitions planned to mark the anniversary. The biggest is the re-opening of the National Museum.  The seven year long renovation should be partly finished so that the public can re-enter the building in October to see a temporary exhibition marking the 100th anniversary. In anticipation of the partial re-opening, the staff have begun auditing the museum’s collection. Last week it was discovered that diamonds and other precious stones thought to be worth millions of dollars are fakes! Around half the museum’s collection, acquired by the museum during communist times, has already been found to be fake. We are interested to see what comes of this scandal!!

In January, Tim disappeared to the States for a 21 day trip! It was a very very long time to be away from home and from each other but we survived. While Tim was away I found a Saturday morning yoga class that I really enjoy and I started taking Czech lessons with 2 teachers from school.

Tim brought our first visitor with him back to Prague. Flat Stanley came to visit us all the way from our niece, Hannah’s, first grade class in North Carolina. We know how to treat our guests right (hint hint) and showed him around Prague before jetting off with him on another vacation.

I have been brushing up on my iceskating skills with my first grade friends. The students just wrapped up an ice skating unit in gym class and I was able to join them on the ice. Next up is swimming which starts after Easter break. I will also be joining them in the pool to teach swim lessons with the gym teacher.

We attended a Bedrich Smetana concert in celebration of his 194th Birthday on March 10. We listened to music he composed and saw parts of his famous opera The Bartered Bride. The tickets were a Christmas gift for Tim and, if I may say so myself, I purchased great seats. Unfortunately,  we were running a bit late and we weren’t allowed to access our seats since it would disturb the performance. We had to sit all the way in the top row of the National Theater so our view wasn’t the best but the music was still beautiful.  Afterwards we went to Cafe Slavia for brunch and we made up for the lack of view at the concert with a great view of the castle from our table.

This past Friday we saw Malý Princ also known as Le Petit Prince or The Little Prince. The tickets were Christmas gifts from Tim’s parents and it was a really nice way to start our weekend!

Saturday we took a day trip to Plzen with friends. Plzen is the 4th largest city in the Czech Republic and is the home of the Pilsner Urquell Brewery. It is the world’s original pilsner and first pale lager beer. It had snowed all night Friday and continued all day Saturday so it was a really beautiful train ride through the country side and we enjoyed exploring the snow covered cobblestone streets.  It was also St. Patrick’s Day and the Czech’s make special green Easter beer so we were able to get our green beer fix and feel like we were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Verdict is still out on if we like the Czech Easter beer…we will have to taste test a FEW more between now and Easter 😉

Rome and Amsterdam posts coming soon!

We are trying to do “18 in 2018” and visit 18 new places in 2018! Our next stop is in April with our friend Meredith who will spend a few days with us in Prague and then we will all head to Belgium. Any recommendations? Please send them our way!

We hope all is well with everyone and that spring weather comes soon…especially for our Boston friends!!!

xoxo

 

 

Fall in Prague

As we head into December we want to fill you in on all of our fall adventures. We have settled into a nice routine and are really enjoying getting to know our new city. It has taken some time to get comfortable and adjust but the last few weeks everything has seemed to fall into place. Tim is home and not traveling again until the new year! I started a teaching job at an international elementary school near our apartment and am loving it! We have joined the Prague public library and I am in 2 seperate book clubs.  We have located our favorite coffee shops, are making friends and have found a church to join. Here are some of our fall highlights that we want to share with you-

*We attended the reenactment of the Battle of White Mountain which was pretty fascinating.

From Wikipedia: 
The Battle of White Mountain was an important battle in the early stages of the Thirty Years’ War.  It was fought on 8 November 1620. An army of 15,000 Bohemians and mercenaries under Christian of Anhalt was defeated by 27,000 men of the combined armies of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor led by Charles Bonaventure de Longueval, Count of Bucquoy and the German Catholic League under Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly at Bílá Hora (“White Mountain”) near Prague. The battle marked the end of the Bohemian period of the Thirty Years’ War and decisively influenced the fate of the Czech lands for the next 300 years. Its aftermath drastically changed the religious landscape of the Czech lands after two centuries of Protestant dominance. Roman Catholicism retained majority in the Czech lands until the late 20th century.

 

*Japan Week- Prague hosted a week long event on both traditional and modern Japanese culture. We attended the opening night performance and I was so glad to share some of the Japanese culture with Tim. Highlights included a kimono fashion show and taiko drumming.

*Smetana cafe- We have found a Smetana Cafe and are still waiting to hear back if we can purchase their coffee cups.

*Teacher Training- I attended a really great teaching seminar hosted by National Geographic and this was the view from the high school!

*We are really enjoying the local farmers markets by our home and Tim’s office. We just have a few more weeks until they shutdown for the winter though. Funny story from last weekend…Tim can speak BASIC Czech and wanted to place the order with the egg man at the market. Tim thought he asked for 12 eggs but he ended up asking for 20! Eggs are on the menu for this week!

*The American Embassy hosted an event on Shirley Temple last month because Shirley was the Ambassador of Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution. The event was really great and unique. It was a performance by a Shirley Temple impersonator and she talked about Shirley’s life in the first person. Very cool and informative so now we need to go back and watch all of the Shirley Temple movies.

*I read a really great book for both of the book clubs I joined- Spaceman of Bohemia. I have decided it is a new type of genre, historical science fiction. It provides some great background on Czech history and is very well written.  If you read it let me know and we can discuss!

 

*We attended the annual Signal Festival, which is an event dedicated to show casing light art technology. It is a great opportunity to view some of the city’s most iconic and significant landmarks in an entirely new light. We enjoyed the weekend long event and casually strolled between the exhibits with beers in hand. Did we mention there are not any open container laws here?

 

*We went to Vienna to celebrate our one year anniversary. We loved it and would definitely go back. It is such a pretty city and it was so easy for us to get their via train.

*Saw this sign for the festive drink offerings at a coffee shop the other day. I’m trying to figure out if you become a billionaire if you drink it, if it makes you feel like a billionaire OR is the beverage a billion calories? Will keep you updated 🙂

*Fun fact: Apple’s Christmas ad was filmed in Prague. The snow must be special effects because it hasn’t snowed yet.

https://news.expats.cz/movies-tv/apples-new-thanksgiving-ad-filmed-streets-prague/

 

*Before we head back to Florida for the holidays we look forward to checking out the many Prague Christmas markets and enjoying lots of Svařák (mulled wine)!

We hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!!

xoxo

Paris

We had an amazing weekend in Paris. Paris is so picturesque and timeless. I did not want to leave and can not wait to return. The city is beautiful, the weather was perfect, the wine was delicious, the food was delicious, and the company was wonderful!

Tim had a business trip to Paris so I met him at the end of his trip and we spent a long weekend exploring the city and relaxing. We found the cutest airbnb studio on the top floor of a quintessential Parisian building which was the perfect distance from all the places we wanted to visit during our stay.  The front of our street had this beautiful arc that we got to walk by everyday.

Our first night was spent sipping wine and enjoying small bites at one of the more popular wine bars in Paris. Slightly embarrassed to admit the recommendation came from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop City Guide but I must say she did not disappoint! Frenchie Bar À Vins was a great way to toast to our weekend in Paris. The wine was the best we have had since moving to Europe. The Czechs are very proud of their wine but so far we have not found one to enjoy…I guess our livers are getting a bit of a rest…except for all the beer! I can not recommend this place enough and is a must visit when you find yourself in Paris. Keep in mind the place is small, popular and they do not take reservations so you should get there right when they open at 6:30pm.  We power walked Margie Smetana style to get there on time! 🙂
Here is our cozy table in the corner!

Friday started with a bus hop on and off audio tour but after hopping off at the Arc de Triomphe we never hopped back on. We ended up wandering the streets and walking all the way to the Eiffel Tower. I have been to Paris before and the bus tour is a great way to get around and learn about the city but we were both just excited about the nice weather so we wanted to walk and talk. We walked the city and broke it up with espressos and wine.

Can you believe they do not offer alternative milk products in Paris? So far Paris has been the hardest city for me to stick to my dairy-free diet. I did learn to drink straight espresso though because I needed caffeine and would not give in by visiting a Starbucks! I knew that Paris would be a bit of a challenge…croissants, escargot, crepes, macaroons, cheese, baguettes, pastries, the list can go on and on! We did find a vegan and gluten-free cafe, Cafe Pilson, which allowed me to have gluten and dairy-free Madeleines which were delicious!

Here we are at the  Basilica of the Sacred Heart, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur,  which was beautiful on this inside. Possibly even more beautiful than Notre Dame!

We HAD to stop at Louis Vuitton on Champs-Élysées during our visit and snap a picture. It was at this location 11 years ago that I bought my first Louis Vuitton purse with the money I saved up from bus monitoring. In Japan, our K-12 American school was a 45 minute drive outside of Tokyo so the school would hire high schoolers to be bus monitors on the bus and make sure everyone was safe during the ride. I vividly remember each week saving my money in a white envelope knowing that we were headed to Paris.

We wrapped up our visit with Sunday Mass at Notre Dame which was beautiful. It was a Gregorian Mass in French but they handed out the readings in English so we could follow along. This was a great way to end our trip and we highly recommend you add this to your itinerary if you are visiting.

Overall it was an awesome weekend and I can not wait to go back! If anyone wants to go please let me know and I will meet you there in a heartbeat!

Next week we are heading to Vienna for our one year anniversary!! Yay! If you have any recommendations please share!

Barcelona

Meredith ended a Mediterranean cruise in Barcelona and was staying for a few days so I decided to take a quick 2.5 hour flight over to visit her. This was my first time in Barcelona and it was beautiful!

We took the Transbordador Aeri del Port from the Beach up to Montjuïc. There is a castle, great views of the city and the 1992 Olympic Park. While exploring Montjuïc we stumbled upon a boy’s water polo game in the Olympic water polo and diving pools.

We visited a great sangria bar, L’Ovella Negra Ramblas, per Claire’s recommendation from when she studied abroad in Barcelona. If anyone visits Barcelona, definitely check this place out and don’t be frightened as you enter. They were playing heavy metal when we arrived and the bar is like cave so we were a bit apprehensive at first but glad we ventured in!

On the last day in Barcelona, Meredith had an early morning flight and I wasn’t leaving until the evening so I did a SANDMANs free walking tour which I highly recommend. If you are traveling to Europe (or New York) they have free walking tours in various cities. Next, I did an audio tour of la Sagrada Família and it was AMAZING. I spent hours in there and want to go back with Tim. It is a Catholic church that has been under construction since 1882….besides a brief hiatus during the Spanish Civil War. The architect Gaudi has since died but various artists, sculptors, and architects are continuing to finish the church based on his designs and style.  He literally thought of everything when designing such as where the sun would be at all times of the day and how it would shadow the sculptures outside and reflect through the church through the stained glass. Shout out to the Japanese sculptor, Etsuro Sotoo, that worked on the beautiful doors  (5th picture below) covered in plants leading into the church from the Nativity side. The construction is supposed to be completed in  2026—the centenary of Gaudí’s death. I took pictures but definitely did not capture the beauty of the place. You must visit if you go to Barcelona and be sure to buy tickets ahead of time. We did not realize this and tried to go before Meredith left but it was already sold out.

Our trip overlapped with September 11th which is National Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. The Day of Catalonia commemorates the end of the siege of Barcelona in 1714. Catalonia is in the northeastern region of Spain that includes Barcelona and they speak Catalonian not Spanish. This day is traditionally used by pro-independence activists to call for secession for Barcelona.  However, this year’s event had particular significance because on October 1st there will be a vote on whether Barcelona can say ‘adios’ to the rest of Spain.  They have already done this once before in 2014, but Spain said the vote was illegal – that’s because the constitution says no one region can go rogue and make decisions that affect the rest of the country. Now Catalonia is trying again, Spain is still not happy, and there has been a lot of press following this. Here are some pictures from the parade that I encountered during my visit and pictures of the Catalonia flag which was displayed all over the city. If you are interested in learning more here is a TIME article that sums it up pretty well- http://time.com/4951665/catalan-referendum-2017/

Overall, Barcelona was a great quick trip. We enjoyed catching up, sangria, tapas, patatas bravas, paella, great weather and a new city!

Our next trip is in 3 weeks to Paris. Does anyone have good recommendations for us?

Our New Apartment!

Tim and I are back in Prague and are fully settled into our new apartment. We moved in the weekend before we both flew back to the US and our IKEA furniture was delivered the day before we flew back to the US. We stayed up late the night before our flights assembling IKEA furniture and unpacking. I am proud to say that I successfully assembled our shoe cabinet, kitchen table and kitchen chairs all by myself. It was no easy feat but 3 weeks later everything is still holding up nicely!  Our wardrobe is still a work in progress- the backing required a hammer which we did not have at time of assembly and we are still debating if the wardrobe needs doors. You can see the doors and mirror doors propped up against the wall by our couch and under our couch. The apartment did come partially furnished with the orange couch and bed. Our apartment is on the inside of the building on the 5th floor and looks out onto a great little courtyard for all the surrounding buildings.

Here are some pictures of our apartment-

Tim’s business trip was very busy as he flew around the country visiting schools in Arizona, California, Maryland, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. My trip back to Florida was great and I returned to Prague before Hurricane Irma arrived. All Florida friends and family are safe with minimal damage but still waiting for power to be restored. After returning from Florida I took a quick weekend trip to Barcelona, Spain to visit with friends from Boston. Meredith and a few friends finished up their Mediterranean cruise in Barcelona so I met them there for a weekend. I will write about my Barcelona trip in a future post.  Tim and I are both glad to be back in Prague to enjoy Fall and get to know our new city a bit better.

To get email notifications when we write a new blog post, enter your email on the right side panel and you will receive an email to confirm you want to subscribe/follow our blog. We hope everyone had a great weekend!

Settling In

Tuesday marked 2 weeks in Prague and we have settled in very nicely. I have been doing a lot of exploring and am wishing my fitbit didn’t die prior to our departure. It would be great to see how many steps/miles/kilometers I’m clocking each day.  I have a pretty good feel for the city but don’t ask me how to pronounce any street names. Tim does a much better job at pronouncing things properly. I continue to struggle but have finally mastered “I don’t understand Czech” = Nerozumim cesky (ne-ro-zu-meem che-sky). I also learned that no means yes here the hard way. “Ano” means yes in Czech so this past week as I struggled to communicate no gluten, no milk products, and no bottled water while dining out we ended up with beautiful bread baskets brought to the table, an iced latte with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream on top, eggs smothered in hollandaise sauce and lots of bottled water when we only wanted tap water. So we are starting to look into taking Czech language classes. 🙂

Last week I visited the Manolo Blahnik exhibit at Museum Kampa and it was amazing! They did not have any Sex and the City Carrie Bradshaw shoes on display but the exhibit was gorgeous. Each pair of shoes on display had Manolo’s sketch framed and hanging on the wall. Here are some pictures from my visit. Web:http://www.museumkampa.cz

Tim was eager to go to the farmers market again on Saturday which made me very happy and then I realized he had ulterior motives and was just interested in having a beer at 10:00AM. Very different from the farmers markets we went to this summer in Maine!

In August 2002, Prague experienced floods like never before and the city was flooded from August 8 to to 19. There is an exhibit through the end of September on Kampa Island in remembrance of the event that we visited over the weekend. The pictures were devastating and the damage was astronomical with over $1 billion (30 billion CZK) in damages. Prague Zoo flooded and they were able to rescue most animals. There was a seal named Gaston, who apparently made international headlines as he escaped from the zoo during the flooding. He made it all the way to Dresden, Germany before dying of exhaustion. 😦 But his son and grandkids survived and are back at the Prague Zoo! About 50,000 people were evacuated and buildings were destroyed. Although the exhibit ended with the mayor insisting the infrastructure has been updated to withstand any future floods, we are happy that we signed a lease for an apartment on top of a hill.

We got the keys to our new apartment yesterday and I made the trip out to IKEA today to get some furnishings.  I took the metro for the first time to get to IKEA and ran into one of the few people I know in Prague- the lady that helped us open up a bank account. IKEA on a week day is the best time to go. I don’t think I will ever go back on a weekend again. Everything gets delivered Monday so we will share pictures once it is picture ready!

Tim heads back to the US next week for a 2 1/2 week business trip and I will be heading home to Florida for a week. Our US cell numbers no longer work so if you want to get in touch with us send us an email and we will give you the numbers to reach us at!

Thanks for following along!

 

The Weekend

Tim finished up his first week of work- it rained all day Friday with lots thunder and lightening.  By the time Tim got out of work at 18:00 (6:00PM) the skies cleared and the sun emerged. We took this opportunity to explore a large park near our  temporary apartment that has beer gardens scattered throughout. We toasted to the weekend and to our first weekend of exploring. We then found a great Vietnamese Pho restaurant- Pho Tuan & Lan-and enjoyed fresh spring rolls and pho to remind of us of Pho 2000 in Dorchester, MA.

https://www.facebook.com/photuanlan

We found a Saturday farmers market at the Jiriho z Podebrad square and my new favorite cafe that might bump the South End Buttery to second place! The cafe is next to a park with Prague’s TV Tower which can be seen on the right side of the picture of our new apartment building!

We crossed the Charles Bridge to the Castle District and quickly realized we will need to try again when tourist season is over and the city quiets down a bit. I was on a mission to find a restaurant that I read about online that served gluten free Czech Beef Goulash and beer. The meal even came with a tiny flag showing off my gluten free request. They also made Tim’s meal gluten free so we could share! 🙂

While enjoying breakfast on Sunday morning I stumbled upon a local instagram posting that said it was the Day of Jewish Monuments in Prague. We quickly finished up breakfast and made our way over to the Jerusalem Synagogue. It was beautiful, filled with history and testament to the resilience of the Czech Jews. Very impressive and powerful. Among other things, we learned that the TV tower mentioned above is the site of a former Jewish cemetery and that the synagogue remained intact during WWII and post WWII because it was designated as a warehouse for the war.

I spent Monday and Tuesday  job searching and apartment hunting…and wishing we had signed up for HGTV’s International House Hunters! We have found an apartment and we hope to move in next week. The picture above with the TV tower is our new building. It is on the corner and the architecture is beautiful! It is close to the beer garden/large park, the TV Tower with my new favorite cafe, the food store, and a 15 minute walk to Tim’s office. My next adventure will be to Ikea to decorate. Pictures and updates to come!

Hope everyone has a great week!