vacation

For our last week of summer we headed over to Germany to visit Lydia. We flew in and out of Prague so we also spent a few days in Czech. Both countries were really amazing.

We had one small snafu before leaving the US. The girls had a dentist appointment that day – about 4 hours before our flight was schedule to leave – plenty of time (we thought). When we got there a cavity that we knew Soph had had actually turned into an abscess and she needed to have it removed, ASAP. Our dentist jumped into action, extracted it in about 10 minutes, and we were out of there and to our flight in time. Soph was a trooper. She was really upset when she found out she had to have it out, but she did it, and then flew with a mouth that didn’t stop bleeding for almost 12 hours.

The girls before we boarded the flight. Poor Sophie had to have a tooth removed just a few hours before we were schedule to take off and her mouth bleed for most of the trip over.

We flew overnight Friday, arriving mid-morning on Saturday. The girls both slept about 5 hours on the plane, but unfortunately Dave and I did not. When we arrived we rented a car in Prague and drove straight to Leipzig, which is about a 90 minute drive. We stopped for lunch in Czech right before we hit the border at a little restaurant on the side of the road where little English was spoken. We got our first taste of Eastern European food, which is mostly meat, gravy, and potatoes.

In Leipzig we stayed in an apartment, which was the third floor of a house. It was perfect – 2 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room and living room. It also had a back garden that we could use, complete with a trampoline.

We stayed on the 3rd floor of this house
Trampoline in the back yard where Lauren was in her element
So was Sophie

After we unpacked Lydia arrived and it was so great to see her again! The girls were especially happy to see her. We went to her apartment where she made us a delicious traditional German dinner. That night we crashed and all slept for 12 hours! The next morning we headed back to Lydia’s apartment where she put together a traditional breakfast and we finally got to meet Stefan.

Loving on Lydia
Breakfast at Lydia’s

After breakfast we took the train to the center of Leipzig where we met Lydia’s parents and sister and they showed us around the city. That night they took us to a traditional German restaurant located in an area surrounded by private gardens. People who live in the city can buy these little plots to grow their own gardens. Most also have little huts where they can stay for a night or two.

Our tour guides for the day
statue of Bach outside of the cathedral where he’s buried
Bach’s grave
Battle of the Nations Memorial, erected 100 years after the defeat of Napoleon
Inside the Memorial
View of a castle from the top of the Memorial
The entrance to the restaurant where we had dinner
One of the garden plots with a hut

The next day we hopped into the car and drive about 90 minutes to a little town called Erfurt. It was the quintessential German town with traditional architecture and small cobblestone streets. It’s also home to the Merchant’s Bridge, the longest series of inhabited buildings on any bridge in Europe, and beautiful cathedral.

Citadel above the city
view of the cathedral from the citadel
inside Ehfurt cathedral
in from of Merchant’s Bridge

That night we had dinner back at our apartment. The next morning we headed out again, this time to Karlovy Vary, a city in Czech known for their hot mineral springs. It was a bit of a hike to get there, but very worth it. The town is built on either side of a little river that bubbles up in places with hot springs. It’s also filled with spa hotels, none of which we actually went into, much to the dismay of the girls. People walked around the town with these little cups with built in straws drinking the water from springs around town.

hot spring fountain
view looking down on the town
mineral water known for its healing effects

That night we did dinner again at the apartment, and also packed up because the next day we needed to check out. We left early the next morning to go to Dresden, about an hour car ride away. It’s a bigger city, closer to the size of Leipzig (thought not quite so big), with a beautiful central square, in the middle of which is the Church of our Lady, which was bombed during WWII and rebuilt in 2005.

It also has the Fürstenzug, a large mural of a mounted procession of the rulers of Saxony, and is the largest porcelain artwork in the world.

Church of our Lady
Remaining original wall
Furstenzug Mural
Opera House

That afternoon we said goodbye to Lydia, who took a train back to Leipzig, and we headed on to Prague. We stayed in a Hilton right in the center of town, so didn’t need the car for the remainder of the trip (which we were all pretty glad to be out of).

We spent the next 2.5 days exploring the city. The main part of the city has two squares: Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square. Old Town Square was very crowded and touristy, but had some cool things, like the Astronomical Clock which was installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest clock still operating. Every hour it still chimes. The square also has the Church of Our Lady (popular name over there), and St. Nicholas church, both built in the 14th Century.

Wenceslas Square is more known for historical events, such as demonstrations and celebrations.

We also walk by two famous buildings, together called The Dancing House because they look like they’re intertwined in a dance.

St. Nicholas Church
Church of our Lady
Wenceslas Square
Dancing House
Astronomical Clock

One day we crossed over the St. Charles Bridge, the only pedestrian only footbridge, to explore the other side of the city. We took a tram to the top of a hill where we climbed up to the top of the Petrin Tower to get a great view of the whole city. We then walked back down to Prague Castle, where we saw the changing of the guards. A very formal, if not small, ceremony that happens every hour. Inside the Castle grounds is St. Vitus Cathedral, which was beautiful from the outside, but unfortunately closed for visitors when we were there.

Charles Bridge
View of the City from the Petrin Tower
Petrin Tower
In front of Prague Castle
St. Vitus Cathedral
Charles River

And no vacation trip blog post would be complete without a look at some of the food we ate. Lots (and lots) of meat and ice cream.

September 2, 2019

Ocean City 2019

My family did their Ocean City week a little later this summer, in mid-August. The girls and I visited for just a few days, Saturday-Tuesday, which was the perfect amount of time. The house was further south and about 11 blocks from the start of the boardwalk, which was actually really nice. It was really quiet and the house was waterfront with a huge porch, which was lovely!

Lauren in the dunes
view from the front porch

The weather was also great for all but one of the days we were there. The girls tried boogie boarding for the first time and loved it.

We went up to the boards just twice, which was perfect. Over the last few years the seagulls have gotten really bad, so this summer they brought in a falconer to keep them under control. When he’s on the boards with his falcon, the seagulls keep their distance, meaning we could actually eat food outside, which normally you can never do.

the falconer and his bird
Mack’s and Monco’s on the boards, without seagulls thanks to the falcon

April 2, 2018

Bahamas Vacation

In October the Sharps left for their eight month adventure down the East Coast and into the Bahamas. We were lucky enough to meet them in December in Key West, and lucky again to meet up with them in The Exumas, Bahamas, for spring break. It was amazing! We leaving a cold, snowy Philly and it was warm AND beautiful!

SATURDAY

We left Saturday morning, flew to Nassau, and then took the sketchiest plane I’ve ever been on to Staniel Key. Only a 30 minute flight, thank God. There was electrical tape holding some of the lights up, and not all seat belts worked, I’m not kidding.

Here we are taking up almost half the plane. They had to seat us according to weight.

During a stop over at another island, Sophie jumped up to sit right behind the pilots.

Here’s a shot of Staniel Key from the plane. By far the most populated island we were on all week (in fact, the only populated island). Accessibly via sketchy plane and private yacht, making it an interesting mixture of locals, a handful of cruisers (like the Sharps), and very wealthy folks – half totally pretentious and half totally crusty.

Once we arrived in Staniel Key a woman who worked at the airport (which was a building the size of our living room) was nice enough to give us a ride on her golf cart to the yacht club, where the Sharp’s boat was.

Here are the girls in the back of the golf cart.

We met up with the Sharps at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, which had one of two restaurants on the island. It also had a large group of Nurse sharks that hung right in the water outside. They congregate there because it’s where the fisherman throw their scraps. They’re not aggressive, so the girls could go down and pet them.

SUNDAY

On Sunday we went snorkeling in Thunderball Grotto, made famous by the James Bond Thunerball movie. It was a cave that you had to hit right at slack tide, otherwise it was too hard to get into. Once inside it opened up to this amazing space that was lit from above by an opening. There were thousands of fish. It was pretty incredible. Sophie snorkeled with us, Lauren didn’t want to leave the boat.

Dave brought his go pro – here’s one of the videos.

After the Grotto we left Staniel and headed to Shroud Cay. It was about a four hour boat ride. We anchored and took the dinghy and kayaks to this beautiful beach, which you got to via a winding waterway through mangroves.

Here’s a shot of Kathy prepping to lower the anchor. It was pretty amazing – the entire week we hardly saw other people. Each anchorage had maybe two or three other boats.

On the kayak trip to the beach we saw a lot of sea turtles, including this guy.

Me in the kayak.

Sunday night’s sunset. They were all pretty amazing – it was hard to pick just one to post.

MONDAY – WEDNESDAY

On Monday we left for Warderick Wells Cay. We planned on only staying there one night, but the wind really picked up and it was just too dangerous to leave – which I am not complaining about because this place was amazing. I’ve certainly been “stuck” in worse places.

Here’s Warderick Wells.

The tides are pretty extreme there, and when it’s high tide there are some cool intertidal zones. Every day we went and checked out what came in.

Here are the girls exploring.

One of the sharks that we saw. He was pretty small – maybe two feet. He was just waiting there for his dinner to float in.

We did a few hikes at this Cay, including one up to Boo Boo Hill, which was named after the sound the waves make crashing into the cliff.

Here’s a view from the top of Boo Boo Hill. The only non-sailboat is ours.

At the top to Boo Boo Hill people leave the names of their boats on pieces of drift wood. Sophie made a sign for So Many Stars and Dave screwed it in to remain for years to come.

Sophie with her sign.

A family shot on the way up to the top of Boo Boo Hill.

Monday night we celebrated Dave’s 67th birthday. Kathy had bought a cake from a woman who also ran the laundromat in Staniel Cay.

The next day Dave, the girls and I took a hike to another side of the island. We followed a path someone had marked with yellow paint.

…and ended up at another amazing beach – totally secluded.

This one was called Barefoot Beach.

On the main beach there was this huge skeleton of a sperm whale that had died and washed up on the beach years ago. There was a sign that said it had died by ingesting plastic. Later in the week we ended up on a beach that had a lot of plastic that had washed up on it – so we all moved it up to past the waterline, reminding the girls about the whale.

On our last day at Warderick Wells we took the dinghy to another area of the island we hadn’t explored yet and spent the day on the beach. The only other people we saw was a Canadian couple and their granddaughter, who were hiking around.

On most beaches were piles of rocks. Dave and the girls help to build this one.

THURSDAY

The winds finally calmed down enough for us to travel on Thursday and we headed to Cambridge Cay, which was about a two hour boat ride. It was another beautiful anchorage, and when we arrived we were the only boat there, other than a catamaran, which was there permanently to collect mooring fees.

Our first adventure was to an amazing area called The Aquarium, known for some the the best snorkeling in The Exumas. Unfortunately the go pro had gone dead by this point, so there’s not video. Lauren did snorkel with us this time.

Next up, we went to a small island that the girls “claimed” with flags.

First the girls hammed it up…

And then planted their flags.

The next adventure was a hike out to some blowholes.

Dave, his dad, and I went out on Thursday to check it out.

FRIDAY

The next morning we did the blowhole hike again with the kids, Kathy, and Rosie the dog.

The landscape looked a little like Ireland.

Dave his dad and I also hiked to the top of a big hill not far from the blowholes.

Dave and Rosie at the top.

Me with the mooring in the background. A big yacht had joined us the evening before, so there ended up being three of us there.

Panoramic shot from the top of the hill.

After that we were off to see the swimming pigs.

Another two hour boat ride and we anchored right outside of Staniel Cay. We took the dinghy into see the famous pigs. To be honest, they were slightly terrifying. Some of them were huge, and they were very aggressive, coming right up to eat the food you hopefully brought for them (we brought carrots). Although other people were in the water, I wouldn’t let the girls get in, which they were not happy about. They did come right up to the boat though.