Last day - Prague

On the last day we decided that Mom had to see the cathedral and the palace before she left Prague. So after we packed up from the hotel we headed back into Prague.  Prague is actually called the Mother of cities (Rome is called the father).

Mom with her grandsons with the bridge and castle behind them.

The crew in front of the famous Charles bridge.  You can see it looked a little cold to start with, but man it ended up really, really hot!

A view of the palace and cathedral - it was a little hazy out.

Grandma and AJ on the other side of Charles Bridge.

As we were heading up towards the castle the boys saw a ghost museum.  It is about all the ghosts that they have only in Prague.  Let me tell you there are a lot of them!!!  This one is about a secret society who left their bodies at home and meet at another house with just their souls, so the story goes.  There was a house fire and the wife couldn't wake up the husband so she wanted him out of the secret society.  She went to the meeting place and started cutting out his picture, she slipped and cut the neck in the picture and the picture started dripping blood.  When she got home her husband's head was cut off and she has haunted the house ever since.

Michael checking out some of the chemist area.  When he put his hand on a plate it made the pink and blue liquid bubble.

They had some puppets here where they could cut of three people's heads.  It was an interesting museum to say the least.  There were many ghosts stories about many different people.  We had a map to try and find all the ghosts in the museum and there was quite a bit of hands on to it as well.  There was even a place where you could put on a puppet show.

After that we headed up towards the castle again.  It was getting hot and the boys were tired, but I knew we could make it!!!

At the top of the hill, with the city of Prague behind us.

It is a beautiful city even on a hazy day!

There was a big crowd of people around the gates, so we decided to go over and check it out.

The gate with their two guardians.  A little brutal looking, but still pretty awesome!

We found out what all the people were looking at, it was the changing of the guards.  We arrived just in time!

Not only was it the changing of the guards, they also had a live band playing up in one of the buildings!!  It sounded really cool!!!

So we arrived at the castle complex, which is in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest castle in the world.  It occupies an area of almost 70,000 square meters.  It is HUGE!!  This is the cathedral that is in the middle of it.  I wanted to take Mom inside, but unfortunately it didn't open until 1 pm and it was only noon.  So instead we walked around the outside to show her the size.

Mom in front of the cathedral.  You can see the gold plating above her.

Here is a closer picture of the gold part, so intricate.

As Mom and I were walking around, we saw a few more soldiers coming around, maybe changing places somewhere else.

This is the front of the cathedral, you can see it's massive size!

While Mom and I were walking around, this is where the boys stayed with David.  They were tired and hot and had seen it before.  I think all three were happy to be sitting down for a little bit.

The boys with the guard.  One interesting thing, when they were doing the changing of the guards, they couldn't wear sunglasses while marching.  When they got to the spot they have to stand, another guard actually had to put on the sunglasses.  Good thing they didn't poke an eye out. ;-)

On the way back to the car Michael say this and just had to have his picture taken.  He is so awesome!!!  :-)

I have to say I was glad we were heading out of Prague - this is a picture heading back across the Charles Bridge and you can see how packed it is now.  It was getting crazy around there.   After that we jumped in the car and headed back to Germany.  It was a bit of a drive, but we made it safe and sound and everybody had a wonderful time!!!

Prague Zoo

On Friday we decided to head to the Prague Zoo.  We were told it is one of the biggest ones and all of us were pretty excited about checking it out, even the adults or should I say big kids!!!

An Antelope with only one horn - still beautiful!!!

The boys checking out the farm animals.

We all agreed he was a really ugly turkey - and a noisy one!

We were trying to figure out what these animals were.  We still aren't sure since everything is written in Czech.

Michael inside the petting zoo - he liked the babies the best.

AJ getting in on the action as well.

The four kids just hanging out!

These little monkeys were so cool!!!!  They were jumping from tree to tree and they had some great hops!!!

These Jaguars weren't moving much at all - but they still are pretty.

These monkeys were out cold - all of them.  They were having their mid-morning nap.

This little guy was great, the only one that was awake.  He decided his mom had enough sleep, so he was slapping and kicking her in the face.  Then when he woke her up, he moved on  to the other ones.  He bothered all of them to wake them up.

This one was like, ok I am up now, guess I should walk around.

The kids with a gorilla.

One of my monkeys on a monkey!!!

The lionesses just laying around - enjoying some much needed sunshine!!

AJ trying to see how fast he is compared to other animals.  He was pretty fast!

Michael's turn - he was really fast!!!

This tiger was awesome!!  He wasn't just sitting around, he was up, moving and roaring at us!

Getting a good stretch in - maybe a scratching post!

So regal looking and look at those teeth.  I would not want to be in that mouth.

Michael with a much safer tiger!!!

This one is for Grandpa - the boys love taking pictures of snakes for him!!

David finding the king of the jungle - anything lion!!!

I love the turtles - all lined up in a row on top of each other.  Also there is a huge lizard in the front of the picture.

The boys thought Grandpa couldn't see the other snake very well, so they had to take another one for him!!!

There were a bunch of these lizards in one place - they were so cute!

The king of the jungle out - relaxing in the shade.

My boys with the lion!!!  They love lions!!!

The boys on the bus to the zoo - not sure if they are visitors or animals.  :-)

It is such a big zoo that they had chairs for us to go to the top.  The boys loved the ride up!!!

Mom and David heading up behind me having a great time!

A view from the chairs heading up to the top.

And what did we find at the top?!?  You guessed it - ice cream!

The camels - I do love camels they are such different looking animals.

Up at the top they also had a park.  The boys climbed this you can kind of see AJ up there.

Another part of the playground, it was really cool!

My monkey in a tree!

This animal is very determined to dig his hole.  He did it too, he went all the way through.

Then he decided he liked the sunshine a bit better than the tunnel he dug.

The elephants were great as well!!!  One of their favorite toys was this ball.  There were so many that played with it.  It was fun to watch.

This one decided he wanted a little snack and picked up a stick.

The boys trying to figure out the puzzle.  They did pretty good with it!

Hyenas are funny looking animals - no wonder they laugh all the time.

The boys trying to sooth themselves or just make some music.

The hippo taking a swim.  It was fun to watch him under the water and amazing how they could swim with how big they are.

Not sure what this guy is, but he was really cute!!!  Look at those eyes!

The boys checking out the little habitats and trying to find the animals in it.

This polar bear was great - he had a snack and not more than 45 seconds later another one came after him to try and take some of it.  It was great!!  The zoo was so much fun!!  I think we could have stayed a lot longer, but we were all tired from so much walking that we decided to call it.  We didn't make it around the whole zoo.  I drove back to our hotel and all the boys fell asleep, including David.  They were all tired.  But not too tired to go swimming that night.  So after dinner off we headed back to the water slides for one last night!