Prague

Prague is a beautiful, old city located on the Vltava River. Left intact after WWII, it has an old-world charm, cobbled streets and wonderful architecture.

We arrived on the day of Vaclav Havel's funeral.

The largest memorial in Wenceslas Square

The Charles Bridge - commissioned by Charles IV in 1357, completed in 1402.

Sidewalk in the Old Jewish Quarter

Old Town Square

Astronomical Clock - The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working.

Kris and I in the Old Town Square Christmas Market



FOOD!!

Traditional Christmas Eve dinner of carp. Ours came with a mushroom and barley casserole.

Christmas day lunch of Czech garlic soup (YUM!!) and beer at a brew pub.

Sorry to disappoint those of you who think there's nothing more American than Budweiser but it actually originates in Bohemia. In most European countries American Budweiser is not labeled as Budweiser but as Bud, and the name Budweiser refers to the original Czech beer, Budweiser Budvar.

The Budvar that came with my 2nd eating of garlic soup on the last night in Prague.

Trdelnik being "baked" over hot coals.

Trdelnik and Starbucks...

Grilled sheep cheese served on rye bread. So tasty!!

Potato pancakes. Surprisingly not so tasty.

Wafer cookie the size of my head!

Entertainment!

Motzart's Don Giovanni, performed by marionettes. The Czech Republic has a long history of puppetry, puppet-making, and marionettes. Czech puppets have been a part of Czech tradition since the middle of the 18th century.

The Lichtenstein Palace where I heard a string quintet play.


The string quintet.

Santa Run

The night before leaving for Prague there was a charity Santa Run in the nearby city of Maastricht. I don't know what charity the money went to but it really didn't matter. With your registration you get a santa suit to run in. It was a good time.

Drive Much?

It's been almost a year since I registered my car here (it will be a year next week). I have to turn in my fuel ration card in order to get another one. So I crunched the numbers and I used less than 25 gal/month. And the first few months, before getting the bike out and reassembled, I drove almost every day. Now that I ride my bike almost every day I'm excited to see how much less gas I will use this year.

Tough Mudder

12 May!!! Oh yeah!!!



The official Tough Mudder website is here: http://toughmudder.co.uk/

All this insanity is for a great cause; Help for Heroes, which supports wounded warriors.



If you want to help Wounded Warriors, click here to donate to Help for Heroes (did I mention it's a GREAT cause?!?!):

http://www.raceit.com/fundraising/donate.aspx?event=6522&fundraiser=r2402759

Wish me luck!!!

Reality TV

And I thought Americans were crazy!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/20/dutch-tv-hosts-eat-each-others-flesh_n_1159829.html?ref=weird-news&ir=Weird%20News

A Little Windy

And by a little, I mean ridiculously. Gusts up to 45 mph one day. That's quite the challenge for a bike commuter. Here's the bent, broken, twisted wreckage of my brand new back-yard canopy.

EVERYONE is Wearing Clothes?...How Awkward

Alternately titled, "The Paper Thong"

A friend and I went to a nearby spa for our birthdays. This spa isn't a manicure/pedicure/massage kind of place (although they do offer those things there) but rather a giant building with thermal pools from an underground spring and a large sauna complex. I've read about places like this and checked the website and it said:

Recommended clothing

With a large towel or bathrobe you are perfectly dressed for your spa visit.

I decided I was going to have to be okay with being naked in front of a bunch of complete strangers. I'm in Europe and they have a totally different body image culture. It was time to be comfortable with myself. When we got there, everyone had on a bathing suit. EVERYONE. I didn't bring a bathing suit. [Note: after approximately an hour of searching the website after we got back I found something that said bathing suits were mandatory in the pools but not allowed in the sauna. I had apparently been looking at the sauna section of the website when I found the above quote.] So I paid a ridiculous amount of money for a bathing suit from the little shop there.

I had a foot massage scheduled and despite having on only a bathing suit, the lady told me to take it off because it wouldn't be comfortable to lay there in a wet suit. However, apparently it's not okay to be naked on the massage table either. She gave me a paper thong to put on. Not paper underwear. Literally a paper thong. I'm not sure what that was supposed to protect me from or from me. Well, the massage wasn't worth the money but I kept the paper thong. Just to prove that I'm not making it up!

The Dutch Do Love Their Cheese

He made a good choice.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/aged-gouda-space_n_1150853.html?ref=food

Barcelona

The weather when we left for Barcelona.

The weather when we arrived in Barcelona.

View from the balcony off our room.

Kris and I at Thanksgiving dinner.

Flamenco dance show for Thanksgiving.

Antoni Gaudi - Catalan architect known for his highly distinctive style. His best-known work is La Sagrada Familia - a yet unfinished Roman Catholic church started in 1882.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia

La Sagrada Familia - from a distance at night.

La Sagrada Familia from the hill-side near the Olympic Stadium.

La Sagrada Familia as seen from Guell Park.

There are no views without the cranes and evidence of construction.

It's much brighter inside than I would have thought.

The "Nativity" face.

The "Passion" facade.

The Mila House. One of the Gaudi-designed houses in Barcelona.

The house where Gaudi lived in what became Guell Park.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell

Gaudi created countless mosaics.

The serpentine bench in Guell Park. It's the focal-point of a large terrace. It is covered by mosaics on both sides.

Churros and chocolate. According to the guide book this is what most Barcelonians eat for breakfast. But we didn't find them until the last day and even then they didn't seem all that common.

Toes in the Mediterranean.

At the Christmas Market. -

The “Tió de Nadal” Christmas log is a small log with a happy face painted on it and wearing the typical Catalan barretina red hat. You can also see giant Tió de Nadal at children's Christmas events. The Christmas log is also called “Caga Tió.” which means "the pooing log". It works like this. The Christmas log is pampered and looked after by children from the 8th December ( the day of Immaculate Conception called “Dia de la Immaculada Concepció,”) until Christmas Eve 24th December. The Caga Tió even gets a blanket to keep it warm at night. Then on Christmas Eve children sing the “Caga Tió” song to get the log to “poo” some presents. While they are singing they hit the log with a stick. When the song is finished with a final load cry of “Caga Tió!” ( = the imperative tense of the the verb "to defacate" so it means "Shit log!") and someone puts a hand under the blanket covering the Christmas log and takes out a present which the log has pooed! Great fun and the kids love it! Another old tradition is that if you have a fireplace you burn the “Tió" log, but many choose to keep it for next year.

When looking up things to do in Barcelona, I found out the Christmas Market opened while we would be there. One description said, "Also on sale are the Christmas crappers ..." I assumed this was a typo or a bad Google translation. I was wrong!

"El Caganer" is the naughty figure of Catalan navitivy scenes as “El Caganer” literally means “The crapper” or "the shitter." It is a an elf or gnome-like figure wearing the traditional Catalan red cap, the "barretina" and with his trousers down, his backside bare, defecating!. He or she can usually be found somewhere in the nativity scene if you look closely. The origins are a bit murky, but apparently "El Caganer" has been dropping his britches to "fertilize the earth" since the middle of the 19th century at least. He is a very popular fellow in Catalunya and thought to bring good luck. "El Caganer" can be seen in in many forms and public figures have the honour of being portrayed with their pants down at Christmas. Among the new 2011 Caganer figures are Shakira, Víctor Valdés, Cesc Fàbregas, Alexis Sánchez, Sarah Palin, Prince William and Kate Middleton

Christmas Crappers

La Boqueria Market

The weather upon our return :(