1-Day in London

A few quick photos from 24hrs in London:

Prague by Night

It is easy to see why Prague is such a popular tourist destination.  The city is beautiful and comes alive at night.  There are as many people out at midnight as there are at noon.  There is live music everywhere, and Czechs drink a lot of beer.  The consumer per capita is twice that of America.

We capped our trip with a few night photos, and a few more miles on foot.  Kirk snapped a few really pretty pictures of the city.

Thanks for coming to visit Auntie Kirk!  You will be missed dearly!  See you on the other side of the pond. 

Prague Highlights: Part 2

Our final full day of Prague was filled with food, more walking, a coffee experiment for Outing, and some 'pretty good shopping'.

We sampled lots of local fare from street vendors today in the Old Town Square.  Spiral potatoes, some cabbage/bacon/potato mix, Trdelnik (some delicious sugar pastry thing), sausage, and some wonderful Old Prague Ham (except for the hunks that Outing dropped 2 minutes after buying:)).

And finally, Mara narrowly averted being eaten by a hippo in the park:

Prague Highlights: Part 1

Prague is a highly acclaimed city.  We found it wonderful and a lot of walking.  We've been averaging 18,500 steps a day (about 9 miles/day).  Our girls lasted surprisingly well over the 50+ miles this week:)

The cityscapes are incredible, and there are thousands of tourists everywhere.  Prague has over 8 million visitors every year and is 7th among European cities for visitors (top six are: London, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Dublin, and Moscow).

We had a fabulous night view of the city from our apartment:

Found another rainbow on our walk home...

We took a lovely boat ride in the rain...
Celebrated Mara the Princess...

Enjoyed the lovely streets of Prague...

Enjoyed a relaxing boat ride...

And saw the world's largest Castle...

Dresden Highlights

Dresden is a beautiful historic city - especially so at night.  The girls had a sleep over with Auntie Kirk, so Outing and I took the tripod out for a few snaps.  The rainclouds made for some dramatic skys over some beautiful architecture.

The city was extensively damaged in WWII bombings through controvercial bombings by the Allies.  Over 90% of the city centre destroyed, but you might never know it by looking at it today.

Dresden has a historical significance as the capital of Saxony, and was the home of previous kings and electors.  Today, it has a population of 500,000 and is one of the ten fasted growing cities in Germany.  It made for a perfect stop for the Anderson's on our travels across Germany...

The Berlin Wall

We explored the remaining Berlin Wall today.  Incredible to see the graffiti artists' work on a 3.6m tall canvas.  It was a really interesting look at history, and hard to imagine this scene 50 years ago.

Trip 36: Berlin, Germany

Berlin is an interesting trip through history.  It is a busy, thriving city, with remnants of the Berlin wall, the Holocaust, and some incredible rebuilt architecture since the bombing from WWII.

The Holocaust Memorial opened in 2005, and is a tribute to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  The design consists of stone columns of various heights on a sloping field.  The columns are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere - which it completely does.  Josh got lost for 10 minutes before he found us on the other end of the memorial:)

We made reservations and got through the rebuilt parliament building: Reichstag Building.  After being essentially destroyed in WWII, it was rebuilt with an ultra-modern dome withe mirrors and a spiral staircase:

5 Surprising Things that are More Convenient in England than in America

As Americans living in the UK for the for the last 2.5 years, we've had many opportunities to reflect and compare between countries.

Generally, most things in America are more convenient (think 200 toothpastes to choose from at Target, 24hr WalMart, Starbucks 5:30am with drive-thru, and Pay at the Pump).


We've been surprised by these five things that are significantly more convenient in the UK:

• Packages delivered on Sunday:  Go ahead and order from Amazon Prime on Saturday afternoon, delivered on Sunday no problem - especially since the geography is much tighter in the UK.

• On-line grocery shopping: All grocery chains offer on-line shopping and delivery (same day or next day delivery).  On-line shopping represents over 10% of shopping, and is growing at double digit percentages.  We now complete 90% of our total grocery shopping on-line.  Oh, and you can also have wine and beer delivered!

• Making friends with other parents at school: There are few school buses in England.  Although inconvenient in many ways, it is incredibly helpful to meet other parents while standing in the playground waiting for your children to come out of the classroom.  All of our closest British friends have come through school connections.

• School uniforms: No need to have a morning fight on what to wear to school today.  Don't have to worry about what Suzy's parents let her go to school in.  Everyone's the same...Mary Catherine Gallagher uniform standard.

• Walking to daily amenities: Within a 5 minute walk, we have 3 grocery stores, dry cleaners, hair salon, bank, post office, 10 pubs, hardware store, 3 coffee shops, a dozen restaurants, 5 churches, 3 bike shops, and a few large department stores.  Perhaps this is more common in any large US city, but we live in a city with a population of 75,000.  We also regularly average over 10,000 daily steps without too much trouble.

More Visitors from America!

Our wonderful neighbors from Tennessee came for a weekend visit as part of a European Anniversary Vacation.  We were so happy to have John and Jen stay with us for a couple days and show them the best of Chester, and an incredible castle in Northern Wales.

It was so nice to see you!  Thanks for making the journey and brining a little bit of America back with you!