Day 5 -- Prague

September 17, 2014--Day 5-- Prague

Hey everyone!  We're still a day or so behind on our narrative, but we're slowly catching up and once we get back to AZ and have a steady internet connection again we'll be flooding you with photos, don't you worry.

Okay, so Wednesday. Yesterday (Tuesday) we were running around all day long, so Wednesday we took it much slower. It was nice in a way, but on the other hand we just wanted to be out there seeing EVERYTHING. Not even six days in Prague is enough to feel like we're getting enough. It's been awesome.

I woke up very early and beat all the tourists to take photos at Charles bridge and sort of just get out early. It's nice to be awake before the rest of the world.. sadly Prague never sleeps so that didn't work. Here are some pictures!

My favorite is the one of Dad running down the bridge, because apparently this conversation happened:

Dad: Do you know why it's called Charles Bridge?
Ashley: No. Why?
Dad: ...No idea. I just know it's the bridge Tom Cruise runs down on Mission: Impossible.

The rest of us got a slow start to the day, but we had Laurel all to ourselves today so we made the most of our morning and afternoon.

We took a train into the city to this big grey ("Communist-looking" according to Dad) museum. Inside, we got to see an amazing art gallery by the famous Czech artist Alphonse Mucha.

You probably recognize him better for his art nouveau pieces.

This is his "Les Saisons" series, one of my favorites. 

It was his "Slav Epic"--a series of 20 paintings that were the capstone of his life. The series encompasses the history of the Slavic people. We learned so much fascinating history today.

I expected it to be a small gallery of small, abstract paintings all about turmoil or something (in other words, I was afraid I wouldn't really like or appreciate it), but when we got into the gallery, we found 20 gigantic paintings softly lit in a huge dark room, and they instantly took our breath away.

There was so much detail and realism in the faces of the people, in their clothes, in their movements,  in their surroundings, and in their mythological and historical symbols. Not only was each piece huge, each was so realistic and had at least one figure breaking the fourth wall, so it seemed like you were in the scene with them--like you could step right into the painting. It was amazing, and I learned so much about the Slavs.

I highly recommend it. It's in the National Gallery in Prague.

After that, we met up with James and he took us out for a very Czech lunch. James says the place we ate at has the best authentic Czech food he's ever had (and he's had a LOT of authentic Czech food in his lifetime), so we just let him order everything for us.

We got a huge spread of delicious Czech foods. HUGE. I don't even remember everything we tried, but Laurel commented that it was all beige, and Dad ended the meal sighing, "How do they eat like this and still walk around?"

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of our meal or the restaurant, but here are some of the postcards!

Later, the McConKids all came home from school and we cousins all sat around and talked while they did homework. I played Clue with Wilson, Hyrum, and George, and almost beat them all.

Around dinnertime, the whole family got on the metro and we headed to Wenceslas Square. We emerged right in the heart of the city, and it was beautiful. It was like videos I've seen of Rome--narrow streets with European buildings towering above you so it's like your'e walking through the Narrows. Every building here is gilded with elaborate stonework, statues, paintings, and/or gold accents.

James took us to a restaurant where we all got amazing gelato with the richest flavors. I got a scoop of Nutella and a scoop of peanut, and it was like a frozen gourmet Reese's peanut butter cup.

We then headed to the old town square. There were street performers and crowds of tourists clogging the streets. We passed a mime, a giant bubble blower, dancers, contortionists, teacup pigs, pythons, musicians, and a girl painted gold who just posed like a ballerina statue. Evie and Ashley (our resident ballerinas) posed with her in exchange for a few coins.

On the way into the square we saw the world's oldest astrological clock. It's over 600 years old, and it's the most complicated, most beautiful clock I've ever seen (and anyone else has ever seen, arguably). It tracks so many different things--months, dates, moon phases, seasons, even the names people had to call their babies if born on that day.

Apparently the guy who made the clock wanted to move away from Prague, so the king had his eyes gouged out so that he could never replicate such an amazing clock. To get even, the clock maker stole a tiny piece of the clock that left the whole thing not working for about 100 years, until someone figured out how to repair it.

Also in that square was a statue of Jon Has, who was the Martin Luther of the Czech Republic. He preached that the Czechs should have the Bible in their own language, and he was burned at the stake for it. We saw a painting of him in the "Slave Epic," and apparently one of my relatives thinks we're distantly related to him. So we had to take a picture by that statue, even though it had scaffolding around it for repairs.



Then we went to the famous Wenceslas Square, which was much bigger than I expected it to be. There were vendors everywhere. Everyone else headed home after a few minutes, but Evie, Car, and I stayed for another hour just getting a look at all the souvenir options the Czech Republic has to offer.

When we were all back home, we had a big salad dinner and Dad entertained the kids with his best scorpion stories. Then we watched the beginning of "Mission: Impossible" so we could look at all the Prague architecture that we now recognize.

Okay, that's all for Wednesday! I'll probably write about today (Thursday) tonight, too, if the photos continue to upload nicely.

Day 4 - Prague, Czech Republic

Day 4 - September 16, Tuesday - Prague, Czech Republic

We got into Prague right on time last night, 10:00pm.  We got off the bus and went down an escalator into an underground train station area and saw Laurel and James coming up the escalator across the plaza from us.  After a glorious reunion they packed us up in their minivan and we drove to the mission home.  It was too dark to see much, but we got a few glimpses of the city.  We then stayed up for a few more hours talking to Laurel and James.  It was so great to be with them again!

This morning we all slept in.  The McConkie kids were already at school before we were up.  Carly and I went for a walk with Laurel around the park near their home.  We got our first views of the river and the bridges and the castle. 

After a casual breakfast, we got in our walking clothes and headed out for the day.  We walked from the mission home to the castle, a beautiful walk along cobblestone paths surrounded by forest and grass and beautiful old buildings and walls.

We entered the castle through the “back” gate where they have two royal guards standing at attention.  They were trying to look formidable, though they were not as disciplined as British royal guards.

Once inside the castle, the girls were in instant photo mode.  Actually, they had been in photo mode since the beginning of the walk, but it took on a whole new meaning when they saw the cathedral.

We went inside the cathedral and admired the architecture and the stained glass, then back outside and around the whole castle complex.  We bought lunch at a little café and ate it on some cool benches in the shade of the buildings next to the cathedral.  It was just spectacular!

After walking the castle area we exited through the same back gate and then walked down into the moat and around to the river side of the castle.  From there we crossed the river on a bridge just down from Charles bridge and then walked to the Charles Bridge for another flurry of photos and staring.

Then we walked further into town and found a tram that took us back to the mission home.  The girls thought it was pretty cool to ride on a real street car.

After we got back to the mission home, Laurel and I took George and Hyrum to their tennis lessons.  They are getting pretty good!  I think Hyrum could take me.  He’s got a natural backhand, and a pretty mean topspin forehand.  I would have to live or die on my serve J.  I had never been on a clay court before.  It looked like a challenging surface to get used to.  I think I would lose some hamstrings sliding around on the loose surface.

The girls went with Evie to take more pictures from the park looking toward the river.

Then we all went back to the house and went to dinner at this great little restaurant near the home.  James and Wilson didn’t make it because Wilson was at the emergency room getting a cast on the finger he broke at school today.  Poor guy!  It is his shooting hand too.  He was in good spirits, though.  

The McConkie kids are so great!  They really seem to be in their element here in the big city.  Nothing intimidates them. 

Finally, we went to dinner at a very fancy hotel down the street. When we got back home, we all sat around the dining table and just talked as family for a few hours. It's so great to be together again! 

Here are some photos!

Day 3 - Munich, Germany

September 15, 2014 – Day 3 Monday – Munich, Germany

Today was an unexpected free day.  Originally, we were supposed to spend most of the day at the BMW plant, taking delivery of a vehicle that we would use for the rest of our trip.  But the vehicle ended up on back order, so we had to make other arrangements for transportation. 

After another yummy breakfast in our hotel, we packed our bags and headed back to Munich to the Olympic park. 

We walked to the top of the highest hill in the park, which has a nice view of the city and of the park.  Then Ashley grabbed an Nutella and banana crepe that most of us shared. 

We still decided to go through the BMW Welt showroom.  It was very fun taking pictures of the cars, and motor cycles.

After the car shopping we went back to the park and ordered some bratwurst and other lunch items. 

Then we drove into the countryside north of Munich and found a roadside flower patch where you can pick your own flowers and pay in a little box for whatever you take.  What a great concept!  I guess they figure that the criminal element doesn’t generally go after beautiful flowers, so why would they need to waste time manning a cash register.

Then it was off to the airport to return our rental car.  And now we are on a bus headed toward Prague.  I’m actually enjoying the fact that I can sit back and admire the countryside and not have to worry about driving. 

The bus is about a third full, so we have plenty of room to spread out and relax.  Maybe I’ll set us up with a similar mode of transport between Prague and Salzburg next week.  I like it!

Day 2 - Munich, Germany

September 14, 2014 – Day 2 – Sunday – Munich, Germany

Happy 20th Birthday, Sarah!!!

Everybody got a good night’s rest.  I was up first about 5:30am.  When I first woke up I had no idea what time it was.  My phone still had USA time on it, so I was thinking that I had only slept for a few hours.  But I answered a text to Amanda and she confirmed that it was indeed morning where I was.  That was a relief, because I felt wide awake and didn’t want to still have to try and sleep for several more hours.

Everyone else was up by 7:30am and we all got ready to go to church. 

We drove into Munich and attended the Munich 3^rd ward sacrament meeting.  A nice missionary, Elder Spencer from Oregon, gave us headsets and translated the meeting for us.  We thought, based on the meeting start time on lds.org that we would be attending the entire block, but it turned out that they had sacrament meeting last.  We were kind of disappointed because we wanted to attend classes in another language.  But it was still a great experience for everyone to see the church in action in another country.

One of the sisters in the ward introduced herself to us before the meeting.  She says her father used to work with grandpa Fetzer way back when he was mission president.  I thought that was pretty great.  Her name was Becky, but I didn’t get the last name.

After church we took some pictures outside the building, and then we drove straight to Dachau to tour the concentration camp. 

Dachau has changed a lot since we toured there in 1990.  I remember when we were there before, we drove up to the side of the camp and just walked onto the property where the old building foundations are still showing.  Now, there is a big parking facility, and a major tour set up to educate visitors.  There is a movie and hundreds of wall displays that tell about individuals, both captives and captors, the political changes that occurred during the 12 years it was an SS camp, and many other interesting facts.

They had a lot of information about the political prisoners who were kept there.  Starting in 1933, Dachau was the main concentration camp where the Nazi’s kept all their political enemies.  But by 1936 it started to house people who were just considered unfit….Jews, Gypsies, priests of all denominations, etc.

I guess 1933 was the year that the Nazi party was able to convince the German government to suspend civil rights in the interest of preserving the motherland.  Once freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, the right to bear arms, and the right to have a fair trial before you could be imprisoned were gone, there was nothing stopping the Nazi’s from arresting anyone who was a “threat” to the country.  At first, reports of abuses at Dachau were investigated and there was some attempt to keep things legal, but the propaganda machine was so convincing that the masses didn’t believe the rumors of abuse and murder until it was too late to do anything about it.  Even the international media primarily used the propaganda from the party as their main source of information for several years after 1933.

Anyway, we first went through the main building where the SS kept their “special” prisoners and where most of the torcher happened.  There were rooms with double walls and doors to keep any sound from being heard outside the building, and standing rooms that were so narrow, that a prisoner couldn’t even sit down on the floor. 

Then we went through the building where the prisoners were processed upon arrival.  They have most of the wall displays in that building, along with the movie.

After watching the movie, we toured one of the replica buildings where prisoners were housed, sometimes 2000 at a time in a building made for 200.  By the end of the war, so many prisoners were moved from outlying camps into Dachau that there were 38,000 prisoners when the camp was liberated.  It was designed to house 6000.

We then went through the two crematorium buildings and saw the gas chamber that was constructed late in the war, but was never actually used as far as anyone knows.

Two thousand liberated prisoners died after their rescue because they were so emaciated or sick. 

We were all quite humbled by the tour.

Afterward, we drove to Olympic park in Munich and had a late lunch/early dinner at the main restaurant there.  We had schnitzel, chicken curry, spaghetti, and salad, followed by some yummy German desserts.

Then we drove back to our hotel and relaxed for the evening.  It wasn’t much of a birthday for Sarah, but I’m sure it will still be one that she remembers well.  How often do you get a birthday in Europe!?

September 13, 2014 - Day 1 - Munich, Germany

September 13, 2014 – Day 1 – Saturday – Munich, Germany

Hi family and friends,

Greetings from Europe! If you are interested in following our adventures for the next few weeks, this is the place!

We took off from Phoenix at 8:30am on Friday morning, September 12th, and arrived in Munich at 7:30am on Saturday.  We tried our best to sleep during the D.C. to Munich flight to start acclimating to Europe time.  It was fitful sleep at best.  But, as Sarah mentioned, they had lots of movies to watch on our own private screens.....how modern!  (Can you tell it's been a while since we flew on a big plane?)  

At the Munich airport, we rented a car, a VW Toureg, and immediately headed northeast toward the town of Rothenburg.  We took some country roads instead of staying on the Autobahn the whole time.  It took a lot longer (about five hours), but we loved seeing the farmland and countryside.  Along the way we saw three different castles on the tops of hills, including the ruins of a very old one that we wished we had time to explore. 

We got to Rothenburg about 1:30pm and had a great time hiking the ancient wall, walking around the Christmas store, and taking photos of this “Medieval meets Disney” town.  The girls were in massive culture shock/awe. 

After Rothenburg, we drove the Autobahn all the way back to our little hotel, the Jagermo Hotel, in the town of Grasbrunn, east of Munich.  We still hadn’t actually seen Munich.  I only got flashed out of the left lane twice!  It was fun driving 160 kph and watching the Audis and BMWs and Mercedes and Porsches (and one little screaming Smart car) go flying by.

We stayed in a little loft room on the top floor of the hotel, with five beds and an angled ceiling.  It was pretty small, but very clean and cozy. 

After loading our bags into the room we went across the street to this quaint restaurant and had an amazing authentic German dinner.  Nobody in the restaurant spoke any English, but they had a couple English menus, so we were able to pick out a few recognizable entrees.  It was delicious, especially after eating airplane meals and snack food for the past 36 hours.

Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.  I was worried we would wake up after a few hours and our bodies would think it was time to get up from a nap, but we all slept through the night and felt well rested and ready for the next day.

The weather has been overcast the whole time, with some rain off and on.  We didn’t get rained on during our Rothenberg hours, but drove in a lot of rain both ways.  We LOVE the weather.  It is in the 70’s all day, and the evening was warm enough to open the windows while we slept.  So pleasant.