| We're back in the States! Last few days have been rough - I got sick again, this time with a little more of a flu-like sickness, so I was queasy and coughing for awhile. But we still got to accomplish most of what we wanted to do while we were in our last two destinations. After the last posting, we decided to head out to Stare Mesto, the old town, and do some sight seeing around the historical buildings. Got to see the astronomical clock on the hour which was really cute, and then do a little shopping around the main square. The one museum we wanted to check out there was unfortunately closed for renovation through September - it was the Museum of Czech Cubist Art and Architecture, which was what we were focusing on in our search for architecture earlier that morning. We also missed out on seeing the St. James Church which apparently has a shriveled up arm somewhere in it. :(
The next morning we took a trip to Kutna Hora, about 45 mins from Prague, to see the famed Kostinec i Sedlec - the "Bone Church." Pretty cool, I might say, especially the chandelier with every bone in the human body, although the whole church is pretty small. It seemed that every Czech person we met said that all of the bones were from those who died from the "plaque." Bad teeth, I guess, right?
We returned to Prague and went up to the Castle Quarter and decided to check out St. Vitus Cathedral and all the sites up there. It was real touristy so we didn't stay too long. Then we went off to residential Prague (ah, sweet relief!) and discovered some really cool houses in a neighborhood called Baba - basically, these were the Baba Villas, all designed by Czech architects.
The next morning we were off to Berlin. We arrived at Berlin's new Hauptbahnhof station - very nice, because it's definitely a sight to see. The station I think only opened earlier this year, this summer even. Walked to our hostel (LONG walk.) and then checked out some sights nearby in the Mitte - Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz, saw the GSW Building (which we learned from arch classes), and ended the day at the Jewish Museum.
We were worn out by the end of the day, so we went back to the hostel, had a few drinks and then went to bed so that the next morning we could continue our sightseeing before our flight had to leave that night from Schoenefeld Airport. Our first stop on the last day of our trip was at the Church of Reconciliation, the site of a previous church which had been destroyed by Communists when the Berlin Wall was being built (the church was right on the wall line). We went down to Brandenburg Gate where we had a small breakfast/brunch and then checked out the Holocaust Memorial and Reichstag nearby, then were able to catch a walking tour that took us around the Third Reich sites in Berlin - got to see the Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten, Nazi Propaganda Building, Hitler's Bunker, and Nazi Air Force building. Our tourguide was really good - he's a native New Zealander who moved to Germany, getting a masters in history at the local university, Humboldt Univ in Berlin, specializing in 20th Century German History. Almost too good, his tour was very thorough, and we got a LOT of history of the place. We had to duck out early in order to catch our train to the airport, but I'm sure the end of the tour would've been great. Strangely enough, I have to mention, we barely saw any Asian tourists in Berlin, but they were all over the place everywhere else we went (well, except for Ljubljana... but that was because it's so not touristy yet, thank god.)
Anyways, last night, we arrived in London's Stansted Airport and stood in line for more than an hour to get through passport control. Got our bags (which had been going around the carousel for a while), and then went around and staked claim to the floor along with many others. It was a night of muchly interrupted sleep - I think my head was rolled over by luggage carts and children at 6AM - but it was free nonetheless, and we didn't have to go through London's expensiveness again. We proceeded directly to Central London the next morning to catch the metro to Heathrow - and after a long 8 hour flight, we're back home. Jetlagged more than ever. It's like midnight here, but really like 7AM for us the past month.
Thanks to all of you for keeping up on our entries, and hoped you had fun reading about our trip as we had experiencing it all! I promise to have pictures up soon, once i get back to Wichita next Wednesday! Gotta go to bed now, I suppose.... As we finally say in the good old US of A....
GOOD NIGHT!
-Jim and Mary |
