Sunday, June 22, 2008

Mother's Day in Prague

My parents have been planning their trip to Denmark for awhile now and the time finally arrived. My mom came in first and after a few days in Copenhagen we headed to the Czech Republic.
We enjoyed some absolutely gorgeous weather during our 4 days in Prague. I had been to Prague about 5 years earlier and it was just as fantastic the second time around! We spent our days wandering around the the historic streets and quaint squares.
Here's mom in front of St. Vitas Cathedral. We also went to Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, National Theater, Old Town Square, the Mucha Museum, and more.

My mom's family is from the Czech Republic - her grandfather and grandmother grew up in small towns in the Czech countryside and came to the US when they were young adults. We got up early and headed to the train station for the first train headed east. vWe had to change trains in a town called Pardubice. Unfortuntely our first train was late so we missed the connection and were stuck in Pardubice for 2 hours. We hit the streets...and shops. I was looking for shoes, but didn't find anything. The city, shops, and people were a little "behind the times" and I felt like I had been transported back to the early 80s.

Finally it was time for our train. There were 2 trains leaving from the same track at the same time. I doublechecked to make sure we were on the right one...or so I thought! After a few stops I noticed that we were going in the wrong direction...oops! So we got off and then my mom thought she saw a train headed back to Pardubice about to leave so we ran to get on. This was also the wrong train! Good thing we had all day and no agenda...plus it was a gorgeous day and the Czech countryside was gorgeous.


The second time we got off the wrong train we found ourselves in an incredibly small town where almost no one spoke English. Too bad my mom didn't try and learn Czech from her grandmother when she was growing up! After much hand gesturing I was able to find out that it would be another few hours before a train went through, so we got a cab, something we should have done in the first place!

We finally made it to Hlisnko and had a great lunch in the town square!!!
Not too much was open in the town...which was strange for a Saturday afternoon. But we found the exhibit on old houses, which were probably similar to the ones our ancestors lived in. We walked around and got a flavor for the town before heading back to Prague.
I haven't spent Mother's Day with my mom in a lot of years...how special to be able to spend it with her in Prague!

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