All Good Things Must Come To An End

Planes, trains and automobiles in the Czech Republic...

In the historic town square in Prague, gazing at the famous astronomical clock...

The clock dates back to 1410.

Right before the last picture was taken we witnessed a groom picking up a bride and swirling her around in a circle, then the couple was showered with rose pedals (perhaps a Czech tradition?).

Later on Rob ran into the newlyweds in the elevator of our hotel and they asked for the picture (above) so Rob emailed it to them!

This is the King's Road (or Royal Road) that runs from the King's Court to the King's Palace by way of the Charles Bridge.

Within 10 seconds of being seated at every restaurant with WIFI this is what happens...

and it drives me a little crazy.

The Saint Vitus Cathedral...how DID they build these things in the 1300's?

At the Prague Castle...

The Charles Bridge is in the background.

Chris was pretty happy to be able to see the "Dancing House", nicknamed "Fred & Ginger". The structure was designed by Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić in co-operation with Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry and completed in 1996.

Later in the day we all took a quick spin on a segway.

Then Chris, Rob and Carrie jammed in the town square.

At dinner we met up with some other street musicians from Germany and France. They are called the Streetles.    https://www.facebook.com/thestreetles

So they all decided to jam together and set up in the main square. They were immediately surrounded by literally hundreds of people who wanted some entertainment, but then within minutes the police came and shut the music down (sounds like a P-ville Labor Day Party, right!)

They relocated to under a small bridge - and the police came again. So they moved along as a little marching band and found a great location next to a restaurant where they played together until midnight - 2 Germans, 1 Frenchman and 3 Americans - never having met before but making beautiful music together!

They had to move again, just a bit, when a big trash truck came into the square.

What a great way to end an amazing adventure. 

Thanks for staying with us to the end!

Is Prague the Most Beautiful City in the World?

A quick post to tell you that we made it to the most beautiful city in the world. Yes, it's true. 

This is outside our hotel, the Paris Hotel (yes, that's weird) very near the historic town square.

Overlooking the city from a bridge...

We are flying home tomorrow but I will collect the best pictures from all the phones and post them ASAP!

Last Night in Liberec

Stars and Buns

After a rousing morning of music (can musicians actually play before noon??) we took a charter bus to Herrnhut Germany, which was particularly interesting to me (student of church history) because it is a little village where the Moravian tradition was founded.

We have made all kinds of new friends from all over Europe...

This is where they make the Moravian Star which started as a geometry project in the 1830's and is now the Moravian advent symbol as well as used on Germany Christmas trees.

Greg and I were married in a church/barn that has Moravian roots so all this is pretty interesting and nostalgic to me. We used to eat this love feast pictured below (tea and raisin buns) at Christmas Eve at The Church of the Loving Shepherd.

We took the night off and woke up in the morning to more unusual morning stuff...

Some jamming with Joe...

More craziness...

This afternoon (Friday) we split the family up. I went to a glass jewelry show, 

which is something they make here, and the rest of them went to a water park...

where they are happy to report, had very few rules...

A Tower, Scooters & Philly Steaks

So here we are at the International Youth Festival in Liberec (pronounced "Liberetz"), 

which we will call home until Saturday. It is being held at the Technical College of Liberec 

and this is the dorm we are staying in.

We will be playing a lot of music in this auditorium this week, so gig pictures would get kind of redundant. So I'll be posting more of our afternoon experiences, 

which is either free time or a planned activity.

Our first activity was to take a hike to a bus to a gondola to the top of a mountain.

The Ještěd Tower is at the top.

Greg's famous "I need to take a break from having so much fun" pose.

The rest of the family rented scooters to scooter down the mountain on trails. Really? 

Didn't sound so great to me so I walked. Then in the evening we showed some pics of our travels. It started out with one from home showing Alex. 

Shout out to son/bro Alex - we miss you!!

This mornings show (Wednesday) was fun. Got to jam with artists from Australia and New Zealand, Steve & Ainsley Apirana (http://www.apiranamusic.com/)

During our afternoon free time we wandered around the city and found some 

Philly Cheese steaks (not quite!).

...and a try at American fashion.

Playing at an after hours cafe tonight. I'll go take some pics...

Liberec & Some Observations

Our big yellow bus on our hour ride to Liberec had a "bus stewardess" (??) who served us cappuccino, plus we had private tv screens and WIFI. Nice...

s in 

We arrived in Liberec, dropped our bags at the university where we are staying for the week long international youth festival, and went to the city center to perform on the town square.

The following are a few observations...

like you can eat this in the Czech Republic:

Everybody here loves America. 

(Hannah is wearing Carrie's American flag dress).

See the 2 flushers? (buttons above the toilet). 

You decide which one to use...accordingly.

You can hang your laundry out to dry from a car window.

Carrie's American boyfriend (of German origin) is REALLY tall.  WHAT?!?