So this is the first of a few posts talking about our trip. A friend of mine had a great idea to post a picture every day during our trip, unfortunately for safety reasons I couldn't, so bear with the long posts and talking about every little thing, I took over 1200 pics, you know I've cut everything down as much as I could stand to!!
We drove to Denver, dropped the girls at Grandma and Grandpa's (thanks Julie and Ron!!), flew to Munich, rented a car and we were off. We stopped in Regenstauf, Germany, for a lunch of doner kebabs, we ate these years ago in Turkey and specifically looked for a place with them. If you've never had a doner kebab, it's made of meat roasted on a spit, tucked into bread with yogurt, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and in Germany, cabbage! Yummy, yum, yum.
We hadn't slept much on the flight, who can sleep in economy class?, and I fell asleep in the rental car before we hit the Czech border. Chris managed to keep his eyes open and we arrived safely in Domazlice. In the Czech Republic most villages are situated on a main square (namesti) with a castle or church on one side, towers, pretty buildings, etc. Our hotel was on the very upper floor (good thing we packed lightly!) of an 18th century building on the square. Here's the view from our window, looking out to a small castle on the right, the square is actually on the other side of the building.
Painted and decorated buildings were just the norm on our trip.
We spent the afternoon walking around the town, enjoying the sights. This is the namesti in Domazlice at night. Brrrrr, it was cold!!
The next day we stopped at a castle ruin in Rabi. By way of explanation, there are two different kinds of castles in the Czech Republic, a hrad, which is like a fortress castle, and a zamek, more like a chateau. Because the CZ has a history of burghers and land owners and kings and all of those types of medieval things, and because it was the seat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, etc., it has an overabundance of castles, both hrads and zameks, and when I mean an overabundance, I mean it has the most castles anywhere in Europe. Bohemia is made up of forests and rolling hills (beautiful!), with the hrads usually placed on a high hill overlooking a valley/village, thus their use as fortifications against intruders.
On his mission Chris enjoyed a drink called Top Topic, made from white grapes--he found it at a gas station.
On a whim, we pulled off on in Strakonice, and this was what we found on the square:
Just another castle ruin:)
We hadn't slept much on the flight, who can sleep in economy class?, and I fell asleep in the rental car before we hit the Czech border. Chris managed to keep his eyes open and we arrived safely in Domazlice. In the Czech Republic most villages are situated on a main square (namesti) with a castle or church on one side, towers, pretty buildings, etc. Our hotel was on the very upper floor (good thing we packed lightly!) of an 18th century building on the square. Here's the view from our window, looking out to a small castle on the right, the square is actually on the other side of the building.Painted and decorated buildings were just the norm on our trip. We spent the afternoon walking around the town, enjoying the sights. This is the namesti in Domazlice at night. Brrrrr, it was cold!! The next day we stopped at a castle ruin in Rabi. By way of explanation, there are two different kinds of castles in the Czech Republic, a hrad, which is like a fortress castle, and a zamek, more like a chateau. Because the CZ has a history of burghers and land owners and kings and all of those types of medieval things, and because it was the seat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, etc., it has an overabundance of castles, both hrads and zameks, and when I mean an overabundance, I mean it has the most castles anywhere in Europe. Bohemia is made up of forests and rolling hills (beautiful!), with the hrads usually placed on a high hill overlooking a valley/village, thus their use as fortifications against intruders.O.K., so back to Rabi. The castle itself was closed, as most are in the winter, but it was amazing nevertheless.
On his mission Chris enjoyed a drink called Top Topic, made from white grapes--he found it at a gas station.On a whim, we pulled off on in Strakonice, and this was what we found on the square: Just another castle ruin:)We drove through a village, again on a whim, that has been designated as an UNESCO site, so they've received money from the EU to reconstruct the old Baroque buildings.
We stopped for the night in Hluboka nad Vltavou. The castle at Hluboka was used by the Schwartzenberg family for a country chateau, they married into the Hapsburg family, and they pretty much owned part of Bohemia. Part of the castle was used to house those servants who came with families visiting the Schwartzenbergs and it has been turned into a hotel, where we stayed.
Because the castle sits on the hill we had a beautiful view of the village of Hluboka nad Vltavou.
In the morning a huge feast was delivered to our room, really almost every breakfast was pretty elaborate and delicious, with fresh rolls, meats, cheeses, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, pastries, juice and milk.
We went through an exhibit of medieval altarpieces (yes, I was in art history heaven from day one), then toured the castle.
Their coat of arms, they must have made a name for themselves by defeating the Turks, as you can see a bird is pecking out the invader's eyes.
Apparently they did a lot of hunting here, because trophies adorned wall after wall.
Next on our stop was Ceske Budjovice. Another beautiful namesti, we wandered around the medieval town, and searched for garnet earrings for the girls. Garnets are mined nearby.
Another picturesque street...are you bored yet with all the incredible architecture? I couldn't get enough.
The namestis in most of these small towns were bustling during the day with lots of foot and car traffic, but between 5 and 6 p.m. everything shut down, including all the shops and most of the restaurants. 
Because the castle sits on the hill we had a beautiful view of the village of Hluboka nad Vltavou.In the morning a huge feast was delivered to our room, really almost every breakfast was pretty elaborate and delicious, with fresh rolls, meats, cheeses, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, pastries, juice and milk.We went through an exhibit of medieval altarpieces (yes, I was in art history heaven from day one), then toured the castle.Their coat of arms, they must have made a name for themselves by defeating the Turks, as you can see a bird is pecking out the invader's eyes.Apparently they did a lot of hunting here, because trophies adorned wall after wall. Next on our stop was Ceske Budjovice. Another beautiful namesti, we wandered around the medieval town, and searched for garnet earrings for the girls. Garnets are mined nearby. Another picturesque street...are you bored yet with all the incredible architecture? I couldn't get enough.The namestis in most of these small towns were bustling during the day with lots of foot and car traffic, but between 5 and 6 p.m. everything shut down, including all the shops and most of the restaurants. With all of its colorful, Baroque storefronts, Telc had to be the most picture-perfect place I've ever been.
This was taken walking underneath the archways in the square. So much to explore!
We took a long walk around the old town in Telc, wandering around the streets, this is looking back toward the center of the town. And yes, it was as cold as it looks, our faces were frozen!!
We had planned to drive further that night, but were too exhausted, we spent the night in Jihlava. Knowing we were coming back later we didn't spend too much time walking around. Here's the church on the namesti. 
On the way to our hotel, Chris got pulled over by a stern policeman for driving in a pedestrian-only zone. In all fairness to Chris, the sign was at the end of the street and Czech drivers were being pulled over left and right. We were a little nervous, though, that we'd get a ticket, who wouldn't be? We learned very quickly that when people thought we were German, as most did, they weren't very friendly, but once they found out we were American their attitude towards us changed. So here we were driving a German car, but once the policeman looked over our passports and spoke with Chris, he decided not to give us a ticket. Thank goodness!!
Chris served for 8 months in Jihlava, so it's a place close to his heart. He came back to visit here the year after his mission with his parents. They stayed in an apartment over a huge shop filled with Bohemian crystal (it's big here, just go to Prague and you'll see it on every corner), the shop was run by two women who were good friends to the missionaries. We searched for the shop, but a grocery store had taken its place, and we found out the crystal factory outside Jihlava had shut down.
This was taken walking underneath the archways in the square. So much to explore!We took a long walk around the old town in Telc, wandering around the streets, this is looking back toward the center of the town. And yes, it was as cold as it looks, our faces were frozen!!
We had planned to drive further that night, but were too exhausted, we spent the night in Jihlava. Knowing we were coming back later we didn't spend too much time walking around. Here's the church on the namesti. 
On the way to our hotel, Chris got pulled over by a stern policeman for driving in a pedestrian-only zone. In all fairness to Chris, the sign was at the end of the street and Czech drivers were being pulled over left and right. We were a little nervous, though, that we'd get a ticket, who wouldn't be? We learned very quickly that when people thought we were German, as most did, they weren't very friendly, but once they found out we were American their attitude towards us changed. So here we were driving a German car, but once the policeman looked over our passports and spoke with Chris, he decided not to give us a ticket. Thank goodness!!
Chris served for 8 months in Jihlava, so it's a place close to his heart. He came back to visit here the year after his mission with his parents. They stayed in an apartment over a huge shop filled with Bohemian crystal (it's big here, just go to Prague and you'll see it on every corner), the shop was run by two women who were good friends to the missionaries. We searched for the shop, but a grocery store had taken its place, and we found out the crystal factory outside Jihlava had shut down.The next morning we had a great surprise, though. We had located a crystal dealer outside the city, but thought we would stop by a little shop around the corner from our hotel just to see what they had. We walked in and within a couple of minutes the owner of the shop recognized Chris! It was one of the two women from 20 years ago!! What a fun reunion!!
Our search for affordable crystal took us to a nearby village, we drove up and down the winding streets looking for an address. We finally found a tiny sign and rang the doorbell of a home, entered and found a whole crystal shop inside, they primarily ship things over the internet. Chris said he felt like he was buying things out of the back of someone's truck! We were glad to have discovered the dealer, though, we found out later their prices were 1/3 of what prices were in Prague.
Our search for affordable crystal took us to a nearby village, we drove up and down the winding streets looking for an address. We finally found a tiny sign and rang the doorbell of a home, entered and found a whole crystal shop inside, they primarily ship things over the internet. Chris said he felt like he was buying things out of the back of someone's truck! We were glad to have discovered the dealer, though, we found out later their prices were 1/3 of what prices were in Prague.We headed toward southern Moravia, where we would spend the next 3 days. Here's a zamek, just on a hill in a town, I can't remember the name, we passed through so many.
Next stop: the Slovacko region!
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