The Czech Republic is such a beautiful country. The countryside is pristine and I think it was more beautiful than any other place we saw, with Austria coming really close behind! Anyway, we kept finding cool places to see in the Czech Republic. We stopped in the town of after we left church on Sunday. It was a tiny town, but had a really cute town square, and some good gelato (yes, gelato is everywhere in Europe, not just in Italy.)
We then drove to another town about 1 more hour south which we were told was a cool place to visit. Pete has gotten really good at spotting the off the beaten path little bed and breakfast places that are much cheaper and usually have a few more beds to cram the whole family into. We pulled into a huge old barn, and got a really large apartment: 2 bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen for really cheap. The kids were in heaven. There were cows, chickens, geese, cats, and ducks to chase all over the working farm. They smelled like animals when the day was done, but it was the best hotel ever in their opinion. And everyone had their own bed! So we ended up staying there for 2 nights instead of one. I liked checking into a hotel and getting a good nights sleep, and then spending the whole next day in one place and returning home, packing up, going to bed and leaving early in the morning for the next traveling day. It seemed like when we traveled every day, we spent half the time either packing up or trying to find the next hotel. Anyway, the town we visited was really cool because it was an old medieval castle town. A river in the shape of a great big horseshoe encircled almost the entire town. In addition, the town had an outer and inner wall for defense. We visited some interesting museums on our way to the castle. Some of you may gasp in horror at the following pictures, so I need to warn you in advance that we have now permanently traumatized the children by taking them to the medieval torture museum. Actually, we think it had some really helpful suggestions for our parenting methods. Haha! We clapped Paul in irons for not being able to keep up with the rest of the family on the tour. You can see how upset he was about this! I told the kids that our basement could easily be adjusted into a damp, dark, dungeon for misbehaving children. Actually, it is Mom and Dad that need a nice little white padded room in solitude after this long vacation! But seriously, no children were harmed in the making of this blogspot. Next we went to a wax museum which depicted scenes from the medieval village and then went on to represent some important people in history. Sadly, many of the Czech Republic’s history was unknown to us. One thing that we have seen throughout Europe is that the people really know their history. Europe seems to dwell a lot on their history, and has so many reminders of it, whereas America seems to really look forward into the future instead. Each place we went to had a different feel to it, its own culture, which was neat to experience. Ok, anyway, after the wax museum we went to a really cute marrionet museum. We saw a lot of puppets in Poland and even more in Prague, and they vary from each region. These puppets were really really cool! They also had a few stages with different stage props and scenery. It’s been a secret desire of mine to build something like this for my kids, but I thought that I had satisfied this desire somewhat when Emily and I built the beds with storage underneath for the girl’s room. However, seeing these cool stage sets just brought this desire back again. Maybe some day when I’m a grandma I can realize this dream. Anybody want to help? It would be so fun! The oldest of puppets in this collection were 90 years old. The green guy is the Czech water spirit, and the guy with one cloven hoof is a devil. The other devil is also obvious. There were a lot of traditional Czech characters, but also many others mixed in. They were all charming!
It’s a good thing the McCollaum kids are so well behaved! Mom is playing with dolls while Dad takes a nap. We moved on after this refreshing break. We were getting closer to the castle all the time and now had reached it’s entrance. The tower served many purposes. It was a bell tower, and a watch tower, They really did lock people up in this tower. It had a fantastic view of the city!

By the time we made it back down the tower and into the castle, the little ones were just plain tuckered out and their parents were in even worse shape. You can tell we were nearing the end of our vacation , because mom and dad decided at that point to skip the castle and to turn back to the river below so that the kids could play on it‘s banks. Jessica and Peter continued onward alone to take in the castle gardens and then met up with us down by the river. They got some good pictures on their own! In the meantime Paul was the focus of many Chinese women’s pictures. They just loved this cute blond half-naked cherub. He probably reminded them of a blond budda! J

Welcome to Prague!

Prague was absolutely beautiful. We arrived there Friday evening, and met another nice American couple with 3 children in the lobby who were also just checking in. The Ritters had just finished biking down the Danube with their boys, Patrick (8), Casey (7), and Derek (or Boo Boo, age 1). We met them again the next morning at breakfast, so we all headed out together to see the sights. We headed into the old town center, on the left bank of the river and walked around a bit there. As usual, many fountains, churches, and statues were the favorite sites.

At two o’clock, we joined a “free tour” which accepts tips in any amount at the end of the tour. Our tour guide was Czek, but raised in Germany. She took us over to the right bank where we saw many sites, including some important sites in history. She showed us where one student had burned himself to death in 1969 to protest the Communist rule of his country. She also showed us some important sites where different Hollywood movies were filmed. Mission Impossible, and the Borne Identity both had some great running scenes up and down lots of stairs which we were lucky enough to climb. J It was such a thrill!


We ended our tour with a walk through the Palace and its grounds, the largest in all of Europe. We didn’t have time to visit the inside of the Palace by the end of the day, which can take up to two days to visit; however, we thought we had an hour left before the beautiful Palace church closed, so we rushed in, only to be pushed back out by the guards who kept trying to close the place down. Our guide had previously explained to us that the crown jewels (which go on display every 5 years) are locked up in this church, and each evening it takes 7 different keys belonging to 7 important people to lock it up.


I spotted the head guard with a huge metal key in his hand and I kept trying to get a picture, but we kept getting shooed away. Finally, I went up to the guy and asked him if I could get a picture of him with his key. He said to me in an exasperated voice, “No, we are closing! There is no time!”
Then about 3 seconds later, he just handed me the key without a word. Jessica and I were together and so I quickly handed it to her so that I could get a shot. You can see that I was standing too close, but we were in the crowd of people being shoved out of the building, so I did what I could. It was pretty funny! We found out minutes afterward that the church had closed early that evening for a wedding! Boo!








After having some Czek goulash and potato soup (yummy!) we walked down the golden lane. This was a street filled with little tiny houses that were originally used to house the king’s guards. (Sorry, I can’t remember any names!) When the new king came to power, he was quite crazy and kicked all the guards out, replacing them with his own little crew of alchemists. Hence the name, “golden lane”. These little houses are so cute and today they are little tourist shops of course, still used in the quest for wealth! That particular King was obsessed with alchemy and legend says that one of the huge fires in the palace was started in the king’s study where he kept his chemistry experiments. The fire burned a huge portion of the castle, and took a lot of work and money to repair it. However, it did give the king a good excuse to re-model!




We descended back to the center by way of the beautiful castle gardens and returned to the town center through the famous St. Charles Bridge. There were tons of people painting pictures, and playing music to earn money here. We even saw a guy with a rat and a big bulldog. His talent was to keep his dog calm so that the rat could sit on top of him. Aside from this guy, all the others were quite entertaining and talented.








Prague is a beautiful city, but filled with tourists from everywhere! I’m not sure if there are any Czeks that inhabit the area. It was very romantic and beautiful and certainly has a lot of sites to entertain a person, however, the people were a little cold, probably because they are quite sick of tourists. And it is quite expensive, like a European version of Disneyland or something! Still, if I had the chance to go back I would because Prague is another city which has so many amazing and beautiful original historical buildings which are really incredible to see. It has a very interesting history!




See you next time on our next post!!
McCollaum fam.

Krakow

Finally we arrived into Krakow, about 3 hours later then our arranged meeting time with Gerald Kohan. He had lost his phone on his trip over and so we were going off of our back-up plan to meet in the main square, only we were 3 hours late. Luckily he was checking back every hour on the hour and we happe
Krakow was really beautiful! We were finally able to meet Gerald’s family: his wife, Gosha, and daughters Alexandria and Madja. Sorry guys if I spelled your names wrong! Our kids immediately paired up, or at least Jessica and Alex did, and Nicole, Madja, and Rachel formed the troika as we affectionately referred to them. It took all four adults to keep Paul occupied, and Peter gave us an extra hand when needed. We had a great time together! We were so compatible that we managed

to keep finding more and more reasons to stay. We enjoyed our time there for 6 days, instead of the original 4-5 that we were thinking.



(above, Maja and the two girls, side, Jessie and Alex hanging out)

We toured the Castle, its private chambers, and the weapons and armor, along with the kript, where many of the royalty and important people in history were buried.
We enjoyed visiting the beautiful church and bell tower.

We visited the salt mines close by. These were all hewn out of the salt rock, which is in many different colors, not just white. Pictures can’t quite capture the beauty of this underground world with its many sculptures and even chapels. Take a close look at the floor and chandeliers, it is all salt rock!
A bit of trivia--here is where the word “salary” comes from, the workers were paid in salt.

We went spelunking into a dragon’s cave and heard an old fable about the dragon who was eating all the townspeople. The dragon had demanded the kings daughter, but obviously the king was unwilling to giver her up. He sent many knights out to kill the dragon, but unfortunately they all lost the fight and their lives! Finally the town’s shoemaker volunteered to fight the dragon if the king would promise his daughter’s hand in marriage for him if he won. The king was desperate, and didn’t really think this shoemaker would succeed when his knights had not, so he agreed.



The shoemaker then gathered up some sulfur, and stuffed a sheep with it. He placed the sheep outside of the dragon’s cave and the dragon came out and gobbled it all up. He became parched with thirst from the sulfur and ran down to the river to drink. He drank and drank and drank until he exploded! So the shoemaker won the princess’ hand in marriage where everyone else had failed. What a great story. The caves and river are just below the castle so the story really must be true! The dragon sculpture that remains today really does breathe fire (every five minutes). Rachel especially loved this tale!








(pic. Bell tower, and down below, the dragon!)




We visited the town square several times. It is closed to automobiles and is alive with tons of people and traditional Polish food. Krakow is one of the few places in Poland that has survived through many turbulent times including WWII. At one time the city was rigged with explosives by the Germans so that they could destroy it if they needed to retreat, but somehow the Russians outmaneuvered them and they were forced to flee in a hurry, leaving the town intact.
We heard many of the polish traditions and fables from Gosha and Gerald and from these excellent tour guides, we were able to understand the area and country with a deeper insight. It was an incredibly valuable experience that we really loved!
(salt mine pics are starting, those to the right are the stairs going down, down, down, down, down)

You can really feel the authentic history of the place. We listened to a concert complete with bells, pipes, singing and great dancing too! We had fun window shopping. One area of the square has been the traditional place for people to sell their wares for eons, and still had the coats of arms for the different trades (cobbler, weaver, etc.) painted up on the walls where their stands would have been set up. We bought the kids some really cute little wooden toys there, and some beautifully painted wooden easter eggs. One of the kids favorite activities was feeding (and chasing) pigeons in the middle of the square. They got pretty good at it!














Eventually, we did have to leave, before we spent all our money and drove the Kohan’s nuts. We filled six days solid with non-stop fun, but still left without one very important ballroom dance lesson that was promised us, so we have that to look forward to the next time we meet up again! Thanks Kohans! We loved our visit!






One other very important item I was still on a quest to find in Poland still eluded us. Polish pottery is something I have wanted to buy for a long time, and once we were in Europe I started saving (well, kind of) so that I could blow it all on a mismatched set for the family, ok…for myself. We got some tips on where to go from Gosha, and the next day we set off in search of pottery. We were not disappointed. The little town of Boleslawiec boasts the most famous school educating people in the technology and design of ceramics.

It is also home to many manufacturing plants, so it is like one big outlet center for ceramics. I shopped while the kids played at the cute little Garden Hotel we stayed in. Several boxes later, we left heavy laden with beautiful stuff that I found at 60-70% off. Just think of the money I had just saved! Anyone who wants to come to visit can now be treated to an Italian meal served on Polish pottery! Won’t that be an experience! : )

(this is how paul wanted to be carried the whole trip!)

We pulled out of Boleslawiec heavily laden, and headed to our next stop, Prague.

I thought the fire breathing dragon was the perfect way to end the blog entry. See you all next time, hope you enjoyed the pics!

Road to Krakow (Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary)

Picking up where I left off on our Eastern European family vacation:
Our next two days of vacation were spent driving, driving, and driving. After leaving Sarajevo, Bosnia, we once again entered back into Croatia, where we took a slow, but beautiful drive through the mountians and into Hungary. In the beginning, we weren’t really sure we were on the right road, because our GPS didn’t have a very good map of the area, and kept telling us we were off route. The sparsly populated mountain road was beautiful and almost felt like we were back home in Colorado! As we did encounter little pockets of civilization, it was soo cute and quaint. It reminded me of the scenes from the book, Heidi. I imagined these mountain folk never leaving their little villages. Some funny things we encountered along the way: An old man, walking his cow down the road, a woman washing her clothes in a big tub in her front yard, lots of old old cemetaries, some Christian and some Muslim, lots of milk cows wandering around on and off the road, an older lady herding sheep and goats, a man raking his hay into cute little hay stacks., the police officer, giving Pete a ticket for driving without our lights on (oops! Even without a common language you can still get a ticket and we had to pay for it on the spot! He was very nice about it though!) Then there was this little old lady who stepped out into the road in front of us and flagged us down, holding out her passport and jabbering away to us. We had no idea what she needed, so we just gave her some money, and kept going. She didn’t act like that is what she needed, but took it anyway. I think she was trying to get a ride. I kicked myself for not getting her picture after we drove off, because she truly looked like a witch! Warts, big nose, and all, and she was dressed in some interesting clothes which were mostly black. We saw lots and lots of police officers, Eventually another officer flagged us down for speeding (we didn’t know the speed limit since it wasn’t posted) and right at the moment that we were trying to play the dumb foreigner, Paul, as if on cue, began throwing up in the back seat. Pete jumped out and I was scrambling to find napkins. I guess the officer finally decided that we weren’t worth his trouble after all that and just waived us to continue on once we had gotten the mess cleaned up. It was a stroke of good luck for us, or maybe a blessing from God, because Paul never complained or got sick again after words. We spent the night in a little bed and breakfast in Hungary. The innkeeper spoke no English, but he and his wife knew a little Italian, so we were able to get by. They were really friendly and sweet and picked two bags of plumbs and 1 bag of tomatoes for us to take with us on our trip. We had wanted to spend some time in Budapest the next afternoon, but by the time we got there, we realized that we only had time for lunch. As you can see Paul found the joy of picture taking, and went a little crazy! Other than that we were there just long enough for us to get a parking ticket, and a beautiful view of the city from the car windows. Definitely a place that I would love to go back to. The Hungarians were very friendly people.

Lunch in Budapest.....