Prague July 19-24

Well at last I have got back to do a bit on the blog. It has been a while and one day runs into the other. I must admit I did think I would have a little more down time, but we are having a wonderful holiday. Since finishing our England and Ireland Explorer tour we have been on the go. After arriving back on the completion of our tour we spent one more day in London which was essentially spent unpacking, sorting and organising and repacking for the next part of our trip to Prague. We managed to organise to send some luggage home as we already thought we were carrying too much. So after most of the day on the phone and sorting we thought we had it under control. We had to make a dash into London in the rain to print the documents before everything closed- all 14 pages we discovered of customs forms required to send our one case. After finding somewhere to print our documents, and photocopy my passport we thought we had it done, only to find when we arrived back to our unit that most of the papers had not actually printed at all. So I filled out what I could and prepared for our 5am pickup in the morning to fly to Prague knowing I would have to prepare and send more documents from there.

Our flight to Prague was really good and we thought that it was funny that we passed over 7 countries in the same flight time as it takes us to fly from Para to Perth. You can really understand why Europeans fly all over Europe and beyond- everything is so close and flights can be quite cheap - one of my cousins told us it cost about 60 Euro-about $75 to fly from Holland to Spain return. Amazing.


We arrived in Prague at our unit- which was great-huge in fact after our little, little unit in London, just after lunch and decided after a bit of a rest that we would go venturing out and grab some lunch. We had a nice walk around but had to make a dash back to our unit after Matthew had a reaction to something in our lunch- not sure what-the ONLY time we weren't carrying one or four epipens and antihistamines. Anyway after an antihistamine and a rest all was Ok and we had a quiet evening in. We decided the next day to have a rest day, which in fact turned into 2 rest days as both boys were not feeling quite right.

On the fourth day we finally ventured back out to see the sights. We made our way onto the tram and headed for Prague Castle. Prague Castle is very impressive and believed to have been founded in about 880, and is today a UNESCO world heritage site and the largest coherent castle complex in the world with an area of 70000sq metres. After wandering around the Castle and grounds, went into the magnificent 14th century St Vitas Cathedral and then wandered back through the town and home via the famous Charles Bridge.

The view from our unit in Prague at night

St Vitas Cathedral

The boys in front of one of the very ornate doors of St Vitas Cathedral

Prague Castle at night (this was a print)

On the tram up to Prague Castle

Prague is very beautiful and as with most places we have been to we could have spent a lot more time there. Our final day in Prague we did a walking tour which started in the Old Town and took in the buildings and history there, including the famous Astrinomical Clock, then we walked to the Jewish Quarter and ended up three hours later at the Castle. The walking tour was great and even though we had visited the Castle ourselves the day before it was much better when you heard the history and facts about what you were seeing, especially from a local guide.

Some of the old building walking through the streets of Prague

Heading towards Charles Bridge

In the Old Town square

The view from Prague Castle

The view from Charles Bridge

At Prague Castle

The tower on Charles Bridge

The Astronomical clock

The Astronomical Clock

All in all we had a wonderful time in Prague however our next stop was the one we had all been waiting for the most - the next day we were flying to Amsterdam to spend 3 weeks with our family.

Family Vos

A few weeks have passed and we have been having a wonderful, and very busy time.  We have spent some time in Prague after leaving our tour in London and have spent the last 3 weeks in Holland with our family.  For all of us this has been the highlight of our trip.  One of the many special things that we have done is attend a family reunion with all those who could make it gathering together at my cousin Marc and Rian's house on the 7th August. It was amazing to have so many of the Vos family together at once, and for me, meeting some of my cousins for the first time.  A huge thankyou must go out to all those who helped but especially to Marc and Rian, Brigitte and Robin, and to Vivien and Natasja for organizing and planning and working so hard to make this such a very special day. I have many photos of our time in Holland and will upload them over the coming days, and I will email as promised, the email addresses and contacts to all the family.  In the meantime I am uploading some photos and a layout I have done of our get together last week.

All those who could attend - from one generation
Tante Jose, Oom Rini, Tante Riet, Oom Hans, Tante Wil

to those who could attend from the next generation-
Marc, Rian, Brigitte, Herman-Jan, Patty, Fred, Armon, Robin, Annette, Rene, Janny, Roger just visible behind Cecile and Karen

 

and those representing the youngest generation
Matthew, Brodie, Mitchella, Collinsia, Natasja,Sophora with William, Martijn, Felicia, Vivien, Elijah, Amy and David - Flores having just ducked out of the photo

 

The whole group picture

and a layout of all those who attended.

 To our family and friends at home in case I have not already done so I am also sending our new contact numbers.  We should be able to have these numbers while on the rest of our trip however we will have to clarify the international codes as the 31 in the number relates to Holland from which we will depart late next week.  Our mobile numbers are 00 31 686 157 625 for Annette and 00 31 686 157 626 for Rog.

Europe Tour Days 12 & 13 Waterford, Cardiff, Bath, Stonehenge & London End of Tour July 16 & 17

This morning we left Waterford early to catch a ferry to take us back to Pembroke on the Welsh coast and onto Cardiff.  Our ferry journey was a little longer this time and our crossing took about 3 1/2 hours.  Our first stop after arriving on Welsh soil was in Cardiff, with its spectacular Cardiff Castle, although as we only had an hour at our stop we decided not to go into the Castle but instead just wander around the centre. 

Brodie having a snooze on the ferry

Matthew too

The ferry boat we took to Wales

 

Heading back on to Welsh soil

Cardiff Castle here and below

After leaving the centre and checking into our hotel,  we headed out for our last evening meal of the tour.  Tonight we were heading further into the Welsh country side and to a family run hotel which had been open since 1380. 

We had a lovely evening together with our touring companions and couldn't believe that tomorrow was the last day of our tour.


The last day of our tour, it has gone so quickly and we have seen and done so much.  Our first stop this morning was to one of the places that we have been wanting to see, Bath. 

Overlooking the main Roman Bath, in Bath, England

The main Bath

A display on Acqua Sulis

Part of a mosaic found at Bath, this one dating back to the 3rd century



Artifacts found around Bath, the lower piece being a 'pig' of lead inscribed with

'property of Emporer Hadrian Augustus', as in Hadrians Wall, amazing.

Part of the drainage system in the Roman Baths, still operational today.
You can see the steam coming off the water as it flows through into the Bath

Bath as many would know dates back from Roman times and it is indeed very impressive, with artifacts dating back thousands of years.  As well as having the main bath, the area has a fantastic museum with displays and artifacts showing how the roman baths and town, then called Acqua Sulis were in different periods of history.   Bath is a must for anyone coming to England, and we would have loved to stay
and explore longer, but headed off to our last stop, Stonehenge, before heading back to London.

Stonehenge again, as with most of things on our journey, was pretty amazing.  These rocks have stood on this site it is thought for about 5 thousand years and actually predate the pyramids.  We had audio packs and were able to wander around the site which is actually quite big, for about an hour,  the rocks themselves are massive.  You can only really marvel at the site and wonder how they got here, being that the rocks are not from this area.  They are huge and have about a third of the face in the ground,
and you have to wonder how and why, and when  they were placed like this.

Stonehenge, amazing

Stonehenge

Another view of Stonehenge.
  It didn't matter which angle you looked at it from, it was still amazing.  At certain points around the site the rocks line up and you get is another totally different perspective.

 After leaving Stonehenge we headed back to London where we ended our tour.  It has been an amazing 13 days and a wonderful way to see so much.  I have only really scratched the surface with what I have uploaded on the blog.  We have met a lot of really lovely people and have made some friends that we hope to keep in touch with into the future.   A tour like this is something I would recommend to everyone.

Layout

On our way

Finally, I have done my first layout

Europe Day 11 Killarney to Waterford July 15

Today we are left Killarney and headed for Waterford.  Our first stop this morning was at Blarney to visit the Blarney Castle where you can kiss the Blarney Stone and be granted the gift of Eloquence.  The stone castle which stands today is the 3rd structure on this site, this castle being build back in the 1400's.  We looked around the castle and the Poisenous Garden, but decided we wouldn’t do the steps and queue and kiss the Stone.



Blarney Castle



The boys in Badgers Cave at the Blarney Castle

At Blarney Castle

Boys with Blarney Castle in the background

One of the views from the top of the Castle

Our next stop for the day was in Waterford, an ancient town dating back to viking and medieval times and famous for its crystal, Waterford Crystal,  ,where  we will have our overnight stop.

The Roman walls and entry into the town of Waterford

The Roman wall as we enter the city of Waterford.
The foundations of this wall date back to the year 40, as in the first century

Making the crystal at Waterford

    This afternoon we had  a tour of the working Waterford Crystal factory which now only produces the high end products, ie trophys, one off and commission pieces as most of the run of the mill crystal is now produced in some of the Eastern Block countries of Slovenia, Slovakia and Germany.  We saw how the crystal is moulded, cut and sculpted and finished and polished and then of course , the finished product.  

Lovely, but I don't think we will be buying this one

One of the more reasonable priced pieces

 Rog and Brodie even got to have a hold of one of the trophys  for the London 2012 Olympics and we also saw the Irish Open Golf Trophy being  made.   

Brodie with one of the London Olympic 2012 trophies

Rog with the trophy

The Irish Open trophy being made
Up close it has the indents of golf balls engraved in it

 The crystal was really heavy and although we would have loved to have bought some we decided not to as there was just the small problem of getting it home. 

After arriving at our hotel we decided to go out and have a walk around the town.  Even though it was raining we had a quick look at the boat sculpture monument at the rivers edge, complete with viking plaques and then had a quick wander towards the town.  We also found the line of the medieval wall of the city.  We found a great little sports shop where Rog bought a supporters shirt for the local hurling team. Hurling is the national sport here and we have learnt quite about it on our tour, being that our tour guide is Irish.  In Rogers words, it is like hockey on steroids, so he has taken quite an interest in it.  The young guy in the shop was really lovely, a hurling player himself, and we spent about half an hour just chatting to him.   It is really nice talking to some local people and it is these people who you remember when thinking about our visit to the country.

Viking monument on the edge of the river in Waterford

Line of the medieval wall of the city of Waterford

Tomorrow morning we head to Ross Lare to catch the ferry to Pembroke on Wales, for our last overnight stop before finishing our tour on Sunday in London.