Friday, 26 August 2011

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.


Europe Prague July 19-24 002
The view from our unit in Prague at night
Europe Prague July 19-24 016
St Vitas Cathedral
Europe Prague July 19-24 020
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.

Sunday, 14 August 2011

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.