Travels with my Daughter Part II (Prague)

The last stop on our summer travel was Prague. What a city, everywhere you walk there are gorgeous buildings. The façade is rarely plain, most have architectural details and and statues. Or paintings right on the front embedded. You could just walk and look and then look some more and you would discover a new aspect.

Due to the hotel being a little away from the center, we walked past some of the buildings multiple times and got to discover something new each time.

We did try a few museums, but I really can't recommend the ones we went to. If you want Art, perhaps Italy or France have more to offer, but the buildings themselves are so interesting and beautiful, that I feel that is more than enough.

There were a few let downs, from my perspective. The Charles Bridge, has sculptures every few feet on both sides, but on some the stone appeared black, not sure why that was. Also the vendors and crowd was a real deterrence. We crossed it, but did not stop for pictures. The other one was the Lennon Wall, you can only see his glasses and what covers the rest is just bad graffiti, not artful at all.

One of my favorites were riding the old timey elevator in the city hall. It was recommended on a blog and is really not for tourists at all. We walked into city hall, hoping people assumed we had business there, slightly nervous too. In the back you can see it. There are just openings rotating and you step on or off. We went into the lower floor, that had no entrance, even though the sign stated not to do that. But we didn't want to rotate past the upper floor, where really you had to have a reason to go to. We went twice, just because I loved it so much.

The other one starts with a Tangent. While being in Krumlov on a guided walking tour we visited a St Vitus Church. The guide explained there are 2 churches with the same Saint, due to him coming from that region and the efforts of the Catholic Church to get people back. So money was invested to build beautiful buildings to appeal to people. Being a local the guide mentioned that the St Vitus Cathedral on Prague is a bit bigger but that the Krumlov Church can hold up to that.

So fast forward to our last day in Prague, we had decided to visit the Castle and St Vitus Cathedral on that day, as it was forecasted to be hot and being in cooler buildings seemed appealing. Anyhow we walk up the hill, get our tickets and then walk into the court yard, and there she was. This Cathedral is massive and huge. It was quite an impressive site. And you have to go in, It is overladen with statues, pictures in the glass windows and so much more. No picture I took can even come close to how majestic it is.

By far my favorite Cathedral, that I have ever visited. I loved every detail of it and would have spend more time, if not for the throng of people in there.

During this vacation I did notice though how much Emma has grown in the last years. She is on her way to becoming herself more and more. It is also quite evident how different we are as people. I love to go full force, see everything, pack the schedule tight and if I had been able to convince her, would have also looked at everything again at night.

Don't get me wrong, I was not interested in bar hopping or ghost tours, but seeing the buildings illuminated by light after sun down, is something I wish we had done more of.

Emma prefers a more leisurely pace, she likes to wander more than march, laugh. And after quite a few days 24/7 she also had to retreat mentally and find some alone time too.

For me that is especially hard, as her mom I want to share and talk and be close, realizing how precious short this time is, but I have to respect her needs and wants too.

And we did have wonderful conversations and shared laughs and disbeliefs as we encountered things.

I am grateful for this whirlwind of experience and wish I could make it come to live so much better, just to do it justice.