We went to a post Cold War country over spring break... it was beautiful as well as eye-opening in hearing about the country.  Prague is in the Czech Republic which was part of Czechoslovakia until the fall of the Soviet Union about 20 years ago.  It was the only major city in Europe not to be bombed during WWII and therefore still maintained it's beautiful old buildings... albeit many had quite a few bullet holes in them thanks to the Soviets...

Our first stop before Prague was in Plzen which is a city close to the German/Czech border.  This is an old Cathedral...

We visited the Pilzner-Urquells brewery (which we all got a taste of the beer straight from the non-filtered-non-pasteurized barrels at the end of the tour)... Leo and Emma even got a taste... and promptly thought it disgusting.  I guess we should be glad???

This is in front of Prague Castle.  This is the largest Castle in the world and takes 2-3 miles just to walk the grounds.  I must say, our children are Rock Stars!!!!  They walked so much over the 3 days we were in Prague and there were very few complaints... In fact, we got compliments from the family we went with at how well behaved and 'non-whiny' they were!
This is the Saint Vitro Cathedral located inside the Castle walls... it was huge and beautiful and filled with history (and tombs) of martyrs and historical figures of the Czech Republic.  The sad thing is that Prague is filled with Cathedrals and churches... mostly unused because when the Communists overtook the country, they banned Christianity and actually turned most people (at times with violence) against God.  What used to be a very rich and vibrant country of very spiritual people, is now poor and agnostic...
Inside the castle walls was a museum of medieval artifacts...  Emma liked the dresses... and Leo Michael?
liked the weapons!  Uh....  I guess that is okay?

Back in the hotel lounge for a relaxing cocktail.  Our friends Grant and Tina Morris and their daughter Molly were with us on our trip.  They are Army friends who are also stationed in Germany, they were our next door neighbors when we were in Kansas at Fort Leavenworth... proves that the military is a very small world!!!

One of the walking tours of the city included a boat ride down the river that cuts through Prague.

This is a view from the river of Prague Castle.  And one from the Charles Bridge.

This is a statue of an inverted horse...  The symbolism is huge.  Basically Prague was an incredibly rich country before Communism took over the country.  Following WWII, the country was decimated and stripped of its industry and beauty.  I never realized how much the people hated it... I just assumed (very wrongly) that the people were just a part of the Soviet Union and ignorantly never considered that they were actually oppressed.  After the fall of the 'iron curtain', the government was still very much corrupt and at the 10 year anniversary of the 'fall of Communism' not much had changed and  the people were upset that they had not yet regained true freedom... so the statue meant as a 'celebration of freedom' was changed as a protest and this is the result.  Makes you think...  Freedom is so incredibly important and a thing we take for granted...
This is a very ancient clock that animates on the hour.  It is situated on the main square of Old Town in Prague.  The square is the cultural center where they hold fests and markets.

This picture is a tribute to how important it is to pay attention to currency exchange rates!  What Grant and Tina thought was an inexpensive bottle of wine was actually a $50 bottle!  So we had a few laughs at their expense... they were good sports though... and drank every drop of that bottle!!!  Wouldn't you?  :-)

Eating crepes in the city square!  They made them in front of you and filled them with very hot yummy fillings!  This one was chocolate!  yum.

On our trip out of Prague, we ventured off of the Autobahn into a small Czech village to find a post office... of course the post office was only open for 4 hours a day and we missed it... but hey, it got us out of the city!

Self explanatory... we wore the kids OUT!  But they were awesome!  They can never use an excuse that they can't run/walk a 5K with us!  We walked so much every day and they were so great!  They did ask for us to buy them things once a minute... which we declined...  but they didn't whine and really enjoyed the trip!!!!  

We love you and wish you were able to come along!