A Czech Christmas

What a blessing to celebrate a safe and cozy Christmas here in the Czech Republic! The Czechs do it up right, spreading their holiday over three days.

We 4 Americans started Dec. 24 early with a trip to Kampa Island with our family friends, Jonasgang, to watch carp get released into the Vltava River. It's traditional to buy carp for Christmas dinner but save one in the bathtub until release time, which represents a gift of hope and freedom in the new year.

After watching the carp festivities, we walked the length of Kampa, stopping for hot drinks and collecting a larger and larger group of Jonasgang friends. There were loads of people out chatting and celebrating over mulled wine and sausages. Dogs, too!

ER took Cousin Lv and Seahawks on a detour to the Lennon Wall, which was nearby. Peace!

And then we joined back up with everyone for lunch at Olympia, an iconic Czech place. We ate so much that we only had soup for dinner later on.

To work off all that meat, we took Cousin Lv and Seahawk on the funicular up Petrin Hill and then walked back down- without leaves on the trees, the views were incredible! J got really muddy on the walk, so BW rinsed her off in a bathroom sink before church.

We attended Faith Community for the Christmas Eve service; it was lovely!

To cap off the day, we took one last walk through Old Town Square and headed home for soup and Scrabble :)

Our pics from Christmas Day will take a while to post; we're in Barcelona now with very limited internet and will be posting updates with an iPhone. Anyhoooo... Happy Holidays, peace, love and blessings!!!

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It's a small world after all...

About a decade ago, ER worked with hip dude MarkInMaine at The White Bear Press in Minnesota, and they kept in touch over the years. Recently, MarkInMaine and his wife ProfessorJen connected us with another alum of the Press who is now the Editor of a paper in New Brunswick, Maine, and happens to be married to a gal from the Czech Republic! Small world, right?

This week, we got to meet the New Brunswick Editor and his wife, Nurse M, while they were back in Prague visiting her family and our own visitors were on a daytrip. We had a lovely lunch at Cafe Louvre. Thanks, guys!

Afterwards, we strolled around town and watched as the carp stalls sold out of their fresh fish for Czech Christmas dinners. 

Butchered while you wait!

That morning, ER had put Cousin Lv and Seahwak on the train to Kutna Hora to see the famous "bone church." When they returned, we all went to tour the Staropramen Brewery in Prague 5, which was slightly hokey (automated tour rather than a human guide) but had a good finish with a crisp pivo at the end. The brewery was founded in 1869, and the word Staropramen means "old spring."

a big 'ol brewery

beer-making mechanics

Staropramen yummies

We learned that Staropramen is shipped to the U.S. and sold within 4 weeks of being bottled at the factory we visited in Prague. Again, small world!

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