Weekend to Prague - Castle and Cathedral area - Sept 26

Ok last set of pictures from Prague. St Vitus's Cathedral in the middle of the Prague castle. Side view of the Cathedral.
Front view, can't get it all in the picture cause i am up against the castle wall. The castle walls totally protect the cathedral.

In St Nicholas Church, on the way up the hill.

Castle to the right, waiting for the pope. The pope was in town however we only got to see some of his staff, guys in red. Notice the blue motor cycles, they rode up in unison, reminded us of the shriners. A lot of security also if you look on the top of the building to the left you can see an ninja sniper.

Noah on top of the hill, wonderful view.

View of Prague form the Castle.Looking up the hill the castle walls and cathedral.

Lucky monument on the bridge, you can see the spot where all the people rub for luck.

Noah getting "caught up" in Prague.

The gargoyals/rain spouts on the cathedral.

Back of the cathedral and Noah.

Inside the cathedral, this is the biggest church i have ever been in. Nice lighting from the stained glass windows. David also.

More inside, The cathedral has about 30 bays each with some interesting things. Above David in the glow from the stained glass windows.

Not exactly sure what this is, some sort of sun dial i think.

David overlooking Prague.

Inside church again.

Ok enough last picture, prague train station, waiting for our train back to Dresden. We will come back here, soo much to see and do we only rubbed the surface.

Weekend to Prague - Charles Bridge - Sept 26

Pictures from the Charles Bridge, on the way to the Prague Castle and Cathedral


Lots of alleys and small shops. Other side of bridge, towers on both sides. All kinds of artists and statues along the bridge.

View toward the Castle and Cathedral.

Good luck rub. If you look close you can see that the lucky area is polished from everyone rubbing it for luck. Noah takes a good rub.

Yes there is a StarBucks in Prague; Melissa is very happy!

View of the Castle and Cathedral (in castle walls)

Weekend to Prague - Old town - Sept 26

Soo much to see in Prague (Praha) that i am going to break up into a few posts; this first post are pictures from old town.


TV antenna, in Europe they have the most elaborate i have ever seen, they must have the whole transformers up in the air.








Powder town, heading toward old town.

















Melissa, David, and Noah blocking traffic under the powder tower.


















First glimpse of the Tyn's Church. The roof top is real cool looking. There are many impressive structures in Prague and many are original, as Prague avioded a lot of damage from the wars.









Tyn's church from front of Town Square. Double click to get a full look at the detail on the roof, it is amazing.











Astronomical clock tower, this tower has both a tower and the astronomical clock, the coolest clock i have have ever seen. The astro clock is from 1490 or so, it has a 2 different numbering systems, Arabic and Old Bohemian, a calender of events, moon, day, night, and a bottle opener.



















Full astro clock. Every hour it put off a display;













Clock dial.













Event dial.

Night shots around our place

Heard some fireworks so we went to investigate and i took a few pictures.





Fireworks over the Elbe. Hofkirche on left.















HofKirshe and David.


















Me by the Zwinger

Sight seeing - Moritzburg castle (Sept 19)

Visited a city outside of Dresden called Moritzburg. Home to the Moritzburg castle (about 20 miles out of town). Actually it was more of a summer home for Augusta the Strong (The most famous leader from dresden).





The castle is surrounded by a lake.

If you look really hard on the lower left you can see Melissa, David, and Noah

Moving into our new place in Alt Stadt (Sept 12)

Internet:
We finally moved into our new place! We are living about 5 miles (whatever that is in km's) from the institute. We waited until Sunday to finally move in because we or I, thought we didn't have internet yet. We can't live without internet, it is more important than the furniture. Friday I tested the internet and it didn't appear to work so we decided not to move in. David mentioned that we should check our mail box because they could have the information we need to start it. But I ignored him and didn't check the mail box. I know how the internet works and I don't need no packet.

On Sunday morning we decided to move in with or without the internet, a bold move, the institute housing was getting old and we were excited about our new location. Melissa decided to check our mail box and sure enough there was a packet in there explaining how to get the internet going. David and Melissa got it going, so that made our day.

Move:
We moved using the StrasseBahn (street car), we each brought a roller suitcase back and forth about 6 times, a lot of trips back and forth.

IKEA:
Our apartment is furnished completely with IKEA furniture. David and I had fun putting it all together. In Germany they usually take all the light fixtures and it is also somewhat common to take the kitchen with you when you move. Our place had a kitchen (and a dishwasher, big selling point for me) however no light fixtures, just wires from the ceiling. I found the perfect light fixture at IKEA, 2 Euros for the fixture, 3 Euros for the Japanese paper ball, and 6 Euros for 3 bulbs; pretty economical especially since we needed about 8 of these. Actually I was surprised I was able to convince Melissa that this was the way to go, but I did.

With all the stuff we ordered we only had one mix up, our bed frame didn't match our mattress. We didn't figure this out until the last step; when I tried to put the mattress on the frame and the frame was too big. Oh and by the way, in case you were curious, you can't return things to IKEA if you have assembled it. So if anyone needs a bed frame we have one that you can get cheap, although you have to come and get it.

We really like our new place it is very warm and sunny and there is a lot going on. Here are some pictures:








View out our window, if you look closely you can see a big chunk of bricks in the square, this is an orginal piece of the Frauenkirche that survived bombing during WWII.
















The other direction out our window.






















Out our family room window (see the frauenkirche)
















David and Noah's room














Family room (notice the light fixture, my pride an joy). Windows can completely open to the side so it is like a big open area.













Our kitchen. (light fixtures)















My desk, in our bedroom