And were back..

I bet you all thought I was never going to make it back to the blogging world huh? Well BAM here we are..

Since the end of summer life hasn't changed much, still working through school, spoiling our baby (Johnson), enjoying the ocean (& a crazy heat wave), and going through the motions.  Charlie is working part-time jobs while he looks for something stable or decides on a trade.

Over the summer i did a mini post with a video from a trip to Czech Republic.  It had been over 6 years since I had gone back and I felt like I was gone maybe a week, it was such a wonderful trip it is hard to put into words.  I guess that being with family does that to you (sometimes) ;-).

I had originally planned to post all my pictures with nice descriptions and the names of the places but since it has been so long, will see :)

My Father and I flew out together and I stayed for about two weeks.  He had some performances lined up in CZ and Deutschland  towards the end of  my stay but I still was able to go to one of his concerts which was really special to me (and that was the video i posted previously).

I unfortunately and absent mindedly did not talk photos of my family or of our families house.  I think because it is so familiar that it didn't occur to me or something! Anyways, too late for that.

We did a lot of sightseeing!  We went to castles, churches, chateaus, museums, restaurants, villages & lots of walking!  I met my cousins son Honza (1.5year)  for the first time and it was love.  He implored me daily to play, it melted my heart to hear him say "Miso machinka prosim," meaning Misa (my nickname) come play trains please.  He got me every time.  My Great Aunt is our eldest living relative and she is doing so well for being in her eighties!  She outlived all of her siblings, including my Grandfather by 45 years, and I consider her a Grandmother, needless to say it was marvelous to see her.

So what was my favorite part of this trip?  I would have to say the evening barbecues drinking pivo and wine while eating delicious sausages, vegetables, bread and sweets.  I was worried about how much of the language I had lost but to my surprise, and everyone else, i was able to understand SO much of the conversations that I didn't even notice it wasn't English!!  My other most treasured memories of the trip are walking in the woods behind the summer house with my Dad, just talking, exploring and bonding.   Our other great bonding experiences was our regular trips to a coffee shop sipping cappuccinos with amaretto talking about life.  It's been years since I spent that much time with my Dad and i will forever keep it in my heart.

Finally, Here are some pictures!!

Czech culture and its people greatly pride themselves on a few things but primarily it's their beer!  Pilsner Urquell was founded 1842 and it is where the type of beer "pilsner" comes from.  I have a cousin who works in public relations for the company so we got to do a "special" tour in the underground cellars tasting some a very unique brew!

Here is a pictures of the entrance of the brewery

Inside the cellars where the beer is stored & brewed

Next set of pictures are just of some Czech countryside from one of our day trips to a Hunting Chateau that hasn't been in use since the Communist era.  It was a nice day because there were only about 4 people on the tour and it was really peaceful to just walk around and take in the scenery.

My Dad, Jirka.

The following pictures are from our families hometown Plzen (Pilsen in English).

These were taken from the concert hall that my father and Fred performed in.  The town square is literally a square with a church in the center.  It has some great architecture.  The town was founded in the late 10th century and as far as we can trace our family origins, they resided in this region!

Benedetti & Svoboda had their performance in the town's city hall!  It was a really neat room they did their performance in.  

My Dad was nice enough to take me into Prague for a day.  Luckily we had a friend who was going to be there to ease the pain of getting and being there.  To drive to Prague was a few hours and then we had to park to take the metro (subway).  Because it is a huge tourist spot it is crowded and can be overwhelming and my Dad would match rather just go drink a beer at the local pub but he was going to humor me because of how long it had been since the last time i was there!  We did the usual, walked over Charles IV bridge and visit St. Vitus Cathedral which holds the remains of Czech Hero, Charles IV. I have albums and albums of this place from previous trips so my pictures of it are rather limited.   

Right when you come out of the metro this is what you see!  

The statue is St. George

                                                             Old Town Square

                                        Gunpowder tower and the entrance to Charles Bridge

St. Vitus Cathedral

Archangel Michael

Czech Coat of Arms

 Another beautiful place we went to, and personally one of my favorite Czech Towns, was Kutna Hora.  In the town there is a beautiful cathedral called the Santa Barbara and it was built by the son of the architect who built St. Vitus Cathedral.  The town also houses a very well known as "bone church," but actually called sedlec ossuary.  During the bubonic plague and after the Hussite wars, the number of victims was so great that there was no where to literally bury the bodies, they wanted them to be buried on holy ground so the employed Frantisek Rint.  Rather then describe what he did you can see the pictures.  It houses somewhere between 40,000 and 70,000 remains.  It seems macabre but it is actually fascinating and mind blowing.

Santa Barbara Cathedral

View from the top of the cathedral

The ceiling was littered with coat of arms 

Amazing architecture.  It's funny because the building cost so much they were unable to finish it because they ran out of money but you can't even tell it wasn't finished!

Organ

Beautiful stained glass

I can't get over the architecture.  Here is a cool shot of some flying buttress's

Another view from the top of the cathedral

Kutna Hora

Sedlec Ossuary

Schwarzenberg coat of arms.  They were the rulers of the time. 

The rest of my photos are randoms!

My Dad played a soccer game while we were there and of course it started to rain and there was no where to sit (Reliving my childhood).  But I did get to see a double rainbow! But I think I was only able to capture one. 

This is in Radnice which is the village we were staying in.  There is a little piece of the church which has been abandoned but I was so tripped out to see a horse and wagon!!! And when I say village, i meant real, authentic, Eastern European village..

Local art in a Czech park

Just thought this was funny!

And this was our bedroom view.  The line of trees was the path we would walk to lead into the forest.  The fields are a beautiful yellow, and that's because they are mustard flowers!  To see this every morning and evening was spectacular.  

I am so proud to not only be a Svobodova but a Czech citizen as well.