Eat, Drink, Sleep Praha (Prague)

We've made it to Praha! What a great city. I've had a bad cold so the first two days of Prague were a bit hard to get through, but since I am better today it has been great. Now Andrew is coming down with the cold so I have taken over as tour guide.

*We are currently in a cafe with "super slow" Wi-Fi so we will update Picassa web at the end of our trip from our hotel room*

I will start with some pictures from our trip through Bern and Lucerne in Switzerland:

THE GOOGLE APARTMENT (Zurich, We were the top windows above the bakery)

WE VISITED BERN (bear) AND THERE WERE BEARS

THE SHORTEST TRAM RIDE IN THE WORLD (~100m)

FINE DINING ON EMMENTHANLER CHEESE (Lucerne)

OUR HOTEL ROOM VIEW IN PRAGUE (Wenceslas Square)

WALKING TO PRAGUE CASTLE

ST VITUS CATHEDRAL IN THE CASTLE (we climbed the forward tower, 287 steps)

ANDREW WAS KING FOR A DAY

THE CLOCKWORKS INSIDE THE TOWER (Daddy I thought of you)

WE CROSSED THE CHARLES BRIDGE AND DIDN'T GET PICKPOCKETED

OF COURSE I RAN TO THE LENNON WALL (A memorial to John Lennon)

So here is our breakdown of what we have done in Prague so far:
Day 1: Wenceslas Square, street market, Old Town Square and the clock, ate the best soft serve ice cream

Day 2: Prague Castle (including St. Vitus Cathedral & Story of Prague Castle museum & Basilica of St. George), walked through Mala Strana, went over the famous Charles Bridge, visited the medival torture museum (kinda creepy), looked up at the Dancing Building, sat in a park and got attacked by a bee (Andrew's ok), had dinner, had drinks in the square outside of our hotel (we had absinthe...super fun), walked through a casino, saw a tow-truck pick a whole car up and set it on the flat bed.

Day 3: Slept in, the National Museum (awesome taxidermy & fossils), went to the Communist Museum (I had no idea! Fascinating and now I see the world from a whole different perspective), Sparky's toy store, ate a dessert that had a whipped cream topping that actually tasted like bile (it should be part of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans), and here we are at the internet cafe. We are off to another weird museum, back to the Old Town for a jazz club, and if I am lucky again we will stop for more absinthe.

Here are some last thoughts: smoking is truly disgusting in huge quantities (please send fresh Californian air), send these people some Swiss clothing fast, for we are seeing way too much unnecessary exposure, it is so humid I can't breathe (it started to rain tonight so things have cooled down). Off we go.

Na Shledanou

Itineraries

I forgot to include the daily rundowns on my past posts. Here is what we have done.

Sunday
Arrived in Zurich

Monday
Andrew worked
Shannon shopped downtown
We both went to the clock museum

Tuesday
Andrew worked
Shannon went to the Museum Bellvue, yarn shop, Freitag Handbag gift shop, shopping

Wednesday
Shannon visited an English speaking Day Care (Andrew's co-worker's girlfriend works there), went to the Botanical Gardens at the University of Zurich, stopped by the Skin Disease Museum, met up with Andrew and his co-workers for drinks

Thursday (European Holiday: Acension Day)
Slept in and both of us traveled to Rapperswil and crossed the 3/4 kilometer bridge and shopped downtown (rainy, rainy, rainy). Took the train back to Zurich and hopped on the last boat tour (1.5 hours) around Lake Zurich.

Friday
Took the train (1.5 hours) into Bern. What a great town and tons more to look at and experience than in Zurich. Met up with Andrew's co-worker and his girlfriend. They showed us around the whole town and we rode the smallest cable car up a hill (2 minute ride). We had drinks atop a plexiglass platform above a rushing river. We then walked downtown to eat dinner and of course stopped at a cafe to have coffee (since I don't drink coffee, I ate two desserts). After coffee (remember my desserts were substitutes for the coffee) we stopped at a gelato bar and ate ice cream. Rode the train back to Zurich.

Saturday: We plan to take the train to Luzern (Lucerne). I really hope we get to see those long horns they use in the Ricola ads. By the way, they sell tons of different types of Ricola in cute boxes. If anyone wants some let me know. We will post pictures later on from Bern and Luzern.

Sunday: Fly to Praha (Prague)

Chocoholic Rage

Guten Tag

I have consumed so much chocolate that I am on a constant chocolate high. I am not over-indulging, but feeding myself tiny morsels every few hours or so. Oh the bliss.

Here are some quick thoughts about Switzerland from the last two days:

* The toilet paper is so hard everywhere. Obviously, Charmin is not a Swiss brand.

* I wish all menus were in English (I know, selfish) because Andrew thought he was getting a hot dog and fries, but ended up with pork cutlets. Jokes on him.

* We are so spoiled because Switzerland has the best public transportation in the world. How will I do without my #9 and #76?

* Why can't our park restrooms have automatic sensored faucets and be clean?

* Today, we had to stop in a Starbucks to see what it was like. Ick. Pepper in cream cheese? What's that about? We bought: two bagels and cream cheese, one small coffee, and a banana chip frappacino. The grand total for our breakfast = $17. Got to love those francs!

Okay here are some pictures:

I LOVE THE BUGS

ISN'T THIS THE CUTEST BOAT HOUSE (from our Lake Zurich boat ride)

ANDREW AT CROSSROADS (We trekked over a wooden bridge in Rapperswil)

NOW I KNOW - Everyone is thin around here because you always walk everywhere and when you are walking, you are usually climbing stairs. These are the stairs we climb to get to our apartment. We climb 6 flights of really squeaky, wooden stairs. Thank goodness with all this chocolate eating. But to our defense, we barely eat anything else all day because the restaurants are so expensive and we order simple things we know how to say.

Check out more pictures on our gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/hurstdog/EuropeTrip

Switzerland from Shannon's eyes

Andrew spends most of his days working at Google so I thought I would share some tidbits with you about how I view Zurich. First of all, someone send me some designer clothing. The saying goes that the fancy restaurants in Old Town are there for the Bankers to take their fur-clad wives to so they can fret over where the next designer purchase will be made. I haven't seen any fur, but every mother is pushing a Bugaboo stroller (I mean every) and the older the man is, the younger the woman. Needless to say, I am searching high and low for a pair of silver ballet flats (a Zurich staple) costing less than $70. I have been searching for two days now and still can't find a resonable pair.

Now for the dogs. The dogs go in the CoOps (stores), the buses/trains, and in all the shops and stations. These aren't pampered dogs, but well loved ones. No one fusses over their dogs, but they definitely live right alongside their human counterparts.

It rains all the time and I love it. Half of the population carries umbrellas, but the rest of us just grin and bear it (I do with a smile).

In five minutes you will have ridden two bus lines, a train, and if you are lucky a trolley.

The chocolate is fabulous. They are really into chocolate shaped bugs. Oh, and I saw bug shaped bread too. The flies here are bigger than any I have seen before. I have only seen two though.

Andrew and I both need to lose weight so we can both wear the same skinny jeans and skinny sneakers. European men sure do know how to dress.

Everyone stares at me as if I have the plague. I have not seen one other person wearing flip flops. People kept staring at my exposed toes. Let's just say I now wear jeans, a cute top, and my black flats that Andrew almost made me leave at home.

That is my take for now. Keep checking out our picture gallery (link posted below) and I will add more "Shannonisms" later (I hope someone cares).

P.S. Happy Belated Mother's Day Mom. I forgot to say that on the phone.

Traveling in Europe

Well Shannon and I have been here for almost 2 days now so we figured it was time to post a story and upload some photos.

I've put all of the photos that we've taken so far up here in my gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/hurstdog/EuropeTrip.

So far I've been working and Shannon has been running around town through some super-expensive shopping districts, planning out the rest of her week, and trying to find a fondue shop. We were worried that she wouldn't have enough to do while I was at work, but she's found tons to do.

When a place has a wax museum of skin diseases, you know Shannon is going to have a good time.

We'll post new stories as we take more pictures, and we'll put the photos in the album.

Mr. and Mrs. Cliff Hoffman

Andrew's parents threw one heck of a wedding last weekend for Andrew's cousin Erin. Cliff and Erin met in the Police Academy and are now Stockton police officers. I was lucky to hold the title of "Maid" aka Matron of Honor. I did end up ironing blouses the morning of! The wedding was held at Andrew's parent's house in Oakhurst. Everyone worked so hard to pull together a fantastic wedding in less than 25 days. Sandy (Andrew's oldest sister) made the food with help from a culinary school student. They did a fantastic job and I wish I could eat more of their yummy rice. Enough chitter chatter, on with the show.

By the way, I am a brunette now.

THE GIRLS

GETTING READY TO HEAD DOWN THE ISLE

DOWN THE ISLE WE GO

GETTING MARRIED

EVERYONE INVOLVED

THE WEDDING PARTY

THERE WAS A MAYPOLE

THE CAKE CUTTING

SHARING THEIR CAKE

NOTHING LIKE A TRACTOR RIDE

MYRON DANCING WITH HIS DAUGHTER

THE HAPPY COUPLE (AFTER DANCING TO THE THEME OF COPS FROM TV)

COVERED IN RICE

THE GETAWAY

Like I said in my "Maid" speech, Peace-Love-and Happiness