The kids had the last week of October off so we headed to Prague and then on to a little town in Austria called Kitzbühel. It's still amazing to me that we can do that. It's seriously not lost on me how cool these experiences are and how easily they are available to us...
So in less than 5 hours we were in Prague, Czech Republic. We stayed at an air bnb in Prague which ended up working out pretty well, minus the part where we had to park in a garage in the city that we had reserved a spot in and then hoof it to the owners office with all of our bags through the city to pick up the keys and then make the trek back to the apartment. I totally missed just pulling up to a hotel and then having the car parked by valet while our luggage was brought to our room at that moment!! We should wear a go pro during these times because we are seriously such a walking circus! It's so funny! Chris is always leading the way, pushing the stroller with three other little ducks following behind and I'm at the end making sure any stragglers keep moving forward! Once we made it to the apartment we dropped off our bags and then headed out to explore the city and grab dinner! We were so excited!!!
It didn't take long for us to stumble upon the amazing toy store! They had a carousel in the middle of the store and a slide from the second floor back down to the first floor! It was so cool. Could;t have been a better spot to kick off our trip!
After we walked around a bit more we found a local restaurant to eat and had a traditional Czech meal.
The next morning we had a big surprise planned for the kids. We had booked a little tour around Prague by Prague Old Car. The kids were pumped!! They're not usually super excited for the whole "sightseeing" parts of our trips so this was really a treat for them!! And to be honest for us as well because we ordered some prosecco to enjoy during the drive : )
After our fun ride we took the train to the zoo. It was fairly overcast and chilly but there were still a lot of animals out putting on a show! We were there for about 4 hours and only a small portion...this zoo is HUGE!!!
It was also Halloween that day and there were some activities planned at the Botanical gardens so after we left the zoo we took a short bus ride their and made the hike (I had no idea how many huge hills their were in Prague!)up to the Halloween party site. Kids were running around dressed in costume, roasting sausages on a fire and carving pumpkins..it was super cute! They had some other fun activities set up and after walking around for a bit and snagging some of the most amazing cotton candy we decided to head back to the center of the city and hit up a cool candy shop we had seen the day before. If you can't trick or treat on Halloween why not just buy some candy, right?!? : )
The next morning we woke up and after an amazing breakfast at a hotel across the street from our apartment we headed to Prague Castle. We had fun exploring the grounds and checking out the different buildings, but as I mentioned before "sightseeing" is not on our kids favorite list. Makes these trips a *bit* more challenging. Here we are, just trying to show our kids some amazing sights of the world, and they're pretty much just miserable from all of the walking. I can get disappointed that the kids aren't having as much fun as I had hoped they would and that we're not seeing/doing as many things as I would like but it's all about balance, right?!?
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| We had to climb LOTS of steps up to Prague castle...those little legs worked hard!! |
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Hot chocolate and a little something to eat...low blood sugar is no help in keeping spirits up!!  |
After we left Prague Castle we walked to the church where the Infant Jesus of Prague is....it's in this small church and because they're weren't many people around we were able to pray and take some pictures as well as sit in a pew for a little bit...which was a huge relief to Chris who had been carrying a sleeping Emily for over 45 minutes!!
We headed back to our air bnb to rest and freshen up a bit before our dinner cruise that night. We were slightly nervous heading into this because it was over 3 hours long and didn't start until after 7:00pm...we weren't sure if the kids would be able to hang after such a full day but it ended up being one of the most fun nights on our trip! The tables were super close to one another making it difficult to move when you were sitting down and the food was not that great, but we had the BEST time! Chris and Michael danced with the girls and the 6 of us just headed to the upper deck and took in all the beautiful lights of the city. We were the only ones up there 98% of the time and we just had a blast!
Our plan the following morning was to drive to 3.5 hours to Salzburg for the day on our way to Kitzbühel but we woke up that morning and decided to just scrap our trip to Salzburg, have a slower morning and just drive straight to Kitzbühel. That's where the balance part comes in, right? It would have been amazing, but I think it would have just pushed our little ones a bit too far...and let's be honest, if they're not having we're not having fun!! No matter how beautiful a place we are in, cranky grumpy kids can ruin it for me every time. Just being honest.
So we drove a little over 5 hours from Prague to Kitzbühel. We got there late afternoon and just had fun settling in and exploring the hotel. We had a really fun coincidence and some friends of ours from Michigan were there at the same time so we were able to enjoy dinner with them at the hotel and hang out for a bit. They have 3 of the sweetest, most precious little boys and they were more than happy to show our kids around the hotel a little more since they had stayed there last year as well and know the place pretty well!!
The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel then headed into town to walk around and explore a bit. Kitzbühel is adorable!! We were there at a pretty "off" time in the year..the leaves were mostly gone and there really isn't much snow yet, so we weren't able to ski, but we fell in love with the town. I told Chris this whole trip wasn't really doing much on the "cross it off my list" travel ideas, I want to go back to both places! ha!
We wandered into an adorable little toy store our friends told us about and then ended up finding a little horse drawn carriage just waiting for someone to jump in so we took a little ride.
After lunch and naps for the two little girls we F I N A L L Y got to use the pool...the kids were dying to swim!! I can't believe they have to wait almost a whole 24 hours after we got there to go for a swim!! We're so mean! ha!
Dinner at the hotel started at 7:00pm so after swimming for a few hours I got the kids showered and then Chris took them to the hotel bar to kill a little time while I got myself ready. He sent me these pics while I was getting ready...everyone at the hotel could not have been nicer!!
We had only planned on staying two nights in Kitzbühel before heading back home but when I got down to the bar to join everyone the kids begged to stay another day! So Chris walked to the front desk to see if we could stay an extra day and fortunately they could accommodate us!
The weather was beautiful on Saturday so we took the cable car to the top of the mountain and the kids played for a few hours before heading back to the hotel and playing on their playground for a bit. After lunch and naps we (you guessed it!) hit the pool again before heading into town for dinner that night.
It was such a fun and relaxing time in Kitzbühel and I really hope we can go back and ski one day soon!!
The entire week was just so much fun...even with the inevitable tantrums and small travel snafus (like us missing our timed entry at Prague Castle after I already paid for our tickets online as a "skip the line" sort of thing..ugh.) The family time is seriously my favorite...having Chris around and spending the entire time with all of us is just the best. Laughing with him and enjoying our kids together...there's nothing better.
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