Czech Republic

This trip to Czech was mainly a rafting trip, but, of course, we must stop at the oldest Monastery brewery, Kloster Weltenburg.  And then why not ferry across to it?  It was another hot and sunny day.  I have never seen Germany this dry before.  

                                    

We had lunch at the restaurant inside the walls.  It was really delicious food, typically German but not quite the same old stuff, if you know what I mean.  I had venison meatballs and spaetzle.  Bobby loved my venison meatballs and shared them with me.  It was a good thing because I was stuffed.

Restaurant inside the walls of the Cloister (Kloster in German))

The chapel

Back to the van already?

We happened upon this walking to the Monastic Brewery and stopped tpo get a picture on the way back.  The words didn't come out in the photograph of this stone monument, but it was a monument to American soldiers that died there (Oops, can't remember when!) and it was written in English.

This trip to the Czech took some convincing to get me to come along with the little guys.  I truly wanted to stay home and this is why.  It was to be a rafting trip.  Rafting with a (almost) 5, 3, and 1 year old wouldn't have been a safe thing to do.  I was going to have to walk around with at least the one year old and possibly more while they had all the fun.  Then Brian had offered to take turns staying back since it was planned to be two full days of rafting.  So I decide to come along after all.

When we arrived it was decided to leave Bob and Judah with me the first day and see how it went with the other kids before deciding if Judah would be able to handle it.  Something happened where the shorter day of rafting ended up being the first day and so at the end of that day, the Brians were not convinced that I'd be able to make it the whole day paddling.  They did think Judah would be fine to come seeing as the raft was very sturdy and there seemed little chance of it tipping over.  (All had life jackets, of course.)  Anyway, I was getting the strong feeling that they wanted me to stay back and were maybe bribing me with the chance of having only Bobby all day long in the town.  So I stayed back.

The first cast off

The first day for me, Judah, and Bobby was not so awesome.  We played at the park several times throughout the day.  Judah kinda never wanted to leave it.

The boys and I picked a little restaurant that served pizzas and we shared a pizza.  Oh, yes!  Judah can handle baked in cheese by then.  (This trip was in August and I am just now writing this post as October quickly approaches.  So behind!  Anyway, he has made even more progress than that since then.)  We met a retired American couple that was sitting next to us and chatted with them a bit.

We attempted shopping, but with wearing Bobby and pushing Judah, it was difficult to get in and out of the little shops so when I noticed them both getting sleepy I quickly tried to make it back to the apartment before anyone fell asleep so I could at least have some quiet time while they napped.  But, alas, Bobby could not stay awake and he woke up the minute we walked in the door, having maybe a 12 minute nap with me nudging him the entire time telling him not to sleep yet.  And that was enough for him.  No nap for that crazy baby, but Judah got a good nap.  When he woke up we headed out for Gelato (dairy free still) and more park time.

Judah eating his strawberry sorbet.

Bobby thought the sand was oh so fun.

And the rocks were even better!

Bobby learned to say Judah that day.  Maybe it was being with just the one brother or maybe it was just more time for me to work on it with him, but whatever the impetus, it has become one of his favorite words to say.

The town of Krumlov is surrounded by this river.  The total town is walkable in a very short time.  It has a castle at the top of a steep hill that seems like a mountain, but it probably shy in the elevation department.

That second day in which I was bribed into staying back with the cutest baby ever turned out to be much much better.  I had so much more freedom without the stroller.  I was able to go in and out of stores at my leisure and had a significantly more productive day in that way.  Plus, it was now possible for me to go up to the castle.  I had been afraid to try that because I thought surely there would be stairs, but it turns out there were not any stairs though it was extremely steep.  Bobby and I had such a lovely morning.  He fell asleep sometime during my shopping and the shopping road led right up and around into the castle.  At the top of the castle is a cafe.  Bobby woke up just in time to share an ice cream pop with me.  I asked for an iced coffee and how fun is it that it came with an ice cream pop turned upside down in the drink.  Bobby thought it and the whipped cream were a delightful treat to wake up to.

The precious cafe at the top of the castle

The view from the bench where we enjoyed the iced coffee and bonus ice pop

The fountain in the gardens of the castle

This statue in a random turret on someone's house made me happy.  I love it that Mary is welcome in all corners of Europe.  

This day I had no pictures of people I realized, so I attempted a selfie of us at the top of the castle.

We stopped on the way back at a creperie and shared a wonderfully filling savory crepe with spinach, bacon, and cheese.  Bobby loved it as much as me.  Then we stopped at a couple more shops and I got him back to the apartment before he fell asleep for his afternoon nap this time.  I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.  When he woke up we headed to the park again.  I MAY have gotten carried away with taking pictures of my cutie.

This is in complete reverse order to talk about the apartment at the end of this post, but I took the picture of the room in complete reverse order too when I took pictures after our tornado clan of kids came through and made a mess of it.  However, it was such a perfect place for us that I had to share this room.  It was wall to wall bunk beds, JUST LIKE CAMP!  I totally felt like my kids were all at summer camp when I put all five of the oldest in their beds.  I especially liked that Hannah let Drew sleep in the twin right next to hers when she totally could have had her own bed away from everyone.  And, dare I say, she even enjoyed it.  She told me how adorable he is when he is sleeping.  "Aren't they all?" was my reply.  Certainly more so that when they are awake.

It had another room and then a bed in the kitchen too.  Plenty of space and just right for us.

Three more things have to be mentioned about this trip and then I promise I'll end this long-winded post.  One is that Judah got himself locked out of our apartment when he went looking for daddy (who was standing in the kitchen the whole time) to brush his teeth and wandered outside.  He didn't even cry.  Brian went looking for him and couldn't find him.  Kind of scary that we didn't notice for several minutes that he was gone and that he would even do that.  While frantically looking for him we heard this tiny voice say, "Daddy, I'm locked out."

The next thing is that it turned out to be better that I didn't go that second day because they didn't get back until 7pm.  The bus took them further than they had wanted and it was something like 12 miles of river that they covered that day.

And the last thing is bitter-sweet.  Bobby weaned on the second day there.  He was down to just one nursing a day, first thing in the morning.  When he woke up super happy and just seemed to want to play I just let that be that.  It was time, but it is always a little sad for me.