Unwinding in Stockholm

After a long week of finals and packing it was so nice to kick back and relax for six days in Stockholm. We stayed with our friends, Nancy and Glenn Lindqvist, and their beautiful daughter, Emily. It was wonderful to not have anything to think about other than spending some quality time with each other and our friends and figuring out what lovely place in Stockholm we were going to explore next. Every day we took the train or bus into the city to see something new. We visited the historic, cobble-stoned alleys of Gamla Stan (the Old Town), the spectacular Drottningholm Palace, the fascinating Vasa Museum that showcased the huge wooden ship that lay on the bottom of Stockholm's harbor for hundreds of years and the Skansen open-air museum. After being surrounded by water each day, we decided to spend our last day taking the "Under the Bridges" cruise around Stockholm. It was a wonderful way to close our adventures in this gorgeous city.

We really enjoyed spending time with Nancy and Glenn, who we got to know very well during our time in Boston. Nancy also was a high school classmate of Matt's in Minnesota. They are so lucky to be living in such a great spot. We were so lucky that they shared their home with us (even with two wild and crazy kids). I hope you enjoy some of our pictures from Stockholm - it is hard to do the scenery justice. Next stop: Italy!

Farewell Prague (Already?)!

Hello Prague. Goodbye Prague. In many ways, those four words and their brevity feel like the six weeks we spent in the Czech Republic. During our time there, we only posted one entry to our blog and that was just one small event.

Prague is one of the most beautiful cities that we’ve seen (and that’s getting to be a lot of cities). There are many things to do in Prague, but what makes it so magical is its ever present, yet unassuming beauty. In fact, we became so accustomed to being surrounded by spectacular buildings that we often had to remind ourselves to simply stop and look up at the architecture around us. The Old Town Square is a vast space of cobblestone surrounded by the fanciful steeples of Tyn Church, painted art nouveau buildings, The Old Town Hall, the Church of St. Nicholas and several pricey cafes. A statue of Jan Huss floats in the square, surrounded by vibrant tulips. But the reason that we visited the square everyday was none of these things. It was the horse-drawn carriages, or more specifically, the “Or-sies!” as Luke so affectionately yelled with each sight of them. The Charles Bridge and Prague Castle require special mention, especially when seen at night, illuminated in all their splendor. We never tired of strolling along the river at night with the imposing Prague Castle lit up in the distance.

When we arrived in Prague on March 18, it felt like winter. In fact, it was snowing sideways! But in the six short weeks we were there, we experienced that wonderful transition from winter to spring. We saw trees and flowers bud and then bloom. The parks at Letna and Petrin Hill provided huge, lush green spaces and amazing views of the Vltava River and city below.

We were lucky enough to have both sets of parents/grandparents and (Uncle) Nate visit us in Prague. It was great sharing our Czech Republic home with them. One great thing about grandparents is FREE BABYSITTING – and although we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity enough (they might disagree), we enjoyed hitting the town a little on our own.

Matt’s Thunderbird experience in Prague was excellent. He was very busy with group projects, but he had plenty of downtime to enjoy life away from school. In fact, we all went down to a beautiful town called Cesky Krumlov with Matt’s classmates. They didn’t know what to think of having the whole Austin crew plus the Casabians on the bus heading back to Prague. It is hard to believe that one year of school is done – only two more trimesters to go!

We have included a sampling of our vast collection of pictures from our time in the Czech Republic. We hope you enjoy. Next stop: Stockholm!