Sechseläuten

This is pretty late, but I had to share about this funny Swiss holiday.

Sechseläuten is a spring holiday in the city of Zurich just like the American Groundhog Day.  But if you ask me, I'd say the idea of burning a snowman to welcome the spring/summer is quite hilarious and creative.  It's usually on the 3rd Monday of April.  It's also known as the Burning of the Böögg (or snowman).  A giant snowman is constructed with explosives placed in the head.  It's placed right in downtown Zurich.  There are parades with people dressed up in historic and folkloristic costumes, all 26 guilds in costumes each with a band and horse drawn floats, and a ceremonial galloping of horses around the huge bonfire.  In the parades, they also hand out the most beautiful fresh flowers to people in the crowds.  Once the ceremony is over and the fire is still going, people will cook their own sausages on the fire.

I really wanted to go, but fighting the crowds and traffic with two little ones around dinner time didn't sound like a fun time.  Maybe next year :-)

The tradition has it that the time between the lighting and the head explosion indicates what summer will be like-a quick explosion means a nice sunny summer, the longer it takes, the worse the summer will be.

You can actually watch the entire thing here (part one with the parade):



And part two, with the snowman burning:



It took almost exactly 20 minutes to blow up, so I guess we're in for a bad summer.

Prague: Part 2

The river runs right through town.  That's the Charles Bridge above.

This day was sunnier.  Our plan was to go to the castle and tour as much as we could.  But first, we stopped at the Starbucks right in front of the Prague Castle.  Best Starbucks ever....or maybe just best location ever.  It had a perfect view of the entire city with an outdoor terrace and the cafe was down a tiny spiral staircase with another pretty outdoor terrace, cute tables by big windows with more views.  It also had hot chocolate good enough to finish in .3 seconds by our sweet (chocolate lover) girl.

Prague: Part 1

I haven't been doing much blogging lately because I've become addicted to crocheting.  Lately, I've been spending my free time looking/trying out patterns, learning new stitches, and watching youtube videos on crocheting.

We did go on a fun trip this past month over the long Easter weekend that I've been meaning to share with you.



The car ride to Prague wasn't so fun, but we made it!  It took us much longer than it should have, not just stopping with the kids, but also so much traffic.  Along the way, Carter screamed about 3 hours of the way (not exaggerating), Maddie didn't nap at all, she pooped in her underwear and didn't say anything.....and none of us realized it because we thought Carter was tooting.  I apologize if that was too much information, but this is life with two goofy young kiddos while traveling.

The moment we unstrapped him from his carseat, he was all smiles.

We spent Easter weekend in Prague, so we had about 4 days.  With the kids, 4 days really turned out to be 4 half days exploring the city, because it works better for us to let the kids take a normal nap in a bed, walk/crawl around the apartment and play with some toys (instead of being strapped in a stroller or carrier all day while we explore), and just to have some down time.  I think we spent almost every morning out, from about 9am-1pm, then we would come back, let them nap/play for the afternoon, then go out to dinner.

We spent the entire morning just walking around.  We walked and walked and walked.  And it was so nice to have that double stroller so we didn't have to carry anyone or anything :-)  The weather was cold with clouds on and off.

The rooftops!  The buildings!  

We first walked around Petrin hill which is basically a big park on a hill right on the edge of the center of Prague.

If only we came a few weeks later when all of these lovely trees were in full bloom.