The Tale of 2 Tintles: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Hello to everyone! We decided to cram one more trip into 2010 by spending Christmas in Vienna and Prague. On Dec 24 we headed to Vienna and thankfully arrived on time after a week of Heathrow being shut down due to snow (it snows here every year but they are consistently shocked by it!) In Vienna we attended Christmas mass at St Stephens Church. It is a beautiful, Gothic cathedral and the service was interspersed with classical music from a full symphony as well as amazing opera singers. It was quite impressive! After the service we did a walking tour of Vienna where we saw Stephansplatz (plaza in front of St Stephens); St Peter's church and the Holy Trinity Plague column, both erected by Leopold I for saving his city from the plague; Kaisergruft, the imperial crypt of 150 of the Hapsburg family; the Spanish riding school; the Monument against War and Fascism; and the Sacher hotel, home of the sacher torte which we stopped and tried - delicious! That evening Theo had a sitter so he could peacefully sleep in our hotel room while Shane and I went to a fancy dinner at Le Ciel :o)
The following day we visited the Hofburg palace which leads you through the silver collection of the Hapsburg dynasty, then through an exhibit on Empress Elizabeth aka 'Sisi' and through the imperial apartments. The Hapsburgs were smart and seriously decreased their spending and extravagance in the 18th and 19th centuries so there was no revolution like the one in France (although Marie Antoinette was from the Hapsburg family!) That afternoon Shane and I took shifts at the Opera seeing Der Rosencavelier, "The Knight of the Rose," by Richard Strauss. It was very good despite our terrible seats and only seeing half of the opera each! Afterwards we went to dinner which Theo slept through beautifully.
The following day we were picked up in our snazzy Mercedes minivan and driven to Prague. We drove through southern Czech Republic (Moravia) and saw the Czech wine country and some of the country side. Prague is a beautiful city, very colorful and lively. We headed to the Christmas market, which is rated one of the best in the world, and wandered through the stalls sipping our hot, mulled wine that is sold every 10 feet. We ended up that evening in the new section of town near Wenceslao square and had a delicious dinner of sausage and Prague ham at the market. The following day we had a guide who gave us a walking tour of Prague. We visited the old part of town and she pointed out the Astronomical clock (15th century clock that still works and has a small show every hour with moving pieces and the 12 apostles making an appearance), Tyn church, the museum of Czech cubism (Prague is the only city in the world where cubism is incorporated into the architecture), Bethlehem chapel (where Jan Hus, a protestant martyr 100 years before Martin Luther used to preach. His death sparked a bloody civil war ending in 300 years of Hapsburg/Catholic rule), Charles University (the first University north of the Alps, established in the 14th century), Charles bridge (named after Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor of the 14th century who is credited for making Prague an international, Renaissance city) and the Jewish ghetto (Prague lost 80,000 of it's 120,000 Jews during the holocaust. The old Jewish ghetto is now a classy shopping district but still has the oldest synagogue in Eastern Europe (1270) which continues to function for orthodox Jews, a Jewish cemetery and a memorial in one of the synagogues for all of the Jews who lost their lives in WWII). We then crossed the Charles bridge to the little quarter with it's water wheel, Lennon wall (someone placed a bouquet of flowers there after Lennon's death and it ballooned into a graffiti/paraphernalia wall of anti-communism thought) and the church of St Nicolas. It was a very informative tour and she took us through many of the side roads and narrow alleys that we would never otherwise have seen. It was also interesting to hear her view on communism in Prague. She told us that the buildings were falling apart during the communist years and many of the side roads and alleys were blocked off. She pointed out the Intercontinetal hotel that is in one of the buildings where communist officials used to stay. Apparently it is one of the nicest hotels in Prague but she refuses to set foot inside. She also told us that restoration commensed basically the day after the Velvet revolution with lots of public funds given by the Czech people. However the communist party still receives votes during the elections and up until the most recent election has been the 2nd party of the opposition.
Our last day in Prague we headed to the Castle quarter. The Prague castle is one of the largest in Europe thanks to no popular revolution and being spared the bombs of WWI and WWII. It contains St Vitus cathedral which holds the tomb of St Wenceslas, Prague's patron saint, the basilica and convent of St George and several other buildings that have served various purposes over the years. It is a massive complex that you could spend all day walking through!
That evening we headed to the airport and home to London. It was a wonderful vacation and we definitely recommend both of the cities if you are visiting Europe!
Love, Shane, Sarah and Theo