Prague Blog

July 12 - 

Caught the morning train to Prauge and then to Dobrichovice where we met up with Lenka, a good friend of our Aunt Margaret's.  We chatted, laughed and drank beer with Lenka and her husband Peter, all evening. 

We biked to the Prague Castle and ate ice cream. 

Lenka made a delicous dinner with stew and pasta.

 Later, we all went for a nice walk around Dobrichovice.

July 13 - 

Went into Prauge walked on the St. Charles bridge and looked around the shops in the area along the river.  Had some coffee and got a charachature. 

I love Prague - what a beautiful city.  

 We watched the World Cup in a Beer Hall in town.  GO DEUTSCHLAND!

July 14 -

Went into a puppet shop where Abi and I bought puppets - one a chef which I named Chef Paul and a girlfriend for him named Anna.

Later than evening we
Rented a peddle boat on the river in Prauge. 

 That night we went bowling with Lenka and Peter - walked there.  We ate Beef Carpaccio and drank lots of good Czech beer.

July 15 - 

Lenka took us on a couple beautiful hikes around Dobrichovice. 

That night Lenka made a another delicous dinner - my favorite part being meetballs served with a dip of greek yogurt and cucumbers.  Unexpectedly delicious!

July 16 - 

On our last evening with Lenka and Peter, Lenka's parents came over and we made grilled pork and vegetables and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  Then we got to see Lenka's father's organ workshop.  It was amazing!

Thank you so much Lenka and Peter!

July 17 - 

Out to Copenhagen for early flight to Faroe Islands.

Paige

Aunt Margaret's Crock Pot Super Chocolate Lava Almost-Not Cake

Friday night I went over to my Aunt Margaret's House to finally make her Crock Pot Chocolate Cake.  It was so delicious and easy to make.  Here is how:

Chocolate pudding - follow the instructions on the box.

Chocolate cake box (your preference) - follow the instructions on the box.

Spray your crock pot generously with non-spick cooking spray.

Add chocolate cake mix then chocolate pudding to your crock pot.

Some cakes and crock pots take 3 hours and some can take just 40 minutes.  

We checked the cake every 15 minutes by stinking it with a fork.  Keep in mind the middle of the cake is mostly pudding and will not cook solid.  This is why I called it an almost not cake because you will have to scoop it out with a spoon.

Our cake took about an hour and a half.  It cooked while we made our dinner, sweet potato baked fries and spicy burgers with ghost pepper and jalapenos.  I will be posting my recipe for this tomorrow.

This is an easy must-do recipe for any chocolate lover.

Please, please enjoy!!

Paige

Karlovy Vary

July 10 -

We arrived in Karlovy Vary and meet Hannah at the train station.  It was raining.  We checked into our hotel, which was just beautiful, and ordered room service then stayed in and slept the night away.

July 11 -

After a hearty breakfast of cold cuts, bread, and cereal, all three of us got massages and then rode our bikes into town for a look-see.  Here is a photo of Hannah riding on the back of Abi's bike all the way into town, about 12 miles.

We found a cute little hot chocolate place - delicious.  For lunch I had  burger that was 50% pork and 50% beef - again, delicious.  After than we shopped around the small town and bought some of the czech wafer treats.

Please enjoy the Karlovy Vary Vlog:

Paige

Vlog from last blog post!

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Karlovy Vary by way of Lyon, Zurich, Munich, and Nuremberg

July 6 -

Abi and I hopped on the early train towards Lyon from Barcelona and arrived around 6 pm.  It was rainy and when we finally found our hotel over the beautiful river - we were hungry, wet, and tired - We picked up a pizza to go and snuggled under the covers eating pizza and icecream while watching the cartoon, Rio, in French.

July 7 -

We left Lyon, with a promise to come back, and headed towards Zurich.  This was by far and wide the most beautiful train ride we have been on.  Switzerland is beautiful and delicious.  We arrived in Zurich, again raining, and rode our bikes around looking for the hotel.  Locked up our bikes, put our backpacks in the room and walked around and found dinner and beer.

Zwei bier bitte!

We went to an Italian restaurant and we ordered one of the best caprices salads we have had throughout the trip (Abi and I both love tomatoes, mozzarella and basil) and I had the best pasta I have ever tasted.

 After some research on google,  I found Pappardelle is the name of the pasta I had.  A wide thick fettuccine like noodle, so perfectly sized to twirl one noodle around your fork with a perfect sized clean bite, with Alfredo sauce. The best I have ever had.

For dessert of course we ordered Swiss chocolate fondant my new absolute favorite dessert.  

I cannot wait to recreate it when I get home.  Maybe my Aunt Margaret and I can make it together, she is the only person I know who feels the same way about chocolate as I do...  deeply, deeply in love.  She makes a chocolate lava cake in the crockpot that I have yet to have the honor of tasting but dream of sometimes.. right before I left for Europe we made a greek quinoa salad for dinner and she made pineapple upside-down cake in the crockpot.  Slow cooking a cake in the crockpot makes it so moist I could die.  When I get back home I will make the chocolate lava cake with her in tribute to this chocolate fondant - and tell you all about it.

July 8 -

Next to Munchin - Again, when we arrived it was raining, raining hard - we finally arrived at the hotel dried off and went downstairs for some food and good german beer and to watch the world cup semi final game between Germany and brazil.  So exciting!! 7 - 1 the Germans kicked ass!!!

The next day we met up with my friend Cara, whom I met last summer in Thailand at an elephant conservation center.  

She lives in Munich and speaks perfect English with almost no accent - It is amazing!  We went to lunch, had traditional Baverian food - I had a schnitzel.

Abi had this pork and potato dumpling:

For dessert we had:

She recommended we try a beer and lemonade mix, called Radler or Shandy.  

Googleing it, this is a photo that came up - some of you back home might enjoy this...

I found the photo on the page  HERE.

Where I also read it's origins date back to early 1900's Bavaria...

Cara showed us all around old Munich, markets, famous chocolate shops, etc.

Saw this in a few of the meat shops.

July 9 -

Next stop, Nuremberg, my grandma Margo grew up there.  We unfortunately did not have much time to look around so I will most defiantly be returning to Nuremberg to see more of her history and this historic city.

July 10 - 

Arrived in Karlovy Vary to meet up again with Hannah.

Again, please vote for me in the Big Blog Exchange - If you didn't see the other hundred links to the Spicy Wanderer profile on my blog - here is another one CLICK HERE!!

(Video coming tomorrow)

Paige

Please vote for me in the Big Blog Exchange!!

Tarragona Spain and Human Towers

July 2 -

Abi and I caught a train from Quiberon, France to Paris and then an overnight train to Barcelona.  One thing I learned in Paris:  It is much cheaper to ask a cab driver " will you take me to here for this much?"  Rather than going by the meter.  We were only in Paris for about 4 hours but in the two rides we took, same distance,  we paid less than half for the second ride than the first.  We both had pasta carbonara for dinner, a spaghetti with a creamy white sauce and an egg on top.  I am still loving the French use of eggs.

July 3 - 

When we arrived in Barcelona, we met up with our cousin Hannah and her

Spanish friend Mireia. Hannah lives in Park City, Utah and plays lacrosse.  While playing lacrosse in Park City she met Mireia, who was introduced to us as Middy, what she went by when living and going to high school in Utah.  It seems like a popular thing to do in her town of Tarragona, Spain to spend a year of high school in an American town.  

Once introduced we caught another train from Barcelona to Tarragona where Middy's dad picked us up.  Their family was so welcoming to us... and not to mention their cooking!  That night for dinner her father made salad, salmon, and "Catalon Toast" (this is the name that comes up for it on google.) This makes sense because the region of Spain Tarragona is in is called Catalonia.  Here they speak Catalon - not Spanish.  I love this toast!  We had it with almost every meal.  You simply take a piece of toast and slice a tomato in half and rub the tomato on the toast leaving tomato juice on the toast and add some olive oil.  I LOVE tomatoes! Shout out to my neighbor Fred who grows delicious tomatoes and strawberries.

Later, we sat outside, took some funny pictures and played with the Chinese yoyo.

Here are some cutes picture of Middy's dogs and cat, just because:

July 4 - 

We slept and slept and slept then woke up, had cereal and slept some more, woke up and watched a movie then had a late lunch with Middy and some of her friends.  The town is small, everybody knows everybody. While we were eating there must have been at least 20 of Middy's friends who ran into us, most sat and talked. We then went to a basketball game and saw again, many of the same friends we had met earlier.  When we got back to Middy's house her dad was cooking up some Seafood Paella - with crawfish,  mussels, clams, and shrimp.  Yum!  I have never tried mussels or clams before - I am so glad I did!  I will defiantly be making this again when I am home.

This night we went out to watch Middy's human towers practice at about 10:30 pm.  I will include some pictures I took of this practice, but please go to google images and look at some professional photos of this cultural sport.  This sport has been around for centuries.  It originated in her town with only two teams.  She is on one of two original teams.  Surrounding areas have now created some others.  She explained to us it is a very emotional sport.  The whole town is packed so closely together creating a beautiful tower - she said during competitions most everybody starts to cry.  Do yourself a favor and watch some youtube videos and look up some images.  It really is incredible.

July 5 - 

Today we slept late, again. When in Spain, do as the spanish do. Sleep late, party late.  Then went to the pool and enjoyed the end of the Argentina and the Netherlands world cup game.  This was our last day in Spain and the next morning Abi and I were starting our journey to Karlovy Vary.

Unfortunately, all of my videos and most of my pictures from our few days in Spain were erased, most of these photos are Hannah's or Abi's.  So no vlog to go along with this post.  Also, I am trying hard to catch up with my blogging to date.

Please vote for me and my blog here!

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You can vote twice a day.

Thank you!!

Paige