Prague 6, Baby Box

We often walk past this Baby Box and have had many discussion about it.  Tonight I saw an article in the Prague 6 news, the translation was a little rough but two little babies have been put in there this month.  A little girl who was named Jitka yesterday, 12th December and a little boy on the 3rd December.

These two babies are the only two that have been put in there since the box was installed 4 years ago.  In total this year 12 babies have been put in Baby Boxes in the Czech Republic.  Allan was reading an article earlier this week about a baby flushed down a toilet ... this makes me thankful that the Baby Boxes exist, rather than little babies being left in rubbish bins or drains!

All You Need Is Love

Riverside Senior High students created this music video, very cool!

Harvest Time!

Harvest is the season for pumpkins, Leo had his third visit to the pumpkin farm!  Because we can only buy pumpkins once a year we have been having our fill of pumpkin soup over the past couple of weeks.

Leo was desperate to carve his little pumpkin that he got to bring home from the farm.  He loved scooping out the seeds and pulling the pieces of pumpkin out to make a face.  We roasted the pumpkin seeds which him and Corban gobbled up.  We even kept a few seeds that they happily planted in the garden.

Lake Garda

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Our final day in Italy we spent discovering Lake Garda, which is the largest Lake in Italy.  We began our morning in a cute little town called Peschiera del Garda, the kids liked seeing some army guys come into the jetting on two little inflatable boats.  We wondered around the town enjoying the sunshine and stopped for morning tea down by the water.

Next we drove to Sirmione, which is located on a peninsula at the most southern part of the lake.  On the edge of the peninsula is a fantastic castle with moats, drawbridges and inlets for ships to enter and exit the castle.  It was truly like something from a movie set.  Of course we ended the day with an Italian Gelato!

This holiday has certainly been a castle heavy holiday.  We have enjoyed the variety and grandness that each castle offered, they were all very different and in spectacular locations.   

 In total this year we have spent 3 weeks in Italy and have loved the variety of different cities and the beautiful countryside, mountains and lakes.  Italy is Corban’s favourite country; it is so diverse and interesting.  We are very grateful that we have been able to spend so much time exploring and still have places we would like to come back to!

San Marino and San Leo

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Once again we had planned another busy day.  Getting up before sunrise we were on the road heading down the mountain for another spectacular sunrise.  Today we were heading for the very small country, San Marino.

San Marino is just over 61 km² with an estimated population of just over 30,000 so it’s not the biggest place in the world! The 61 km² is basically a big hill with a massive castle and fort that has a view of the sea on a clear day.

We enjoyed finding our way through the maze of the castle, some parts we even needed to climb steep ladders to get into the highest turrets and points of the castle.  Below the castle were cute little winding cobble streets full of neat little shops.

Allan had seen another castle/fort on the map only 20km from San Marino called San Leo … so we decided that we should visit.  To our surprise the fort was actually really fantastic. 

A monk who was trying to escape persecution built San Leo.  Leo absolutely loved telling Corban all about his castle and showing her which room was his!  When we entered a small room he would tell her that was her bedroom, she got just a wee be cross with him.

We have been in plenty of castles, forts, old farms and building however this was the first time Corban started to put two and two together in the dungeon.  She realised that people were tortured and hurt by the equipment and left the room super fast because it made her “tummy feel sad”.

Hiking in the Mountains

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Because we had such a long and busy day in Venice the previous day we decided to have a more relaxed day. 

We spent the morning playing at our local play park down the road and then wondered through our sleepy little village to buy fresh rolls from the bakery. 

After lunch we drove to a hiking track that we had seen on the drive to our home exchange.  We were so high up in the mountains that we were covered in cloud and didn’t have a very good view.  We walked to some kind of transmitting building and played around the farmland. 

Venice

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We had an early start to our day beginning at 5.30am.  It was beautiful watching the sunrise as we drove down the mountain to the train station.  Because there is no driving in Venice and expensive parking on the outskirts we caught the train from Verona.

Arriving in Venice is the most marvellous sight; you literally walk out of the train station and are met by the Grand Canal busy with boats and bustling with people.  We began our morning by getting purposefully lost in the streets; it is made up of 177 small islands linked together by 409 bridges.  Leo had a wonderful time leading us through the labyrinth of Venice streets.   Venice streets are full of quaint little shops and hundreds of shops selling masks.

After wondering through the streets we joined a walking tour at 10.30am.  We learnt about the islands, water level, bridges, cathedrals, fish markets, masks and gondolas.  This was Leo’s first tour that he was awake and walking, he did very well.

Following our tour we found a comfy spot on a jetty near the Rialto Bridge.  It was amazing watching people working from their boats, shuffling goods around on carts or their heads and the general way of life in Venice. 

Refuelled and ready to move on we made our way to the Basilica of Saint Mark, (Venice's main cathedral), St Marks Square, the waterfront and the Bridge of Sighs. 

It was starting to get late so we took a gondola from one side of the Grand Canal to the other, brought some Italian gelato and made our way back to the train station.  We were lucky enough to see the sunset and Venice turn from day to night, such a wonderful place!

It was an exceptionally long day; Leo and Corban did such a great job of being on the go and had a great sleep in the next morning!

Verona

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The first stop on our holiday was the city of Verona, famous for the setting of the Romeo and Juliet story. 

We were pleasantly surprised by how cute Verona was with lovely markets, surrounding ruins and amphitheater/Coliseum.  We forgot the Spiderman costume, but Corban was determined to buy a mask and was happy wearing this around the City. 

One of our tourist destinations was the Juliet statue and balcony.  This was probably the most tacky and disgusting place we have visited.  The alleyway into the courtyard was full of messages, mostly people giving desperate pleas to phone them and find true love.  The walls surrounding the statue were covered in chewing gum, maybe it was some kind of good luck thing but it was so gross and smelt bad.

We were hoping to see a show in the ancient amphitheater built by the Romans but there was work happening on it so we missed out.

We had a lovely day in Verona, it started off pretty cold but warmed up into a beautiful Autumn day.   

Home Exchange: Verona

This half term break saw us visiting Italy, which Corban was very happy about because Italy is her favourite country.   Our main destinations were Verona, Venice and San Marino.

We stayed in another home exchange that was a little out of the way but had the most specular drive up a mountain.  There was hairpin after hairpin and incredibly steep, Bessie even had to drive in first during parts of the climb.  The house was located in a cute little village about 30km from the city of Verona.   

It was difficult to capture what this road was like, look at the drop off on the right!