Prague Rocks! (not like E.L.P. or Yes)

(Finally I've been able to load photos!!! I was photo-less for a week and it wasn't until I installed Mozilla's Firefox as my internet browser that I cheived success. Down with Microsoft! Big up Mozilla!!)

Another opportunity to catch up with old friends came along this past weekend.

Sue and Tony Cabral celebrated their joint 50th birthdays in Prague and celebrated in style. Their friends had opened up their castle to them and it was just perfect. (Doesn't that sound pretentiously posh? It's not really, if you know Sue and Tony, they are the most down-to-earth folks you can find and they have great friends who take care of them. Plus the fact, that when you live in Central or Eastern Europe it's probably easier to get a venue like that than anywhere else. It reminded me of similar parties at some of the castles in Warsaw when we lived there.)

The Lobkowicz Castle is on the grounds of the Prague Castle, with fabulous views of the Charles Bridge and the centre of Prague. It was confiscated from the Lobkowicz family by the communists, and was finally returned to the family in 2003. This was the first event planned after remodeling and renovating some of the rooms.

We arrived in Prague Friday evening, and even though it was late, we still took the opportunity to walk over to the Charles bridge with the girls before going to bed. We stayed at a lovely place, called the Santini Residence, at the bottom of the Castle, with a newly remodeled apartment/suite for the 5 of us. (Check out www.santiniresidence.com if you're interested in staying there.)

We spent the day on Saturday touring Prague with the children, and their most memorable moment will be getting lost with their mum trying to find Tynske Square. But we found it in the end, saw the famous clock strike 5, and the little pieces move around (See the photo above).

While Adriana was being baby-sat at Sue and Tony's, the rest of us went to their party. The dinner was one lovely creation after another, and the drinks were prolific in number. They had a band playing music, which I thought would interest the girls, but they were fascinated with the long table cloths on the tables which allowed them to create their own "clubhouse" underneath with the other children.

We spent Father's Day back at Sue and Tony's so that Orest could watch a replay of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup playoff. We had to be in news blackout mode up until that time, which wasn't too difficult as everyone here is focused on the World Cup football at the moment. The Oilers won 4-0 against Carolina, so Dad was a happy camper. Last game will be watched on Tuesday afternoon with other Canadians here.