Girls just wanna have fun

Saturday morning we woke bright and early.  It is the bane of every mother's existence: you want to sleep in but can't because your kids wake you and then when you are away from your children and can sleep in, your body won't let you.  All four of us were awake, dressed and down to breakfast by 8:30 in search of some serious coffee.  What we got was hotel coffee served by a scowling waitress.  In her attempt to make it taste just right, H may or may not have left a few full cups unfinished (or barely started) which probably didn't make our server want to be any kinder to us than she already was...and she barely tolerated us to start with.

With breakfast behind us, we headed off in search of the most famous of the Roman Baths in town.  Stopping for a quick selfie down the hill from our hotel we wandered for about 20 minutes (and I may or may not have told J that she couldn't take any pictures until I had my camera on me and could take them too)...

Finally, there it was...

Sadly, we were not prepared.  None of us had brought our swimming suits because we had all heard that the Roman Baths were for birthday suits only.  Not so at this place.  We either had to walk the 20 minutes back to the hotel for our swimsuits and then 20 minutes back down again, or we just had to skip this Roman Bath experience.  We decided to just head back to the hotel and use their spa.  In the end, it was the perfect solution because they served us poolside.

We spent an hour or so just lazing around and sipping our drinks.  At that point, we realized we were getting a bit hungry, so we called it a spa day and got ourselves ready for the day.  At the early hour of 2 pm, we were finally off to find pizza (JB had a craving) and see the sights.

Look how well they clean up!

As the others were dutifully trying to find a place for us to stave off the hunger, I was enthralled with the Colonnade.  Said to be representative of the Czech spa towns, the colonnade is iconic.  It is an impressive 119 x 12 meters (about 390 x 40 feet) and is sadly one of the few that are still standing in the country.  I just couldn't get over the light flowing in through the sides!

The girls finally dragged me away, and we found some lunch.  I won't tell you where we ate because it was entirely forgettable.  The Prosecco was flat, the french fries were frozen and the apple pie so cold it hurt your teeth (J's observation).  And the waitress was rude.  But we let none of that spoil our moods, and we went out in search of some shopping deals.

Our new hats!

Our new Monkey glasses.

Yes, a bit odd but a great souvenir.  The town is famous for its mineral springs and the curative powers of their waters.  First written about in the 11th century, the springs were owned and run by the Tepl Abbey.  Through the efforts of the abbey physician tirelessly working to prove the curative powers of the waters, they began being used for medicinal purposes in the 1700'x.  By the 20th century, over a million bottles of mineral water were exported from Marienbad yearly.  Shortly after that the town became one of the most important European spas with visitors from around the world.  Notable figures including Frédéric Chopin, Thomas Edison, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, the Russian Czar Nicholas II, and Emperor Franz Joseph I frequently visited up until the end of World War II.  At that time, according to the Potsdam Agreement, all German citizens had to leave the area, thereby emptying the town of the majority of its population.

But what does this have to do with the monkeys in the picture above?  These special cups are how the visitors partook of the mineral waters that flowed freely from over 40 separate springs.  The cups are equipped with a straw in the back that allows one to dip the cup and fill it without ever allowing the straw (where the lips touch) to contaminate the water.  Ingenious really.

We saw a few more sights...The Kolonada...

The Roman Catholic Church of the Virgen Mary Assumption...

Another fabulous spa...

A few amazing friends...

And suddenly we were back to our hotel...

The sun was setting, and we climbed the hill and got to our rooms just in time to catch the last glimpses of its spectacular beauty...

An hour later and we were dressed for dinner and jumping into our cab for the 2-minute drive (nope, walking was not an option for any of us in our heels).  We proceeded to enjoy one of the most joyful and laughter filled dinners I have ever been a part of.  Absolutely memorable in every way.  I was sad to see the day end, but the sadness was offset by the fact that I was just so happy to have been able to spend such a great weekend with these three beautiful souls for the weekend.

Soaking in Suds

When we moved to Prague, I compiled a bucket list of things I wanted to do before we moved on.  One of the things at the top of my list was to experience a Beer Spa.  Sadly, I just didn't get around to it before we moved and it seems to be a very Czech thing since I couldn't find anything in Germany that even compared.  Resigned to the fact that I was just going to have to live with this box left unchecked, I was pleasantly surprised when a few weeks ago when a few friends and I booked a girls weekend back in the Czech Republic.  We wanted somewhere that would be about halfway between our homes in Munich and Prague, and we came up with Mariánské Lázně, a spa town on the Czech?German border.  Knowing I was headed back to the Czech Republic, I immediately located the first beer spa and booked two tubs for my friend H and me.

Chodovar Brewery dates back to the 14th century though the first written documentation of it is from 1573.   The Brewery has continuously grown since that time and now stands as a wellness center, hotel, brewery and local event venue.  All I wanted from them was a tub full of beer.

Friday morning I took off for the border and so did my friend H.  We needed to get to our hotel and check in and then head about 10 km to the neighboring town of Chodová Planá.  Our appointment was scheduled for 4:00 and I didn't want to be late as they were booked solid and I didn't want to miss this chance again.

We saw this sign and knew we were in the right place...

We checked in at the hotel reception desk, and at exactly 4 pm they led us downstairs into the cellars and asked us to remove our shoes.

We were handed a large white sheet, led to a minuscule dressing room (with 2 other women), and were asked to remove everything else.  I guess I am just glad that they didn't make us disrobe in the hallway.  While waiting our turn to use the lockers,  H and I stopped to wonder at the drawings that lined the walls.  We are still wondering why they chose a stork and a dog for their baths...

Birthday suits secure, we wrapped ourselves in the sheets provided.  And then popped back out into the hallway.

We were led to side by side steel tubs filled with significant amounts of dark Chodovar beer, local mineral water, and some grains.  Warmed nicely to about 40 degrees (102 degrees Fahrenheit) it is like stepping into a hot tub that has a nice head of foam on top.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture before we got in because it was a bit chilly standing in the cellar with nothing on but I snapped one after - just imagine it with a lot of foam.

And then it was time to relax.  Helping you do that is the cold mug of beer they provide you with.  If you finish that you can always drink the dark beer that comes out of the tap at your feet, but H tried it and said it was hot so not really recommended.  And it is also not recommended to drink the beer you are sitting in - for obvious reasons.

After a 20 minute soak, they opened up our privacy curtains and wrap us back up in our sheets and lead us over to another part of the cellar.  Here they had us lay down on a bed, wrap each of us up snug as a bug in a warm towel and hand us another fresh beer and left us to relax for 1/2 hour.

Finally, the lights went on, and we were led back to the changing room where we were strictly told not to shower for at least 4 hours.  The skin needs to continue soaking in the beer to provide the full detoxifying and rejuvenating effects.  I thought that we would be sticky or smell like a brewery but our skin just felt soft and silky, and there was no lingering odor at all.

I added another check to my Bucket list, and I am so glad that H could join me.  I don't know if I will ever get the chance to do this again, but if I do, I will jump at it.  It really was a lot of fun.

We drove back to our hotel and had a bite of dinner and a walk around town as we waited for the other two J's to join us...But more on that in the next post...

Walk like an Egyptian

Stinkerbell's class is just starting a unit on Ancient Civilizations.  To aid in their understanding, the second-grade class took a trip to the Agyptisches Museum (Egyptian Museum) for a private tour and workshop.  I was lucky enough to be able to tag along as a chaperone and even learned a few things myself!

We left school just after 9 am.  Thankfully between the two teachers and the parent volunteers, we managed to get all 40 of the children from school, onto the bus, onto the U-Bahn, and to the museum steps.  First things first - we relaxed in the sunshine and had a quick snack.  Once we all had our energy back, we were ready to learn.  Split into two groups (along class lines), my group headed off onto the tour where we learned a lot of interesting facts about how the Egyptians created their own language and writing (hieroglyphics) and how the wrote from both left to right AND right to left so you had to pay close attention to which way the birds were facing to know where to start reading.  We talked about how they mummified their dead bodies (even those of cats) and even got to see some really mummies!  And we learned about how they prayed to Gods and Goddesses and that each one had a special power over certain groups.

 Different types of communication and different ways of carving (some carved, some in relief)

 Mummies and Sarcophagi

 After the tour, it was our turn to head to the workshop.  The kids would be making masks of their chosen God/Goddess.  Stinkerbell chose the Goddess of Children and went right to work...

Not quite finished because we ran out of time but she still looks pretty cute.

Even I got in on the act - 

 Mask borrowed from C.

The class

Done with the tour we headed outside to the lawn to enjoy our packed lunches in the warm sunshine before heading back to school in time for the assembly.  What a fun day of learning and I am so glad I got to be a part of it all!