I confess.  I forgot completely forgot about this series of posts.  Let’s try to get through these last countries quickly so that I can give you a more relevent post!

Our first stop in germany was Herlach; it was in Herlach that we slept in a castle.  It was drafty, but majestic.  One day during some of our down time, I went out and took a little walk and then sat down to read next to a barn.  A little old lady beckoned me from across the street and proceeded to walk to where I was perched.  She spoke to me in German for a minute and the only word I understood was kälte (cold).  Then she motioned for me to come to her house with her.  I’m always up for an adventure, so I went along with this cute grandma to her house, where she sat me on her front porch, complete with rocking chair, cushions and direct sunlight.  Her daughter came out and talked to me for a while, and by the time I left I was so hot from the sun.  How thoughtful.

The castle where we slept!

One evening we went to Augsburg, I saw a sign as we were approaching the city that it is a sister city to Dayton, Ohio!  While we were there we went to an IHOP meeting.

Our next location was Herrnhut, Germany.  Technically, we slept in a manor house, but it still looked and felt like a castle to me.

This is Janko in front of the manor house, photo credit to Nicholas Baker.

Next, we moved on to Prague.  We were welcomed with a dinner prepared by some Ohioans who have been living there for quite some time (and they had a daughter named Elizabeth)!  We were in Prague for two days, and the schedule was packed so full of things to do and see, but we persevered through our drowsiness because it was the last stop on the trip.

B&L in downtown Prague.

This was our third trip to Prague together.  If you don’t know our story very well, we became a couple while I was studying in France and Burke was attending university in California, and the first time we got to reconnect as a couple was in Prague!  So despite a few trips to the city, one thing I’d always wanted to see and never had was the “eiffel tower!”  I always joked about calling it that, but apparently, that’s what they call it, too!

At the base of the Eiffel Tower. There are rose gardens nearby, so the boys picked roses for the girls.

Credit to Alison.

I was pretty unmotivated to take photos on this trip because I’d been to all of these countries before and I was taking video (I’ve yet to decide if there will ever be a video).  So a lot of these photos were taken by friends and imported.  The next post will have many original photos so come back to see beautiful photos of the majestic country of Slovakia.