Cyprus: Birthday Celebration

Our second day in Paphos was my birthday, so I chose activities that I would especially enjoy. We started off our day with a visit to the Local Ethnographic Mueum of Geroskipou. I enjoy learning about crafts and handiwork unique to new places. At this museum, we learned about the importance of pottery and silk. The museum was quite small, but free to visit. It is located in an old home, so it was neat to see the various rooms and imagine what they would have been used for in the past. 

Down the street from the museum was the main square. Our taxi driver recommended visiting it to see the church. Due to Greek influence, they have Orthodox churches which have very elaborate images of saints inside. We visited the inside of this church, but opted not to take any photos to respect the woman inside who was praying. 

Outside in the square was the first time I have seen poinsettias planted in the ground. Previously, I have only seen them in pots around Christmas time. 

Found some street art!

After returning to the hotel, we stopped by the café to grab coffee and snacks. I indulged with some chocolate mousse and Charles tried a Cypriot coffee. From my research, it is similar to Turkish coffee.

Cyprus is well-known for having cats all over the place! They were introduced to the island for pest control. They are well-taken care of and very friendly. Every day we were able to find at least one to say hello to. Of course seeing black cats made me extra happy!

After our spa treatment (heavenly), we returned to the room to find a sweet surprise from the hotel staff. The other surprise was that the dinner theme was Italian! 

Andorra

On our most recent trip we were able to cross off two new countries--Spain and Andorra. We flew into Barcelona, rented a car and headed up to Andorra for one night. It was not the most convenient nor affordable of side trips, but it was a must to visit the small country that is nestled between Spain and France. 

Andorra is known for shopping (duty free, of course) and nature. We spent our first evening walking down the main shopping street. If you love perfume, this is the place to come. I think every other store was a perfume shop (a bit hyperbolic, but there were soooo many). 

Our hotel room had the best view! There was a rushing stream right outside. It was especially perfect for white noise at night. 

I keep forgetting to look it up, but this statue is based on Salvador Dali's work and it was in the main shopping area of Andorra la Vella. 

One benefit of our hotel was their spa! Andorra has a lot of spas (much like Germany) and we wanted to spend a least a bit of time there. Our reservation included time in the hot tub which we did not realize until check-in. We were fully prepared to pay extra for it, so that was a very pleasant surprise! 

The other nice thing about our hotel was the in-house restaurant. We chose a half-board reservation which means our time included dinner. We enjoyed our first taste of Cava at dinner. Cava is a sparkling wine, similar to Champagne, that is unique to this region. It is very popular in Barcelona, as well.

Breakfast was included and it was so darn good! They had an amazing selection including a full piece of dripping honeycomb. We were definitely fueled up for a little hike and journey back to Barcelona. 

As I said earlier, Andorra is known for nature. There are tons of hiking trails, skiing opportunities (in the season) and outdoor activities of all kinds. Throughout the country are wooden creatures called Tamarros. They are protectors of nature and the forests. There was one close to our hotel that we set out to find. It was a dreary morning, but we started on our trek, nonetheless. However, after thunder, lightening and hail started coming down and no Tamarro Andy in site, we turned around. We still do not know exactly how much farther we had to go to find him, but maybe we will return one day. 

Prague

Our first overnight stay outside of Germany since moving here was in Prague. This city has been high on my travel wish list for a while and I left feeling like we hardly saw any of it. Our three day weekend just wasn't long enough. There were so many museums and buildings to see but we just did not have time to see it all. 

We stayed at Hotel Klarov on the other side of the river from Old Town. The hotel was lovely and probably a little fancier than we normally book. Each room at that hotel is named after a famous musician and we stayed in the Joan Baez room. I was hoping for Queen, but what can you do! Breakfast was included, but it was the pretty standard free hotel breakfast so nothing exciting. A big draw for the hotel was free parking was included with our stay. 

Even though it was across the river, it was an easy walk to the Old Town. 

For our first night, we booked an hour at the Original Beer Spa. I came across this concept during my research phase and thought it sounded interesting enough to try. It was super relaxing!

When you arrive for your appointment, you can start drinking beer while you wait for your room to be ready. They had two options--a light and a dark beer. 

Once in the room, the lady put a bucket of the beer, hops and barley into the whirlpool tub. The Czechs believe beer baths are very beneficial for your skin. Mine was pretty soft afterward. It felt a little weird having the barley and hops floating around us in the whirlpool, but it was relaxing. Right next to the tub is a tap with both the light and dark beer so you can drink as much as you would like. We were also given slices of their beer bread to enjoy while soaking. Two slices had some kind of (what we think was) potato spread. We are not completely sure though. 

After soaking for about 30 minutes, the whirlpool jets turn off and you are supposed to lay on the straw bed. The smell of the fresh straw was amazing. Sheets were provided so we did not lay directly on the straw. Super relaxing! 

Overall, it was a neat experience and I am glad that we tried it out!

On our second day, we walked over to Prague Castle and walked around the grounds and inside some of the buildings. I really enjoyed the church. It had a variety of styles for the stain glass windows and I appreciated that one was the Art Nouveau style which is seen throughout Prague. 

On our way to Café Savoy for coffee and a snack, we stopped at the John Lennon Wall. It is one of those while you're in Prague you might as well see it things. It was cool to see the variety of languages, colors and styles on the wall. 

In the late afternoon we took a food tour with Taste of Prague. We took ZERO pictures on the tour (epic fail on my part), but it was really enjoyable. Our tour guide, Martin, was friendly and full of information. We were the only two on the tour and he was great to converse with. We ate delicious food. Our first stop was to a local beer hall where we tried Czech beer from Pilsner, fried cheese, sausages, bread and pickled Carp (yes, even I tried the fish... It wasn't my favorite, but I can at least say I gave it a shot). 

On our second stop we visited a local butcher that specializes in using the whole animal and local ingredients. The restaurant was in an old bank and had a really cool style. We tried some pickled veggies, pork and beef--both cooked and tartar (tartar was a first for me). There we had a dark Czech beer which was my favorite beverage of the tour. 

Our third stop was a small local restaurant with amazing food! We had tapioca chips, beef with an apricot sauce, chicken with an Indian butter sauce and a Czech rose wine. I am not normally a fan of rose wines, but this one was delicious. 

Our final stop was a huge restaurant doing everything--coffee roaster, bakery, restaurant, pastry chef, etc. It was in an old factory and the food was delicious. We tried a gin and tonic (the restaurant makes their own tonic, of course) with seasonal fruits. We're not big gin fans, so it wasn't our favorite but still cool to try. The savory dish was called burnt potato soup which Martin explained is nostalgic for Czechs as it reminds them of summer camp as a kid. The soup had smoked carp in it, but if he had not told me that I would not have known. It was delicious and creamy. We also tried their coffee and a couple desserts which were probably my favorite part because I love sweets. 

The really great thing about this tour is that they provide you a guide book for Prague with tons of recommendations on restaurants, cafes, bars, shopping and more. Plus Martin told us several times throughout the tour that whenever we travel to other European cities to reach out to them and they will give us restaurant recommendations there, as well. What a great value! 

On our last morning in Prague we decided to skip the hotel breakfast and headed to a local café called Cocovanka. It had a boho vibe. We both ordered a Café Latte. I enjoyed an apple tart and Charles had some kind of lacey cookie thing. 

As I said in the beginning, I feel like we hardly saw anything of Prague so I think we will have to visit again during our time in Germany.