We made it through the Maribor portion of the trip with only 3 days left we are headed for Vienna, Austria for a short lay over of 5 hours then on to Prague, CZ. As you can see below we had a good time with Domen and the SLO boys while in Maribor.

The country side going from Maribor to Vienna was mostly hills with trees on them with a castle here and there. The valleys had all of the farming and villages with some dairy and ranching that we could see infrequently. Below is a shot (not a very good one) of a castle on the top of the hill to the right and farm land below.

We were dropped off in the historical center of Vienna and told to be back to the bus by 4:30pm and this is the direction that you should go to experience the Habsburg’s Vienna. As the reigning force in the region (1278 - 1918) they built many beautiful buildings as the center of a government that stretched from Spain to Hungary as well as the surrounding countries. Some of the buildings are still functioning in some fashion at this time. Along with the buildings also came art with many statues and mural paintings and fountains.

This is a shot of the St. Stephen’s Cathedral from the walking blvd and then a shot inside. 

We have found that religion has played a large part in the growth of a nation/monarchy at seemingly all periods of history. There are many churches that have art with-in their walls that would be considered master pieces any where in the world.

And this is probably a cheap one.

We were on our own for lunch here and could not find the Kababs that we fell in love with here in Vienna. We were back on the road by 5pm headed for Prague about a 4 hour drive. So we settled back into our comfort zone.

Pic 1

The area land and villages started to change as we came closer to the Czech Republic. The land flattened out more and the villages seemed to be larger and a little less clean. Prague is a huge city that hides with-in its center a real colorful old town and the Prague Castle. The Prague Castle was under development from the ninth century until 1929 when the St. Vitus’ Cathedral was finished. We started off our first day at the Prague Castle and then worked our way down to old town and lots of shopping.

The entrance to the Prague Castle complex this is guarded by an honor guard that is changed every hour and they just stand there having people take their pictures with little to no reaction.

                                                          
This is St. Vitus’ Cathedral in the heart of the Prague Castle it took 600 years to complete and as you can see they are still working on it now.

This is a shot of the part of the main square with-in the walls of the Castle, they have archeological finds with-in the walls dating as far back as 2,600BC that prove that this was inhabited by tribes of people.

This is looking out across part of Prague from the outer wall of the Castle. We then started the walk down to the St. Charles Bridge which was built in the 1200s and is a sight to see with all of the vendors and people crowded on to it.  Below is a couple of shots of us walking into the first of the shops leading to the St. Charles Bridge.

Coach Bryan and Martin checking out the scene while Riely and Ryan check out the girls again.

Ken, Jason and Justin with his McDonalds balloon, no we didn’t eat there and yes they have McD over here everywhere we have been. Below we check out the river and the city that has grown up around it.

 
Ryan, Peter and Reilly

We all met at the end of the St Charles before crossing into the Old town section and moving to the Square to meet at the world clock, below

Hanging out before the next move, at the end of St. Charles bridge in front of the Hussite St. Nicolas Church.

The walk from here to the Old Town Square where the clock is was very crowded with many, many shops along the way. (this shows a break in the foot traffic) below is a shot of the Old Town Square with the clock on the left.

Every hour the crowds grow to capacity to watch the ghosts of the twelve apostles come out of the clock to mark the changing of the hour,

We had a great dinner at a place that we can’t pronounce off of the new town square close to the tram we have learned to take around town.

The next morning we were to play a local Clubs two teams a match a piece the gym was about a 30 minute bus ride away. It was a very nice sports park with football (soccer) stadium along with an all sports indoor building.

 
View of the outdoor facilities. It seemed that the structures were built during the cold war period as you can see in the shot below we were surrounded by rows of apartment buildings.

A statue of an aerobics ribbon dancer at the front of the complex

There were many buildings like this one surrounding the complex

We played a match in the morning, playing pretty well but loosing in 4 close ones.

Ryan gives Peter a man hug.

In the second match in the afternoon we took them to the 5th game and lost another close one it was a very good game for our group then we got a team picture, below.

We didn’t get a chance to know these guys like the SLO boys, I think it would have been fun here to.

(editors note) Well that completed our volleyball play in Europe, although we did not win a match while on the tour I believe that our young men played very well and were in all of the matches, it could have gone our way but it didn’t happen for us this year. While we won’t bring home any trophies for volleyball if they gave them out for representing regions and countries our young men would win hands down. We are very proud of these players and coaches and the way they stepped out at every stop along the way to meet people, learn some of the language and try the local food. Thank you parents and players, good job from your end.

With one full day left in Prague we thought we would hit the streets around the hotel before heading to the old town area for more exploring and shopping.

Peter, Reilly and Ryan lead the crew through the streets of Prague

That night we met at the tram stop in old town to go to a local restaurant where the food was good and the service a little slow, so coach Bryan taught us how to flip our coaster up on top of our glasses. Yes he did it all on his own.

and Jason was crushed because he hadn’t done it yet. Jason did get one on later.

the boys come up with other entertaining games while waiting for food but once it starts coming it doesn’t seem to stop. Every one was full to popping and there was a lot left over.

The trip was a blast, oh yeah before I forget, not likely. The women here were good but the best was still Maribor Slovenia. While we have been through 4 countries with 4 different languages that we had no idea how to speak most spoke enough English for us to get by and we learned simple phrases along the way which helped us with the locals. Would we do it again?, in a heart beat, might even get a job and pay for it myself, after collage of course.