New Years in Prague & Bavaria

We left London a couple of days after Christmas and flew to Prague for a week. We had booked an apartment over the net which, while a gamble, turned out to be a brilliant move - it was large, high-roofed old Victorian-like apartment that looked out over the Prague river and had plenty of room. It snowed on our first night which made for a magical walk along the river, over the Charles Bridge and into the old town square. Spirits were high in the wake of Christmas and the Charles Bridge was packed full of people wandering in the snow, listening to a band of old men playing musical instruments and enjoying the lights of the city. We ate traditional Czech food at a Czech dungeon restaurant and had drinks under the outdoor heaters in the old town square. The square was alight with the largest Christmas tree we have ever seen and was bustling with people visiting the Christmas markets, eating bratwursts and drinking beer. The city itself, while still amazing and beautiful, has massively shifted in terms of price and reaction of the locals since I was last there 10 years ago. Prices are anything but cheap and the locals, for the most part, seem less than pleased to be dealing with yet another group of tourists. New Years was an amazing experience - Wenceslas Square was cordoned off and hundreds of people crowded on the pavements surrounding it to throw fireworks into the empty square. The city itself was alight with thousands of professional fireworks that when set off stretched from one end of the city to the other. We had the prime view from the deck of our apartment of the fireworks going off from the Charles Bridge and the other bridges along the Prague river. We visited the Prague castle and generally explored the city for the week, ate at some fantastic restaurants and just enjoyed being on holiday from work. We left Prague by train and traveled through Munich and onto Bavaria in Germany to visit the Walt Disney castles in Neuschwanstein. The two castles (one belonging to the old king and queen of Bavaria and the other to their son who went on to be king) sit above a small countryside village in Bavaria. Mum and Dad had booked and paid for our accommodation for our Christmas present and we spent two days in bliss in gorgeous rooms at a beautiful hotel at the base of the castles. The castles, which were surrounded in snow when we arrived, look exactly as they are pictured in the Walt Disney movies and were incredible to tour. We ate most of our meals at the hotel and were served for the three days by an hilarious German guy who told stories of his travels around the world and partying with Green Day. We had a great time with our family and a brilliant trip.