Sunday 30th July 2023. Day 1.
As predicted, the flight was anything but fun, but probably not as bad as going to Lisbon six weeks ago. Maybe because I fully anticipated it this time and was dosed up with motion sickness tablets, which seemed to work until the last descent into Prague this afternoon. As usual, I managed to get in a few movies. I would highly recommend Champions with Woody Harrelson and 5000 blankets, but would pass on How to Murder your Husband and Moving On. I also managed to binge watch almost all of a series about Amanda Holden and Alan Carr buying a house in Sicily for €1 and spending the summer renovating it. Ever since I saw a program on tv about buying these, I’ve loved the idea!
Anyway, we arrived in Prague on time, and there were no hiccups getting through customs or getting into a Bolt and being speedily delivered straight to our apartment. It’s always a little nerve wracking to book accommodation based on a few pictures on Airbnb and some reviews, but we’ve done well with this one. It is very pretty, it’s probably shabby chic. It’s in what appears to be a great location and I think we’re going to be really comfortable here. It’s got a lovely little kitchen / dining area, perfect sitting room and a gorgeous bedroom. It’s above a cafe and what looks to be a wine / beer garden at the back. Or maybe it’s a cafe / restaurant, but I’m sure we’ll have a chance to check it out. So I think we’ll be sorry to leave on Friday. We’ve showered now and I’m ready to go exploring for a while, nothing too far or too hard, but enough to keep me awake until a normal bedtime.
Our exploration took us out through the small square to the north of our apartment, along the side street and straight to the Charles Bridge! We obviously found the busiest part of Prague, with people everywhere! We ended up crossing it and getting caught in the rain.
We crossed back and stocked up on groceries for breakfast and snacks, along with some beer and some gin. Just near the bridge I noticed a goulash bread bowl and that was all I had on my mind until we went back and indulged in one each, along with a beer each and some patatas chilli. There was no one else in the shop, and the owner was cooking some skewers on the smoker. Next thing we knew, we were eating some, and our first kangaroo has a home!
Walking home we wandered past the Lennon Wall, which is a stones throw from home. Time to brush my teeth and climb into bed, it’s 8pm and it been a long time since we last laid down.
Monday 31st July 2023 – Day 2 (but the first full day of this massive trip)
AirBnB unlocks some activities wherever you stay, and we have booked through them before. So, late last night, we jumped onto the app and had a look at some things to do nearby. We decided to book a scrooser tour to kick off our exploration of Prague. The tour is recommended early in any stay in the city, to get your bearings, see the sights and know what is on offer. We booked in for the 10am tour, with the direction to arrive 30 minutes early. We also booked in for a Telltale Ghost tour on Wednesday night.
Anyway, we both slept well, although I was awake by 6am. We did go to bed at 8.30, so that’s still 9.5hrs sleep. Once Green Hair Man got up, his first task was to try to find decent coffee, in a town that apparently likes to sleep in. Fortunately the never-fail Golden Arches is nearby and we had coffee to go with our toast. Well rested and fed, we were ready to wander down to the scrooser place by 09.25, arriving at 09.30 as required. Once the paperwork was completed, we got to pick our scroosers, choosing a red one (to match little red) and a black one (to match Maz). The instructions were simple, accelerate on the right handlebar (twist the handle backwards) and brake like a bike on the left handlebar. Sit or stand, turn your shoulders to turn the front wheel. Without even a demo, we were told to jump aboard, ride down the hill and practice in the square! So we did, going round and round and round some more. I was struggling to get any speed, but persevered. Eventually we had the hang of it and rode back up to the start line, to wait for the other 4 people who were joining our tour. They were late, well beyond the 10am start time. However their lateness gave me the opportunity to realise that I had been twisting the handlebar forward, not backwards, hence the lack of speed. So, off I went again to practice, finding the speed I couldn’t find before!
Eventually all scroosers were accounted for and off we headed on our Grand City Tour. And grand it was! The first stop, not far from the outlet and outside the Franz Kafka museum, was at a unique, some might say bizarre pair of statues called Pissing Men by David Cerny. And that’s what they are doing. They are each a fountain, with water pissing out their respective penises. To added to the oddity, they are peeing into a map of The Czech Republic! They aren’t meant to be though. They are meant to be peeing on each other, but the water pressure isn’t high enough. For added oddness, their hips can be moved and their penises can stand to attention (with a little help!). I found this very amusing and a great start to our tour! The next stop was within walking distance to admire the Charles Bridge from its northern side, and just above river level. Our second tour guide Tina, was telling us that during COVID the city was empty of tourists, and they had the bridge to themselves again. It reminded me of our trip to Uluru (which she hadn’t heard of!). Back to the tour … the next stop was the concert hall, before we headed into the Jewish quarter and on to the Old Town Square. I got the distinct feeling we were doing the activity that everyone else in the square wanted to be doing.
Within the square Kate pointed out the church, with the mismatching towers, one wider than the other, the excuse being that one is Adam and one is Eve. Kate commented that there was no feminism back then. In our photo, I am on the wider side (there is feminism now). The astronomical clock tower is on one corner of the square, however we didn’t see it due to the crowds. The hot tip is to get there for its first show of the day, at 07.00, so if we wake up early again tomorrow, that’s the plan! Onwards, our next stop was after a lovely long scroose along the river, across a bridge and up a hill towards the palace. The view from up there is fabulous and we were able to see the new TV tower, the second ugliest, now maybe the ugliest building in the world, that looks call the AK47.
Across the hill, our next stop was a few hundred meters from the palace, which occupies a space the size of 60 football stadia and has a changing of the guards at midday each day. While we didn’t see the guards change, we did see them marching down towards the palace. The spires in the background are part of the the palace church, with the palace appearing much more like Buckingham Palace (according to Kate). Apparently the tour inside is worth doing, so we might get to that in the next couple of days. Moving on, we stopped by the monastery, that has a huge library and a brewery! I am sure we will go there, to see the library of course. Our last stop stop the city, was over by the original TV tower, with a great view down over the rooftops. I am looking forward to going back up the hill to climb the tower. Fortunately there’s a funicular, as we won’t have scroosers. Of course what goes up, must come down, and so we had to descend. To say I was a little nervous is an understatement, but I held on tight and made it to the bottom (albeit last of all). Why my hesitancy? I found the steering tricky to master and the hill cobbles were far from smooth or even, making the descent challenging, at least for me.
At the bottom we scroosed back to the Charles Bridge, before heading to our last stop, the Lennon Wall. Of course we saw this yesterday, but had no idea why it is there or what it is about. Kate gave us the abridged version that went something like this. The wall was originally the Crying or Wailing Wall. During the communist regime, the wall was inscribed with comments of political and social issues. When John Lennon died it was used to express peoples grief at his death. Although people could be jailed for listening to the music from the west, the songs of love and hope from the Beatles and John, were well known to locals. The wall is now protected and people visit it and add their words. I added “Love is all you needs” while Green Hair Man added “Above us only sky” on the gravestone painted on the wall the day Lennon died. An awesome way to end a great tour. Back at the outlet, two more koalas found new homes with Kate and Tina, as we also handed back the scroosers to the beautiful young folks operating this great business.
If you’re ever in Prague we would highly recommend you take a scroose early in your stay. It’s fun, safe and a great way to get a lay of the land. Here is what we said about it on TripAdvisor and Google. “We highly recommend this fantastic tour, especially if you are lucky enough to have Kate as your guide. Our tip is to arrive as they request, 30 minutes early, so you get a good practice in before the tour starts. Kate was very careful to make sure we were safe as we scroosed the streets and paths. We did this on our first morning in town and now we know where to go for the rest of our stay. Thanks to all the staff who made our experience world class! Janie and Jim [Australia)”.
With the tour done by 1pm, we headed home to use the amenities before heading back out the door to wander over to the Nespresso store in the Jewish quarter to grab some capsules for “coffee time”. Our wander took us firstly to a cafe for a coffee and some apple cake (for him) and a slice of quiche (for me). We decided to do the Jewish quarter self guided walking tour from GPS My City. In hindsight we should have bought the multisite ticket and entered the sites, but we were really looking to wander. I think we did a few loops but we have capsules for coffee, so mission achieved. What I will say about the Jewish quarter is that the buildings are beautiful, and well worth the effort. It was also here in the Jewish quarter that we were found the Franz Kafka statue made by David Cerny, a carry on from this mornings Pissing Men by David, outside the museum dedicated to Franz. I am interested to hear any first impressions you may have of this statue …
After the Jewish quarter we found ourselves in the Old Town Square, where the church is closed on Monday’s (!) and every man and their dog was watching the astronomical clock tick over to 4pm. There were so many people pushing and shoving that we just left, and will come back another time. As a substitute, we decided to walk to Wenceslas Square, the site of the Velvet Revolution starting. Our walk was quite haphazard but we made it nonetheless and stood at the top of the avenues, on the steps of the museum. Right beneath us is the memorial to Jan Palach and his buddy. God bless them, they were just kids.
Being late afternoon it was definitely beer o’clock so we choose a beer garden (Zahradka) and set off in search of it, which proved to be tricky, although we found it in the end! It was a great spot to hang out for an hour, drinking a beer, eating beer cheese with toast and sausage in beer sauce. Have you worked out the theme for Prague yet? The beer, the cheese and the sausage were fabulous and a perfect light dinner, given it was after 6pm. It’ll take a while for me to get used to the long evenings again. All full of beer, we wandered home, just in time to catch the end of the 5th Test. Too bad for Australia losing the match, but we retain the Ashes. Given we are heading to England in a couple of weeks to stay with my family, a draw makes it a lot easier on us all. You know how family rivalry can go …
Tuesday 1st August, 2023. Day 3.
Did I mention that I have a head cold? Of course I fully expected it, just not quite so quickly. I am dosed up now on cold and flu tabs and pushing through. Hopefully this is it, out of the way early on. Today’s plans include the palace and its church, the monastery and its library and brewery, and the original TV Tower, ending with the Letna beer garden (weather permitting).
After showering and getting ready, the head cold’s full powers were revealed and we opted to start by sticking close to home, so we decided to walk the Lesser Town self guided tour. We set off for the gingerbread shop by the Pissing Men sculpture and somehow ended up doing a loop straight back to the house! Very much like the self guided walking loop we did in Lisbon, without the stairs. I should clarify, it was our failure to read the map, not the tour’s fault. It did give us the opportunity to grab the umbrella so Green Hair Man can remain dry. Trying again, we found the gingerbread shop, loaded up with gingerbread and coffee to watch the tourists show up and be amused by the sculpture. The gingerbread shop is amazing, full of freshly made gingerbread, and smells awesome. Definitely worth the stop.
Next in the tour was a walk past a large flag sculpture to the Wallenstein Palace, currently being used by the senate. It has some huge gardens that are open to the public, if you are game to walk past the police at the gate (they couldn’t give a toss). There is some amazing art work on the ceiling of the pavilion that I was happy to sit and gaze at for a while.
Next stop on the walking tour was our own Malostranska Square, very close to home. The square has a couple of churches on its peripheries, of course, one of which is one of the two St Nicholas’. However, I was keen to find out what church owns the two spires that we can see from the kitchen window. So we wandered around looking for the spires and their unique date stamps. It didn’t take long before we came across the lovely Church of our Lady Victorious, The Infant Jesus of Prague. After a quick look inside, we wandered home again to use the facilities.
After a quick assessment of my health, balanced against the short duration of our stay in Prague, we decided to head out again, first to see the babies sculptures by David Cerny, then onto the island. The babies are very interesting, with some adult features, and bar code faces. I like them, but they are also a bit odd.
Over to the island, we didn’t have any trouble coming across a few interesting and introduced nutria (coypu). I have to say that the island isn’t that inviting on an overcast day. Other than seeing the rodents, we didn’t stay long.
Instead we headed off to the funicular to make the ascent to the TV Tower. Naturally the queue was long and naturally I had no intention of standing in it, so naturally we walked up the hill. It is a fair walk, going up and up and up, but despite the cold I am carrying, we made it relatively easily. However once we were at the top, the queue to ascend the stairs within the tower and the thought of climbing them, changed my mind, at least for the time being.
Instead we wandered along to the monastery and had a quick look inside, before finding the beer garden and sampling the cherry beer, accompanied by some bread and cheese. It seems that if you order beer in Prague you get a complementary basket of bread, comprising a small baguette and some slices of caraway seed bread. The carbohydrate load is huge, but I have to say that it is very nice! As was the cherry beer. I wish I ordered a big glass.
Onwards we reversed the scrooser ride, down to the palace, where we had every intention of finally paying for an activity in this town. As it turns out, you can enter the palace complex and the cathedral, without it costing you anything. So we had a wander around, remarking on how Joe Public can enter the senate and the home of the President, without a bag check or metal detector in sight. I guess this is what it means to be a republic. During this part of our day, my feelings towards Prague started to change. As we looked over the city and were able to pick out “our church” and the Cultural Centre near “our house”, I found myself feeling an affinity for the city. It has a lot going for it. It has history. It is incredibly pretty. It is flat and easy to traverse (other than going up to the palace). It is very safe, I haven’t felt any edge to it at all. It’s people are largely friendly, except for one man we encountered this morning. It has its own vibe, that includes its own food and drinks. It has a lot to see and do. Yeah, it is growing on me.
Outside the palace, we found a bar serving wine from the vineyard tended by Saint Wenceslas himself. It is amazing that you can buy and drink a glass of this wine, and enjoy it in the same place he must have, and many people since him.
Having now learned a bit about David Cerny, we know that the new TV Tower, the AKA37, he has some of his smaller babies crawling all over it. Sure enough, through the camera lens, we can see that they are indeed there! How cute. I hope we get the chance to see them up close.
Eventually our time on the hill came to an end, and as much as I wanted to go back and ascend the tower, my health was rapidly deteriorating and all I wanted to do was go home. So we set off with the route set to take us along the narrowest street in Prague. It is so narrow that we actually walked straight past it this morning, without realising it was there! Of course this afternoon it was jam packed with a million people, so we will loop past and see it tomorrow, given it is very close to home. Eventually we made it home, in time for a wee rest, before hunger drove us out in search of food. Our own square, Maltese Square, home to a statue of Saint John the Baptist, has some good food options including Mexican, Czech, French, Italian and our own wine bar downstairs. We choose the Laboratoria della Pizza, a pizza lab where you can make your own. We chose a Special Cabrese with added pancetta and a lasagne. I have never eaten such a pretty pizza ever! It was a nice way to end a long and tiring day. Time for a big sleep. I hope I feel better tomorrow, but even if I don’t, I won’t stop me from exploring this city some more.
Wednesday (Day 4)
Today is David Cerny Day. As you know, we have discovered three of David Cerny’s sculptures, the Pissing Men, the Babies and Franz Kafka, however there are many more across the city that we want to see. As part of our self-devised, self-guided tour, we also intend to visit the TV Tower, that has some of David’s babies crawling on it. We are also booked on a walking tour tonight, leaving the Astronomical Clock at 8.30pm. It’s going to be a long day.
Thankfully I feel better today and ready to get out and about. The sun is shining, so that is encouraging. Green Hair Man has a plan and we are off via the cute table and chairs directly outside our house. These are called Václav Havel Bench (Havel’s Place) and are an artistic and urban utility project, created by Czech architect and designer Bořek Šípek. There are 2 wooden garden chairs connected by a round table, which has a hole inside. A linden, the Czech national tree, is growing through this hole. Apparently these benches can be found in many Czech towns as well as in some of the other cities we are headed to on this trip. We’ll be heading to them as we go …
Our next stop was meant to be at the narrowest road in Prague … except when we got there the gate was closed and the sign says it doesn’t open until 11am! We’ll have to come back later. So, in true us style, we headed back past the house and down to the park, where the babies have crawled over towards the Kavarna Mlynska (cafe), where David has created the bar top and the coffee is good (we can vouch for that).
The next stop on the tour took us back towards our house (no surprise there) and up the hill, past the American and German embassies, down a lane and then a road that runs behind the German embassy. Not suspicious at all! Through the fence, we could see the Quo Vadis sculpture.
We were there for all of 5 minutes, before turning around and retracing our steps past the house (!) and across the Charles Bridge so we could walk along the other side of the river to the Bagel shop for lunch. The shop has a cute American diner feel, and makes very nice bagels and lemonade. Just what we needed, having already traversed many kilometres.
After lunch we wandered not too far along and came across the three naked women with lampshades for heads, sitting atop a building.
Directly around the corner from them is another sculpture of a woman, sitting on top of an awning. She is made of different material and sits next to a garage door that has some Czech and English writing on it that may be phrases or sayings from Vaclav Havel. While I was looking at her, I could see that her shape is made up of letters from the alphabet, and these may be just the letters that comprise Vaclav Havel’s name. I am not sure if this is the case, but once I pointed it out the Green Hair Man he could see it too.
Onwards we headed for the largest of the sculptures on the walk, a silver bust of Franz Kafka, which we eventually found at the back of a shopping centre. What we didn’t know about this massive sculpture is that every hour, for 15 minutes, the plates that comprise the head rotate in a choreographed way, distorting the face. As it was a few minutes to 1pm, we decided to wait for the action, but armed with the knowledge the whole thing would rotate, I moved around to face what was currently the back the head, as everyone was clustered looking at the face. Sure enough, at 1pm, he turned to look at me, before his face distorted and rotated in any number of variations. The wee fellow on the far top corner of the building overlooking the sculpture is very surprised by the antics of the sculpture!
Next on our walk was Sigmund, hanging by one arm from a pole extended across a narrow and busy street. I am not sure how he got there, but I hope he has a plan for getting down!
Finally, as the rain started to fall, we eventually found the Saint Wenceslas sculpture inside a building, along the Wenceslas Square. I think this is my favourite so far, but there are many so that may change.
With the rain looking like it may destroy the rest of the day, we decided to try out the public transport and head over the the TV Tower. As it turned out, both using the public transport system and getting to the tower were simple. The public transport system has an app, from which you purchase and activate your ticket. We took a tram a few stops, disembarking about a 500 meter walk from the tower. It is closer to the city that is seems and very accessible, so if you are ever here, we would recommend a trip. Walking up to the precinct, it’s easy to see just how tall the tower is and to see the babies crawling all over it. Although they look little, they are apparently the same size as the ones in the park, but made of fibreglass. They are so cute!
Once we arrived at the tower, with the rain coming down, we decided to go up to the public viewing platform, which is in the middle row of blocks protruding from the tower. The first row houses a restaurant and a single room hotel (!) and the top row houses all the tech stuff. Needless to say the view from the public area is fabulous and we were quickly orienting ourselves to the parts of the city we knew and could recognise. Our church was clear, as was the hill we climbed yesterday to the old TV Tower, as well as the cathedral in the Old Town Square and the eventually I spotted each of the towers at either end of the Charles Bridge. We could also see how the buildings that face onto the roads, encase a common courtyard within the block, something we walked through today in the city.
A very public way to live, with neighbours watching you at the front and the back. Perhaps it helped with developing a sense of community or perhaps a sense of paranoia.
Having thoroughly surveyed the lay of the land, we descended from the tower and decided to ride the tram home to Malastranska Square. This took us smoothly through town, across the river and deposited us almost right where we started many thousands of steps ago!
With all the walking we have done today, and more to come tonight, we have earned an “ice cream”, so we indulged in a trdlo, a traditional Czech doughy cone, which I filled with apple and topped with ice cream, while the lactose intolerant among us filled theirs with strawberries and salted caramel sauce. Decadent and messy! Lucky we were close to home and could consume them bent over the sink to manage get the saucy drops. Time for a short rest while Green Hair Man decides on the beer garden for today …
With the walking tour starting at 8.30 we needed to get cracking to have enough time to enjoy some dinner and a beer. The venue chosen was within 5 minutes walk of the meeting point for the tour, and we arrived at the garden just after 7pm. Heaps of time. The menu was full of more 120 beers, so we chose a pallet to share and the wait staff quickly helped us to decide on which beers would suit our tastes (although we had chosen our own, something you can’t actually do). We also chose some food which arrived very quickly. As we ate, we waited patiently for our beers to arrive, then waited some more, then a bit more again. Finally, with the food all gone, we enquired about the beers, only to be told they had lost our order! Oh dear. In fairness the staff were very apologetic and as quickly as possible they threw together our pallet, with a bonus beer and a bowl of potato crisps, and brought it out. With time ticking we worked our way along the beers, enjoying most of them. In order, we shared:
1. Max 11⁰ – light lager. 2. Growler sour ale – lingonberry, raspberry, mint and chocolate. (Bonus beer). 3. Major 15⁰ – semi dark lager. 4. Weizen – wheat beer. 5. Yummy pineapple,papaya and coconut. 6. Nectar of happiness – new England IPA. 7. Drip 20⁰ – milk stout with cold brew coffee.
Green Hair Man liked the growler, while my favourite would be either the growler or the stout with cold brew coffee. As we were leaving he venue, in a big hurry to make it to our tour on time, the staff popped over and gave us each a shot of a local liquor, a Becherovka. Obviously they were very worried about a rotten TripAdvisor or google review, but there were no hard feelings on our part, and to prove it, I left them a kangaroo! Smiles all round as we departed the venue, racing up the road to the old town square to met at the astronomical clock, right on time!
Our guide for the one and a half hour Telltale Tour was Steve, an American born friendly guy who lead us first into the square and then around a few streets we hadn’t been into, before we wandered into the Jewish quarter and back to the astronomical clock in time for 10pm. He told some stories about card playing crooks during the plague, a murdering carer of 3 children also during the plague, some prankster medical students and their hospital caretaker, and a Jewish rabbi and some undead children. While these were entertaining, I learned a lot of other more helpful things about Prague. For instance the smaller, less ornate buildings, like the one we are staying in, are older than the ornate ones. They were built as an entire home for one family and had their ornate news on the inside, like ceilings and furnishings. They also had hidey holes from which many things have emerged over the years. Of note, our house has a cultural significance plaque on the front.
We also learned that the homes had images above the doors so they would be recognisable, in the time before street names and numbers. The house next to ours has a gold snake. Some of the images represented more macabre things like the house of death, and some used the city’s crest, which has evolved over many centuries. We saw one crest dating back to a time before the arm with the sword was added in 1649, after the Thirty Years’ War, representing the effective defense of the city against the Swedish army during the Thirty Years war. Apparently it’s faded lower half is due to the flood waters over the centuries.
I enjoyed a couple of the stories the first about the protestants and their public deaths in the square. Twenty seven of them were executed for rising up against the invading Catholics way back in 1621. There are 28 crosses though, with a final one added in recent times, by the family of a fellow who fell to his death before his planned execution. I also enjoyed the story about the astronomical clock maker and his fate. It’s an amazing piece of machinery for understanding many aspects of time, such as the seconds, minutes, hours, days, seasons, moon and sun phases. It was and still is a draw card for the city, something that was ultimately the undoing of its creator whose eyes were slashed by some home invaders, in an attempt to stop him from creating similar clocks for other cities. Of course it had to have been folk from Prague who inflicted the injury on him, so in return he got a buddy to take him to the clock, which he proceeded to destroy, to the extent that it took 100 years to repair! It’s a shame its hourly performance is hugely underwhelming.
What a day! I can’t believe we were sitting on Vaclav’s bench just this morning. We have walked more than 17 kms today. No wonder my legs ache. Here’s to a jaunt on public transport tomorrow …
Thursday 3rd August (Day 5)
Goodness me it’s hard to believe that our time in Prague is about to come to an end. We have 24hrs left and a few things we want to do. Given our late night last night, my refusing-to-shift head cold, and the very last effects of jet lag, we had a slower start to the day. We bought some cereal, milk, bread and coffee capsules and have been eating breakfast at home each day. We have our own 12volt capsule machine and Green Hair Man has breaky ready every morning. I am hoping we can get some eggs and I can scramble them for breakfast once we get to Berlin. Are eggs expensive in Europe?
With breakfast done, we headed out to catch the tram to the dancing house. We did the math and checked with our legs, and concurred that a 24hr public transport pass was in order today. Back to the dancing house, it’s a building that is built on a site bombed by the Americans back in 1945. The site was undeveloped until this building was conceived and built. In essence, it has the appearance of a pair of ballroom dancers, the lady being the one with the pinched waist and slightly arched back. If you visit the building you can “look up her skirt”. We didn’t do that. Out of affection, the building is referred to as Fred and Ginger. That’s very cute, and very apt.
Time for coffee, in fact, I Need Coffee and a flap jack and a cherry cookie, so we took a wander along to a cute cafe. A word on coffee. We haven’t had a bad one since we’ve been here. Each coffee we’ve had has been memorable for all the right reasons. I especially like the one at the David Cerny bar, because they served it with a small glass of sparkling water. A very nice touch. After today’s coffee, we headed over to river (via the tram) and took a 50 minute river cruise that included the Devils Channel. It was nice to see the city from the river and hear some more interesting stuff about Prague and the Vltava river. Our captain explained how the logs in front of each bridge pylon were there to protect the bridge from icebergs, but these days the damming of the river further up, prevents the water from becoming cold enough to freeze. He also explained that the Charles Bridge is the second bridge to stand here built on some of the foundations and arches of the first bridge. He showed us which pylons of the bridge have been replaced due to damage in a flood and informed us that the statues are all replicas, with the originals in a museum. We had an added adventure to our trip, with a poor swimming bat being rescued from the water. Another of the bridges we went under is home to a colony of bats, from which it likely comes. I feel sure they will care for the poor, tired creature, or find someone who will.
After a relaxing morning, we decided to head home to use the facilities and catch our breath. It turned out to be a good decision because there was a market at Malostranska, serving all sorts of great stuff for lunch! In reality we have little need for any further food, but why not enjoy what’s available? So we had a yummy Yugoslav meat pastry and a delicious and very fresh chicken and halloumi wrap. The lady cooked the wrap on a bbq plate from balls of dough she was individually rolling out, as she also cooked up the chicken in a pan adjacent to the bbq. Yummo! After packing up some of our stuff, and doing a bit of cleaning (just the washing up), we decided to head out again to the Letna Beer Garden, the one that everyone knows and recommends. It is a much nicer day today for an outdoor beer garden, with the sun shining and everything dry and warm. Although the plan was to avoid walking, we still needed to take the stairs up from the river to the metronome before walking along to the beers! We enjoyed a couple of beers, as we admired the city and the river. I posted my last “Today’s beer garden is brought to you by …” post on Facebook and this one included #StandWithUkraine. The Ukrainian flag is flying everywhere here. Most government and many other buildings are flying both the Czech and Ukrainian flags. There is no love for Putin here. We even saw a beer on the menu last night called “Fuck you Putin”. We should have tried it. I bet it tastes sweet.
After a couple of beers in the sun, we headed home to catch our breath and it was nice to just sit on the lounge for a while! Outside, at the wine bar downstairs a duet were performing some live music. With our window open, the music and fresh air, along with our own drinks and nibbles, was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours. Then all of a sudden Green Hair Man said we wouldn’t have enough time to get up the Petrin Tower, and everything changed. We were jumping around like we had ants in our pants and were out the door, on the tram and on the funicular up the hill to the tower in break neck speed. In fact, as we arrived at 8.30pm, the little lady at the bottom and then the one at the first platform were almost yelling at us to go “straight to the top” because “we are closing soon!”. So we almost ran up the tower, with me struggling to breathe and scared of heights, until I couldn’t go any further out of fear and lightheadedness. It was definitely worth the effort though, with a fabulous view of the beautiful city, all the way across to the AKA47. The sun set as we were on the tower, and although I really wanted to go to the top, I just couldn’t get my head or my legs to agree. What a great way to end our fabulous 5 night stay in Prague.
We thoroughly enjoyed this part of our trip. I had no expectations of Prague, and didn’t really know what it would be like. I thought it might be quite Soviet / Cold War like, but I didn’t even really know what that meant. In reality, it is a beautiful city in every respect. It is gorgeous to look at, friendly and extremely safe. It is easy to get around and has some fabulous sights to see. It is old and contemporary at the same time, with something for everyone. It exceeded what expectations I did have and I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of spending some time there.
But now, after a sleep, it is time to leave it all behind and head to Berlin …
The Solo Avocado 