Motorcycle Touring

Ah the last day. I’m always in a hurry on departure days and would rather be at the airport 2 hours early than right on the dot. It leaves no time for error or even chance.

We got up at 6 and our flight is at 9:30. It doesn’t take a long time to ride the train and bus but we did have to walk, buy tickets, get on the train, transfer to the next train, then catch the bus to the airport. Rita also had trouble checking in early apparently because we are taking a KLM flight to Amsterdam then a Delta flight to Minneapolis/St Paul. Add in the poor Internet access we had at the hotel and even airport and we weren’t able to get checked in early.

Anyway, we showered and finished packing. I’d packed most of our stuff in my check-in bag last night so we only had to pack the last of our dirty clothes, toiletries, and the electronics we left charging overnight. We snagged breakfast getting there a few minutes before they opened at 7. Went back up to get our gear, check out and head to the station.

The station was a little busy as it was morning rush hour but we arrived at the last stop and walked to the buses. We were looking for 119 or the Airport Express. We were waiting on the AE and watched as 119 left when Rita spotted that the AE was 50ck each, not the 26ck we’d already paid and since we didn’t have the additional funds, we caught the next 119 (which arrived before AE did).

The driver was really hauling and even just made it through two lights speeding up at the yellow 🙂

At the airport, we were presented with three terminals. We weren’t sure so decided to get off at terminal 1 which was where we arrived at last week. The departure board said we should go to the gate but we needed to check in first. The check in desks were configured a little differently than we’re used to and we didn’t see a Delta terminal. Rita asked at the security desk and she pointed us to the desks. As it was 8:43 when I looked, we went to the desk but was shooed back behind the line. We waited 15 minutes while they got ready to open their desks and at about 5 of, we were waved to the desk. She started asking a few questions and determined we were in the wrong terminal. We needed to walk 5 minutes to terminal 2 and check in.

At the desk, we tried to use the automatic check in kiosk but we were 5 minutes too late. We were sent over to the Air France desk to arrange a new flight. Initially, the lady said she could get us on an afternoon flight if we wanted but there would be a 10,000 ck penalty; about $580 each but if we’d come back in an hour, she’d try to get it reduced.

We headed to the Starbucks for wifi so Rita could try to get in touch with Victor and Nadine to let them know as we were not going to be able to meet them in Amsterdam. We hung out for an hour then headed back. The lady at Air France was able to get it reduced to $250 each. A penalty but better than the first quote.

With that we had tickets to Denver via Amsterdam and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Rita hunted for a wifi connection to make sure Vic and Nadine were made aware. She was able to get messages sent off but wasn’t absolutely sure and wasn’t able to get confirmation from the couple. The next few hours was spent with Rita frantically hunting for a good wifi spot and generally waiting until the gate was announced, walking to the gate and then waiting there for the flight to be ready.

The plane was 20 minutes late leaving due to a landing light burning out and the flight a little bumpy going through the cloud layers both ascending and descending into Amsterdam.

We disembarked on the Tarmac interestingly enough and rode a bus to the terminal, then had to quickly head to gate E4 but had to go through passport control and then a security scan at the boarding gate itself. We’re in different seats for a little bit but Rita’s seatmate (she was in the middle) moved to be with his buddies because the person sitting there moved, so I moved to sit next to Rita.

There was time for four movies so a long flight in general. Since we were flying west, we were essentially standing still. We arrived in Amsterdam at 4:30pm and arrived in Minneapolis at around 7pm. Food was ok, standard air type chicken with overcooked rice etc. We had a snack about an hour before arriving in Minneapolis of pizza and gelato which wasn’t too bad actually.

In Minneapolis we had to go through the security checkpoint, pick up my check-in bag, go through the customs checkpoint, then try to find departures for Denver. There wasn’t a sign anywhere with directions so we had to ask at the information desk. We went upstairs and found our gate. I grabbed a sandwich and paid with USD for the first time in a week 🙂 Rita plugged her phone in and we had real internet again so I posted a quick Facebook update.

We got on the flight at 9:15 or so and sat in the back. We had the entire row to ourselves so Rita moved back one row and I stretched out and napped. We’d been up since 6am and at this point just in counted time we’d been up for 16 hours. Add in the 8 hour time difference and we’d been more or less up for 24 hours.

We arrived at around 10pm (add an hour don’t forget so 26 hours) and had to wait for the bus to take us to the off-airport parking lot. We finally got home at 1am having been up with a few naps for 29 hours. We got stuff put down, locked the door, said hi to the cats and hit the sack. We got up at 6:30 or so as our house sitters were leaving.

I’ve snagged the pictures from all three devices and gone through them to make sure they’re rotated correctly. Next I’ll be incorporating them into the website then adding pictures and editing the blog where necessary.

We’ve been sticking our heads in at the various shops looking for a t-shirt that didn’t have some touristy saying on it like “I Love Prague” or “Praha Praha Praha Praha”, or even “Prague Drinking Team”. So we headed out looking for a Czech specific t-shirt or sweatshirt.

We decided to head across the bridge to one of the big shopping centers. It wasn’t a long walk considering what we’ve been doing. We watched swans and pigeons in the river and the spillway (one swan seemed do be drifting too close while cleaning but would always swim just enough to keep from going over).

We spotted one of the BMW scooters (the C1). It has roll bars and even a seatbelt.

A couple of blocks up we got to the shopping center. Rita checked out the shoes on the right. I went into the computer store. Unfortunately they didn’t have anything I couldn’t get in the states. Continuing in the center, we would stop in various places only to find Puma, Adidas, Nike, and other such branded material. Same in the electronic store. Rita spotted some Crocs and checked the price. $59! They had an iPad 1st gen wifi only 64 gig for $847, a bit more expensive than what I bought last year. Pretty sad actually.

The shopping center did have an interesting feature. It didn’t have escalators but a longer peoplemover.

We also spotted funny looking rabbits that were extra furry.

After going through the center (including the food court with KFC and McDonalds), we headed back out and down the block. We stopped in at a book store where we picked up a Czech – English book for children to learn English. I spotted a big stack of US license plates for sale with raised letters and numbers and even expiration stickers for Virginia, Hawaii, and Alabama weirdly enough. There may have been several more but I didn’t rummage. There must be a nice market for the plates here 🙂

After leaving, we headed on, Rita still looking for souvenirs. We found another street fair and she picked up a couple of trinkets. There were also miniature horses for kid rides (I suppose). I withdrew another thousand crowns and picked up one of the traditional treats. Imagine a piece of dough that’s rolled lengthwise then wrapped around a roller then rotated through hot oil (fried) and when done, rolled in cinnamon. It was similar to a hard roll. Ok but nothing to write home about (which I’m actually doing so there must be something 🙂 ).

When we were at the ATM, Rita asked the guy in line if he knew where we could get a Czech specific sweatshirt, like a sport team. He didn’t know for sure but suggested we try the Fanstore at the stadium.

Before we went though, Rita stopped in at a health food place and picked up a quick snack while I finished off the treat. We wandered through a street vendor area. It extended for a block but didn’t look like it. We didn’t find a good souvenir shirt so it was time to head to the stadium.

We hit the metro and headed for the green line. At almost the end, we got off and with Rita leading, we headed left. We walked in a construction area and next to The Ministry of Defense. A well guarded and enclosed area with lots of cameras. We made a left and headed up hill getting to a busy intersection where we checked the street signs with the map. And found we had been going the wrong way 🙂

Another left had us heading the correct way. And while walking, I noticed we were within seeing distance of The Cathedral of Vitus. I snapped a few pics of it and the Defense Ministry. Then I spotted the castle gardens. We went across the street and snapped pics there as well.

Back to the street, we returned to the metro and headed in the right direction. We walked by The Indian Embassy and a few shops before seeing the stadium.

I actually stopped to check out the flowers.

On the other side was the Fanshop. There was a sign on the front door that we couldn’t read and another with an arrow pointing back to the ticket office on the other end of the stadium. We looked around then headed up the street a few doors to another sport shop where the guy said the place shouldn’t be closed and that they may just be at lunch. We headed to the ticket office thinking there may be another outlet but didn’t find anything. Rita asked the gate guard and he just pointed us back to the store. Figuring they were open by now, we went back but the same signs were on the door. Rita gave the door a push and it opened. I found out later that the one sign meant it was open 🙂

We picked up a couple of shirts and I bought a couple of stickers for the bike.

We returned to the metro and headed to Mustek and Wenceslas Square for more shopping.

The street was quite busy with tourists. We walked up a ways until Rita spotted a shirt shop. While I waited outside, she hunted for a sweatshirt. Watching people was pretty interesting. I fended off the occasional homeless guy and watched the same locals go back and forth several times. They looked quite suspicious and later I spotted one in handcuffs being escorted away by a police officer. They were chatting amiably as well, as if it happened often.

I stopped in at a stand to get water, drank it while waiting, then got some yoghurt and finished it as well. Eventually Rita came out talking about a sweatshirt she wanted but wanted to wait and check other places before actually buying it.

We continued up the street then across to the island where the statue was. I snapped a few pics here, then we went back down the street. We were looking for a place for an early dinner. I recall seeing a gyro place up the street and while we looked for a restaurant, we went towards the gyro shop. Eventually we went with it, Rita getting a goulash like dish and me getting grilled chicken and fries. I didn’t see gyros being offered. We went upstairs to eat and found the balcony open so settled in for a relaxed meal.

I honestly expected better but was disappointed. Even the goulash we had a couple of days ago was better; fresh if uninspiring. The fries tasted like they’d been cooked first thing this morning in last night’s oil and the grilled chicken cooked for yesterday’s lunch, then put in the fridge and this morning heated on the potatoes and then both microwaved.

After we found a book shop. Rita was looking for a Prague picture book and I was still looking for a Czech written role playing book. The book store was narrow but went back quite a ways and there were two floors below the main floor and one up. We agreed to meet at the entrance in 20 minutes and headed out.

It was interesting to see the selection of books. There were lots of subjects with moderate selections in each. For example, sci-fi was a couple of book shelves but in barnes and noble, it consists of 8 or 10 shelves. I stumbled on a restricted section with a guard I assumed to be pornography (I can’t think of anything else that might require a guard) and a selection of Warhammer, WarCraft, and StarCraft fiction but nothing of what I wanted.

Back on the main floor, I ran into Rita then decided to ask a clerk about books. He said they were in the center downstairs and that I should ask for Michael. Seeing I had five minutes before our agreed upon meeting time, I zipped down and waited a few minutes for the clerk to finish with another customer. Unfortunately, he said they didn’t carry any. I suspect the first guy was thinking about the fiction books. I went back up and was outside right at 5:20. Rita thought we were meeting inside and finally came out 20 minutes later.

We ran across the memorials for Jan Palach and Jan Zajic. These two set themselves on fire when the Communists sent troops into the country in 1969.

From there we went to a shoe store where I sat (finally; my feet were really in pain) while Rita shopped for shoes.

That’s right! Rita shopped for shoes! I think she was just comparing as she’d found crocs for $56 at the shopping center earlier.

We were heading back up the street when we spotted someone using the fish tank. The fish nibble the dead skin off of your feet so you stick your feet in the tank to get nibbled.

Finally we headed back to the room. They still hadn’t fixed wifi in the room and in fact we had to sit in the bar area to get a connection.

Back in the room, we watch German TV where they were talking about plastic surgery and showing operations. Breast augmentation really looks painful, I must say.

Limited wifi here in the new hotel. We have access but it’s very very slow so I’m typing it in as a note and will post when I get a chance.

We packed up after breakfast, checked out and headed to the next hotel. A Hotel Caesar Palace Praha. Rita wanted to splurge a bit on the last couple of days here.

We picked up a day pass on the metro and headed over. They were nice enough to We were able to drop off our bags in the lobby and headed out to our day long tour of the Jewish section of Prague. As we hadn’t explored the new area much, we hiked a bit to get to the tram. We got off across from Galerie Rudolfinum (The Museum of Decorative Arts).

We walked up to the entrance to The Jewish Museum. We lined up for tickets to be able to enter all the exhibits. At 480 ck each, it would be quite the tour. It was extra to take pictures but only in The Cemetery so you’ll have to either visit the sites or check out the linked web site for a few pictures.

The self tour consisted of 8 locations including 4 Synagogues starting with The Pinkas Synagogue, The Klausen Synagogue, The Old-New Synagogue, The Maisel Synagogue, and The Spanish Synagogue. The other 4 locations are The Old Jewish Cemetery, The Ceremonial Hall, The Robert Guttmann Gallery, and the Reservation Center. We didn’t get to visit all of them though. Rita also wanted to visit the Jubilee Synagogue although it wasn’t on the self tour.

Out of respect, I wore a Kippah or Yarmulke during my visits to a few of the Synagogues.

First on the tour was The Pinkas Synagogue. The walls had the names, dates of birth and date of death or deportation to German ghettos or extermination camps of Jews that lived in The Czech Republic. There are 80,000 names on the walls throughout this Synagogue.

Next was The Old Jewish Cemetery. Because the Jews can’t close a cemetery to new burials, they had to expand the existing cemetery by adding dirt on top of the existing graves (to a specific depth) and older gravestones were then brought up to the new layer. There are 12,000 tombstones although there are certainly more people buried here. The oldest tombstone marks the grave of Avigdor Kara dated 1439. There are several famous Jews buried here including Rabbi Liwa ben Bezakel associated with The Golem who died in 1609. There are 4 others listed in the brochure.

When we left the Cemetery, we went into The Ceremonial Hall. It was a smaller building and contained information on Jewish customs and traditions. The theme in this location was illness and death in the Prague ghetto and discussion of other Jewish Cemeteries in The Czech Republic. There was also discussion of the Prague Burial Society. There were historical artifacts and text, in Czech and English were written. There is a large historical text sheet with small placards describing specific items.

Next was The Klausen Synagogue. There were originally three buildings which were torn down in the late 19th century and replaced with this one. The building held displays on Jewish customs and traditions. The theme here was on daily life of Jews including birth, bris, bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings and even divorce. There was also description of ceremonies held in the home.

Next we visited The Old-New Synagogue which wasn’t actually part of the self tour. This is the oldest active synagogue. As it was still in use, I was given another kippah to wear when visiting. There also weren’t any displays about Jewish life but it did show a functioning synagogue. And it was built in the 13th century.

Next was The Maisel Synagogue where artifacts regarding Jews from the 10th century to the 19th century described Jewish life including origins and the reasons why Jews were persecuted, something I’d been wondering as I read the text. Generally it was the requirements by the rulers that the Christian religion was the official religion and all had to convert or be persecuted. Since Jews wouldn’t convert, this is how the persecution started. Laws were enacted requiring Jews to live in certain areas (ghettos) and prevented them from competing with Christians. Since Christians couldn’t be moneylenders, Jews took on the role. The state kept the books so if debts got too high, they’d cancel interest or even loans. Eventually even being a moneylender caused persecution. It was all very interesting. 1,000 years of Jewish history in The Czech Republic.

In addition there was an exhibit of the silver used for various Jewish religious artifacts. There was an interesting section on the restoration of such artifacts.

In between the various locations, we saw lots of interesting decorations on the surrounding buildings.

Outside The Spanish Synagogue was a statue inspired by Kafka’s Description of a Struggle.

We stopped for lunch at a bakery. I had a Tandoori kabob (ok but dry), rice (cold and vinegary) and a croissant (good). Rita had a goat cheese salad with hummus. For dessert I had a carrot cake (pretty good but not the best in the world as advertised).

Next door to the bakery was a Deli.

Next was The Spanish Synagogue. So far all the synagogues were beautifully decorated but this one surpassed the others. In addition the text and artifacts were related to the 19th and 20th century including Nazi and Russian occupation. There were historical information on concentration camps and the communist years. One interesting bit was that Czechoslovakia helped with the creation of Israel although thinking it would be a communist middle eastern state. With The Seven Days War, they broke off diplomatic relations. When The Czech Republic gained independence from Russia, they restored relations with Israel.

Rita kept hurrying me along but I like reading about history.

We then hiked over to the Jubilee Synagogue. A beautiful facade but entrance was extra and since it was under construction, we didn’t go in. It was quite interesting from the outside and even the sidewalk had the Star of David in stone.

From there we came back to the hotel to check in to our room. The room itself is pretty nice in general but no internet! I’m shocked. It may be a mistake so we’ll check on the way out.

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Well we checked. In the lobby it’s fine, just not here in the room so I’ll finish the night and head down to post.

Rita had a destination in mind for dinner. We got on the metro and first headed to Mustek to catch the green line out to Dejvicka, the end of the line.

Then we walked into the neighborhood to Staroceska Krcma, an authentic Czech restaurant. It even had American country music playing. See during the communist era, rock and roll was frowned on but country was acceptable plus it fit in with the tramping lifestyle. That’s where people would go and, well not a camping trip but more like live in the woods for vacation. They liked westerns along with country, bell bottoms, etc. So it is authentic.

Rita ordered pork chops with vegetables and I ordered sword meat. Chicken, beef, onions, peppers, wrapped in bacon. I also ordered butchers potatoes which came with nicely done garlic cloves. I also ordered apple strudel with whipped cream. The helpings were large and the food pretty good. Mine came on a wooden platter with an iron plate and the potatoes. The sword was vertical and stuck in a holder. There was a gravy bowl too. The strudel was on a big glass square with powdered sugar and chocolate swirls. Quite different from the dinner itself.

After finishing, we headed back. The metro had warnings pasted on the doors in Czech and English warning about pickpockets. We made it to our stop without trouble. I did zip up the escalator vs waiting on Rita. I was a little out of breath but it was quite a distance 🙂

On our way back to the hotel, we encountered Sunday night drunks, homeless looking for handouts, and roving gangs of… American teenagers laughing. 🙂

Today we left at 9:15 or so heading down to take the tram downtown. Yesterday’s ticket was good until 10:19 so we had time. As we headed down we crossed in front of the church in the peace square and found it open so we went in to check it out. Very large and quite impressive. I expected to see room for a lot of people, like the megachurches in the US, but it likely only held a few hundred people.

Outside we stopped in at the farmer’s market. There are these little buildings in squares throughout the city. Anyplace there’s room, there are 20 to 100 5×10 nice buildings where people sell cheese and sausage, honey, flowers, knick-knacks, and other stuff.

We roamed checking out the wares and unfortunately ran out of time on our tickets. So we hiked on downtown. During the walk, Rita spotted a Games Workshop, Warhammer gaming shop so we stopped in. Nothing other than Warhammer of course but it was interesting to check out. There were folks in the back setting up but we’d best be on our way, so we headed back out and continued on. 🙂

My feet have been pretty sore and in pain at times and now it’s climbed up to impact my calves. So I was really taking it easy and taking my time. The cobblestones were especially painful. Since they’re a little rounded on the top, you essentially spread your toes and the forefoot (like the palm of your hand). The rounded nature also hyperextends your Achilles Tendon. With my motorcycle injury from years ago and the more recent Achilles Tendon issues from a couple of years back, too much walking on cobblestones can be quite painful.

We stopped and got pics here and there until Rita led me into a shopping mall. We were looking for a sculpture. It wasn’t in the first part of the mall so we continued on through the sections until we found it. It was a quite large statue of a guy sitting on the stomach of a dead horse that was hanging by his hooves. It’s a play on the statue in Wenceslas Square.

In order to get to where you can take a good picture, there were several stairs you had to climb. The wall was a pretty large set of stained glass.

Next we headed off to the Municipal House for a guided tour. The tour was quite interesting. The tour was in English and Czech but there were also Germans, French, and Spanish members of the tour. They provided language guide books for everyone.

We went to the main hall where the building itself was discussed. It was originally the King’s Court before they moved into Prague Castle. It was used for other things until it was razed. They decided to build something new and built The Municipal House in 1912. It was a marvel of technology at the time with elevators, air conditioning, which consisted of vents to the outside to let in cooler fresh air, and manufactured marble along with real marble. It fell into disrepair during communist rule and they spend a billion Czech dollars bringing it back including replicas that matched earlier pieces using old photos to recreate pieces.

The organ behind the audience.

The President’s Box

The Mayor’s Box

Next we went to the ladies rooms, first Empire decorated with white marble, gold trim and blue table curtains. There was a white marble bar with a coffee machine behind the bar was a kitchen but it was turned into the conductor’s suite as it was close to the stage.

Next was the Monrovia room which was decorated in the Monrovia style. There was a fancy aquarium with glass and pillars of marble that didn’t fit the Monrovia style. No one knows why it was put there. It looked like someone had extra bits form the creation and made something with it.

Between the Monrovia Room and the Oriental hall was a small writing room with a beautiful mosaic fountain.

Last was the Oriental hall with lamps, extendable tables, and air conditioning vents.

The gentleman’s room was much larger and had three huge triptychs depicting three stages of life on the wall, the three more on the ceiling.

The next room was a bit smaller with pictures depicting dream visions the artist had.

The mayor’s room had more Mocha paintings with prominent figures in Czech history and one or two word motivational statements related to the figure. There were three large paintings as well.

The next room was a music room with a stage and chairs. The guide said there were no paintings on the walls because they didn’t want to have people distracted from the music, or they ran out of money 🙂

Last we headed downstairs to the wine room. It had been converted to a concert hall. The interesting thing was that the windows were nicely lit naturally even though we were below ground.

After she released us, we checked out the other room which was a restaurant but with a nice mosaic on the wall.

In the entry way there were quite a few ladybug mosaics and one of several on the walls.

We then left to find something to eat. Rita had a place in mind for Indian but they didn’t serve lunch buffet on the weekends. We looked for another place but the food was way too expensive. A third place was closed. At this point she was leaving it to me but we stumbled on a place and headed in. It was an authentic working man’s place. Something like a country buffet. You got a ticket when you came in and when you made selections, the person giving it to you wrote down what you got with a code number. You moved to the next place until you were done.

We got chicken goulash with rice, Rita also got something like egg drop soup. We couldn’t find a seat but there were ledges around the walls where you could stand and eat and a couple of standing tables which is where we went. Rita only ate about half of hers so I had mine and the rest of hers. It was filling if not too spicy but it came to about $12 total for the two of us. After we hunted for a smoothie place we visited too late on Wednesday and got two smoothies. They were more like drinks vs the semi liquid smoothies we’re used to but they were good.

From there we headed to the river as Rita wanted to check out the world’s largest card catalog at the library.

I decided to side track into one of the enclosed squares. This looked to be in a music house or theater square.

When we were leaving lunch, we smelled smoke from a fire. Initially I thought it was on purpose, to entice people into a restaurant but when we got to the river, the police roared up and blocked the road to let the firetrucks get to the fire. A building a couple of doors down from the library was on fire!

After watching for a few moments, we went into the library. While it was interesting and we visited two floors (and Rita rattled a door or two), the card catalog room was closed per the librarian.

We left to go through the courtyard but exited on to the street. Next Rita was looking for a plain stone archway which led to the card catalog room. She is persistent 🙂 We headed back to the street where the fire engines were and to the river but it wasn’t there. We reversed and headed back down the street when I was accosted by a money changer.

See there are quite a few places of business where you can exchange foreign money for Czech currency. They note the current exchange rate of 17 Ck to 1 dollar and the rate they’re offering of 16 ck to the dollar (there are decimals involved but they’re making about $0.06 or 1ck per dollar). So we’ve been approached several times by folks on the street offering to “change” for us. Of course, I’m a bit suspicious expecting counterfeit Czech money or even theft. We’ve been getting money from the ATM so we haven’t needed to exchange any so I’ve been waving them off. In this case, the guy was way too far in my personal space and with sore feet, I was on no mood so I said firmly “No!” When he pushed it, I said “NO!” even louder. Then it seemed like he was following us so I stopped to let him go by and I watched him as he did.

We continued on looking for the archway and found it. It was where we exited the library courtyard. We were back where we started 🙂 Rita again looked for the card catalog rattling doors but it was unavailable. I did find a plaque for Johannes Kepler 🙂

From there we decided to head back to our room. It was 4:30 or so and Rita’s back was really bothering her. Oddly my feet were either numb with pain or had recovered a little. I oriented ourselves with the map. While I was doing so, a group stopped and asked if we knew where we were. I said yes and pointed us out on the map, then she wanted to know where the Town Square was and I pointed the way in the map. Once we were off, I led us to the nearest metro stop (Mostek pronounced Moose-tek). We got tickets for a 20 minute ride (18 ck each) and headed back.

I didn’t realize until later that these might have been pickpockets. We’ve had warnings about pickpocket gangs on The Charles Bridge as well as The Jewish Cemetery where a woman would thrust a map under your face while an accomplice picked your pocket. We’d taken precautions from the beginning. My wallet and iPhone were in my front pockets and my iPad in an over the shoulder bag that was cross shouldered. As it was in a zippered area, it would have been hard to open although a box cutter or razor on a ring would have sliced it open to have it drop out. With the weight I would have noticed. Rita did mention that it looked like a daughter and parents rather than a pickpocket gang but it is hard to tell for sure.

Back at the hotel we were going to get dinner at the Indian place next to door but I was more tired than hungry and took a nap after running to the mini market for Rita (I did get an ice cream). When I woke, Rita had zipped over for a snack and here we are.

Just a quick note. Sometimes these seem a little sparse, like yesterday. I was totally beat and just wanted to get something down. Tonight should be a little better as I took a nap before working on the blog. I’ll update these with pics when we get back.

Rita decided today that we’d be riding the Trams instead of walking for which my feet were grateful. We started out but it was cold enough that we turned around and grab our coats. We did a little touring on the way of course.

At the metro, we bought a pair of day passes for 100 ck. Oddly a three day pass was 330 ck but a five day pass 500 ck. Not sure why three days were 30 more. We got on tram 22. Rita mentioned we might visit the Prague Castle. A guy nicely said it was in the other direction. He didn’t know we were wandering around and that we’d get to the castle. But friendly folks of course 🙂

We say several interesting buildings on the way out including one that was multi color and a couple of Jetson like buildings with futuristic designs. We rode to the end and hopped off. I snapped a quick one of the tram heading our way at the end of the line.

We got off at the stop with the colored building (Nikon) and headed out to walk a little.

Rita had been looking for a herb shop and spotted one on our way out which was why we got off at this stop. We headed over to see if they had what Rita wanted. Unfortunately the lady wasn’t able to understand enough of what Rita wanted to help. We headed up the street a couple of blocks and started in on a series of stores starting with a book store. Rita was looking for a wifi-hotspot so she could use her iPhone translator to come up with the correct wording. We spotted a book store and Rita found a wifi-hotspot but she also mentioned a Magic The Gathering sign out front so of course I had to drop in.

We stepped in and I looked around. Back in the corner was a sic-fi and hobby corner. There were several board games, Arkham Horror in Czech but it’s a huge box and not easy to carry back in my luggage, plus a bit on the expensive side. There were a couple of others I also recognized; Small World, Axis & Allies, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and even Agricola. There were a couple of books that looked game like but I wasn’t sure enough to take a chance. I really wanted a Shadowrun book or at least something I recognized.

I finally settled on a Terry Pratchett book called Pravda (Truth). I thought it was particularly appropriate :). The woman was very friendly and tried to be helpful but didn’t know any English. When I brought the book up, she said, “Czech, Czech?” I got what she said in a second. Smiling, I confirmed I wanted a book in Czech, I said “souvenir” which she seemed to understand 🙂 and I asked how much. She told me but I didn’t understand. In a sec, she wrote down the price, 245 ck 🙂 somewhat on the pricy side at $14 but something I wanted. Plus it had a cool cover 🙂

Back on the street, Rita had a translation for her word and we headed back to the herb shop. This time she understood but didn’t have what Rita wanted. We headed back the way we came (the bookstore) and on. We stopped for a snack at a minimart then got back on the tram.

This time we continued on past our stop to Prague Castle, of at least the nearest stop. I was jonesing for a gyro. I’d had them in Athens and back in Colorado and while Colorado was pretty good, it wasn’t quite as good as the one in Athens. I figured I’d get a good one here in Prague as well so upon getting off of the tram, I spotted a gyro shop and we headed over. Oddly they only offered beef and chicken and were out of beef. So I got a chicken gyro. There were several options in the window and the guy didn’t quite understand English so I just pointed and got cabbage, lettuce, onion, and something else with chili powder and wrapped with a tortilla. Rita got a Felafel plate.

I have to say, it was probably the worst “gyro” I’ve ever had. Rita wasn’t too happy with hers either saying the felafel balls were mostly tasteless.

We headed over to a Starbucks if you can believe it and while Rita hit the bathroom and got coffee, I updated the blog.

From here we planned on heading up to the castle. We went by the Parliament Building which was in the same square as Starbucks, then did some back alley exploring until we headed up to the castle stairs. We also stopped by the British Embassy which was tucked in a little alley.

Then we followed the road a bit locate the stairs. We stopped at a few art shops along the way but the art was a tad on the expensive side.

Check out the arrow slits in the walls.

They’re narrow on the defender side and wide and lower on the attacker side. So the archer has a small window where he can be hit but a wide outside the wall so he has a nice field of fire.

There was a nice view on the way up the stairs.

The first place we saw was the Archbishops Palace (Arcibiskupský palác) which is to the left of the main palace gates.

Across the square was the Schwarzenberg Palace (Schwarzenberský palác v Praze) with very interesting wall carvings.

At the main gate to the palace, the guards are changed out hourly with some ceremony. In the mean time they are much like the British guards in that they are not permitted to move. The interesting item is that when they gained their independence again, they contacted a famous, costumer is probably not the best word but he gathered information from prior to Communism and created the new uniforms for the guards.

The six armed statues on the top of the palace was pretty creepy. The faces looked like a sack with a slit for the mouth.

The inner courtyard had a fountain and a deep well.

Once through the second gate, we were at St Vitus Cathedral. It had quite a few spires and was pretty impressive.

We followed it around to the other side. There was a pretty cool mosaic above one of the entrances with a couple of interesting ones inside over the doors.

There was a toy museum on the left on the way to the other steps. We went into the court yard but wasn’t interested in seeing 50 years of Barbie. 🙂

Over to the side was what looked like some sort of stage but there were bars on the windows.

On the way out and towards the stairs, we spotted someone standing very still. Having dealt with folks like this on the Pearl Street Mall (a cowboy painted all in copper), we waited for a sec and he replied to a couple getting pics.

While heading down the stairs, we saw a different wall down below that looked melted. Turns out it was a dripstone wall in the Wallenstein Gardens.

We finished going down the stairs and hunted for the wall. We did go a little far and eventually turned back to find the gardens. It took a couple of questions to the guards but eventually we found the right way in and went in to check it out.

To the right was a large “outdoor arcade-lined space for relaxation and entertainment. Built in the early baroque style in the first half of the 17th century. It is decorated with scenes from the Trojan War painted by unknown artists.”

Rita hit the bathroom as I checked out the wall. The bathrooms are an interesting proposition. There are different configurations depending on where you are. There seems to be two entrances in public places with someone, man or woman tending the place and taking money. Five ck in the metro. Ten ck in the tourist areas. In the restaurant there was a single entrance with urinals to the right but if a guy had to use the toilet, he shared the room with the ladies on the left. And manning the WC (Water Closets) has to be one of the worst jobs.

Something else. Everything costs something. You don’t get water free, it’s either “sparkling” or “still” water and it comes in a bottle. Even getting a second spoon for a “shared dessert” costs extra. Rita said the bread they put out with dinner is added to the meal if you eat it.

One more thing. There isn’t the problem with breasts here. There in advertising all over and one ad for underwear let you confirm her hair color. I guess with all the artwork, it would be odd to be prudish about it in ads.

From the gardens, we headed back to the square we had arrived in earlier and headed towards the Charles Bridge. Rita had a restaurant in mind for us to try that was on the river and below the Kafka Museum. We’d started over The Charles Bridge and had to double back to find the right path. Going through one of the squares, we found a narrow alley to a bar that was so narrow it even had a pedestrian stoplight so folks could get in and out. Must be hairy in a fire although I guess you’d just jump in the river 🙂

To the left, we found the Kafka Museum and the restaurant we wanted to try. The courtyard had an interesting sculpture.

We didn’t know this at the time, but the hips are connected to the internet. You can text a message to them and they’ll pee your message in the water. Otherwise they pee quotes.

The restaurant was to the right and below the museum. It was very upscale looking and the prices the highest we’d seen so far. I ordered Salmon and Rita a spinach salad. The Salmon was very good. I also ordered cheesecake which I thought was ok although Rita thought it was very good. At the end, the meal was 805 ck. I sort of gasp at this but it works out to be $47 which was worth it, the meal was quite good. I also got some pics of the river while we waited.

The Charles Bridge from our seats.

Once done, we headed back to the Charles Bridge and started over. There are 30 statues with interesting stories. One was of a priest that the king trussed up in armor and threw into the river because he wouldn’t tell the king what his wife confessed to. If you rub his statue, you’re supposed to return to Prague.

There was statue of Jesus where he had two fingers up in a peace sign and some vandal had broken the index finger off so he had just the middle finger up. One thing we were warned about were pickpocket gangs specifically on The Charles Bridge. We were very observant and none hit the area apparent time we were there.

We continued on into the heavy touristy crowd checking out the shops and shows. There were several marionette shops. Pretty cool. Plus lots of interesting artwork. After a bit, we wandered by the Astronomical Clock. It was almost 7 so we waited a few minutes and got free hugs 🙂

Eventually we found the metro and headed back to our room.

We’d been out for 7 hours. My feet hadn’t quite given in yet but it was a close call.

We took lots of pictures. I had a hard time picking just a few above. Feel free to head over to the main site for all the pictures.

We got up yesterday at 6:30 ish and after a shower, headed down for breakfast. Here breakfast is eggs, sausage, fruit, vegetables, yoghurt, milk, orange juice, water, salami, cheese, bread, rolls, and more. Rita made yoghurt with granola and discovered it was sour cream :). As she has issues with dairy, I put peaches in it and finished it for her while she got the real yoghurt.

After breakfast, we headed out to our first stop at the TV tower. It was to open at 9am and we wanted to see the sights from there. We headed over to the big Church first in case it was open to the public for mass and wandered through the park on the way. It was a pretty nice day so far and we spotted a statue in the park along with folks walking dogs (there are a lot of dogs here).

The church was open so we decided to explore it a little. I didn’t want to wander around too much and make noise in case folks were meditating.

Once we explored the church, we headed on over to the TV tower.

When we got there, we discovered it wasn’t open yet and that the times were different than noted in the guide book. The tower opened at 10am instead of 9am. We wandered around a little. On the other side of the tower is a long building with big pipes and such. Either TV related equipment or more likely, the hydraulics and other equipment to manage the tower.

We did some more exploring of the Jewish Cemetery that’s next door to the tower. Rita wanted to go on a tour but tours were Monday, Wednesday and Friday so we’d have to wait.

We continued downhill which was something I didn’t think about much until now. Hills, even small ones are a part of the city. When driving you don’t notice it as much but walk and it becomes pretty obvious. Rita wasn’t talking so I didn’t find out until we got there that we were heading towards Vitkov National Memorial.

On the way we passed several interesting buildings. It seems there’s a church every few blocks. When you have to walk, church has to be close by and not a mega-church with 1,000 cars in the parking lots.

The Vitkov National Memorial is on the top of a fairly steep hill with a narrow road up along with several paths that seem to wend their way up. We took the road partly because we couldn’t see where the paths went. One we were on dead ended. We also went past the Military Museum which had a large tank out front.

There’s a very large patio in front of the statue. The entrance is off to the right and towards the other end of the building. The building itself is very impressive. The guidebook says it might look like a nuclear power plant but the inside decorations were very impressive.

While we waiting for the gate to open (we were a little early), we wandered around the outside and I snagged a few city pictures. The picture of the TV Tower looked very out of place from a distance. I can see why the population think it’s an eyesore. I’ll snag more pictures from various distances.

Inside we had several choices for tickets including paying an additional 50ck to be allowed to take pictures. If you recall, this is about $3 but it’s on top of 180 ck each for full access admission (about $10 each) which includes roof access in addition to the museum.

The folks tending the museum were dressed in dark suits and looked very official but the suits seemed ill fitting.

We went right and entered the first chamber. The nice thing is they have the signs in Czech and English. The first area discussed the space race and how advertising had a space related bent as the space race heated up. There was moon rock and a small Czech flag that was on Apollo 11 and presented by President Nixon. There was a test panel for planes, a motorcycle, and other gear.

The next area had Examples of daily life, furniture, dishes, clothes, food, even alcohol. Clothes were grey unless it was hand made. One anecdote was that folks who vacationed at The Black Sea knew what country folks were from based on the color of the swim suit. There was a large section on work life. One showed a woman farmer and how much she received when she retired. Another woman worked in a textile factor which turned out manufactured thread (like polyester) but in her entire life, she couldn’t afford to buy clothes made from the cloth and wore hand made clothes. Miners were the highest paid workers. Of course military officers had higher pay with officials receiving the highest pay and benefits.

After that we visited the area under the monument where Klement Gottwald’s remains were managed. He died not long after Lenin and like Lenin, doctors attempted to maintain the corpse for public viewing. You had to go through a very beautiful room with quite a few intricate mosaics.

The doctors had a Frankenstein lab of 50’s era panels used to maintain his corpse, much like Lenin. They weren’t as adept as the doctors maintaining Lenin’s corpse. The corpse deteriorated and in 1962 he was cremated. There was the large preservation room and the elevator which brought him up to the mausoleum for display. Pretty creepy really.

We went upstairs to the main museum. At the entrance was a map of The Czech Republic surrounded by a few artifacts. A couple of Czech stamps in sealed containers with magnifying devices above them, a feather pen in a long lit tube, and a video device (there were a few in various places around the museum). Across from the entrance was a room with several mosaics.

In the center of the main room was a smaller room with a ramp up of the history of the Czechs. It started with 1918 when the Czechs gained independence from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (The House of Habsburg) after WW I, 1938 and the Munich Agreement when the Germans annexed the Sudetenland with England’s Chamberlain permitting it, 1945 when the Germans were expelled and when the Communist party gained majority to bring Czechoslovakia into the Eastern Block, and 1989 when the Czechs again gained independence.

Outside this room were crypts and three glass enclosures with examples of various parts of Czech life. Military uniforms, medals, and gear. Scouting uniforms and gear. Women and the ethnic dress and gear. Tramping dress, very like the old west with knives, heavy boots, and other outdoor equipment. And one of old time Czech uniforms with historical information on how folks who were members were abused by Communists.

Beyond that was the main crypt with important figures in Czech history. There were electronic displays detailing information about the people interred here although it was in Czech so we weren’t able to read about them.

There was quite a lot of history presented. It was done well and quite organized. It was all very interesting to read and view.

We headed up to the 3rd floor to the cafe and then to the roof. We had to go through the gathering hall. Very big room with a large statue. There were three guys waiting at the entrance to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. An elevator took us to the 4th floor. One of the guys went with us to manipulate the elevator and to have us watch our heads getting to the roof. It was a maintenance access area but the view was spectacular and quite breezy. We looked over the city then headed back down and out.

One thing to note. If you look at all the street pictures, you see 4 and 5 story buildings pretty much everywhere in the center of Prague. Sometimes you can see a road where you can go through the middle of a block but more often you see an opening through to the other side which is gated. In standing on the Memorial, you can see the city a bit better and see that blocks are just that, big squares with a central area. Look in this picture.

You can see the block but inside you see extensions of the block or even smaller houses, some greenery and a tree or two. Interesting how this works out.

We next headed farther down towards the river and to lunch. I had a homemade spicy sausage and mashed potatoes with cheese that was pretty good. Rita bought the chili. While we were in a non smoking area, it didn’t mean we weren’t exposed to smoke 🙂

After lunch, we went to the train station which was across the street. Rita had heard there was an interesting, if sooty mosaic in the station and wanted to check it out. We wandered around the station a bit but we didn’t find it. We went to the train info desk but the guy didn’t know much English. Rita was asking how to get to the second floor to see the mosaic. He didn’t understand and refused to let us up into the second floor where he was; it looked like access to the administrative offices which of course is off limits. Fortunately the next guy in line could speak some English and was able to help. He said we were at the first Prague train station and not the main one. He gave us directions, we thanked him and headed out 🙂 We actually didn’t make it to the station though.

On our way we spotted an interesting tower. The Powder Tower. There was a guy dressed up outside chatting up a girl. When we asked (there weren’t any signs), he confirmed it was The Powder Tower and we could certainly head up for a look. There was a narrow bit of stairs going up and at the first landing, a display of arms and some fake armor for tourist shots. There was a price board which would have been nice to see had it been on the ground floor instead of half way up. We looked around, got some pics and headed back down the stairs.

Next door was the Czech Opera House. We snapped some outside pics and headed in for a peek before heading on.

Rita wanted to go to Moser, a glass store to check out famous Czech glass. We headed back towards Wenceslas Square and stopped at the shopping center. I spotted the big billboard covering a building. I expect it’s mesh of some sort as there are windows behind it.

Next was the Mucha Museum. No Pictures! Check the website for a couple of pics. He was a famous Czech artist who got his start creating posters for Sarah Bernhardt’s plays which were very fun and creative. He also spent 18 years creating The Slav Epic. A multi panel painting depicting Slav history which was presented to the Czechs in 1928. When they declared independence in 1918, he created the designs for their money, stamps, and medals. When the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia, he was taken and interrogated. He was released but due to his treatment, he died not long after. One of the cool things was he would do a lot of photos of models posing them the way he wanted it in his painting. He’d get a pose correct and get a photo. After he had sufficient for a collage, he’d paint the scene.

We did some more hiking around town including checking out the “Fred and Ginger” leaning building which was pretty cool.

We went across a bridge to one of the islands and looked around. Across the river I could see stairs leading down the side.

Turns out that was a bathroom (WC or Water Closet). 🙂 Back across the bridge and up ahead was the Photo Exhibition building.

On the other side of the building were a couple of floating hotel/restaurants.

And of course the river itself.

That’s a lock where boats coming down the river would come in, have the lock behind them closed and the water lowered (or raised of course) so they could continue on their way. You can see another island a little farther down the river.

Rita spotted this and snapped a quick pic.

It means Prague Manhole Cover 🙂

It seems that around every corner was some interesting building or another. Ahead was an old church dome or clock tower.

Eventually we head back up the hill to find dinner. We’d been walking 9 hours. Allergies had been kicking in all day and my feet were really having problems with the cobblestones.

Rita found this nice pizza place with a patio. We checked out the menu which had several types of pizza. This was a California Pizza type place in their options. “Hawai pizza” for example with pineapples. Rita asked about Pepperoni pizza which the waiter pointed out. It had Italian bacon and several cheeses. When I got it, it had peppers. Green, yellow, and red peppers :). It was still pretty good and likely better for me 🙂

We Hiked the rest of the way up the hill to our room. I posted several pics on Facebook but went to sleep not long after. I was beat.

I did wake up about 2:30am and had a hard time getting back to sleep but eventually made it and we were up again at 7 am.