Exploring Prague

June 27 Tuesday Oh dear! I'm falling behind. It's just one day but yesterday is fuzzy. Our place:

Today, we plan to do Rick Steves walking tour. But first we go out to fi d walking sticks for me. I will want them for some of the Road Scholar days. We won'tbe flyong before then so I can get them now, There is an outdoor, hiking store about a 10 minute walk away. We find some for about $25. Don't need fancy ones sinceI won't be able to take them home with me on the plane. Nick gets a little fanny pack with water carriers for hiking. On the way back to our place, we stop and get Take Away coffee and 2 pieces of what looks like pecan pie but is walnuts rather than pecans. Very goodand just enough to get us going for the day. We head down the hill to the starting point of our tour. It starts under the horses tail of the statue. Rick tells us that is a popular meeting place for the locals. The big impressive building is an art museum. The staue is of good king Wenceles of Christmas carol fame. This whole area is important to the Czech people. Their history is one of many fights for freedom from various invaders. The long central square is where protests and celebrations have been held for many centuries.

We start down the hill, admiring the neo classical buildings. We're in the section of Prague called New Town. Here we find modern buildings interspersed with old. Modern malls hidden behind shop entrances. Rick points us in the direction of one of the mall entrances. Once we're inside, we see the attraction. A statue of an upside down horse, hanging from the ceiling with King Wenceles riding it. This is to show his determination to push forward even when things have turned upside down.

Pleasant little gardens are interspersed just off the main avenue. I'm busy taking pictures of many of the unique buildings lining the streets. We go in to the municipal building which was built at the height of the rococo period. It is beautiful and impressive. Tomorrow night there is going to be a concert of the symphonie playing Dvorack Four Seaons. Webuy tickets fo attend, And there is a show of work by Mucha. This is one of Christina's favorite artists. We buy tickets and go up the several flights to the exhibit. Now, Mucha is an artist that I like as well.

After the exhibit, we're ready for lunch and a Mexican place is near that has a review that says it's the best Mexican food they've had in all of Europe. We figure we'll see if we agree. The menu has the right stuff on it, it smells like corn tortillas, we're greeted in Spanish. An order of tacos is with three tacos. We decide to each order a different one so that we can try more different ones. The waiter is from Guatemala and the cook is from Mexico City. We make our way to the armory gates. Once we go through here, we're in a differnet world and enter Old Town. Now I see more why people rave about Prague. Now it isn't cool buildings interspersed, every building is much older and unique. The clock is around the corner. We make our way to the Charles bridge. now it is a pedestrian bridge. One of the statues is to Saint John who refused to share the Queen's secrets or confessions with the king and was thrown off the bridge.

What kids do in Prague on a Hot day.

We go back to the clock and enjoy a really big strawberry icecream AND catch the clock doing it's hourly thing. The doors open and there is a little parade of carved people. The doors close again. I'm glad we didn't stand in the hot sun to see it but rather in the comfort of the cafe enjoying our incredible ice cream. For dinner we go to an Irish pub. It really isn't that Irish but we enjoy ourselves.