We wake up this morning and the sun is shining.  Yeah!!  After our home cooked breakfast of eggs, toast and coffee we head off.  Stopping at our front desk we ask about the Hop-On Hop-Off tour.  We are taking the night train to Krakow tomorrow night, so we will have all day tomorrow to fill with activities as well.  We can buy a  48 hour Hop-On/Off ticket for 600 K (Crowns) each (about $68 CAD for both of us).  This includes 3 different lines and a boat trip.  OK.  Sold!

Our first Hop-On is just around the corner from our apartment/hotel.  We head first to Prague Castle which is a few stops away for us.  Just as we are arriving the changing of the guards begin.  This is in the street leading to the inner castle where the ceremony takes place.  We get a pretty great show as they march by us.

Prague Castle is more than just a castle.  It is a whole complex of buildings and according to Wikipedia:

The castle buildings represent virtually every architectural style of the last millennium.

 

They are getting a new roof.  I hope they have saved enough crowns!  Looks like a big job.

 

 

 

Lots of people to see the guards change and lots of selfie sticks poking up over the crowds to get a look at the action.

 

 

 

There is a huge staircase leading back down towards the Charles Bridge.  Named after one of the good and great Czech kings Charles IV.  Interestingly he is succeeded by King Wenceslaus, who wasn’t “a Good King Wenceslaus”.  Again according to Max he liked Wine, Women and Wenceslaus!

 

 

 

 

Now time for some lunch and pivo (beer).  We find this little place.  It even serves “Stewed Salmon”.  How appropriate 🙂

 

 

 

Instead we have Goulash Soup in a bread bowl.  The recipe passed down from the owners grandmother (maybe they all say that)!

 

 

 

We see this weird thing driving down the street.  Four people (looks like they can have 5) peddling like mad and one steerer.  They face each other.  The have a little table in the middle.  It must feel odd peddling and going sideways!  Probably a tour??

 

 

Next – Hop-On the boat.  Very civilized.  However, a bottle of water costs exactly the same as beer.  Not sure which one is wrong?

 

 

Perfect day for a cruise along the Vltava!  We have been waiting for some sunshine and warmth. 🙂

 

 

It is August 21.  The anniversary of the Prague Spring.  In Wenceslaus Square they are gearing up for a party!  Hopefully they have a permit 🙂
In the evening we head back to the river to get some awesome shots of Prague Castle lit up.  Our tour guide Max told us that The Rolling Stones paid to have the lighting installed and for several years of power bills as the Czech government didn’t have the dosh for trivial things like this.  I’m sure it was a great deal for them.  Thousands of people line the river and the Charles Bridge to view it.

We learned from our tour guide yesterday that the Czech government recently voted down a proposed ban on smoking indoors.  He said the people were not happy with that decision.  It seems that smoking in a restaurant is up to the individual establishment.  The result is we cannot assume that dining indoors will be smoke free in the Czech Republic.  The restaurant we ate at last night had a smoking section upstairs and non-smoking down.  We have been noticing some non-smoking signs in some restaurants and others with ashtrays on the tables.  Guess which ones we will spend our money with 🙂

The day is brighter and dry!  A great day for walking and photos.  This photo shows a memorial to student Jan Palach who committed suicide by self immolation (setting himself on fire) to protest the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1969.  This is a very subtle memorial.  I had to google it to find out what it was.

 

This city has stunning architecture.  I can imagine these buildings when they were built.  Such opulence and grandeur.

 

We ended up doing something our guide from yesterday told us not to do.  Go to the Charles Bridge in the middle of the day!  Prague in August is something!

We bumped into our Chilean train compartment-mates twice today and once yesterday.  There are thousands of people in this city.  How weird is it that we see them so often 🙂

Our wandering took us to the John Lennon Wall.  A wall we knew nothing about until today.  Here is some info Wikipedia kindly provided.

The Lennon Wall or John Lennon Wall, is a wall in Prague, Czech Republic. Once a normal wall, since the 1980s it has been filled withJohn Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles’ songs.

To read more Lennon Wall

 

We happened upon this outdoor food court just after the Lennon Wall.  Sooo many good things cooking.  They have beer and wine stands as well.  You find a “standup” table and enjoy your lunch!

 

 

 

We have seen similar sites in other European cities, but this is the biggest collection we have seen.  Hundreds of pad locks locked to the railing here near the Lennon Wall.  The deal is this – lovers pledge their love, lock the lock and toss the key into the water

♥ ♥ ♥

We sleep a bit later today as we control our own breakfast.  I make coffee while someone else sleeps a bit longer.  🙂

So far it is dry outside but overcast.  By the time we get going at about 10:15 it is drizzling again.  We have decided to take one of the “Free Walking Tours” offered in the old town.  The streets are a sea of umbrellas (except for us.  We purposely did not pack ANY rain or cold weather clothing!  It is summer, we are packing light, what are the odds????)  We cave and buy a 99 koruna ($5 CAD) umbrella and become one of the crowd.

 

We enter the square with the Astronomical Clock at about 10:45.  The clock does it’s performance on the hour and there are many people gathered to witness it.  We see a young man (Max) with an umbrella advertising free tours in English.  We chat briefly with him and discover that he is from the San Francisco area and has been travelling since graduating university trying to find himself 🙂  He also tells us that the Astronomical Clock is the 2nd most overrated tourist attraction in Europe.  We wait for the performance and agree it is a bit underwhelming.

We find Max who is now gathering his tour participants.  We spend 2.5 hours with him hearing interesting details of Prague’s history. We find this great street!  It’s great rulers, it’s not so great rulers.  The boom times and the opposite.  He was very entertaining and knowledgeable.  Worthy of a 20 Euro tip at the end of the Free Tour 🙂

 

We head to the pub under the place that Mozart lived and caroused.  They have great ribs there so we share one order and it seems it is a 2 beer lunch day.

 

 

 

Apparently Stu is back into the “Girly Beer” 🙂

 

 

 

While there we witness something VERY STRANGE.  Into the restaurant about 8 people enter.  They walk in a line towards the stairs that lead to the toilets.  There are men and women and they are all dressed oddly.  They are all very thin and the men are wearing suits that appear to be at least 2 sizes too big.  Some with brief cases, some without.  The women were also dressed oddly.  They all seemed much too formal for the pub and even for Prague they stood out.  A while later the parade re-appears from downstairs and walks out of the restaurant.  This time there were no women, only men, more men than originally came in.  The way they were dressed make me recall the old war movies like Stalag 17 and the Great Escape where there was a prisoner who was a tailor who made suits for all the men that were to escape so that they would blend in.  Or concentration camp refugees??  These people seemed so “out of time”,  and what happened to the women???  I went downstairs to use the washroom and found a mens room and a womens room plus another room for private parties.  The room seemed empty and was quiet.  A Mystery in Prague!!

Planning to go to Krakow in a few days we head to the main train station to purchase tickets on the night train.  We reserve two beds in a 4 person couchette.  The train ride is 8 hours so this way we don’t waste a day travelling and a hotel room.  The ticket agent wasn’t a very jovial fellow.  The ticket price is in koruna.  He says 3,169.  Yikes it sounds like a fortune.  Actually about $170 CAD for transportation and hotel.

We need to have some dinner.  I am still feeling full from our lunch so we wander around the area our apartment is in.  We find an Italian place nearby so decide to give it a try.  I only want soup!   My family will be amazed to hear that I ordered “Tomato Soup”!!  It is approaching a year since I was in the hospital where once I was eating on my own I felt I had a steady diet of tomato soup.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I couldn’t face tomato soup for a very long time.  This however, is not your Campbell’s variety.  A very nice Italian variety!