Friday May 29th Prague, in the rain and cold…about 40 degrees

We woke up with the ambition to cover all of Prague before it rained today, which the Weather Channel had predicted to start around noon. At 8:00 am it was still bright and sunny, although a little chilly, so we got out on the street just in time to make the 9:15 Prague City Tour including Prague Castle, where we were hoping to admire the grandeur of St. Vitus Cathedral and have a stunning view over the whole of Prague…but it was cold and rainy and very crowded. We stood out in the wind and cold for about 20 minutes and then we headed back to the bus.

Our city tour in the warmth of the bus was divine, seeing the old city, the new city, and many sites in between. Prague has a long a complicated history, having been taken over by the Austrians, French, Germans, Habsburgs, and then the Russians before regaining independence in 1989 in the Velvet Revolution. Only 4 short years later, there was the Velvet Divorce as Czechoslovakia split into two countries – the Czech Republic (with Prague as its capital) and Slovakia (with Bratislava as its capital, and where we stayed last week).

As promised, it started to rain exactly at 12 noon. However, shortly after lunch, if can you believe at TGI Friday’s, it stopped raining and we strolled through the city, shopped and took loads of pictures. We first headed off to buy the famous Bohemian crystal and look for the cheaper tourist souvenirs off the beaten path in the new city. Of course, it started to rain again, as soon as we got to the open air market, but that didn’t stop our hunt for just the right gifts to purchase.

After a pitstop back the hotel to drop off our new acquisitions, we headed out to the Jewish Quarter, called Josefov. Unfortunately, the synagogues and cemetery were closed since it was a Jewish holiday. They are also closed on Saturday, so we will have missed this site completely. We peeked through the gates and could see enough to know we missed a site. However, the outsides of the buildings are still there, and the most interesting thing is the wall clock outside of the town (precinct) hall, with a clock in Hebrew that runs backwards! Of course, when it started to rain again, we ducked back into the nearest souvenir shops to make some more acquisitions.

The rain slowed down a bit, so we made our way through the winding Karlova (street) to the Charles Bridge. We couldn’t resist even more tourist shops, but had to rest to have a 5:00 o’clock glass of wine and beer at an Italian restaurant. From here, we went to the garnet store that Mary had shopped 4 years ago, “just to have a look”. Next door was a Russian “embedded doll” store, with all kinds of US sports teams. Needless to say, both shops were happy to see us, and gladly took our money.

However, the rest of our day was wonderful but David is worried to death as to where all of our shopping bags are going to fit in his car.

After a delicious traditional Czech dinner (lots of dumplings, pancakes, lamb, pork, chicken and duck…a little chocolate to top it all off.) in a 16th century cellar restaurant (it had started raining again), we headed back to the main square and arrived just in time to see the astronomical clock chime in the Old Town Hall Tower. What a sight that is to see the twelve apostles appear in the window of the old clock every hour on the hour. This Town Hall was built originally in 1338 and refurbished in 1470…pretty old and beautiful.

All day slipping and sliding on the cobblestones we knew that it was likely disaster was going to strike….and it did, but not on the streets. Mary fell going up the steps from the grocery and bummed up her shin and wrist. It was scary but she didn’t break anything and after a hot tub, a first aid bandage from the car and David playing doctor, she felt much better. Tomorrow we are off to see Konopište Castle, the home of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (of Austria-Hungary), but more about that tomorrow…