Jamiewrites: Prague Day 3

We'd booked in a tour of the Prague Castle - we were supposed to be doing a Segway tour of the castle district because someone has been keen to do a Segway tour since we started planning this whole adventure; however, that someone was so excited while trying to book it that she clicked on the wrong one - but in the end this turned out to be a better option, even though the person other than that someone was keen to try Segways as well. But the on-foot tour went to a lot of places the Segway tour couldn't/wouldn't have, and those were quite interesting.

Before that, though, we wanted breakfast. We'd spotted the James Dean cafe in our meanderings, and saw that they did American breakfasts, which Rochelle was keen for and I was content with. It's an interesting place, set out like a 50s diner from top to bottom, even the uniforms. There's a lot of pop culture in the design as well.

But on the way there we saw our first Czech shibe - and, on our way out of there, we saw our second.

The castle tour (sans Segways) took us in the 'back entrance' - our tour guide said it'd be quicker because there's a lot of security - through the gardens and from there through the place. It's really not so much a castle as it is a complex with a bunch of buildings in it, including several churches. So, off we went.

After that we wandered down the hill to catch a tram that would take us to a funicular up a different hill to see Petrin Tower, which is like a mini-Eiffel tower. We didn't end up going up it, but instead went wandering around the parklands so see what we could find.

The weather had turned quite miserable by this point, but we were determined to see more of the city and heading out to Letna park. We didn't find much there at all, sadly, but we did decide we needed to get to the Lennon Wall, so we jumped on the next tram that would get us in that direction.

I realised we were near the Kafka museum, so we decided to check that out. No photos inside, but it's quite fascinating.

Weather had cleared up a bit so we opted to walk over the Charles Bridge to see all the statues. Near the end there was a guy with a couple of albino pythons which you could pay him to touch.

There's an intesting Kafka's head installation as well, so we found that. It moves about - by which I mean the segments do; it doesn't have legs or wheels (though that would be cool).

Some guy pranged his Maserati. That's not going to be a cheap repair job, but I guess if you can afford a Maserati, you'd have good insurance.

Rochelle discovered there was an Ice Pub we could go to, so we did. Unsurprisingly, it's effing cold. We were supposed to be in there for half an hour, but neither of us were unhappy that it was closer to twenty minutes. There wasn't really anything to do, and I was starting to feel weird, even with the poncho and gloves.

Had dinner - more traditional Czech; R had a schnitzel and I had duck with red cabbage, which was excellent, even if getting through the dumplings was once again a challenge.

[yes, I need to get pictures from Rochelle]

Happened across this library with a cool sculpture.

Finally had a trdlenka for dessert - these are like the tower cakes in Budapest, but we got one with ice cream. Total scam for tourists, but it was still nice.

When we got home - at a fairly reasonable hour - I decided I'd do my laundry, as was the plan. However, this was thrown out a bit when we realised that the machine in our apartment was a very modern, water-and-energy-saving one; apparently, the way it achieves this is by spending four or five times as long on the wash cycle. The basic one was something like THREE HOURS, and that didn't include drying time. So, ended up staying up far later than intended and still not getting all the way through; I let it get to the rinse/spin cycle and shut it off, with the plan to do the rest tomorrow.

St Vitus Cathedral. I put this here 'cause Facebook likes to take the first image when I post there.