Jamiewrites: Prague Day 4

Despite the fact we'd pretty much worked out how to use the washing machine - it just needs a long time, so you would kick it off when you left and it would be done when you got home - Rochelle was a bit concerned (understandably; she had fewer options than I did given she was off to London in a few day, and laundry there is a bigger issue), so she found a laundry service where they'd do it same day, albeit for a fairly obnoxious amount of money by Prague standards (so, about $30 AUD; it's amazing how short a time it takes for you to get used to the lower cost of things here and you get picky) but at least it was only around the corner from our apartment. We'd just have to come back before the place shut to collect it.

I set the washing machine in the apartment to do the rest of my laundry, with the plan being I'd check it when we brought Rochelle's back to the apartment and then run the drying cycle.

We didn't see a shibe but saw an akita (first time ever for me), which is like the shibe's bigger sibling. I don't like them as much; they don't seem as aesthetically proportional. But the people who had the akita also had a samoyed, and it'd been ages since I've seen one of those.

The weather was fairly nice so we just went wandering and took in a few of the sights, including trekking up one of the old city towers to enjoy the view. We had tickets to a concern at one of the small palaces that are part of the Prague Castle complex, so we headed up there; unfortunately, I made the bad choice to trust Google (what was I thinking?) over a sign Rochelle saw and we ended up at the wrong place (still not sure why there was more than one location for what should be the same place, but hey) and had to leg it to get there, including a slow-moving security check. But we only missed the first song of the set and got to enjoy the rest of it.

It was excellent - got to hear a few more pieces that I'd probably never hear live anywhere else, including one of my favourites, a section of Mozart's piano sonata no. 11 (the bit called 'Turkish March') and all (rather than just the first few bars) of 'Für Elise'. There was some others, obviously, but I have either packed the flyer with the program somewhere I can't be bothered looking for it, or Rochelle has it.

We then went on a tour of the palace, which was mostly about the family. But they did have some interesting things in their collection, including some of Mozart and Beethoven's actual scores.

Once that was done we collected Rochelle's laundry and went back to the apartment to drop it off and check that mine had done what it was supposed to do; it had, so I stuck it on to dry. We headed out again and stopped by the exhibit at the Kinský Palace.

After that we had dinner - more traditional food: onion soup, goulash in bread, roast pork with cabbage and dumplings. Solid, but nothing spectacular.

And then it was back to the apartment to pack.

Delivering beer via truck - never seen that before.

Akita.

Akita & shoob.

The dogs drew some attention.

Bubble guy.

Random phone sculpture.

We happened across a church - St. Giles - and found it had an impressive interior.

This is apparently Martin de Porres, a Peruvian saint.

We also found the Man Hanging Out sculpture.

Weird door with tiny heads.

We went up this thing.

Odd bollards.

Inside the Lobkowicz palace. This guy skipped leg day.

"Congratulations on choosing the Armstrong Whitworth four-pounder cannonnette. Please read the instructions carefully and it should give years of trouble-free maiming."