and then to the city square where we saw the Astronomical clock. The clock chimes every hour and there is a parade of the 12 apostles through the small doors. The clock is very interesting. Installed in 1410, it has dials that show where the sun and the moon are in the sky and other dials that show the months of the year. All as well as telling the time.
Prague has some beautiful buildings and lots of cobblestone paths. We took the funicular up to the top of one of the parks. Great views and beautiful gardens.
We stopped for a light lunch at the restaurant that had beautiful views of the city! We headed back to the hotel as we were going to a local restaurant for dinner. It was an optional excursion and 18 out of the 30 on tour boarded the bus.
What a great night! After a dinner of shishkabobs and dumplings, local music was played on the violin, baby cello and (I think) a dulcimer (a piano like instrument played with padded beaters).
Songs and dances were from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. The guy pouring wine out of decanters was amazing!!
Tuesday morning we had a sleep in and had breakfast at 9 am, quite late for us. We then headed to the Prague Castle on the train. We got off the train at the stop above the castle, enabling us to have a downhill walk through some lovely gardens to the castle. Unfortunately the Royal Palace was closed due to technical problems but we were able to wander through the area and could go in the St Vitus Cathedral and St George Basilica. The Cathedral was one of the tallest churches I have been in and had a spectacular pipe organ as well as intricately carved statues.
Just looking at the outside of the palace it seemed huge. It must have hundreds of rooms!
We then walked down to the city as Jan and I wanted to try "trdelni'k" which was like flattened donuts and a scoop of ice cream. Not as good as they looked which is the case of sweets here in Prague. The Danishes in Germany were so much better. We then stopped for tea for the girls and beer for the boys.
We then walked back up to the Castle as we had not seen Gold Lane. Jan remembered it as lots of shops with the artisans making a range of goods, however now it has a few shops selling crafts and a few shops that had small historic displays. Certainly not worth climbing the 220 steps to get to it!
Next stop was the monastery as it had a brewery there and a restaurant. Good food and beer, the meals were huge! Jan and I split pork ribs and a salad, Rob had a pork hock and Andy had pork snitzel and soup. Including wine and the beers the bill was 1500 krona which was $60. Quite cheap!
We then wandered down to the city where we found one of the art works of David Cerny which was of Freud the "hanging man".
We found the train station and headed back to the hotel after walking nearly 22,000 steps or 16km. No wonder we are tired!
The palace is an amazing place and the inside of the church is fabulous. You'll be as fit as fiddle after all that walking.
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