Day 12 – 6/1/2022 – Shop till you Drop

So…We met Steve and Billie for breakfast before their trip to a concentration camp.

Then we took off on an expotition of our own. We hopped a tram and rode to Wenceslaus square where we hiked up the hill.

Our intention was to spend the morning at the natural history museum across the street. However, when we got there we discovered that the grand-looking structure was actually the National Museum – with a lot of national history and just a bit of natural science.

So we hiked back down the hill to the bottom of the square…

It’s actually a very long rectangle. People in Washington DC would call it a mall.

…and into the old town to do a bit of wandering around and shopping.

We stopped for lunch at a little ‘hole in the wall’ down an alley, away from the main drag. Good lunch in a cool quiet setting that only sort-of smelled of cigarette smoke. Then we continued on. Our first goal was to visit a carved wood shop that we visited the other day. But along the way we were sidetracked by a funky little shop carrying unique and colorful items.

My intention was to just get a picture of this teapot for Kim (the picture, not the teapot) (see her comment to my Day 7 post.). However, we ended up browsing a bit and returning twice to make purchases.

From there we moved on to the main market square on our way to the wood shop.

Noting along the way how a Starbucks was tucked quietly in an arcade off the square.

We were impressed by he artwork on this building on the square.

Following a half-hour of browsing in the wood shop (and making a small purchase) it was time for a snack. We turned the corner to the street-market where Cheryl got a gingerbread cookie.

It was so good that she got a second.

Not to be left out we hit the nearest Gelateria for a bit of cool chocolate goodness.

Having hit the fun barrier in our wandering we turned toward home (or at least the tram line).

Along the way we stopped to snap this ‘touring car’. It’s a thing here. You can see them all over the place in various classic convertible car forms.

We also stopped to snap the Powder Gate – so named because they used to store gunpowder there. It is also important as the starting point of the Coronation (or Royal) Route to the Prague Castle.

Arriving back at the hotel we met Billie (Steve was resting) for ‘foursies’ – a bit of a snack and comparing notes on our days.

Then it was up to the room for a nap and some photo management.

Dinner tonight was a bit early because we had booked a ‘Prague After Dark’ tour.

The tour started with a visit to the communist era TV tower – consistently voted the ugliest structure in the city (even before the art installation of giant babies crawling up the legs).

As ugly as it is, it did give us good views of the city. Our guide Monica talked a bit about how apartment blocks traditionally had inner courtyards with trees and green space, and how some blocks are filling in that space with storage structures and such. She also talked about how some blocks are installing elevators . If you look carefully at the block on the lower right you an see such an elevator structure in the upper right wall.

From there we were driven thru old town while she talked about various buildings (yawn).

I did, however, get a pretty good view of the castle.

Climbing the hill behind the castle we stopped at a monastery where we looked at a section of the original city wall…

…and looked out over the city lit up. The Ugl TV Tower is on the right. The castle (you an see the towers of St. Vidas church) is on the left. The green dome in the center marks one end of the Charles bridge.

From there we returned to the hotel to rest and build our strength for our last full day on this adventure. Tomorrow we have one more formal tour and take our last Covid test (so we can get back into the US. Wish us luck.

Till then, R