Last Day in Prague

We caught the #22 train to the "Perin Lookout Tower" and after walking through the gardens we took the funicular to the top.  The tower is 130 m high and we walked the 299 steps to the top of the tower.  It is an Eiffel Tower lookalike and we felt well and truly chuffed to have made the climb up and back down again with just a little bit of huffy puffy!

Half-way up the Tower

On the drive back down, the funicular driver slumped over with his head on the desktop. Panicked, I knocked on the window and he eventually looked around and smiled and gave us the ‘thumbs up’ - he was texting! 
 

Fabulous view over Prague from half-way up the Tower.

We caught another tram and met up with Alice and Greg for lunch at “The White Lion”, on Route # 22, Stop BŘEVNOV, past Prague Castle, three stops past the pyramid building and it’s on the left hand side. (Lots of details in case you're ever here - a terrific joint to have a cheap traditional Czech meal). We enjoyed our meals of pork with warm potato salad - ~ ¼ the cost of the food in the city.

We hopped back onto the #22 line tram and headed further up the mountain to the six-star shaped building in the forest built in the 16 Century by Ferdinand of Tyrol. It is the Museum of Czech Literature, (The Hvezda Summer Pavilion, National Cultural Monument) and was designed primarily as a place of relaxation and recreation after hunting. A 'galaria' completed in 1558 is one of the oldest ball game halls in Bohemia.

The current exhibition is Zdemek Dvorak a 1930's abstractionism artist.  He was a member of the anti-Nazi Resistance movement who paid with their lives for their civil attitude.  He joined in early 1942 when the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia.  He joined as a member of the underground "National Revolutionary Committee of Intellectuals".  He was kept in Pankrac Prison, Prague to be deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland and like to many others, finally executed.  His works are quite beautiful and it was great to walk through the huge forest and walk on the grass to see the building and the exhibition - it was so good for the soul.  It's amazing the simple things you miss but often don't realise it.

Back on board the #22 tram to the bottom of the mountain saw us eagerly searching for a pilsner – we stopped for a ½ lt at a pub  just to keep us going (the cheapest we’ve found yet at just $2.25 AUD).

We then walked alongside the Charles Bridge, but this time under the bridge and we enjoyed looking at some home-made pieces of Czech linen with hand embroidery.  We’re sure that Floss will enjoy the piece we bought for her.  Further along we watched a woman hand painting some Christmas and religious ornaments and they were quite exquisite. We spent some time in her shop organising for some tiny rocking horses to be hand painted by her with the names of our Grandies written on them. Mary was an absolute delight and gave us the ornament she had been painstakingly working on! I burst into tears, the stress is obviously still quite near the surface.  Next time we’re in Prague, she said we must let her know and we’re to rent a newly renovated apartment her friend owns, just alongside her shop. “It’s so much better over on this side of Prague” she told us; “the shopping is much better, living here is better, we are a wonderful community over here”.  Mary lives above her shop.

We walked alongside the river and read panels detailing floods in Prague in June 2013. There were dreadful scenes depicted on the banners.  We walked past the "Barcode Baby" sculptures, and John joined the throng of others who climbed onto their backs.

We walked across “Most Leglii Bridge” to see the National Theatre but as a performance was in progress we could not enter to look at the building. We had dinner on the opposite corner at the “Restaurant Slavia”.  We had the Czech staple of beef goulash with dumplings.  I had a dry martini, John a pilsner and we farewelled Prague.

We then left to head to the apartment to pack and get ready for an early departure in the morning.