Sandeman Walking Tours ... and a Spot of Ballet

We had a very ordinary night's sleep - no sheets on the bed! "That's what we do here" said Tomas.  We may be able to get you some sheets tomorrow (for our last night in this "Luxury Apartment"). So another night's sleep on what appears to be a terry towelling mattress protector. An interesting review will follow on Trip Advisor I'm sure.

After doing some domestics this morning, we took off on an early morning Sandeman Walking Tour which went for about three hours and was fantastic.  They're free tours, and they just operate on tips.  Fine I'm sure if you've got a large group but not so good with just a small group.  We had an interesting bunch of walkers: three just-graduated lawyers from the States; a couple from Canberra; a delightful couple who were our "buddies" in the buddy system, Nancy who is a Chinese born, Peru raised, educated in the US, married a Frenchman and moved to France, now living in Canada with her husband, Carlos, who was born in Argentina, educated in the US, worked as an educator in France, married Nancy after his divorce, and is now a retired lecturer who consults to a Spanish education firm.  It was a fairly large walking group and we didn't get to chat in depth with everyone obviously.

We walked around the Old Town Square and got a good 7 1/2 minutes crammed with Czech history. Off to see the Astronomical Clock (which has huge crowds gathering in front of it on the hour, every hour), where a skeleton rings a bell ... ... and eventually a rooster crows - or is meant to.  It stopped crowing and people wrote on Facebook etc what a disappointment the Astronomical Clock was.  So the government now employs a person to play a bugle or similar instrument to ensure everyone feels like they've witnessed something amazing.  Strange really.

Wenceslas Square was next on our trip followed by the Republik Square and the Jewish Quarter.  It was in the first half of the 10th Century that the Jews came to this section of Prague, named the Jewish Quarter.  There were 80,000 living here by the mid 18th Century and by the end of the 19th Century it was destroyed due to it having become a ghetto plagued with over population and many diseases.  It was rebuilt at the beginning of last Century.  The bloke who made this clock knew that Hebrew is written and read from right to left, and apparently the numbers on this clock are written that way.  (I've tried for the past hour to get the pic of the clock loaded without success so you'll have to take my word for it or Google it!)

We learnt so much about Prague's fascinating history with Kate an ex-Aussie, married to a Czech, a mum of three, studying to be a primary school teacher via long distance education from Armadale and with a love of Jewish history, she is writing a book.  We enjoyed the tour so much, we signed up to do the Prague Castle this afternoon.

Apparently 75% of Czechs are atheist - so what to do with all of those beautiful Catholic churches? Turn them into hotels!

This was once a Catholic Church, today it's a pub!

(Gremlins still in the system - uploaded but sideways.)

And ditto re the above pic - there must be some sort of censor in the works -

I can't upload a Jewish pic of a clock or a Catholic pic of a church/hotel!")

There were many stories - many I cannot remember - the same applies to this particular pic!

 

 

Note that the bloody gremlin doesn't stop this pic uploading!

After 8 1/2 hours of walking, our legs were absolutely aching and in need of a Thai masseur.  A quick shower and change and off to the Kaderna Restaurant for a schnitzel dinner with sides of potato and gherkin all mixed together (somewhat like a potato salad) together with slices of lovely red tomatoes (unlike the white-ish green ones we've not enjoyed lately).

The restaurant is opposite the Hibernian Theatre where we were to see a production of "Swan Lake".  It was very eagerly anticipated by me - not so much by John of course.  He snored his way through part of Act 1.  I must admit, the dancing left a lot to be desired; the title, "Hippo Hop" would have been more appropriate - and so many people were taking videos with their i-phones and chatting during the performance we left at interval.  We found a much better way to end the night - a mojito in the undercroft of the Kaderna Restaurant. An exquisite setting: leather booths, vaulted ceiling, bevelled cut glass mirrors all around the space in arched window shapes.  There was lots of gold everywhere and chandeliers sparkled in front of and behind glass shelves holding bottles of spirits of all kinds of colours and shapes.

Back to the Luxury Apartment to blog while listening to the rain falling steadily - this is summer in Prague.  Apparently the last few weeks they've enjoyed weather here around 25-35 C.  Since we arrived, we've had Melbourne weather, cool and wet.  Still, it's Prague and we're having an absolute ball!