Citiesof Light Prague to Paris Our last day solo

---

After yesterday's exciting dinner, we were exhausted. We decided... we didn't actually decide anything; we just slept in. Hey we are on vacation, after all. So we finally roused out of slumber about 8:30 and were dressed, packed, and ready to check out of trhe Iron Gate Hotel and into our cruise hotel, The Prague Mariott.

A word about the Iron Gate. It is older, very centrally located and filled with old world charm. We had a little issue with our room at first. We had a single room with a queen bed, nice and comfortable. The problem was the A/C did not work. After several vain attempts to get it fixed, we were told it was broken and moved to a private suite! We now had two large rooms and our own sitting room in the hall outside our door. Really classy. So although there was a minor issue, they fixed it with style. So if you need a hotel in Prague, consider the Iron Gate Hotel.

Checkout was a little fun. I gave them my key and name and they told me there was no one with that name in the hotel! They said they had a Christopher Joseph Farina but not a Phil Farina. Once again I told the story about Chris being our son and that he was not in the hotel. They fixed the reservation and billing. We got it straight and off we went.

The hotel arranged for a driver to take us to the Mariott. A fifteen minute ride later we were at our Viking Cruise hotel, the Prague Marriott. The new hotel is across town about 3/4 mile as the crow flies from the Iron Gate. It is a typical 5 star property with restaurant, Mariott Club room, and ultra modern facilities. We were to check into our spacious queen room but it wasn't ready. So we went to breakfast at a spot just a 100 meters out and dined on a delicious bagel with egg, avacado, tomato, and greens. Excellent.

Our room was soon ready and we checked in. It was a quick turn around as we wanted to meet the tour director and get the lay of the land for the next two days before we board the Viking IDI. Our director, CJ, seems nice and knowledgable. He told us we were part of the green bus group. There are 200 people on our cruise. To make it manageable they break us down to 4 groups of 50; hence, we are the green bus group. Our group will meet at 8:40 in the lobby tomorrow morning for our grand walking tour of Prague.

Our meeting done, we headed out, and decided to take the tram to the other side of the Vltana Rivwer and do some exploring on the west bank. Since we were over 65, we had a free pass to ride! We bravely boarded tram route number 15 and took a 20 minute ride right across town and on to the other side of the Charles Bridge.

Here we explored several shops, visited the Church of the Malta Hospitiliars, then on to the Infant of Prague, a famous statue of Jesus. It seems this statue is associated with many legends and miracles. No one seems to be sure who made it or when. It is made of parrafin (wax) and sits on a wooden base. It came from Spain, went to Peru, then on to Europe, finding a home in Prague. We were told many stories as we visited the gift shop but one was very interesting. It seems that one time during so a Middle Ages war, the hands of the statue were cut off. Some time later a stranger appeared and reattached the hands. The townspeople were to happy to have their statue repaired they wanted to thank the man. Unfortunately, the man had disappeared and the hands no longer showed any evidence of the reattachment. It was deemed a miracle.

From here we continued on foot till we were at the base of a park that extended up 925 meters from street level. At the top of the hill was a tower designed to resemble a much smaller version of the Eiffel Tower. There was also a monestary, coffee shops, gardens, kids play area, and wide open spaces. The problem was we did not want to climb such a huge hill.

The funicular to the rescue. This two way transportation is like a cable car on a track. There is a cable with two cars at opposite ends. One goes up while the other goes down. Due to our senior citizen status, it was again free to ride so up we went!

The park at the top was beautiful, well manicured gardens and directions to a tower that was the highest point in Prague. We followed the trail to the Tower and bought our senior discounted tickets. Before heading up, we enjoyed a quick ice cream to cool off. When we were ready to go, Cathy opted for the tiny elevator while I took the 300 stair climb to the top. The view of Prague was amazing.

I trudged the 300 steps back down and we decided some food was in order, so we found a terraced cafe and up we went in the elevator. We shared a Caprese Sandwich. I had a beer (of course), and we relaxed for some time. Soon it was time to go, so we took the reverse funicular and headed back to the tram stop. Along the way we visited the John Lennon wall. The story goes that when John was killed some one painted a grafitti of the face of Lennon. The cops painted over the face as it was a desecration of the wall. The next day it was back. This went on for days until the police gave up. The wall is now a memorial to John.

One last stop before the tram ride home was to visit the ancient water wheel used by the Malta Knights to grind their grain. A quick photo stop and back to the tram. We got back to the hotel for a much needed rest.

We stopped at another Italian cafe for dinner. The food was great, the weather perfect and the memories will live long into the future.

---