Let the Czech Beer Flow!

---

Day 7:Thursday 27 September 2007

Let the Czech Beer flow!

Wake up:7am Breaky: 7:30am Prague Sightseeing: 8:30am

It was lovely not to have to pack and rush today. I still went to breaky early at 6:30am. It was delicious. I thought it might be after dinner last night.
At 8:30am we met Gary and Lucia at the coach and went back to the Historical Area. It was impressive to see a presidential car parade go past. Tomorrow is a festival holiday in Prague. The skull of Wenslaw will be paraded through the town. We walked over to St Vittus cathedral and had a tour. There were many relics. As Lucia said “The saints don’t lie in Peace here - they lie in Pieces”
The tomb of Wenceslas was in this cathedral. His chapel was lovely. The stained and painted windows depicted the lift of the saints. (The silver tomb was that of Vittus)
After the cathedral, we went to the café and had the most delicious hot chocolate with cream. We sat outside even though it was drizzling and cold. Each chair had a lovely woollen blanket draped over it. The view over Prague from here was spectacular. Afterwards we walked down the palace steep steps to make our way to the old tower.
Lucia told us about the public transport system and how to get back to the hotel, need be.
We went to watch the astronomical Clock at 12pm. The square was packed with people. At exactly 12, the skeleton beside the clock began to ring his bell. The doors on the top opened and the saints moved past while the bell chimed. Wasn’t much, but wouldn’t have missed it. A little anticlimactic.
We were off on our own for the afternoon then!

We started a search for Christmas ornaments. Not easy. The shops were all the same and FULL of Russian nesting dolls. We eventually found a little shop with Christmas dolls, which is more the tradition here. We went for a walk to Charles Bridge. Streets were winding, but it was easy to find. Just follow the crowds. Even though it was raining, the crowds were huge. The bridge was fantastic. Rob rubbed the statue of the Saint on the bridge for good luck. A lot of people were rubbing the statue of the dog on the other side. We had already been warned us that the dog meant nothing. People only rub it because it’s shiny.

We had lunch with Stephen and Verna in a quaint little crowded pub. We sat with a mother and daughter holidaying from England. Had a nice chat with them. Lunch was a good deal.
A soup, drink and meal for 195ck. I had roast chicken and Rob had Duck. Soup was yummy and the bread was deliciously heavy on a rainy afternoon.
We strolled around the streets and market stalls afterwards. Wenceslas market had some interesting things. But mostly things were all the same. Marionettes and puppets were everywhere. By 3pm we were wet and tired and ready to go back. At the last minute we found a shop that sold great Czech beer glasses and grabbed one for dad.
We met Gary at 3:30pm and had a big walk to our bus. The street we walked down was the Czech “Champs Eylesses”.A 15 minutes trip t the hotel took an hour and a half. Traffic was awful in every direction on every street we tried to detour down. Traffic was coming into town for the festival. We were all exhausted. I couldn’t wait to have a hot bath.
At 6:45pm we met in the lobby for our country Folklore night out. What a fantastic night! The village was quaint. They had a little market stall set up outside the restaurant. The “band” was playing when we got there. The tables were long benches. We had our welcome drink of Schnapps (and many other peoples!)
They had big pitchers of wine on the table and started serving a variety of Czech beers straight away. (Kept a memory glass from here!)
The dancers were lots of fun and we were entertained all evening. The grog kept flowing and soon we were all very merry.
Dinner was sampler plates. We had 2 types of pork and cabbage, a bit of spicy sausage and dumplings. The dumplings are more like a heavy bread or gnocchi. The vege pancake was delicious. It was Donna’s birthday, so we sang Happy birthday and they served her slices of apple with whipped cream. the guy dancer came and got her from her seat and danced with her. Soon many were dancing. Our local guide had accompanied us and was moving around the room explaining food and customs to us. Apparently some fellow traveller were annoyed that she was drinking and joining in the fun with us. We thought it was great and truly enjoyed her company at our level.
We were soon “rounded’ into the coach. This was not an easy task as we were all very giggly.
We had a lot of laughs on the way home. Gary put in a best of the 60’s mix and the oldies were soon singing along quite loudly.
We stopped for a nightcap at the bar at the hotel with a few others. Finished off a perfect night out!

---