When I checked my phone after crawling out of bed this
morning, it was already 9:45 AM. Goal of sleeping in was achieved. Surprise,
surprise, it was pouring with rain in the morning. Good thing we had decided to
do Heroes Square last evening. We decided to take it easy in the morning and
head out for our long drive to Prague at about noon. We had a wonderful time
just relaxing and chatting with Sam, Anita, and Sid in the morning. By the time
we finally packed up and headed out, it was a bit after 1 PM.
We drove through Slovakia before landing in Czech Republic.
We were really hoping to stop at the Sedlec Bone Church on our way, but because
we left so late, we found that by the time we got there, it would have been
past the 6 PM closing time. So, we just headed straight to Prague. We got to
Prague a little before 7 PM and checked in to the Hilton Prague Old Town. The
hotel is located right near Republic Square, only a few minutes walk from Old
Town Square.
I had to wash a few socks to survive our remaining days and
then we headed to the Executive Lounge (one of the perks of being a Diamond
Hilton Member) for some food and drink. I had a Pilsner Urquell and a glass of
local champagne. Both were great. We also had some dessert at the lounge before
deciding to explore the surroundings for a bit.
It had started raining as we headed to the lounge, but it
had stopped by this time. We’re still hoping tomorrow and day after will be
nice days. We wandered out to the beautiful Republic Square and were
immediately enchanted. Prague has all the charm of Salzburg in terms of
architecture and ambiance as well as seeming to be a bigger city like Budapest.
We stopped by a small stall and bought some chimney cake with ice cream
(somewhat like a large, hollow churro).
The walk to and the actual Old Town Square were equally
incredible. Spectacularly beautiful buildings had our heads on a swivel and I
finally find myself completely torn about whether I consider Salzburg or Prague
to be my favorite city in the world. We walked through the Powder Gate on the
way and Wikipedia informed me that this is one of the original gates still
standing from the 11th Century. Can you imagine? They have massive
towers with cars driving through them that are still standing from the 11th
Century? If Columbus had visited Prague before setting sail for the Americas, he
would have considered the tower as ancient to him as we consider him today.
That’s old. And, did I mention it’s still standing strong – not in ruins.
We watched the astronomical clock strike 10 PM and then just
wandered around the square, popping in at interesting, touristy souvenir shops
looking for a keychain for Sheila and admiring all the schlocky Bohemian
Crystal, some of which is quite lovely. Random guys on Segways stopped us to
ask if we wanted a Segway tour and we got a brochure from one of them. He
started bargaining even before we got a chance to ask him about prices. It is
probably something we’ll do tomorrow morning. We also stopped at another stall
for a sausage and a beer (Staropramen). We then slowly made our way back to the
hotel.
Tomorrow, we have a midday concert at 1 PM and the opera
(Don Giovanni in a historic style performance in the original opera house in
which Mozart premiered the opera in 1787. Yes, the original wooden opera house
from Mozart’s days is still intact and standing tall. Sheila and I can’t wait
to attend this performance tomorrow. I was serious enough about this that I
carried a suit and tie with me all the way for this one evening. We’re going to
see if we can squeeze in a Segway tour in the morning. It’s already shaping up
to be a busy day.
It is 12:30 AM and I still have several things to do before
going to bed (like copying my pictures from my iPhone to the laptop as I’m out
of room on the silly 16 GB iPhone). I’m excited to explore Prague tomorrow.
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