The Czech Republic-Day 2

Sometimes you just don't realize how tired you really are until you have to drag yourself out of bed.  We got moving a bit late today, but since we have a full week, we decided- no rush.  Went to see what breakfast would be in this new country before heading out. We started with coffee......

and that did NOT work out....hahaha.  Chris went to try it again with a different kind of coffee.....

Here are a few shots of the breakfast room......:-)

I'm amazed at how much can be crammed into a small space..

This is the breakfast bar with all types of veggies and cheeses along with jams and marmalade

And this is the view from the breakfast room window.  This is facing the very front of the hotel.

after we ate, I needed to make a rest stop.  Well, I was told to go out into the hall turn right and go into the door on the left...so I did.  I went in thinking (without looking at the sign on the door)...."wow... a co-ed bathroom"?...?  uhh, no.  But it was too late...I was already out and headed back when I passed....

Go figure that this one had the picture of the lady on it.......sheesh......

oh well, time to start the day......

We started our routine with public transportation....

The corridors of the subway stations are huge.  They weave in and out and you can easily get confused as to which way to go.

Remember these.......
wow....here we go.  We were talking about all of the walking that we have been doing and stair climbing and we are not sure that it is competing with our eating!

When we made it to the top and got to street level, history was waiting for us.....:-)

Prague is a beautiful city and rich in culture. This is the music hall. where symphonies are played.....

This is a view of part of the city from the new town square....
.

They had a long tent set up out side of the music hall that served as a bistro for those who wanted to stop and eat.  I have no idea where the food was coming in from.

I is pretty cool that there are still roses blooming this time of year.  It is chilly enough for everyone to be wearing jackets and coats.  I had on a t-shirt under a sweatshirt and a jacket....

Chris went up on the bridge get a shot of the city from that vantage point while I took this one of the bridge.

here is a shot without the bridge.  I felt sorry for the ducks, though.  The water was pretty brown.

This is what I could capture of the rose border that was around the outer area of the music hall.

The square was full of all kinds of things.  I love carriage rides, but we didn't take one..

I love passage ways, gates, doors and arches......:-)

We came upon the art museum and decided to venture in.  I could not believe I was looking at more stairs!! UGH!!

There was no way I was climbing another set of stair just yet.  The receptionist directed us to a coffee shop in the museum.  So, we went there to rest up first.

It was a fiasco getting the coffee.  The lady who waited on us was obviously annoyed that we didn't speak Cezch or Russian.  Even after pointing to what we wanted on the menu, she still got it wrong.  I don't pay for "wrong" (or rude).  So, we made sure she got it..."right".

Here's to being were we want to be right now, in spite of the service....

And then we carried on.....

But they did have a few things that I was impressed with.  Like this chandelier for one thing and the wall art...
Unfortunately, I think my camera is beginning to fail me.  The quality of pictures coming from it seems to be degrading.

This type of mural covered the walls and ceiling of this room....

This is a wedding chest.  You don't see many of these in our culture today as everyone seems to do bridal list and things like that online at their favorite stores.  But in those days, everyone brought the gifts to you and it went into that chest to give you a good start in life with the things you needed.

We moved through the rooms quite quickly as the museum as a whole just wasn't that impressive...this room was full of clocks of all types and shapes from different eras.

Some of them looked to complicated to describe....

 like this one!  Can you imagine trying to tell time on that thing?

They even had clocks suspended from the wall and controlled by a push button pulley thingee.

Anyway, enough of that.  We went upstairs and saw some very old clothes of about 200 years ago and some older than that which had been preserved and either gifted to the museum or sold to it. Here is one piece.

not bad for something that old!

There was of course porcelain and china and silver ware that was on display as well.  here are a couple of shots of that.... This was used to hold pate'....  

The cabbage was a soup terrine and the asparagus was used to hold butter. I don't know what the artichoke was used for....

I figured I would take them up on the offer.......:-)

Drum roll............
TADA!

There was a large display of jewelry dating back a couple hundred years.  These are all Garnet. Garnet is my birthstone and the last one I had I gave to my mother....

Now, how is this for a jewelry chest?  Actually it is a chest from a monastery.  I have no idea what they used it for.

This is the view from the second floor of the museum......

Even then miniature furniture was in vogue......:-)

This is the write up that they had for it.......

This was NOT miniature.....It reminded me of the Haupsburg Empire of Austria. They had so much gold that they used to melt it down to fund wars and it never put a dent in their supply......

But I especially loved the handle of this knife.  I thought it was just beautiful......:-)

The next exhibit was.....well "porn" complete with a movie. They called it "art".  We called it OVER and left.  

So, we found ourselves back on the street looking for the next adventure.......

We came upon the old Jewish quarter as it is called.  There was a very old cemetery there as well as a new Synagogue.  I had never been inside a Synagogue before and was interested to know what it looked like.  But was shocked to find out after inquiring at the ticket office (yes they charged you to come in) that it was going to cost $50.00 US to go inside for a self-guided tour.  I think not.  But we did take some pictures of the area........

That is the cemetary in the background.  You can barely see the tombstones on the left side of the screen.  And there was most certainly a man standing there waiting to take your money if you wanted to go in.
 

 the street was full of little shops and glass places.....they even advertised on their vehicles.....not that unusual.  We own a business in Canada and had a company car too.

This was a combination of an old and new Synogogue.  We met a couple across the street from this building that was originally from Columbia, but currently living in Spain.  I was glad that my Spanish was not too terrible.  Chris and I were able to hold a decent conversation with them before bidding them farewell and safe journey.

 We were obviously in the most expensive part of Prague..........

I mean the price tag on this was was.......wait for it.........$56,000.000

And here are some more... a bit cheaper, but the price of a small house for some folks!

and we're walking.......

And walking.........

I didn't even both to cross the street........

And........we're walking.......right past the guy who was surrounded by security complete with an earpiece while he shopped.....

Almost to the next destination.... just keep swimming......

Whew!  made it through without selling a kidney!  We are at Old Town Square......

opppsss...  Don't look back!  Just keep swimming.....haha

The buildings here are so massive that I have had to take just about every  picture with my camera sideways....and still couldn't get it all.  sorry.....

We decided to by pass the church just then and get something to eat since it was past lunch time.

and to hydrate! Neither of us had been drinking enough the whole time we had been gone and it was forcing me to deal with periodic headaches.  So, I tried to get some water into me.......then Chris pointed out that there was a man in the bottom of my glass.....

looked like a Roman soldier.....oh well... bottoms up! ha

uh oh...  His Viking was starting to come out!  Somebody is getting really hungry.....ha

Unfortunately for him, my soup came first........:-).  I could not possibly come all this way and not have at least one bowl of goulash! It was amazing......:-)

It was a a bowl of rye bread........:-)

Chris's food came and it looked like he had sat down at a Medieval festival of some sort!  Look at the size of that thing!

I gotta see this........

Well, he made it all but one bite.  And I couldn't get the bowl that my soup came in.  We paid the cashier and continued back to the church.....

ok... back to the church.  We went in and I saw one of the most beautiful churches I had seen since our visit to Austria.  It was small inside, but very ornate.

The murals were quite striking and the chandelier was magnificent.  

This was way above us.  But I didn't see any stairs......

I tried to zoom in, but once again my camera was not doing the job.....:-(.

We went back out to the main square and saw all kinds of things happening at once......

like this guy and his bird......

And these guys..........which can really weird you out if you don't know that they will move! haha

She looked beautiful, but I couldn't help bu think of all of the dirt and spit that she probably collected with that dress along the way.....
 

Now, a taxi was sounding like a good plan.......

what's with the birds???

Really...?

And whatever the big event was for the clock.... WE MISSED IT! haha....Next showing in one hour.  We won't be there!

For those of you who might not remember, this trip is partially an anniversary celebration.......
When I saw the word "Garnet" I thought of my birthstone ring that I had given to my mother and I wanted to replace it.

We went in and looked around until I found something that caught my attention.  The price was "shocking" to say the least, but we worked out a good deal with the retailer.  Well, Chris thought it was a good deal.  I was still feeling "slightly dizzy".....ha.  And because of the cost, we had to make sure we had the proper papers for customs.

The ring was just a bit bigger and had to be sized as I certainly didn't want it to fall off my hand! We agreed to get some coffee and kill some time while he took care of that for us.  There was a little cafe right outside
the jewelry store.

Chris decided to check out the map and make sure we were pointed in the right direction to get back to the hotel while we waited.

It was time to go back and pick up the ring.......

After checking that the size was right, we made sure that the paperwork was in order.......

And definitely wanted the certificate of authenticity........ 

and of course the ring and other paperwork.......

It was a done deal......:-)

We started making our way back toward the trains......I had heard of this from some friends of ours that visit Thailand on vacation....I just can't do it! lol.  This little guys eat the dead skin off of your feet.....yikes!

And then, the sky opened up on us!  My new, trusty fold up umbrella came in handy....:-)

Scoooooooterrrrrr!!!!

getting to the train station was no small feat with the water pooling around your tennis shoes as you walked.

oh....Lord....here we go....

the last mile of the way.......

And so my friends, ends another fabulous day.  We hope you enjoyed the journey....:-)

See ya again soon!