The Czech Republic-Day 5

We got up this morning with the idea of just staying in, but after a good night's sleep, we were ready to go again.  We headed for breakfast eager to start our day in spite of the previous events.  I have started this concoction of scrambled eggs with mustard, ketchup, and Parmesan spread with a couple different types of cheese, some yogurt and honey with coffee.  Or at least that was today's breakfast.

We had to take different transportation routes today than what we were used to and wasn't exactly sure of what the schedule would be seeing as it was the weekend.  But we ventured out anyway.  Our destination was the Prague Zoo!  I love animals....well, most of them anyway.  I'm not really into arachnids (spiders and such) or reptiles (lizards and stuff), when it comes to handling them.  It was a long trip that took us three modes of transportation to get there. Prague has a population of about 3.million people if that is any indication of how large it is.  Anyway, when we finally did get there, we saw Troy Castle.  It was built by Count Sternberg between 1679 and 1689. We didn't even know was there.  It was complete with gardens and we had to decide whether we were going there or right across the road to the zoo.  Since we have two more days here, we decided on the zoo.  Perhaps we will go back before we leave.  We did take a couple of shots of it since it was right there.....
  

Here is some of the gardens that we were able to see from the gate.

As we entered the zoo, we noticed that they had their own "walk of the fame" but the had the animals foot prints in them...

If you look close enough you can see their little feet print........This one looks like a duck although I'm sure it's not.

who knows!  haha.  Poor little thing only has two toes on each foot it seems......ha

The gates were decorated with small elephants.....

Chris went to get our tickets for entry and to inquire about the train that ran through the zoo.  We were TIRED of walking!

After we got the tickets, we were greeted by this guy.....:-).

ain't he cute...:-).  Chris says it's a bear.  I can't tell what it is.

oh well, what the heck!

These were the biggest ants I had ever seen in my life.

I'm glad they were not real...ha.  Maybe in the prehistoric times they were this size.

The zoo is huge and we knew we would not see the whole thing in one day.  We did in fact start out on foot though until we discovered that the zoo went in an upward flow.  We did two "up's" and decided to find the train!
We saw these guys along the way.  A porcupine and a marmot.

We came to a clearing where there was a view of the city.......

We ventured into the Indonesian Exhibit........

These long boats were right in the entry way......

Chris was trying to disappear into the tree....:-)

This is a small otter.  He had a play mate that kept chasing him into the water.  They were funny to watch as they remind me of my ferrets that I have in Oklahoma....:-).  Ferrets and Otters are cousins...:-)

Red butt monkeys.  I couldn't get a picture of their butts though....haha.  They kept moving around!

Tiger Barb fish.  Very aggressive and travel in schools.  I had a school of about 10 of these in my fish tank a long time ago.  I purchased them not knowing that they were aggressive. They were much smaller than these, but little by little the rest of my fish came up missing; including my Bala Shark.  Strangely enough, the zoo had Bala Sharks in the next tank over.  I wish someone had told me when I bought them not to put them together! Poor Freddy!

Chris is tricking them into thinking that it is feeding time.  One came over and was staring at his finger....haha

a stature of some monkey....:-).

We stopped for lunch and ordered coffee and a mozzerella and tomatoe with pesto sandwhich.  It was horrible.  The bread was so hard it almost cut my gums....but I didn't feel like struggling through a language barrier to get another that probably would have been equally gross....:-(.

I snapped a couple of pics of the flowers around us where we sat.....

This is a geranium.  But I had never seen a "creeping" geranium.....:-).  Quite beautiful.....

We decided to move to the desert when the sandwhich was a bust.  Well, the desert was a bust as well.

It was "supposed" to be a brownie.  It was sooooo dry that Chris had to pour his coffee on it to make it edible! Gross!!  I passed on tasting that one.  Yuck......:-(.

We left there and started out on foot again......

Found ourselves with the reptiles......

If you look closely, you can see this creature that looks almost like a prairie dog, but it's not. I think it is called a "Rock Hyrax"....??  Not sure. It was in Czech.... ha

Here is another one with a lizard of some sort.......

This guy starting changing colors right in front of me!

These were some kind of deer,  but the one on the right was quite peculiar.  I love animals and I think they can sense that.

He looked me straight in the eye.......Sweet baby!  I blew him a few kisses before moving on....hating to leave him.....:-(.  Hey!  Maybe it was his two little toes I saw on the "walk of fame".  Look at those toes....

We found our train! yay......:-).  It's going to be smooth sailing from here!

Look at this guy!  I thought it was a buzzard from a distance and then he and his companion started walking right toward me.

I asked them if I could take their picture....haha.  It seemed like they posed for the camera!  too funny....hahaha

This is the write up of what they are.......

They had pony rides for the children.  I had not seen that in Oklahoma at the zoo, but I think it's a good idea....:-).

We had to wait for the driver to come off his break before we could get on the train.

We met a family who told us that they were from Israel and could not believe that we spoke English.  They went on to tell us how hard it was to find anyone who spoke English.  haha.  We told them we knew and how has asking for a bathroom worked out for them! hahaha.  We wished them Shalom and continued on.

Wonder how his memory is?.....:-)

another view of the city......

European Bison....much smaller it seems than the ones we have in Oklahoma......

I guess you can tell that  like rodents.......haha

I have seen some cuter then these though......

Like this guy.......

Now ain't he cute!  He looks like a chipmunk......

That's what I thought the other guy was!

Well, anyway....here he is..

A Honey Badger.....I don't know why they call it that.  I have heard of badgers, but not honey badgers before..

This was called a Big Eared Dog.  I guess we can all see why.  He stared at me so I put my hand over his enclosure and called him to me, but Chris said' I wouldn't do that if I were you."..Well, ok.......

These guys had the beadiest little eyes I have ever seen except on a bat......

Ain't they tiny looking little things...and their eyes are the same color as their fur...not too cute....:-(.

Whew.....after walking around for a bit we needed this.  Our little train ride only lasted ten minutes!

Wow, time is flying by.....

The bears were having a swim......This one was sniffing the wind smelling fresh meat.  Their primary diet is fish, but if you jump in with them, they will eat you too!

Look at the snout on that guy!

The view of the city is spectacular from here......I like how they have these little view points from time and again....

hey, there's his companion.....:-)

coffee break......

you know what an icecream cone taste like....or those little waffer like cookie things that they used to sell when we were kids....well, that's what this thing taste like only it was very sweet.  But it was the same texture as an ice cream cone.

Chris was still thinking on whether he like it or not......

Well, time to go!  That;s all for the zoo.  We only saw maybe a quarter of the place, but we were just ready to go.....

We had to catch the number 12 to get back to where we wanted to be.....

After crossing this river, I said.... "I don't remember this".  Well, that was because we went in the wrong direction.....all the way to the end of the line! hahahaha.  Nice view though.....haha

We got turned around and on the right transit.  And of course you know what was waiting for us.....

Got over the first hump....now waiting for the train.......

ugh!! I am sooo tired of all these stairs!  You cannot even use a restroom without either having to go upstairs two flights or down stairs and back up two flights.....

But I have prevailed once again!!

And now, we have both prevailed!  haha

and here we go.........

at least it's moving.  But if i look down or up too soon, I get sick in the stomach....:-(.

We decided to grab dinner while we were already out just down the street and around the corner from the hotel.....we thought this was a bistro, but it turned out to be the entrance to someone's house.

I love what they did with the place.......

I wouldn't look good in that hat.......:-(.

We stopped here.  The lady spoke no English, but she had a friend who had studied English in the UK who had just walked up......

Chris ordered asparagus soup....it was "lumpy" and not from the asparagus either.......sheesh....

I ordered this crepe thingee that was filled with spinach and mozzarella cheese. We told them that we were food critics from the US and Canada and that we traveled around the world tasting food and writng about it in a blog.  They freaked right out!  The manager started pacing the floor....haha.  We told them that the spinach had too much salt and a few other things we noticed.  I also informed them that I knew the difference between a chef and a cook from the presentation, texture, combinations; etc as it used to be my profession.

The salad was ok, in that the vegetables were very fresh, but that the cook put too much salt (again) on the chicken.

Chris ordered pork tenderloin wrapped in Parma ham and baked.  While it had good flavor, it was not nearly as tender as it should have been being a better cut of meat.  The spinach was salty and the potatoes
were "unremarkable".

I am sure they were glad to see us go and that their stress level significantly reduced when we walked down the street......hahaha.  We really are food critics and I really do have this in my background as a profession.  I told Chris we need to start a blog and get cards made that we leave on the table of returuants that we dine in so that they know "somebody" is paying attention to what they are doing!
It was a good, stress free day.  We will be taking it easy tomorrow!

See ya soon!