Gallivanting Geismom

Today is our last day in this lovely country. We opted not to take the excursion to a former concentration camp. Rather, we decided to relax this morning, head down to breakfast a bit later, then head out afterwards, at our own pace. And that does make all the difference in the world in respect to my knee which did not handle yesterday's fast pace as well as I had hoped.

We still walked quite a bit today, but I think that the slower pace makes a huge difference.

We decided to head back out to the Charles IV bridge since it had been so crowded yesterday.

As you can see, the weather was once again, picture perfect!

A statue of King Charles IV, for whom the bridge is named, stands at the end.

Here is one of the structures that adorns the bridge along the sides as it spans across the river.

The bridge was a bit crowded, but nothing like the ones that we had seen yesterday. From here we headed back to the Jewish quarter, to check out the Astrological Clock a bit closer. We figured that since it was lunchtime, it was the perfect opportunity to get a break from walking, enjoy a meal, and get to view the clock in action.

Our seats were perfect. The meal was delicious! Although I did kind of feel guilty eating pizza in the Czech Republic.

And soon it was time for the clock to strike one. The bell rang, and wouldn't you know, a while delivery truck decided to back up, obstructing our view, within seconds of the clock beginning its hourly performance.

I never did see the twelve apostles making an appearance, but I'm not sure that I would have from our viewpoint even without the white truck.

In any event, we had a lovely lunch and had to laugh about the bad timing by the truck driver.

Yesterday, Lyuba had mentioned that it was possible to take an elevator to the top of the astrological clock tower to enjoy the panoramic vistas. So, we decided to do just that.

It made no sense to unnecessarily strain my knee, and the elevator was really cool: A glass, circular tube that raised us to the lookout in short time.

And, as you can see, totally worth it!

After departing the tower, we walked around a bit more.

enjoyed an ice cream

and ended up eating dinner at the same venue we had enjoyed on our first day here.

The meal was, once again, delicious. We sat outside and enjoyed the beauty around us while we dined. What a lovely way to end the day!

And what a fabulous trip we have had!

I do hope you have enjoyed following along, And I so appreciate those of you who take the time to read about our adventures. So happy to have had you along for the ride!

After breakfast in our hotel, our morning began with a 4 hour tour of the city of Prague by foot.

We had chosen the tour that began by bus. Just the thought of having to hike up the hill to the castle seemed too overwhelming. So, a bus transferred us to a place near the top and we found ourselves walking the downhill along the way, weaving through various streets, and ending, finally, at our hotel.

Our guide's name was Lyuba, and she was a delight: informative, entertaining, and full of energy, which resulted in some fast paced walking during the tour.

Once we were dropped off at the top, we found ourselves above Prague castle. We passed a statue that held likenesses of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, astronomers from the early 17th century. Both had been born and lived in Prague.

We walked past a hotel that was once the part of a monastery.

Around the corner was a plaza with the statue of the second president of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš.

Beneš was exiled from office during the Nazi occupation and during that time, he secretly orchestrated a plan to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, the acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia while he was traveling in an open car through the streets of Prague. The incident was carried out on May 27, 1942 and Heydrich died a week later.

The Nazi regime was so outraged by this boldness that they issued orders to destroy the entire village of Ledice.

All men over 18 were executed,; most women were sent to concentration camps, and 88 children were murdered in gas chambers. The village was then burned to the ground and razed. This was a random village that the Nazi leadership picked to destroy in retaliation.

Beneš would be judged harshly for his role in the assassination that resulted in the deaths of so many innocent lives.

Just below the statue is this beautiful view.

We walked along the cobblestone streets taking in the sites along the way.

This view gives an idea of just how high up we were.

This beautiful lantern structure stands in a middle of the square near the presidential residence.

There was a plague statue devoted to the blessed mother in the plaza.

Finally, we were at the gates to the palace.

But we couldn't enter that way. We needed to go around the corner through a side entrance. There was a lovely plaza in the center with the presidential apartments behind.

Just through an archway stands the one end of St. Vitus Church.

Here is a partial view of the front

and just to the left is a statue of St. George.

The views from here were stunning.

We worked our way along the perimeter of the gardens

admiring the beautiful rooftops along the way.

At this point we walked down over one hundred steps to make our way to the Charles Bridge.

But first, we stopped in the plaza where we were given some time to grab a quick bite.

We ordered a "small" cheese tray. As time was limited, Marty ended up stashing some of the goods into a napkin for us to enjoy later.

As we walked to the bridge, I noticed this interesting panel on a house nearby. I would not have expected to see ostriches.

Finally, we were crossing on the Charles IV bridge.

This is a pedestrian only bridge, with statues erected along both sides, and beautiful vistas to view while crossing. But I couldn't take many photos to show the entrance, or most of the statues as there were crowds and crowds of people.

But I did manage to get this photo of Marty in front of St. John Nepomunk. This man lived in Bohemia in the mid 1300's and is considered to be a beloved patron saint.

Apparently it is considered to be good luck if you rub the bottom of the statue. I'm not quite sure what the history is behind that, but Marty seems to think that it was worth trying.

As I had mentioned the streets were buzzing with crowds of people, so I wasn't able to capture many photos as we walked along. Lubya took us to the little square plaza where the astrological clock stands.

Every hour, a bell rings, the twelve apostles, 6 on each side, make a circle in the little openings above the clock, and a rooster sounds announcing the new hour.

We did not have the opportunity to see it work as Lyuba kept us at a pretty fast pace. This clock is the oldest one of its kind in the world.

From here we continued to the Powder Tower.

The man responsible for designing it was sure to put his own face above the arch.

One more stop to admire the mosaic that sits in this large building next to the powder tower. It really was stunning.

From here we ventured down a street to a hotel where apparently Frank Kaftsa had lived. I honestly don' t know much about the man. Even Lyuba commented that people know the name but have never read his books. It appears that his books were published posthumously by his friend who had been instructed to destroy Frank's writings. Obviously, that did not happen.

By now we were pretty tuckered out. We had walked for 4 hours, with a short break in the middle, and had covered quite a bit of ground. Marty and I relaxed for awhile in our hotel room, finishing the cheese that we had grabbed from our quick stop.

Before we knew it, it was 3:00 and time for Czech beer tasting. Our guide, Marseille, walked us the 5 minute distance to the brewery known as Fuze. We had three beer samples to taste.

That beer had foam that had reached the top rim, which obviously disintegrated because I took only one sip. I'm just not a fan of beer.

There were two other options: a smoky brew, and an IPA. None of them appealed to me.

All of them appealed to Marty.

And we had a blast sharing our time with Bob and Carol, the extremely entertaining couple who are celebrating 62 years of marriage. They were a hoot.

During the tasting, Marseille explained the process of making the beer today. Then, as have all of the other guides, he began to describe his personal family history of life under the socialist, then communist regime. His stories repeated many of the facts which we had heard from the other guides. They seem to really want people to know how their countries suffered. A comment by Marseille that really struck me was, "You are all familiar with Orwell? Well, you know about him.....we lived it." But these people are so grateful that they have been truly liberated and are able to reap the rewards from this type of enterprise.

The tasting lasted a little over an hour, and then we made our way back to the hotel. We had one more event for today and that was a traditional folk dinner. So, at 7:00 pm, we once again boarded a bus, this time traveling past where we had been dropped off this morning for our tour.

Once inside, it was obvious that this was going to be something far different from anything we'd ever experience.

And I must say....entertaining it was. Not only did we have a tasty Czech dinner, but the performers had us laughing and clapping through the entire evening.