12 June

We enjoyed the dry cool air of our room and slept late. This was a bad thing, because we remembered too late that a buffet breakfast comes with the room. Nevertheless, we managed to cover quite a bit of Prague today. We walked through a lot of parks, visited a memorial to victims of the communist era, and strolled around the castle district. We had some of the worst food of the trip (Chinese) and some of the best (some sort of fruit pastry from a neighborhood bakery).

It was hot again today, but maybe a little cooler than the last couple of days. So far, Prague is a pleasant surprise. Although a lot of it looks like the set of a 1960's spy movie, it is generally quite clean and non-threatening. The panhandlers go away quietly when waved off and the streets are pretty pedestrian friendly. One does need to be mindful of the trolleys. They zip along at about 40 MPH, and can appear quickly with little warning, like a roadrunner cartoon train.

After six weeks on the mainland, we finally hit a combination of Wi-Fi in our room and a phone we could hook up to our laptop, so we tried our MagicJack internet phone. It actually worked and we called a few folks, mostly just because we could.

Czech Monopoly Money

Wimmer Fountain

Trolley at National Theatre

National Theatre

window display

Homer Van Gogh

Prague architecture, old & new

view of Charles Bridge

canal on W bank

Memorial to the Victims	of Communism	Petrin Hill funicular	Petrin Tower
exploring Petrin Hill	Strahov Garden Viewpoint	Strahov Garden Viewpoint

Hradčanská kasárna	Úvoz street	St. John's Vineyard	St. John's Vineyard
alley from Úvoz to Loretánská	looking E down Úvoz	E end of Úvoz, looking W	Schwarzenberský palác
puppet store	Joe by Morzin Palace	St. Nicholas Church	Lesser Town Bridge Tower
at W end of Charles Bridge	bridge beggar	view from bridge

following Joe across the bridge

view from bridge

view from bridge

bridge artist

bridge band

view from bridge

Old Town Bridge Tower

State Opera house

Národní Muzeum

supper receipt