One funny laundry story: an old woman came in and started talking to us in Czech. We just held up our arms and shook our heads to indicate that we didn't understand her. She shouted "Hello" in the back. She obviously didn't get what she wanted because she started talking to us. "Brothers?" she asked. We just smiled and agreed; it was easier than telling the truth. She tried talking to us a bit in English, gave up, and then blew us several kisses (!!!!) before she left. It was cool that she didn't try to hit us up for money; she apparently just wanted some conversation.
When done, we brought our folded and clean laundry back to the hotel, packed it, and then got ready for our day's adventures (finally).
We decided to walk to the Old Town area of Prague. Once we got to the square, I had to have a pic with a panda bear, and the polar bear from the other day was there again. So were Mickey and Minnie Mouse, for some inexplicable reason, but no one was paying attention to them. We did sort of a compressed version of the Rick Steves walking tour of Old Town, beginning with the Jan Hus memorial. Jan Hus was a religious reformer in Prague; "a symbol of nationalism," according to Steves. It was quite a marvelous statue, with him flanked by his followers. We gazed around at all the buildings in Old Town Square, which had all types of architectural styles. These included the Church of St. Nicholas, the Kinsky Palace (red and tan), and the Tyn Church. The famous Astronomical Clock could not be viewed because they were renovating the clock tower. Bummer. We could see the clock at the very top, but that was it. We took a detour into the "Museum of Sex Machines," which included silent pornographic films from the 1920s and sexual devices from the last century or so of all shapes, sizes, and predilictions. I won't go into detail here other than to say it seemed like most of them were female-oriented (such as vibrators for women) and I was surprised at the number of people there considering that the museum wasn't on any of the maps or tour guides.
When we left the museum, we headed for the Charles Street Bridge. It was beautiful, with Catholic statues abounding, but it was very touristy and claustrophobic. Lots of artists milling around: caricature artists, watercolor artists, etc. It reminded me of Taipei, a bit. Amazing views of the river and the city from the bridge, though.
Soon after crossing the bridge, we found a place to eat. It was called the Residence U Cerneho Orla. A small but fancy place, it seemed to be run by an old gentleman with white hair; I really didn't see anyone else milling around except a small old woman (presumably his wife?). Kerry and I split the beef carpaccio; it was good but quite small. I had the lamb with garlic mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts. It turns out that their lamb is homemade, and I believe it because it was quite good! Kerry liked his pork dish, too, with soft egg, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and brown gravy. Good food, but I liked the dishes from the previous night better. We went for ice cream after at this place that was selling black-and-white soft serve cones with an Oreo cookie placed in. Everyone here, by the way, seems to eat ice cream ALL DAY LONG. I swear I saw 30 people eating ice cream today, from early afternoon to evening. People here eat ice cream as much as people in Ireland drink beer.
We ended the day with another Uber; no problems with the ride. Good times overall.
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| A panda picture in Old Town Square |
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| Great views from Charles Street Bridge |
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| Example of buildings in Old Town Square |
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