Prague Tour Continues
more Savoy, Park and Petrinska, Strahov Monestary, Prague Castle, Vegetarian Food and Cuban Music
As we anticipated, we had a wonderful breakfast at Cafe Savoy. Gruyere omelette, cafe au lait and multi vitamin juice accompanied with superb breads. The coffee here is served with a shot glass of water – the Savoy serve it with sparkling water – which is quite lovely and cleanses that ‘coffee breath’ when you are done.
We headed to the castle as our destination – but the walk via the parks was an adventure on its own. We started at the monument to the victims of communism. A very interesting breakdown of a man down the stairs on a steep hill – very effective. Then we wound our way through an old orchard in the park with wonderful views from the hillside and school kids all around. There was a small temple near the top of the orchard with a simple table inside (we found out more about that later in the day).
The path through the forest led to the Strahov Monastery behind the castle where we visited the national library and ‘took a load off’ to enjoy some Strahov brewed beer. We were seated with a couple of older American women – one from New York, the other Boston. They shared several tips on Vienna – but mostly the basics as they are not the adventurous type. And to our surprise (disgust…) they were avid Trump supporters – they despise Hillary and are oblivious to any Trump failings, or what his world reputation may be. They are convinced that guns and the loose laws around them are not a problem. wow is all I can say.
Finally off to the castle – Mike didn’t pay the extra for a photo ticket this visit – and in fact the outside was more impressive than the internals. The most impressive internal room was the great hall – you could imagine grand events. And the views of the city and surroundings were spectacular. My biggest challenge of the visit was getting 10kr to use a toilet – we had to end up buying something just to get change.
There were 2 cathedrals – one newer and quite impressive with very ornate decoration. The tomb of the arch bishop and another we weren’t sure about were extensively decorated in silver. The tombs of the two architects of the cathedral which was designed in the 1300’s were fairly recently found in the basement and brought up for display. The older cathedral was plainer with no ornate decoration.
After the walk back, an afternoon siesta we headed to Clear Head for dinner – an amazing vegetarian restaurant which was extremely busy. We had ‘tofois gras’ pate made from smoked tofu, barley miso and cashews – but Mike was convinced they use real fois gras. We had the ‘big clear head’ for dinner which had a great tasty variety of items – baked wrapped spinach and pumpkin, grilled veg skewers, potatoes au gratin, gyros, salad, tzatiki and more.
We needed the walk after dinner – this time in the rain and luckily we had brought the umbrellas from the B&B – although my sandals in the rain on the cobblestones were not the best decision of the evening. The walk back was entertaining – a Friday night with pub crawls in full steam – guys with kegs on their back filling their buddies glasses as the roamed the street. Lots of group sing songs too; loads of energy and fun. Needed to rise early for our pack and pickup by Paul as we head by train in the morning to meet up with Derek & Marketa.
