Prague - Day 7

We stayed on the Little Quarter side of the river today - close to our inn. Even though the Castle is above this area it’s not quite as busy as where we were yesterday.

Prague is BUSY - there are a lot of tourists! It’s hard to know if it’s because of the 100th anniversary celebration or if it’s always like this. But what’s good/weird is that if you step away from the main area by just half a block it will be totally quiet.

Today was a day of pleasant surprises. 

First the sun was out and it was a bit warmer- Yesterday it got cold enough that we had to buy hats - We went for ones that represented our latest travel adventures. Mike is too cool to wear his in this photo!

Anyway - Today was better weather. We walked around the lower part of our quarter called Kampa Island. It was a charming part of town with a beautiful park. 

We happened upon this strange art sculpture...

It’s by David Cerny who is a Czech contemporary artist and quite the shit-stirrer.

We also came upon the Lennon wall - The Czech peoples’ tribute to peace, love and freedom during communism. The government paints it over every couple of years but it goes up again every time - even now.

Right on the other side of the wall is the oldest tree in the Czech Republic - a 320 year old sycamore. We have a special affinity for them since we have a 100 year old one in our new backyard. 

It does look 3 times the size of ours!

We visited a couple of local churches. A small one called. The Church of Our Lady Victorious and Infant Jesus (the baby Jesus - our favorite!) Here he is

He’s the small little doll in the center of all that sparkly-ness.

And our nearby huge church - St. Nicholas

Then we hiked up to the Castle - Which had beautiful views of Prague 

We toured the palace (where the cure president still lives) and the areas around it. Palace...



And St. Virus Church - The main cathedral...

Then we hiked up up a little further into the quarter to a monastery that had even more beautiful views.

We happened upon this “miniature” museum where all the art was done on tiny things like the head of a needle or a grain of rice. You looked at everything with a magnifying glass or microscope. Often the art was placed next to an insect so you could get a sense of scale. Here’s a microscope...

This is Jesus on a grain of rice...



The monastery made their own beer.

After we hiked back past the palace - They we’re starting to gear up for the weekend festivities- Security was getting tighter.

We ventured over the bridge to a wine bar and had a light dinner. Then fought through the crowds to come back and hang out on our little balcony. Lovely!