Today Really Got Away From Us!
We'd planned a big day, but, neither of us slept very well last night and ended up sleeping in. Way in. We barely made lunch. But I guess we needed the rest.
It's a real life lesson...when things happen differently than you'd planned, time to shift gears and make the best of it. It happens to travelers a lot. Your plane is delayed, or worse, your flight gets cancelled. The tour you wanted to take is sold out. That restaurant you read all about is closed for the season. It's a heavy sigh moment. But I've found that those very things are the ones that lead to fabulous discovery.
Sleeping in this morning sort of blew up our plans to spend the day at the castle. It closes at 5pm. By the time we got up and moving, had some lunch and walked over, we'd be down to just about three hours of exploring. Plan B? Do the castle on Monday. And in fact, it will likely be a much better day: it's no longer the weekend, it may rain a bit, it would be the only thing on the agenda. Much better.
That decision behind us, we left the apartment with lunch on our mind and started walking toward Old Town Square. We took a different path than we had before and suddenly we found ourselves in front of a brewery. Imagine that. U Tri Ruzi (The Three Roses). Their menu boasted five delicious sounding beers, hamburgers and strudel. BINGO
After our wonderful lunch, we continued to the Square for some shopping. We found a couple of stores that featured local craftsmen and goods...we've come to find that the stuff is better made than that in the tourist shops, and our dollars help the local community.
Since it's Saturday, the Square was packed, so we decided to head over to Wenceslas Square. (Yeah, the same guy we sing about at Christmas.) The Square is actually a long rectangle dominated on one end by the Czech National Museum.
This Square is the traditional setting for celebrations and demonstrations in Prague. In October 1918, the proclamation of independence of Czechoslovakia was read in front of the Wenceslas statue. The Nazis used the street for mass demonstrations during the Prague Uprising in 1945. In January 1969, a student named Jan Palach set himself on fire here to protest the Warsaw Pact invasion. March of that same year, the Czech's national hocky team defeated the USSR team for the second time in the World Championships. As the country was still under Soviet occupation, the victory set off great celebrations upward of 150,000 people. And in 1989, during the Velvet Revolution, hundreds of thousands of people gathered here to witness the transition of power from Communism to a Republic.
From here we walked along a side street to a nearby craft beer bar called Blah Blah Craft Beer & Coffee. Tiny little place, huge beer selection. It was time to head home, but we had to make one more stop.
It's a real life lesson...when things happen differently than you'd planned, time to shift gears and make the best of it. It happens to travelers a lot. Your plane is delayed, or worse, your flight gets cancelled. The tour you wanted to take is sold out. That restaurant you read all about is closed for the season. It's a heavy sigh moment. But I've found that those very things are the ones that lead to fabulous discovery.
Sleeping in this morning sort of blew up our plans to spend the day at the castle. It closes at 5pm. By the time we got up and moving, had some lunch and walked over, we'd be down to just about three hours of exploring. Plan B? Do the castle on Monday. And in fact, it will likely be a much better day: it's no longer the weekend, it may rain a bit, it would be the only thing on the agenda. Much better.
That decision behind us, we left the apartment with lunch on our mind and started walking toward Old Town Square. We took a different path than we had before and suddenly we found ourselves in front of a brewery. Imagine that. U Tri Ruzi (The Three Roses). Their menu boasted five delicious sounding beers, hamburgers and strudel. BINGO
They had some great art on the walls.
And some great beer in the taps.
After our wonderful lunch, we continued to the Square for some shopping. We found a couple of stores that featured local craftsmen and goods...we've come to find that the stuff is better made than that in the tourist shops, and our dollars help the local community.
Since it's Saturday, the Square was packed, so we decided to head over to Wenceslas Square. (Yeah, the same guy we sing about at Christmas.) The Square is actually a long rectangle dominated on one end by the Czech National Museum.
The Museum with Wenceslas on his horse in the foreground.
Stunning architecture
Old hotels along the way
This Square is the traditional setting for celebrations and demonstrations in Prague. In October 1918, the proclamation of independence of Czechoslovakia was read in front of the Wenceslas statue. The Nazis used the street for mass demonstrations during the Prague Uprising in 1945. In January 1969, a student named Jan Palach set himself on fire here to protest the Warsaw Pact invasion. March of that same year, the Czech's national hocky team defeated the USSR team for the second time in the World Championships. As the country was still under Soviet occupation, the victory set off great celebrations upward of 150,000 people. And in 1989, during the Velvet Revolution, hundreds of thousands of people gathered here to witness the transition of power from Communism to a Republic.
From here we walked along a side street to a nearby craft beer bar called Blah Blah Craft Beer & Coffee. Tiny little place, huge beer selection. It was time to head home, but we had to make one more stop.
As we walked along the park, there was this little beer garden on the corner. We couldn't pass it up.
Lovely views from the rooftop.
We had a yummy Italian dinner later and now it's already time to sleep. Jewish Cemetery tomorrow. And maybe a boat ride! Who knows what Plan B will bring.
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