Day 3, Prague
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| Enjoying breakfast at the Alchymist |
Breakfast at the Alchymist Hotel is always outstanding. They have your regular western options but I opted for the European options. Apart from a menu with omelets, toast, and pancakes they had a table laden with goodness including sandwich meats and cheeses, fruits, veggies, and delectable pastries. Most hotels will have a similar spread for breakfast but this just felt so much like home to me. I would get some bread cut into small pieces, slather it with a thin layer of better, then I added a couple slices of salami, a slice of cheese and enjoyed it with a fresh cucumber, bell pepper, and cherry tomato. These flavors took me back to what we called kanapky.
After breakfast we attended mass in a local Catholic church called Our Lady Victorious. This church in Prague is very famous for a 16
thcentury wax statue of a child Jesus. Legend claims that the statue holds miraculous powers and people from all over come to see this statue, as we witnessed this Sunday. Towards the end of mass there was a steady trickle of tourists into the building all eagerly awaiting to look at and/or photograph and/or bring flowers to the wax statue. I found it quite unnerving to see people put so much sentiment into this statue, but hey isn’t that what religion is all about? Even though I only picked up a few words here and there, mass was enjoyable, we enjoyed the service, the music, and the beautiful church.
Saturday we saw these pedal boats on the river and decided we would try them out today. After church it was pretty chilly so we found a café near the boat rental area and picked up 2 hot chocolates before getting on the boat. Our requirement was that we had to have the swan boat, it was just so noticeable and ridiculous looking we wouldn’t have it any other way. We sat there pedaling for a few minutes at a leisurely pace like everyone else but it was Jerry’s idea that we must race around this island in the middle of the river…who were we racing against? Well of course we were going to record our performance on his Garmin watch which would then be uploaded to Strava, we were going to have the KOM (king of the mountain) award for this one and then anyone else who was part of Strava and happened to be in Prague would be obligated to race against our time. Yes I agreed, because I always agree to these types of decisions. So we went at it. It was about 1km around the island and we were pedaling as hard as we could, passing all these families giving us the evil eye for disrupting the peace. Remember we wore sweaters because it was cold outside and we got hot chocolate to stay warm. Well, we didn’t need those sweaters nor the hot chocolate because after racing this kilometer we were sweating bullets. It was fun though, knowing that we were both sweaty and super tired because we each put in the effort towards this ‘race’. Along our way on the river we saw a swan couple and on of them had little babies hanging out out on her back, it was so sweet. We thought she might identify with us since we were in the swan boat, but alas, this was not the case.
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| Mama swan carrying 3 baby swans on her back..so sweet! |
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| Us in the ridiculous swan boat |
Jerry has never been to a ballet so when we saw that there was a ballet about to start in 30 minutes at a near by theater we quickly found the box office, bought tickets and went inside where we grabbed a couple glasses of great wine and some delicious sandwiches to get us through until dinner. The ballet was a pleasure, it was one based on Alexander Pushkin’s novel Eugene Onegin. The plot is a very sad one but the acting, dancing and emotions were quite entertaining. Neither of us was familiar with the plot so we spent the first act trying to figure out what was going on. Then Jerry got a program and we were able to read a summary during the first intermission and follow the remainder of the ballet a lot easier. The theater itself was very beautiful; we couldn’t get enough of it.
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| Theater ceiling |
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Delicious sandwiches with
wine before the ballet |
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Reading what this plot is
all about |
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| Beef Tartare appetizer |
For dinner that night we went to this adorable looking place where we had gotten hot chocolate earlier that day. Jerry got a lamb steak for dinner with potatoes and an asparagus sauce and I got trout with ratatouille and spinach rolls.For dessert we got the traditional Czech knedliky which were served with blueberry jam and cream. Dinner was spectacular and we walked back to the hotel quite happy and well fed.
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| Lamb Steak |
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| Trout with Ratatouille |
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| Delectable Dessert |
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This man, as silly as he looks,
keeps my world spinning. |
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After breakfast we attended mass in a local Catholic church called Our Lady Victorious. This church in Prague is very famous for a 16thcentury wax statue of a child Jesus. Legend claims that the statue holds miraculous powers and people from all over come to see this statue, as we witnessed this Sunday. Towards the end of mass there was a steady trickle of tourists into the building all eagerly awaiting to look at and/or photograph and/or bring flowers to the wax statue. I found it quite unnerving to see people put so much sentiment into this statue, but hey isn’t that what religion is all about? Even though I only picked up a few words here and there, mass was enjoyable, we enjoyed the service, the music, and the beautiful church.
Perullo Press 