We treated ourselves to a sleep-in this morning, and then went downstairs to have the hotel breakfast again. Plenty of Activa yogurt and cheap coffee had us back in our rooms near the toilet for a while before we headed back out to the city.
It was a bit later in the day when we walked over the bridge and straight up the hill to see the St. Vitus Cathedral. This time we took the direct route, and it saved a lot of time climbing up the hill in the old city. On the way we took a picture of the man with the golden penis, and then we arrived at the ticket window to buy tickets to enter the cathedral. Our timing was great – there was just a five minute wait in line to get the tickets. The line to enter the cathedral was much longer, however, thanks to the tour buses that had arrived first thing. Still, after fifteen minutes or so we could get in.
The stained glass inside the cathedral was really impressive. Each one was done in a different style, and most used the tiniest pieces of stained glass – in a fine, detailed pattern that was impressive for its complexity. Kuniko wanted especially to see one of the windows that was done by the local artist Mucha. Famous for the unique art deco paintings of beautiful women, Mucha’s take on stained glass and holy scenes did not disappoint. The interior of the cathedral was totally worth the visit – I’m glad that we made the effort to come back and actually go inside.
Afterwards we walked around the old square in town, looking for gourmet shops or specialty stores to buy souvenirs for our neighbors. They have selective tastes, and so it took awhile to find the perfect gifts to share with them when we got back.
On the square itself we were attracted to the scent of roasting meat – there were some food stands set up with big pieces of pork on rotisseries. You could order a portion with a couple of beers, and stand next to bar tables right out in front and eat. We ordered a big cut of ham and enjoyed the first two beers of the day. It was getting hot out, and we were right in the sun, so it was refreshing. The meat was excellent – they know their meats here in Czech. Unfortunately we only had plastic utensils to cut it up and eat it, so some plastic forks lost their tines during the meal.
We spent some time alongside the river – this time sitting on a bench under the trees and enjoying the view of the other side. We had cold beers from a local convenience store and some chips that we had bought previously, and spent almost an hour just relaxing and chit-chatting about our trip. It was nice to rest our feet, too!
Since we had seen the stained glass by Mucha we thought it might be interesting to go look at the Mucha museum across town. It was a bit of a walk, but we were able to find it easily enough. Kuniko was mildly interested in the artist, but one look at the prices in the shop and we lost our interest pretty quickly. Things were wildly overpriced – even by Japanese standards. Time to go!
In the late afternoon we sipped beers outside of an Italian restaurant to kill a little time and get some rest, and then we finally walked across the bridge to have our last dinner in Prague. The bridge itself was at its tourism peak, with vendors clogging the walkways and people everywhere stopping to take pictures. Eventually we got across, and made a reservation at our restaurant because they didn’t open officially until six.
Kuniko was feeling a little tired, so we sat under a tree in a nearby square. We bought some water from a nearby cafe, and just hydrated and relaxed for a while. There was a park just a few minutes walk away, so we spent some time there walking with the wild peacocks that were apparently residents. Fruit fell continuously from the trees in the park, and sitting in the shade watching the peacocks turned out to be a good way to kill the remaining time before our restaurant opened.
The restaurant, Hergetova Cihelna, was recommended by some website that I found a while back, and the best part of it was the location. We sat on a riverside terrace enjoying a view of the Charles Bridge and the historic quarter. The weather was perfect, the location was perfect, everything was great. I would have proposed marriage if we weren’t already married.
As for the food – it was good, not mind-blowing. Kuniko had duck, and I had vegetarian almond and cheese raviolis. The server recommended some wines for us – we had Czech sparkling wine, and then we had some red and whites by the glass. All the wines were excellent – I couldn’t help thinking that maybe TESCO needs a new wine buyer.
During our dinner the couple behind me (that I couldn’t see) talked in English about their anniversary. The guy seemed a little bit weird and the woman was worried about the status of her pregnancy. I kept Kuniko up to date with their conversation using Japanese, but was a little surprised when Kuniko said that the lady looked like maybe she was Japanese. Later they talked about going to Tokyo, so I’m afraid what I thought was my super sneaky language trick was actually not sneaky at all. Uh-oh!
After dinner we walked back across the bridge taking pictures of the sunset over the western side of Prague, and then we continued on to find a wine bar in the other side of town. I think we just didn’t want to end our trip quite yet. The wine bar was really nice – the kind of place where I would probably be a regular customer if it was close to our house. The staff were wine experts (especially about Czech wines) and we ate a big plate with four kinds of cheese (no butter) and tried several wines recommended by the staff. Everything was delicious, but I thought that the white Czech wines overall had higher quality than the reds. Our waiter said that thanks to climate change more and more parts of the Czech Republic were becoming suitable for wine growing, so it may be a region to watch in the future.
Finally, totally exhausted from a busy day (and busy trip) we made the long walk back to our hotel for our last night in Europe. We pretty much collapsed into bed – it was a slow day, but according to our pedometer we walked over 30,000 steps. Goodnight!
