Sept. 26 -- More Prague

Built between 1907 and 1912, this Art Nouveau building has
amazing architecutural details.

Today we headed out on our own, as most of the group went on an optional trip to Theresien.The best part of the day was getting to sleep in -- to 7:30! and not worry about meeting someone else's schedule and catch a bus.Our first stop was the Municipal House to get tickets for the 4pm (often sold out) tour. Then we walked back to the Charles Bridge (built in the 1400s and was the only way to cross the Moldau (Vltava) river until 1870). Now only for pedestrians, it is a lovely stone bridge overrun with tourists and vendors. It was however, rainy this morning and had only started to clear up as we crossed.

There was a couple flocks of swans swimming just below
us near the Charles Bridge,

From there we headed to the funicular leading to the top of a local hill that has a tower which is a (sort of) replica of the top of the Eiffel Tower. For a small fee, you can walk  up 300 steps. For a larger fee, you can ride an elevator, but I am sure you know what we did.

A great way to get uphill fast and easy.

Petrin Tower, a mere 300 steps to the top

Jim at the halfway point up the tower with Prague Castle
and St. Vitus Cathedral in the background.

If we could walk up 750 steps on the Eiffel Tour in 2002, we were certainly capable of less than half that many today. I am glad, however, that we paid for the funicular to get to the top of the hill, which we walked down later -- do-able, but it would have been slow. Luckily, the sun came out while we were on our tower adventure.

Charles Bridge from a neighboring bridge

From there, we headed back toward the Municipal House, and started to look for a lunch. My interest in the hotel breakfast has been waning -- their scrambled eggs and bacon are yucky, so I normally get a warm hard-boiled egg and make a ham and cheese sandwich. Today I couldn't manage the sandwich so I took it along and chowed it down around 11 when I got hungry again. That meant that when Jim finally got hungry, I wasn't, so we stopped in a small grocery store to see if they had anything. As we walked to the back, Jim spied an ice cream case and wondered aloud if they carried Magnum bars, our favorite ice cream bar since we discovered them in Turkey years ago. Ha Ha, fat chance we agreed. He got chips and a soda, I selected a local chocolate brand to try later along with water and went to the front to check out -- right by the ice cream case and lo and behold: Magnum Bars. So that was our lunch.

We now had about 3 hours to kill before our tour, and we were on a prime shopping street. I wanted to get a European curling iron to have for this and future trips and stumbled onto a store (Tesco) that the hotel concierge had recommended as the best source. It was a struggle to find, but we did, leaving us another 2.5 hours. We shopped till we dropped without buying anything else. By the time the tour started, we were both kind of pooped and both my sandwich and the Magnum bar had lost effectiveness.

Outside entry glass. Photos not allowed inside
without an extra fee.

The Municipal House is an amazing community center for the Czech community -- concerts, meeting rooms, political events, social events, etc. We walked through several of the rooms -- all  beautifully decorated with some marvelous stained glass.

I was, however, even happier to get back to the hotel and off my feet. I track my steps as part of my vigilance to not gain weight and most days I do not make it to 10,000 steps, which is recommended for minimum exercise. By the time we got back to the hotel, I was at 21,000+ steps and kind of beat. At dinner with the group, Chrisian, our guide, asked about our day and I gave him the short version and mentioned I had walked over twice as many steps as I normally do on a GREAT day, and that I had walked so much I could afford to eat another cheesecake slice (our dessert). As we left, he brought me another cheesecake in a to-go box...... Now I am REALLY stuffed!