Day 2: July 9, 2025

We arrived in Prague at about 8:00am local time (3:00am according to our bodies)! We got off the plane with various levels of sleep deprivation.

I was sitting in steerage, so I exited out the butt to a shuttle bus.

It was cloudy, windy, and in the 60s which felt cold compared to the high 80s we left behind. 

We got through customs without incident and we were met by a woman with a VBT on her iPad. Multiple individuals work for VBT to cover local logistics. Her job was simply to meet us and get us onto a vehicle to take us to our hotel. This is one advantage of booking the pre-trip, otherwise we would have to get ourselves to a hotel. 

The driver took us on winding secondary roads to the center city and to our small boutique hotel. Here's Mike in front.

At this point it was about 9:00am and only Marty's room was available so we piled into his room and dumped our luggage.

After brushing our teeth, we headed out for a wander.

The hotel is on the river (Danube?), and right outside the front door is one of many bridges that lead to the center city.

 Here's the view of another bridge from the center of the first one.

While the outskirts of the city were dotted with gray block buildings, downtown lived up to its reputation of architecture that was largely original and not restored after being destroyed by any of the many world and lesser wars.

Since Mike had been to Prague twice before, he led us on the walk and provided commentary that was part fact and part fiction. We will have a city tour tomorrow when we discover how much what made up.

This statue might or might not be famous. We'll find out tomorrow.

Old world architecture.

More old world architecture spoiled by a couple of photo-bombing tourists.

New world business - one-stop shopping. Smoke a joint, get some munchies, be happy.

We got to this square around noon and the "Universal Clock" has some historical significance and was supposed to do something at the top of the hour, but we were not sure exactly what. 

Rick Steves says that this clock used to read Moscow time during Soviet occupation.

We crossed another bridge. That's Mike and Marty's heads. (Sorry Sue.)

The bridge led to this gate.

The sociologist in me is always interested in how other societies handle poverty. We saw more than one panhandler in this position. I am pretty sure it has nothing to with Islam although I could be wrong. I will ask our guide tomorrow.

It was time to stop for a beer (and lunch). The place we chose had "burgers" in the name. They had a surprisingly good veggie burger.

Here's the ceremonial "first beer". Happy birthday, Mike!

I think Mike enjoys a beer on a piazza almost as much as riding his bike. Almost.

They actually had an NA beer.

I love seeing buskers and am happy to toss some change in their cases. These guys actually had CDs for sale. I didn't love a tuba-guitar duet enough to want to buy one.

On another bridge somewhere.

We ran across a kid playing a cello and he was pretty good but at that moment, we were in a hurry to find a bathroom. Public toilets require cash and we hadn't hit an ATM yet.

Here's the famous castle on the hill. 

This was on the middle of another bridge. Significance unknown.

Here's a gate leading to another bridge.

Behind this shot was a billboard advertising a concert. 

I bought a ticket, cautiously optimistic that if I took a nap, I could stay up past 9:00. The boys declined but Walter may join me if he also gets a nap.

I may or may not have pictures and energy to post them after the concert tonight and I don't know if blogger will notify you of updates, so you may want to check this post again tomorrow.

Back! 

Here's the program.

Since I can't seem to rotate the image, it's a "best hits" program, designed to entertain tourists who may or may not be classical music afficionados. It also looks like they run this same program a few times during the month.

There were three violins (two firsts and one second), a viola, a cello, and a bass. I was in the second row but the people in front of me obscured the viola player. (sorry, Marilyn)

The soprano was outstanding.

The acoustics in the church were amazing - filling that space with no amplification. The pews were horribly uncomfortable.

A nice few moments of calm and enrichment in the midst of traveling chaos.