Enjoying Prague

Slept really well with Ros waking us at half nine. After breakfast we made our way into the metro where we got on to go to Florenc where the bus terminus is to pay for our tickets to Dresden. We leave Monday morning and come back the following Monday. Once there we will book for our Paris trip. We got back on the metro to meet Steph for lunch at Grosseto – a boat restaurant moored on the River Vltava. It was lovely sitting in the sun watching the boats going up and down the river. Lunch was really tasty with me having a prawn pasta and Ros a prawn salad. Diane had a veggie pasta with Steph having lasagne. We chilled some more over cappuccino before splitting up. Ros went shopping and home. Steph went back to the library to study while Diane and I crossed over the Charles bridge to Mala Strana. The amount of people on the bridge was unbelievable. No sooner had we started to cross when a surge of people from the other side came over. We were forced forward by the people behind and at the same time the people coming the other way tried to push us back. It was a relief to get past and carry on over the bridge. We wandered along through souvenir shops getting more for our collection and reached the St Vitus Cathedral just as they were changing the guard. After taking pics we went into the Cathedral admiring the fantastic stained glass windows. The place is absolutely beautiful. Leaving there we made our way back down the hill to the trams. As we turned the corner the 22 had just stopped and we ran over to get on for our trip back to the metro. When we got off the tram we had to go back up to the metro at I.P.Pavlova and just as we reached the crossing the light for pedestrians changed from green so we quickly ran over. To our horror a policeman was leaning against the wall over and he stopped us and , in not very good English, told us it wasn’t allowed and we could get a fine. He then asked for our passports which we didn’t have as we had left them at Ros. To our relief he then waved us on and we made short work of getting out of there. At the metro we got on until Orpotov where Ros picked us up. After relaxing and having supper we were in bed by 10.
Tuesday morning we were up at 7 to wish Steph a Happy 18th Birthday before she left for her exam. We spent the morning relaxing and checking through all our pics and putting some up on fb as well as the blog. It was a very cold day with a lot of rain. We left around 11 to fetch Steph and go shopping at the Palladium. Before anything we stopped for lunch with Diane and I having fried cheese and french fries which we enjoyed. After eating Diane and I went up to the Old Town Square with the Astronomical clock. We were there for the two o'clock chime followed by a trumpeter with a fanfare. We got some great pics - just a pity it was so cold. It started raining soon after and we stopped at a souvenir shop to get ourselves some Prague beanies. The shop owner was very amusing and had a strong opinion on South Africa. We felt a lot warmer with our beanies on and made our way back to the Palladium where we wandered around the shops until meeting Ros and Steph at half three. When we got back we had short nap before having a great evening together. Ros made a chicken and broccolli pasta bake for Steph which was really tasty. It was 11 before we made our way to bed.
Wednesday morning we were up about 8 and had a relaxing morning getting our washing cleared and some cleaning down. After lunch we went for a walk through the Pruhonica Castle grounds. It was rather chilly when we started but the sun soon came out again and warmed us up. The castle grounds were stunning with the huge trees and the thick,lush growth everywhere. We enjoyed our walk around the place with Diane taking plenty of pics. We walked up to the castle before leaving through the gates at that side stopping to get an ice-cream each before making our way home. By the time we got back we had had a walk of about 5kms which we all thoroughly enjoyed in the bracing air. Ros put the supper on to cook after which we had a quick trip to the supermarket. We are now having a relaxing evening together.