Gazing Downward

Today was another train ride, this time from Prague to Munich. Instead of sharing random blurry scenery, I'm going to backtrack a little and share some sidewalk photos.

I look down at my feet a lot when I walk. Not just because I'm playing Pokémon Go on my phone — even before the development of mobile phones I had a knack for stepping off curbs or into holes and spraining my ankles. And many of the places I've visited on this trip have quaint cobblestones, which require an extra degree of caution. Sometimes this view of the world turns up (down?) interesting things.

Vienna has its own Hollywood Walk of Fame, feauturing composers, conductors, and other musicians. I didn't photograph every star I saw, so a few of these are photos I found online, but I did actually see each one in this collage in person. Maybe the next time I go to Vienna I'll look for the rest

The sidewalks in Prague are tiled in little square cobblestones in gray, white, and brown. Each building had its own pattern out front. Churches often had crosses, and Castle Square (third row on right) had this zigzag that kind of reminds me of crenellations.

Other things seen on the ground:

Verona: Original city plan

(Prague: Plaque by the Charles Bridge, marking the spot where Wenceslas Column used to stand)

Prague: Municipal House lobby

Cathedral floors

Tonight was the first of Beth's performances this weekend. Before the show, I grabbed a "döner kebab" at La Casa de Kebob, another Google Maps find. Talk about multicultural: Turkish food at a restaurant with a Spanish name in Germany. It was very tasty, and I would go back again.

Since Beth was only in the first piece tonight, she gave everyone permission to go home at intermission. Looking forward to seeing her dance again the next two nights — I haven't seen her perform in person since high school! And I'm excited to have my laptop back; will have to go back through my posts and do some editing :-)

Prague, Day 3

Today I slept in again, then enjoyed the croissant I bought yesterday for breakfast. The weather forecast had a chance of rain in the afternoon, so I packed my raincoat into my bag and headed out in my sun hat. I was only a few feet from the hotel when the rain started, and it lasted most of the day.

This morning I tried out taking the tram instead of walking over the Charles Bridge again. I took a little detour from the route Google Maps gave me when I saw what turned out to be the Czech Senate. There was a pond with koi, and several peacocks, some of them the usual color and some of them white.

My first intended stop of the day was the Basilica of St. James, which was closed when I stopped by yesterday. On the way there I stopped at an ATM in a mall (almost everything can be paid for with a credit card, but Prague collects a city tax for hotels that can only be paid in cash, just like the one in Venice).

The organist was playing when I got to St. James.

Next on my list of things to do today was to stop at a jewelry store (AleAle) recommended in the guidebook. I got myself a pair of nice earrings, then headed back across the river.

Here are today's random building photos (to be properly identified after I get back to my laptop this weekend):

One of the drawbacks to traveling alone is that I don't like eating alone in restaurants, so I tend to end up eating sandwiches in my hotel room. But thanks to Susan signing us up for a food tour in Venice, I've discovered it's a great way to get out and sample local food. I don't necessarily get my money's worth, as I don't drink alcohol and am a light eater (I find that eating about half of each dish on a tour like this is just right for me), but it's worth it to get the local experience.

Today I went on a tour with Eating Europe, and it was a lot of fun! There were eleven of us plus the guide: a family from San Diego, two childhood friends with their husbands (they now live in Wisconsin & Boston), and a professor and his wife from Ohio.

First stop was on a beer boat. They actually make the beer on this boat! We had a soft cheese, which was served as two slices with a sauce between the slices, with bread on the side. The non-drinkers in the group got a house-made blueberry soda:

(The restroom doors)

Next stop was at a gingerbread shop. Czech gingerbread doesn't actually contain ginger, so it has a different taste. We sampled three kinds of cookies there, but there wasn't a good way to photograph cookies in a brown bag, so this photo was taken later at my hotel of the remaining half-cookies:

Course #3 was open-faced sandwiches. The little skewers holding them together are bamboo.

The soup course was served at a restaurant with cool-looking steampunk decor. I had the chicken noodle soup, but I also took a photo of the other one (a sauerkraut soup with spicy sausage, although one of the other people on the tour assured me that "spicy" in Prague isn't really spicy at all).

Our final stop was at Cafe Louvre, where we had a choice of beef sirloin in a vegetable gravy with bread dumplings, paprika chicken with gnocchi that resemble spätzel, or vegetable pancakes. I went with the beef, which was delicious:

We also had our dessert at this restaurant: apple strudel with a cream sauce and whipped cream.

After the tour was over, I backtracked to the gingerbread store to buy some cookies, then went to Havelsky Market to get some fruit:

On the way back to the hotel, I went into a random church. I don't even know the name of it (will look it up later), but it was really nice. I couldn't get a good photo of the organ in this one because the lighting was terrible, so just one photo:

Prague, Day 2

Prague is beautiful, and packed with tourists. The woman who checked me into my hotel last night said it was good that I'm here in the middle of the week, since it's less crowded. I think I don't want to know what it's like on a summer weekend!

I slept in today, and started my morning with a leisurely cup of tea (I carry my own teabags when I travel), the last of the delicious apricots I bought in Vienna, and a pastry that I grabbed at the store last night. I still don't know what this pastry is called, but it was tasty.

After breakfast, I joined the hordes streaming over the Charles Bridge.

I got to the Old Town just before noon, and saw the astronomical clock glockenspiel play. I also poked my head into town hall.

Town Hall glockenspiel

Inside Town Hall 

~~~~~

There are so many beautiful old buildings here. I might label these properly when I get back to my computer next week, but for now here are a bunch of them, in no particular order:

~~~~~

For lunch today I had a trdelnik with ice cream and Nutella:

  

Next stop was a grocery store, where I picked up some sandwich stuff, fruit, and snacks:

After a round trip up and down to my room (64 steps each way), I headed up to the Castle Quarter. First stop there was St. Vitus' Cathedral. Wow!

Nave

Organs (baroque one above, modern one below)

Rose window

Tower

Pulpit

St. Wenceslas Chapel

Tomb of St. John of Nepomuk

A couple of other photos from the Castle Quarter:

Basilica of St. George

Lamppost

(When I started up this picturesque stairway to the castle, I had no idea there were 208 steps along the way.)

Last stop of the evening was back in Old Town. There are a ton of concerts here aimed at tourists: almost all feature Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, plus an assortment of Mozart's greatest hits. I decided the organ concert at St. Francis of Assisi sounded more promising: there was a mezzo soprano, flute, and organ, and although the program had a lot of baroque music, some later stuff was also programmed.

There was at least one substitution on the program: How Beautiful Are the Feet is *not* from Judas Maccabeus.