Back in Prague

After an absence of too long, we returned to Prague Tuesday evening. The contrast between the green of Prague and the sometimes arid earth colors of much of Turkey is striking. We were trying to figure it out on the way in from the airport. There is plenty of green in Turkey. There are wheat fields and orchards. There are millions of olive trees. Those are green, but here everything seems to be GREEN.

When we got to the Intercontinental, they told us that they had oversold the rooms we were booked in (bad!) and they were going to have to upgrade us to a large suite (good!). We have lots of room and nice features with a view of the Vltava river right across the street.

On Wednesday we needed to do some laundry but we thought the prices in the hotel were beyond belief. A shirt, for example, was $15 and slacks were $20. Even though we weren’t going to spend the money, we added up all that needed washed and came up with $584. So we found a laundromat about a mile away and schlepped our dirty laundry over and brought the clean clothes back AND saved a fortune. We were pretty pleased with ourselves for negotiating the laundromat because the attendant spoke very little English—wash, dry, pay finish.

In the afternoon we sat down by the main square in Old Town and had a light lunch while we waited for the Astronomic Clock to strike the hour. We walked around a good bit to regain our orientation. Well, at least I was oriented although Patricia took a picture of me consulting a map, something she thinks is pretty rare.

Today we struck out for the Castle. I think the steps to get up there number about 3,264,178. I’m not exaggerating! Well, maybe not quite that many, but it is a hike to get up there. We went up one way and down another. Oddly, there are as many steps going down as going up. That is to say, a lot. We had lunch today in a little grotto off the main square. Just a few feet away the crowds were streaming by but it was quiet and peaceful where we were. We walked along the river several times and were reminded again why Prague is one of our favorite cities.

Yesterday and today we did not take as many pictures as you might expect. We have lots of pictures of Prague and we find ourselves photographing the same things again. But I have put some of the pictures in the picture gallery.

We are doing well and are happy to be in one place for a while, especially when that one place is Prague.