Day 26 Prague

We started the day with a relaxed & substantial breakfast at the hotel. The muesli was incredible....along with the bacon, etc.

We spent a bit of time on the Internet last night & this morning checking we had seen all the sights & looking for any unusual things to do. Came up with another bunker tour, but this looked different again from those we had done....so we headed to Old Town Square where the tour starts at 10:30am & 2:30 pm. We didn't have much time to get to the morning tour but decided to give it a go & if too late we would book for the afternoon. It wasn't easy to find the starting point in the very large Old Town Square. It was basically a wooden door in a side alley, with a curtain over the door...so we found it about 10:35. The girl selling tickets said we might be able to catch up so she locked up & we hurriedly followed her down the alley & found the group of 6 others on the tour. She asked them to wait & took us back to pay....and then we joined the group. The tour was called "The Communism & Bunker Tour" & the first hour was spent walking the streets where our guide pointed out buildings or monuments of significance to the communists & secret service.

There was a lot of listening, but it was mainly interesting & definitely educational.

Then he took us on a relatively long tram journey to Olsanska, which was a less touristy part of town. He then walked us up a hill to a graffiti strewn walkway, which had a hidden entry to the bunker.

He had keys to unlock the padlocks to the door & behind that was a massively thick lead door (weighing a tonne)

that he opened to take us down into the bunker - doors were locked behind us.

Several floors beneath the ground was the entry to the official part of the bunker, where there were decontamination rooms.

This took us into the Bunker Museum, where there were lots of old supplies for the bunker, gasmasks, & historical displays which he explained further.

 There were old newspaper articles, communist propaganda, medals, uniforms, etc.  There is working ventilation in the bunker as it still could potentially be used today. There was a section in the bunker that we weren't able to see as it is the Government area.  The display of oxygen masks over the years was incredible. 

Towards the end of the tour he asked it we would like to hold a gun & take a photo....nobody spoke up so I said yes I'd like one of Campbell, so he unlocked the gun cupboard & handed one to Cam along with a hat.  Cam wasn't too pleased with me when I spoke up, but he enjoyed it once in his hand.

And of course once everyone else saw they also wanted to hold it & take photos too. You could also try uniform jackets & gasmasks.

 Quite a bit of fun!

The tour was heading back to Old Town on the tram, but was essentially over, so we decided to stay for a wander in Olsanska as we could see the telecommunications tower was nearby & it was on our list of unusual sights to see. The artist who designed the pissing fountain we saw yesterday, was also responsible for a series of babies crawling up the telecommunications tower.  We first had a walk through the local graveyard which has a number of prominent Czech people...nobody we'd heard of though.

Many of the graves were covered in ivy.

Then we made our way up the hill to the tower to photograph the babies....

very strange but cute!

Next Cam worked out a tram to get us to another unusual building designed relatively recently by an architect. It is known as the "dancing house" as it appears to move.

We then caught the tram back to our hotel area & walked to Old Town Square to see the Astronomical Clock chime the hour.

A skeleton pulls on a rope & 2 doors open, where Apostles move by....not overly dramatic but there's a huge crowd to see it.

We quickly moved on to cross the bridge to Kampa....we were in search of the Cafe Kaficko. We got distracted by a group of swans at the rivers edge that were asking to be photographed.

As forecast the cloud has cleared and we have the beautiful blue sky we have become accustomed to.

Eventually we found the nondescript Cafe Kaficko & ordered the suggested dark hot chocolate.

Wow - it was unbelievely thick - like just melting a bar of chocolate in a mug, but not too sweet.

It was exactly as described on the Internet site we had found & wasn't the sort of place you'd think to enter from the outside.  Cam finished his, but I struggled as it was very rich. Great value at around NZ$2 each.

Next on our list was to find the 3rd piece by the same artist....more babies at the entrance to a museum - success!

And we got distracted by the view again.... Not sure what the Penguins are doing there...

It was now time for our last walk up the hill to Prague Castle...from a different direction yet again ( though we had walked down this way in earlier days).

The climb seemed easy to us (possibly thanks to the chocolate). Our purpose was to see the Golden Lane at the castle.

You pay to walk down this during the day but after 4pm it is free, & it is apparently a must see. It is just a lane of tiny 16th century cottages of which some are now shops.

One of the shops had some gorgeous blue & white china, including a wreath with tiny pieces of blue china incorporated in it that I desperately wanted to buy...

.ended up compromising with a tiny bell....My only souvenir from Prague.

Cam was a bit over the castle by now but I needed a few more pictures as the sun was starting to set.

As we walked out the castle gate it happened to be the exact time of the changing of the guards, so we had no choice but to watch or we would be walking in their path.

Finally we said goodbye to the castle (Cam said he may be back one day with Cam Jnr)....and we caught a tram back to our hotel. I then went in search of a small backpack again....getting lost a couple of times in the confusing lanes (thank goodness for Google maps on my phone!). Found an Adidas sports bag that will do the trick & then back to our hotel to get Cam for dinner.

We decided to try the vegetarian restaurant next door to our hotel. It has Indian vegetarian dishes which you self serve & then pay according to what your plate weighs.

It was really tasty & very good value. We then went to the supermarket for donuts & chocolate.

Had to try the robe on tonight....just because I could.

We fly back to Paris tomorrow afternoon, so plan to have a big breakfast here & go to the airport a bit earlier than we need to. Very relieved it's not another German train ride ahead!