Bobbing around Prague

UncleD is the lovable roughneck with the handlebar mustache and Harley gear. He's working offshore near Gdansk every-other month.

AuntD is the tall Native gal with the perma-grin, unflappable spirit and sparkly fingernails. She flew in from Michigan for a visit.

Together, they make two incredibly fun visitors, wanting to bob around the Prague environs like corks in a pool. No pressure to "see it all"; we found lots to do just by drifting through the city, and it was so pleasant.

On the train, headed for a chateau

There was the Konopiště Chateau, a 2.5km walk outside of Benešov. Konopiště was where Archduke Franz Ferdinand made his last home prior to being assassinated in Sarajevo and triggering WWI. It was packed with taxidermy - Franz was said to have shot over 275,000 animals around the world - and a gargantuan armory collection. We couldn't take photos inside.

It turned into quite a soggy day and we had only 1 umbrella between 4 people... Until we dug a broken one out of a trash can and had 1.5. Classy all around. We ended up taking a taxi back to the train station.

One little corner of Konopiste showing through the trees

They look darn near royal

And then there was Petrin Hill. This time we had our thinking caps on and bought some umbrellas at a tacky souvenir shop. So we had a watery walk with wonderful views and topped it off with a foamy treat at the end.

Rainclouds over the pretty city

I think he likes it

There was stuffing ourselves at Marina Grossetto, an Italian place on a boat. Wet hair and dog and all.

Lots of life preservers - just in case

Cheers!

And of course there were lots of stops at churches, cafes, monuments, pubs, etc., to cool our heels. A few pictures from our bobbing about:

In Hlavni Nadrazi (main train station)

Breakfast at the iconic Cafe Louvre

The Art Deco bar at Obecni Dum

With the umbrellas down so as not to impede the view

Inside the Carmelite Church of Our Lady Victorious, where there's a famous infant Jesus statue

Beautiful bank 

Almost 40 years of marriage! Awwwww

Thanks for visiting, and enjoy Cesky Krumlov/Austria/etc.! Xx

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The twilit May, the time of love

The Czechs do May 1 right - a day devoted to love.
Not fat bouquets of roses
Not Tiffany baubles
Not four-course candlelit dinners
But simple and utter LOVE.

The thing in Prague to do is climb Petřín Hill and kiss your crush under a blossoming tree. So we joined the stream of people heading that way. 

Cherry blossoms were elusive this year, but all of the adorable sidewalk chalkings made up for it.

Technically, the Czech calendar says May 1 is Labor Day (Svátek práce), not Love Day, but celebrating romance has long been a tradition, thanks to a famous 19th century poem by the writer Mácha:

Karel Hynek Mácha: Máj (May)
Beginning verses, translation by Edith Pargeter

Byl pozdní večer - první máj - večerní máj - byl lásky čas. Hrdliččin zval ku lásce hlas, kde borový zaváněl háj. O lásce šeptal tichý mech; květoucí strom lhal lásky žel, svou lásku slavík růži pěl, růžinu jevil vonný vzdech. Jezero hladké v křovích stinných zvučelo temně tajný bol, břeh objímal je kol a kol; a slunce jasná světů jiných bloudila blankytnými pásky, planoucí tam co slzy lásky.

Late evening, on the first of May - The twilit May - the time of love. Meltingly called the turtle-dove, Where rich and sweet pinewoods lay. Whispered of love the mosses trail, The flowering tree as sweetly lied, The rose's fragrant sigh replied To love-songs of the nightingale. In shadowy woods the burnished lake Darkly complained a secret pain, By circling shores embraced again; And heaven's clear sun leaned down to take A road astray in azure deeps, Like burning tears the lover weeps.

The interwebs also claim that under Communism, on May 1 Czechs were forced to go to Letna Park for a Labor Day gathering and wave Soviet flags, feigning enthusiasm. No wonder people prefer to abandon that holiday ideology for blossoms and kisses.

BW and I grabbed a very Czech lunch - chlebíčky and cake - right at the bottom of the hill, in a spot called U Knoflicku. Chlebíčky is basically cross-sectioned baguette slices spread with butter or a mayonnaise-based salad and topped with goodies like deli meat, pickles, hardboiled eggs, cheese wedges, vegetables, etc. 

And the cake... oh, the cake... I have marzipan-covered dreams about it! Some of the best dessert we've had in Prague. BW almost had a second piece but his shirt buttons were stretching.

Stuffing your face in front of a person who adores you unconditionally - now that's love.

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Over the hill

Thanks to experiencing a looong string of grey days, BW and I became accustomed to leaving our sunglasses at home. Thus, when we walked outside yesterday, we squinted like moles and shrank back toward the door. "I'd almost forgotten what a sunny sky looks like," BW said, slinking back into our flat in a Vampire-esque manner. A few minutes later, a layer of clothing less, and donning sunglasses, we set off for Prague's Petrin Hill, a destination we chose for the purpose of relishing Fall colors.

You can walk up the roughly 1,000 ft-high hill, but we hopped the Petrin Funicular, instead, along with dozens of Czech families with strollers, grandparents and dogs in tow.

Here's the funicular in the 1930s, and it doesn't look that different today.

From dpp.cz, the Prague Department of Public Transport

At the top there were row after row of rosebushes in every variety of red, pink and white imaginable. It was like Valentine's Day had exploded. What a treat to see them before Autumn laid them to rest for the Winter.

Walking onward, we came to Petrin's famous Lookout Tower, which was modeled after the Eiffel Tower and built in 1891. We split a monstrous klobasa in a beer garden in the tower's shadow and then decided against scaling it. There were also a couple of churches and a mirror maze in the vicinity.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Fall color we'd come to see was already on the ground, but the walk was lovely, nonetheless. Jayda lapped up the off-leash area we discovered further north along the hill.

And the views were stupidly spectacular. 

We said hello to the statue of Our Lady in Exile and the Strahov Monastery before heading back down to city life.

Want to see the inside of the Monastery's library? It was featured in an episode of The Bachelorette:

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