Back on the bike - an e-bike this time

We had a bike tour booked for today so we eagerly checked the weather as soon as we got up. Looks like there is a slight chance of rain so fingers crossed it holds off for a while.  Breaky again downstairs and then we had reception call us a taxi.  They have an extremely efficient taxi booking service - once you make the call you get a message back with a picture of the car, the arrival time and the amount it will cost you.  No Mercedes here - mostly Skoda.

We arrived at the rendezvous point a little early so sought out some coffee.  We were a little nervous about this ride as we've pretty much not seen anyone on a pushbike since we got here - the other places had many.  We met with our tour guide and lucky for us it was just us 3.  We also had ebikes today and that was a fantastic choice for these cobbled streets.

The barista lady was very proud of her little store - only sold coffee and coffee beans

We took off along the banks of the river Vltava and then into Old Town Prague.  Wow the architecture here is amazing.  A mixture of gothic and baroque styles everywhere.  We stopped at an old theatre that had a statue out front commemorating a performance by a man named Mozart in the 1700's.  We didn't realise that Prague was a city of performing arts - they have over 30 theatres in this place and its almost an expectation that you go at least once a month.  Our guide told us that it costs only around $15 to see a performance and it could be opera, a play or any other type of theatre.

Gothic styled church

You can just make out the split level here - the lower level is the natural earth, they had to raise the ground due to river flooding

Jewish quarter - they weren't allowed to live or own land anywhere but in Jewish Town

as a result they had to double park their dead - they had to cover up and lay a 2nd level over the first in their cemetery when they ran out of space (Jewish must be buried in the earth)

Oldest active Synagogue in Europe - 1270 

Gothic style church on the old town square - Church of Our Lady before Tyn

Jan Hus memorial - another revolutionary who said everything from the church should be free - so they burned him on a stake

beautiful buildings - housing and art galleries

The baroque styled Church of St Nicolas

Gothic style towers guard the entry and exit to the town square - they used to guard the moat

another theatre - its a public building so you can just wander on in

Estates theatre - Mozart debuted Don Giovanni here in 1787

Statue commemorating Don Giovanni

more Baroque buildings - there was a whole street of them, all sorts of colours.  Now all types of designer stores

We crossed the Charles Bridge into Lesser Town where we got a great view of the Prague Castle.  Never seen anything like that before so big and so beautiful.  The president of the Czech Republic lives there now lucky bugger.

a sculpture for Sigmund Freud - hanging on its called

Prague Castle - largest castle and grounds in Europe.  Circa 880!!

detail atop the National Theatre Building

The John Lennon wall - he hasn't actually been there, its just filled with art that was pretty much illegal in Prague in the 1980's.  They got away with it here as its on the side of the Maltese embassy - so technically not in Prague

Rudolfinium Theatre - Home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

The bike tour took a couple of hours and because the streets were mostly cobbled we were pretty happy to end.  The scenery was amazing and will stay with me forever.

Once we returned to the hotel and had lunch Nate and I decided to venture out again to the local laundromat.  It was about a km away so I've definitely got my exercise today.  The laundromat was more like a cafe that happened to have washers and driers so It was easy to spend an hour or so there waiting for fresh clothes. We even made friends with the laundry dog who almost wanted to sit on my lap and was not amused when I moved away from him.

waiting lounge at the laundry

Laundry dog - phew he needed a wash 

Laundry

We went to a different restaurant for tea tonight - we stopped in at the local first but as the welcome was still frosty we decided to try elsewhere.  So glad we did as the food there was even better!!  I got my pork knuckle which wasn't exactly what I thought it would be and Tony had a delicious chicken breast on mashed potatoes and garlic sauce.  Nate had meat skewers which also were great. Nate want to stay here another night so we could return and he could try their burger!  No can do as tomorrow we're off to Austria, specifically Vienna.  

yummo