Here Comes the Sun

90% chance of rain and 30 degrees. Snow tomorrow? What?! That has been our forecast for today and while it has been bitterly cold, the rain at least has stopped for a bit and no snow has fallen from the sky yet. This morning we grabbed some breakfast at Bohemia Bagel where we had to laugh at ourselves as we realized that, without fail, we have always had an American meal at least once on every single one of our trips: The Roadside Diner in Paris for breakfast, Starbucks in Greece, McDonalds (gross) in Italy and a Bagel shop here. Sometimes it’s nice to have a little taste of home.

After breakfast we went down to the river to look at the John Lennon Wall – a long strip of wall completely covered in art and graffiti, all with peace and love motifs. This monument has been around morphing and changing since 1981. While it seemed a bit chaotic when you first see it, after you let your eyes settle it is interesting and moving when certain sayings, pictures and messages jump out from the massive collective piece of art. Apparently today was destined to be an ‘art day’ because as we continued past this monument we came across a park right next to their modern art museum which had all kinds of crazy sculptures littering the landscape including a huge chair sitting in the river and plastic yellow penguins lined up on the dock looking ready to ‘walk the plank’. It was very whimsical and, I think, elevated the status of modern art ever so slightly in my mind.

We walked up to a separate bridge to see the National Theater and then made our way to here! A lively café full of delicious treats (we just polished off a slice of poppyseed cake), music and patrons which has allowed us free access to internet and a haven away from the cold cold wind outside!

As this is our last day and night in Prague I think our plan is to walk around our favorite areas some more and take it easy as we have to wake up early to figure out transportation to the airport tomorrow which will take us to our next stop: Amsterdam.

Update: On our last night in Prague we had a very good meal of Goulash – a Hungarian specialty that is served all over the place here with slight Czech variations (the bread dumplings for instance). The restaurant was another great find thanks to TripAdvisor and did not even appear to be open from the outside. Inside were some very seasoned looking patrons and one waiter/owner? I prefer to call him “barkeep” it just sounds so old fashioned and really fits the atmosphere that this place exuded.  Afterwards we climbed back up to the Castle to get some final night views of Prague. It was so great that the Castle grounds, which is the current residence of the President, remains open at night allowing us to wander around and see the Cathedral one more time as well. Can you imagine being able to walk the White House grounds at night?? Craziness! After this “goodbye” walk we headed back to our place to pack and catch some sleep.

As luck would have it, it was not until our final half hour in Prague that we received a very welcome bit of sunshine. We have one, yes only ONE, photo with blue sky in the background! While it would have been wonderful to see this city under blue skies and sun, even rainy and overcast it was beautiful. I had coined a word to describe how this wintry vacation would feel prior to leaving home:  “bundley” (*bundle*lee*) …and yes, I am claiming the coinage of that word. This was by far the most bundley portion of our trip thus far and it was so fun having to be cuddled up under scarves and layers and gloves! Adios Prague, here we come Amsterdam!