While we waited for the tour to start, we wandered around the Christmas markets again. For a mid-morning snack, we wandered up to one of the more unique stands where a guy was using a machine to turn whole potatoes into thin slices and then deep frying them. He was serving these up in paper cones, fresh and hot and bursting with delicious fat.
[caption id="attachment_1183" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="A delicious cross between fries and chips"]
[/caption]And then the tour was under way with our guide, Kate, who was was an Australian who had lived in Prague since the early 90s just after the fall off communism. For three hours she took us around the old and Jewish towns and filled our brains with more information than they could hold. From defenestrations to Hussites to Nazism to Communism, it was a brilliant tour that made me fall in love with the Czech Republic and admire their strength and the long battle that the Czechs have fought to have a country of their own.
[caption id="attachment_1184" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="A close-up of the astronomical clock"]
[/caption]We enjoyed it so much that we spent the afternoon doing the tour of the Prague castle with Kate. Mist was falling over the city as we climbed to the top of the hill upon which the castle cathedral sits, so the view wasn't the best. The St Vitus cathedral is spectacular though.
[caption id="attachment_1185" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="The fog descending on Prague"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1186" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="St Vitus Cathedral"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1187" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="Mosaic on the St Vitus cathedral"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1188" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="The imposing façade of St Vitus"]
[/caption]At the end of our tour, we took the tram back to our place and collapsed, exhausted after a full day of walking. We went to a nautical themed restaurant across the road from our place (in one of the less busy areas of Prague). I ordered a meat platter for a starter, which was a massive plate of various cold hams and after that we shared a big plate of ribs.
They do not scrimp at all on the portion size in Prague and at the end of a long and tiring and cold day, there is nothing better than chowing down on a massive plate of meat accompanied by the very good Czech beer.
As we entered our fifth day in Prague we realised that we had not yet seen the Astronomical clock in the Old Town square chiming, despite the fact that it does so every hour and we had been past it nearly every day we had been in the city. So we entered the church across the square and looked around and then came back out to watch the old clock do its thing.
After this and a bit of shopping, we crossed the Charles bridge to the 'little town' and wandered around there. Here we found a very graffiti covered wall that's known as the Lennon wall as it must have once had his face painted on it, but that has now been covered over many times with various slogans of peace.
[caption id="attachment_1189" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="The Lennon Wall"]
[/caption]We meandered about and eventually found ourselves climbing up the hill of the Prague castle. We explored for a while at the top, eventually finding our way to a restaurant that had been recommended to us by our guide the day before, Klášterní pivovar Strahov.
[caption id="attachment_1190" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="Whose idea was it to climb this?"]
[/caption]We stopped here for an early dinner as they had some items on the menu which are a bit more adventurous. Their beer was also very good and is brewed in large copper stills at the far end of the restaurant. I went ahead and ordered a beer/onion soup with a blue cheese smeared piece of toast as a starter, as well as a plate of bread and cheeses, including the somewhat scary 'beer cheese'. The cheeses were an incredibly fitting complement to the beers.
[caption id="attachment_1191" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="The cheese platter and onion soup"]
[/caption]By the time the goulash with traditional boiled dumplings arrived, we were quite full, but managed to share the dish and clean the plate (as, once again, it was very good). I want to stress how much I really do love the dining experience in Prague - you barge in, grab a seat, order a beer, light a cigarette (and yes, I have quit smoking back in London) and just relax and enjoy.
[caption id="attachment_1192" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="Goulash with Knedlíky dumplings"]
[/caption]
