hopping around prague

tuesday morning, we arose early in order to hit the starbucks we found in old town square (queue the angels singing) and hopped on the 11:30 bus tour around the city. we had a lovely tourguide originally from poland who had about 17 syllables in her name, so she just went by kate. she had just the right amount of snark and history to make the initial walk/drive to the prague castle, which is the biggest castle (still standing) in the world and took over 6 centuries to build it (man, that guy must have been really tired). here's wiki's take:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Castle.

while walking to our tour bus, kate pointed out some interesting sites to ooooh and aaaaah her followers.

here's the astronomical clock (the oldest one, built in 1410 - wiki has more incredible info; i'm just loving wiki today - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Astronomical_Clock):

here's the powder tower (where gun powder was stored during the war):

the municipal building:

first glimpse of the castle:

en guard!!!:

OK; enough with the castle. i'm sure i'm boring you with my fabulous vacation by now. but one more thing -- we stopped at a restaurant on the castle grounds, sat on their balcony for czech beers and watched an entire pig cook on a spit. i think this place was even called 'the royal pig'. there was a painting of a pig wearing a king's coat and a crown on the wall. the middle-easterners would perish on the spot. our tour guide told us the restaurant had originally been the 'playground' for the king's lions - http://www.prague.cz/lion-courtyard/.

we finally left the castle and toddled off to see more old stuff.

vitava river:

and i insisted upon finding the funicular (i LOVE these things). we didn't ride it though cause we were short 1 cz koruna (or crown):

here's that eerie sculpture of the victims of communism (from the back);

i almost fell down these 'stairs':

this is the frank gehry 'dancing house':

after taking in the sights via autobus and on foot for hours, we did the hokey pokey back to the intercontinental so jeff could enjoy a scotch and a cigar on their rooftop balcony.

signing off with the castle in the sunset.

the next day, wednesday, we go back to frankfurt to hang with the fam, search for irish pubs and find the best mexican food in germany.

xoxoxoxo

tricia the loser