Last day in Prague

We began our last day in Prague with brunch at Cafe Louvre, where Einstein liked to eat. It was very pretty. L had a Czech specialty which is supposed to be popular with kids - sweetened potato dumplings which looked like white asparagus and were blanketed with poppy seeds. E had some pork which tasted a little like our homemade Christmas sausage.

 

More views from St Nicholas

 Inside St Nicholas

Then we went to St Nicholas church for the tower view (E and the littles stayed down.) The view wasn't very much different from the views we had the day before, but we noticed a lot of new things. Also, the tower has a ghost theme, so we read all of Prague's best ghost stories. After that we went to another church to see the Infant of Prague, which is said to perform miracles. The infant has a beautiful shrine, and it was very busy. He also has beautiful clothes, which look like something the pope would wear if he ever decided his current dress robes are too plain. The infant himself, though, is startlingly small. He is 19 inches tall, but his head looked about half the size you would hope to see on a newborn.

The infant's shrine is on the left

We didn't really have much planned for the day, so we took the kids to a playground next to the base of the Charles Bridge. Our ebike guide asked us if it was hard to travel with kids. We said not really, you just have to do less and do different things. We sort of end up enjoying places more than the sights. Spending a couple of hours at the playground is a good example of that, and of the value of taking breaks. When we left the littles were okay to walk across the bridge again, where R got some glass earrings as her Czech souvenir.

We love a playground with a view!

From there we headed to the market but we stopped along the way at a
candy shop where two guys were making hard candy (the kind with a picture in the middle) by hand. It was fascinating and the kids watched from beginning to end. I mentioned that the guys had big muscles. R replied, "They must get all the girls. All they have to do is say, 'Hey, there. I make hard candy for a living!'" The market was good, too. Every stand had mixed berry cups. We were lucky to spot a wooden toy store where we found S's souvenir - a pencil holder shaped like a hedgehog.

We were back at the Astronomical Clock in time to see it chime six. A skeleton figure rang a bell, then some doors slid open to let some saint figures take turns peeping out, and then a rooster crowed. The clock is awesome if you know some of its features, but if it weren't for the skeleton the show wouldn't be much. From there we went to a hidden courtyard not far away that smelled like a flowering tree and cinnamon. We stopped at the cinnamon smelling cafe for some dinner. We ate outside, but used their blankets because it was getting chilly.

From there we walked to the nearest metro station, which happened to be in a neighborhood of amazing Art Nouveau buildings. A street market was just closing, so we bought some Czech style American favorite muffins for breakfast on the train the next day. Then it was on to the train station. We were too early, but there wasn't really much else to do and it would be a huge pain to miss our night train. Thank goodness for ipods and kindles.

This is the pickle display at the small grocery store in the train station.