Praha

Tuesday morning we drove from Zamberk to Usti, which is about 13 miles away, to catch the 8:24 am train to Prague.  We arrived in Prague at 10:10 am.  If we had taken the train from Zamberk to Prague it would have taken us an hour and a half longer.

When we arrived in Prague we walked from the train station to the top of Vaclav (Wensceslas) Square.  We were planning on meeting Pavel there but it turned out that Andrea was having some back problems and took an ambulance to the hospital, so we ended up spending the day alone until dinner time when we met up with Petr's cousin's son, Filip, and Zdenek's daughter, Katerina.

Vaclav Square waiting for Pavel

Some of Zdenek's work in Vaclav Square

Statue of St. Vaclav (Wensceslas) in Vaclav Square

Street performers "defying" gravity!

Other street performers

We walked down Vaclav Square, through the open market and made it to Old Town in time to see "The Walk of the Apostles", at the Astronomical Clock.  We've seen it so many times though, that it was more interesting to watch the people watching the clock.

After that we walked across Charles Bridge and made our way to the cathedral.

The tomb of Saint John of Nepomuk (Jan Nepomucký), who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of the King of Bohemia, is found inside the cathedral. Apparently he was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. He is considered the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional.

Dinner with Katerina & Filip

On the train ride back

Petr always mentions how dead the towns are at night.  Here's a prime example.  On the way home from the train station in Usti to Zamberk (about 13 miles) between 9:45 & 10:15 pm we passed through 5 towns.  We saw 15 cars, 2 bicylists and 3 pedestrians. That's like driving from Waunakee to DeForest while going through towns/villages the size of Westport, Dane & Vienna.  I would probably see more than 15 cars just leaving Waunakee!