Tuesday we went on a free 4 hour walking tour courtesy of our multi-tasking shuttle driver. At 9:30am in front of the Astronomical clock, our tour guide whose name sounded like "Malianska"
[Video of our Tour]
appeared with a bright red wind breaker, bright red umbrella, and unnaturally red, spiked hair. She was very friendly, knowledgeable we think, and had this funny head tilt and grin punctuating each paragraph of information. We couldn’t tell if her expression was one of glee, “I can speak English”, or just preparing herself for another batch of brutal slavic English. Her accent was very thick causing the most interesting expressions of those listening, rather like, “am I hearing English?” (See video clip)
I have included a variety of people and places we saw in one of the slideshow videos. Note the bride and groom that Gayle and Linda called the “Salsa Wedding Couple”, the Fiddler on the Roof carvings, and the somber hangman statue (post communism).
The longer we walked the colder it got. The high for the day only barely reached 50 degrees, add a little breeze, stand in the shade of oldie, moldy buildings and it was cold, darn cold. Our tour slipped into the wonderful old church of St James. I moved quickly to the front to get a picture of the skeletal arm of a theft who when trying to steal the jewels off the virgin Mary statue, found that the displeased virgin was mobile enough to grab the his arm. The next morning the church members were not able to cut off the thief's arm and decided to leave it there as a warning. Don’t mess with a cold, hard, virgin. Before I could shoot my picture Gayle said, “Honey, there is a sign that says no pictures”. I looked back and saw Linda shooting away and said, “Linda’s doing it”. Later around a glass of wine, Linda mentioned that she took a few pictures and some Englishman stepped over and said, “Madame there are no photos allowed in the church”! As he was talking a Italian tour group came in and fired away! The paparazis have arrived.
By the time we reached the Charles Bridge, two hours in, two hours to go, we slide out of the group and head back to our favorite Italian restaurant, Carmelitas. All we could think about was the home made minestrone soup and the pizza cooked over wood coals. Two bowls of soup and one creamy 4 cheese pizza latter, we could feel our toes again.
[Tour Slide Show]
1 comment:
Neat and interesting pictures, looks and sounds like you are seeing a lot of fun things. The soup looked really good and WARM! It has been cold and windy here also, 39 right now and supposed to get only into the 40's for the next three days. Keep warm and keep writing...
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