Flight of the Peregrine

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The highlights of the last few days between hurried trips to buy ever more crystal, included trips to the castle, Stromovka park and to the Krizikova Fontana. On a recent walk through the quiet royal gardens we encountered the famous young lady who exhibits and cares for raptors. She told us that peregrine falcons are the fastest animals on the planet. They can reach speeds of 330 miles per hour, pulling 22 g’s: three times more than a fighter pilot is put under in extreme conditions. The fastest variety of peregrine can pluck prey right from the air.

She told us about “Arthur” the eagle owl, the largest variety of owl in Europe. According to Ms Raptor, owls are very stupid birds compared with the other raptors. Also their eyes are too big for their head and thus cannot move. In order to see, they move their heads 270 degrees one way and another 270 degrees the other, totaling 540 degrees. How do they do that? She said that if we had eyes that big they would fall out of our head.

Our only really bad restaurant experience happened that day. The food was fine but we got taken by the management’s unscrupulous practices. The restaurant is on the steps leading to the castle from Nerudova street. I believe this is called Radnicke Schody. As we walked by, young gals ushered us to sit down and have a fine meal of traditional Czech faire or pizza. The sirens called us and we were not strong enough to resist. The café is called, “The Mystic Café” and now we know it is famous for its mystic charges. On the table are plastic cards with pictures of their food entries but no prices. When I asked for a real menu, I got an exasperated look and eventually she returned with one menu, not three, just one!

I read somewhere that you should gauge eating establishments by the beer prices. If the ½ liter is over 30 crowns ($2) stay away. The price here was 60 crowns. As we were eating I watched a German family discussing the bill with chagrin and that knowing look that said, “Liebling, we’ve been had in Czechland, time to fire up the tanks”. Later the table next to us was animatedly discussing their bill. Finally ours came and what should have been around 550 crowns came to a whopping 800. Nothing added, then with the help of the next table that was angry asked to borrow our calculator, we concluded that they charged us 50 crowns for 1/2 cup of soggy potato chips. We were also charged 25 crowns each for sitting down, and all that was topped off with a 15% service charge for basically no service. Even after we figured this all out, the bill was added up wrong (in their favor!). Stay away from the Mystic Café! Moral, never pay more than 30 crowns for beer, don’t listen to callers requesting you to sit for a fine meal, and if they don’t want to give you a menu with prices, run for the door.

The next day we took off for Stromovka park which is north of the old town and is Prague’s largest park. The park includes the very cheesy Luna amusement park. It’s one of those old fun centers that pleads to die quietly but somehow hangs one. After all those “thrills” we wandered through the park, found quiet benches near a stream and a fountain that looked like a Czech version of Old Faithful, and sipped ice cold, dark beer.

Dinner was a from a sausage stand whose kielbasa were interestingly scored and then apparently dropped in a fryer giving each dog a crispy fluted exterior. Earlier we went to the ticket office for the Krizikova Fountains that was closed but said would open at 7:30pm. Being very type “A” I went to check it out a little before 7pm and found it open and doing a brisk business. I bought our tickets for the 8pm showing of Andre Boccelli and asked when we could go in. “Please enter at 7:40pm” I was told by the friendly ticket agent.

These fountains combine music, a light show, and colored dancing water. Occasionally they even add modern and traditional dance to the ticket. I returned to our seats at the sausage shack. We kept seeing streams of people entering the fountains and not coming back. Peaked with interest, we ambled over and found the best seats filling up. We got prime seats and noticed that by 7:45 all the good seats were long gone. I wonder if they use sundials in this park for timekeeping.

The show was fantastic and got better as the night sky darkened. If you come here, do come to one of the later performances. As the last song ended, the heavens were so impressed by the water show, they unleashed their own torrent on the exiting crowd. We were pummeled with rain. Our gear wicked up the moisture and our feet found every pothole, some mid-calf deep, as we hustled the ¼ mile to the tram. We arrived home wet and happy with another cherished day under our belts. Earlier in the day we had purchased a bottle of the famous Czech Becherovka, which is a strong liquor made from 23 herbs and spices. We decided a little “nightcap” of this interesting libation would be just the thing to warm us up and lull us into slumber. It did!