The Events of Tuesday, June 28, 2011

                In a month, we’ll be flying home! Wow, time flies when we’re not flying! Oops! I mean, time flies when we’re having fun!

                So today we woke up in our wonderful idyllic Cherry Tree Lodge in the northwest outskirts of the golden city of Prague. During breakfast, Ben revealed to us the plan for the day: travel into the city, walk to the Charles Bridge, follow Rick Steves’ guided tour of the infamous bridge, take the funicular up a hill to a scenic lunch spot, ride the funicular back down the steep hill, walk to Prague Castle, see the Vitus Cathedral and the picturesque garden within the castle walls, walk through a lovely park to see a giant metronome, and then find our way home in time for dinner care of a Rent-a-Chef program (more on that later). It all sounded great to us, so we hurried through the preparation process to be on our way out to the car by 9:35.

                This is where the problems began. Of course, our plans rarely go as planned for the Taylor family, except for the exceedingly exceptional occasion when it does. When one is living an itinerant lifestyle, as we presently are, one has to plan extra time for moving into rental apartments, buying groceries, cooking, eating, and cleaning up meals, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Of course, here in the “Česká republika,” as they call it, the language barrier is more intimidating and frightening than ever. The Czech language includes lots of extra letters, such as č, ň, and other such nonsense. It’s related to Russian Cyrillic, which has a completely different alphabet. Furthermore, the Czechs are on a different currency here – the Czech koruna, or crown, which is approximately 0.058945 U.S. dollars. So all the prices listed in Kč (that’s like their $) seem exceedingly high, but they’re really actually very cheap! For example, 150 Kč is less than $10!

                Our first task of the morning was not a tourist venture; it was a scavenger hunt for a bank! Following our GPS, we passed three non-existent banks! (The GPS said a bank was there, but it wasn’t.) Eventually stopping outside of a hotel, we asked directions from the concierge, followed the instructions religiously, and found ourselves in a university parking lot! We parked, and Dad and Ben disembarked and returned with Czech money – SUCCESS‼

                Next item on the agenda: groceries. We had a few odds and ends, but we had a few more to pick up for today’s picnic lunch. We drove to Billa, a European chain grocery store, and Dad and Ben disappeared inside the store, returning a few minutes later with the food we needed for lunch.

                Finally, we made our way to the metro car park, parked, and walked across a grassy field to the metro station. Ben, in all his dutiful research, had determined that the three-day metro ticket would be best for us, but such a ticket was not to be found. First, we asked the man in the metro information stand, and he pointed us to the machines. The ticket machines did not advertise three-day tickets either. So we returned the metro information booth, and the man then directed us to the tobacco shop. This effort, too, proved futile since all the three day passes were sold out.

                Now what? Fortunately, we had a Plan B. Idyllic Prague, the company we rented our lodge from, provided a welcome packet that included six free tickets to travel into the town. Once in the center of town, we hoped to find the three-day tickets for sale there. Riding the subway into downtown, we disembarked at the stop called “Staroměstska”. After we had crossed the street outside the station, Ben realized he didn’t have his Rick Steves’ Prague & the Czech Republic guidebook in his backpack! Assessing the situation, we helped him to remember that he had left it in the car, which was parked in the car park at the end of the metro line. We also gathered that we could not do without the book, even for one day, because it contained the guided tours he wanted to read to us and all the information we could possibly need. Ben had planned for us to take Rick Steves’ self-guided walking tours during all three of our days in Prague, so we could not simply swap plans with another day. We had to have the guidebook.

                Therefore, Dad and Ben took the metro back to the car park to retrieve his book, while the rest of us waited for them in the shade nearby. Already, at mid-morning, it was very hot. We ladies wandered to the local symphony hall, the Rudolfinum, and then spotted some lovely benches shaded by lovely trees, with a pleasant riverside view. Watching the boats travel up and down the river and playing cards, we gladly relaxed while awaiting our boys’ return.

                Soon the male members of our family joined us with a second success! They found the book right where Ben didn’t remember leaving it.

                Now, we were finally ready to don our tourist hats and see the great city of Prague! Strolling to Charles Bridge, we arrived just in time for the wonderfully musical hourly trumpet blast from the tower! Ben read to us from his guidebook, and we ambled slowly across the famous bridge. As we walked, we enjoyed the music of both a jazz band and an accordion, admired sooty black statues of minor saints, browsed temporary shops of jewelry and art, and dodged hordes of tourists.

                At the other end of the bridge, we followed signs into a Tourist Information Office, which was not helpful at all. However, the costumed knight outside kindly pointed us to the nearest WC – at McDonalds.

                Continuing on our quest for the three day pass, we started back toward the bridge to the nearest metro stop; they are few and far between here. However, we realized we didn’t really need to ride the metro to the funicular up to the top of a hilly park just to have lunch with a view. Instead, we decided to have lunch by the river. Descending to a wall over the water’s edge, we perched precariously on this brick edge of the riverbank and distributed our picnic lunch. Waving energetically to tourists passing by on riverboats, we had a blast at our lunch location.

                Upon completing our meal, we hiked up to Prague Castle to explore the castle grounds. It was a long, hot uphill hike, so we paused often to rest in the shade (when there was shade to be found). Once we had entered the castle grounds, we watched the rather informal, but still somewhat patriotic changing of the guard.

                Subsequently, we found our way to St. Vitus Cathedral. It was wonderfully cool inside of the large Gothic church. As we gladly cooled off, we stood with mouths wide open, in awe of the amazing stained glass windows that surrounded us. The unanimous family favorite was a striking stained-glass window by Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha. However, we couldn’t actually stand in front of this awe-inspiring window because of the ticket checkers. One had to buy admission to see the majority of the church, which was outrageously expensive, but anyone could stand in the back of the church and take pictures.

                Finished with St. Vitus Cathedral, we walked out into the stifling heat, turned a corner, and descended some stairs through the gardens, which seemed to be suffering as much as we were from the heat. Along the way, we took in a fantastic view of the city from a lookout lovingly shaded by a benevolent tree.

                Continuing down through the blazing heat, we discovered that the next order of business, the giant metronome, would involve yet another hike uphill. Oh boy. Up we went, getting extremely hot and sweaty, until, finally, we arrived. A gigantic bright orange mechanical metronome ticked slowly but steadily back and forth. The surrounding area was under a bit of construction, but Ben climbed up closer – until a fat man yelled at him, “Hey!” and then something in Czech.

                When I tried to take a picture of Ben with the orange metronome, I came to the sudden and sad realization that my wonderful digital camera had busted. The screen is no longer functioning correctly; it shows only a series of white lines. The camera seems to work, but I cannot see what I am photographing. I blame the intolerable heat!

                After descending the hill swiftly, and on the shady side too, we walked four tenths of a mile to the closest metro station. Just outside, at a tobacco stand, we successfully bought transit tickets for the rest of our time in Prague, two one-day passes for two more days in Prague. While Dad took care of this transaction, the rest of us enjoyed a fun sculpture/water fountain with refreshingly cool water that cooled us all off in a jiffy.

                Finished with Prague for the day, we rode the metro back to Dejvická, the end of the line where our car was parked. Dad and Ben went shopping at Billa for all the groceries we might possibly need during our stay in Černý Vůl, while Lindsey and Abby played more card games on the grass under the shade of a tree. Nearby, I experimented with Daddy’s complicated camera. Because my camera was clearly busted, Dad had kindly offered me the use of his whenever I wanted it for the rest of the trip. I practiced photography with this newfangled contraption on an itty bitty little brown bunny in the grass. Mom re-parked the car in the shade of the same trees that sheltered me and my sisters. Next, she opened all the doors and windows in the car to allow the hot air to circulate and cool down.

                When the boys returned, laden with groceries, we headed home, put things away, and folded all our newly clean and dry laundry – there was a TON of it! We were just settling down when our chef knocked on the door! Idyllic Prague, our lodge rental company, also offers a rent-a-chef program, where a Czech chef comes into your home and makes you a traditional Czech dinner. Our chef didn’t speak very much English, but he came right in and began to set the table beautifully and prepare our meal.

                When we were all looking forward to the perfect relaxed evening of fine dining, just before our meals were ready, Dad discovered a flaw in this plan that seemed to be going so well. The chef presented him with a receipt that charged 40 Kč more than we had expected to pay. In addition, Dad, when he ordered the sides, didn’t know the chef was going to charge us extra for the sides. We also had not heard anything about a 7% tax. The bill was to amount to 1079 Kč! We only had 800 Kč in cash on hand, and the chef did not have the technology to accept credit cards.

                So Dad telephoned Hana, our welcome worker from Idyllic Prague, who spoke more English than the chef, and explained the situation. We gave the chef 800 Kč and handed him the phone. Hana explained to him in Czech that the rest would be coming later, as we had no more Czech cash to give him. The chef was very polite afterwards, saying “thank you” as he departed, his job now complete.

                We gratefully sat down to enjoy our spectacular authentic Czech gourmet dinner. One of these amazing dishes was pasta topped with a lovely chicken Verona blend of spinach, ham, garlic, and cream. Another entree was fried pork schnitzel, a third was baked broccoli topped with melted cheese. Abby especially enjoyed a chicken breast stuffed with ham, cheese, mushrooms. The vegetable risotto dish reminded us of the paella we sampled in España, and the spicy pork mixture was also delicious. As sides, we enjoyed fried potato wedges (quite American actually), and ham rolls stuffed with horseradish. The best side dish, however, was a dish of roast beef and gravy, accompanied by a great big pile of sauerkraut and a basket of dumplings. Czech-style dumplings are like steamed dense white bread – absolutely heavenly!

                Too full for dessert after such a fantastic meal, we simply relaxed instead. Later, Ben, Abby, and Dad took a bike ride around the neighborhood. Upon their return, we went to bed, eager to see more of Prague tomorrow.