No scotties allowed... unless they're on a leash.

Praha: Day 2. Buckle in... she's gonna be a long one.

This one was a busy one... here's all we did, in bullet for with comments for each. No better way to do this.

Charles Bridge
So this is like a super old bridge that connects “Old Town” to “Castle District”. About every 30 paces or so there is a statue. None of which are important except St. James of of somewhere. He was thrown from the bridge in his day (1320's) and later was named the super-duper saint of Prague. Important part-- if you rub the plaque on his statue it means you'll return to Prague someday. So, we did it. And there's a hound dog in it, and since I'm fiercly missing my dog... rubbed that too.

Cerny statue
It's in front of the Kafka museum, which doesn't do much for me. But Cerny... Cerny on the other hand is ridiculously amazing. Papa, turn away. So the statue is called “Piss” and it's 2 metal men essentially peeing in a pool that's the shape of the Czech Republic. Oh, and they are writing Czech phrases. Anyone know anything about Cerny? He was commissioned to do this big piece for the EU, which was so controversial they rejected it... but it was hysterical. And he painted a Solviet tank pink. BAD ASS!

Lenon wall
The story here is that during the Solviet occupation of here they painted this one wall with a mural to John Lennon and the “All you need is Love” theme... and it was painted over... so they did it again. Back and forth, back and forth, finally they conceded the wall to them. Now it's layer upon layer of graffiti, most of which is still quotes about peace and John Lennon. Very cool.

Strahov monastary hill
So, come to find out the hill closes from 12-1. Not sure why... but at 12:00 they ring the bell for 10 straight minutes. It's cute... then it's old. So, in our wait, we visited the

MINATURE MUSEUM
BEST MUSEUM EVER!!! Saw a flea with golden horseshoes on, holding a lock and key. Through a microscope obviously. AND, camels passing through the eye of a needle. And they got the Lord's Prayer onto a piece of hair. At some point, LW's (who went through backwards) came and yelled at Hom and I, “I don't know what's in that room, but I just saw a zoo on the leg of a mosquito.” Don't have that in the U.S., do they?

Monastary Philosophical Hall
This is supposed to be amazing, but it was under renovation. Nothing to discuss. Outside this room was the ever impressive shriveled sea creature collection. Ever wondered what Donatella Versace will look like in old age. Exactly like this nurse shark that wasn't preserved properly.

Monastary Theological Hall
It was actually amazing what they housed here. There were TONS of super old books that were housed here, a narwhal horn!, and there was a section of books that were about trees and plants... but each one was made from the tree it was describing. And there was a Bible from the 9th century. Which is ridiculous to even think about.

Convent
Oddly, the rooms in here were mostly empty. We spent most our time here today, but I can't describe why. There was an amazing fresco on the ceiling of the old dining room. Plus we were the only people there, so it was nice and quiet... very peaceful. We almost had a skeleton siting in an altar, but it turned out to just be a porcelain figure.

Loreta Square
Here's where things got interesting. On the way, we learned there were skeletons of 2 Spanish saints... which of course we had to find. And a surprise to be named later. There was a VERY old chapel in the middle of the gardens and a more “modern” (circa 1700's) church as the main church. It's still active cause we totally saw monks and nuns. Anyways, we found the saints. They were so far away but we found them, saw the skeletons and masks they're wearing (YEP!) in the newer church. Here's the surprise, there's also a statue to the crucifixion of the bearded lady. Repeat: there's also a statue to the crucifixion of the bearded lady. Here's her story:
Her pops promised the King of Sicily he could marry her. She totally hated kings and Sicily and told her old man... NO WAY! He didn't care, said he ruled with an iron fist and she was in. So she prayed, and prayed and prayed and prayed to make it no so. And God grew her a beard. BINGO! No marriage. Joke's on her. Her old man was so mad he had her crucified and now she's the patron saint of the forsaken.

On (my) stupid request WALKED to Petrin Hill where we saw a replica Eiffel Tower and did a mirror maze. In the mirror maze, not as cool as it sounds, there was a diarama of a fight between the Swedish and Czech army. Hom thinks it sounds like a hissy fit, bitch slap fest, since neither country is known for its military prowess.
Funicular down

In true, stupid (still my idea) fashion, on the easy walk down, we decided to take the Funicular. Which LW pointed out should be pronounced “Fun”icular. It's like the Inclined Railway in Chattanooga. But Czech.

Tram 12 to Letny Gardens
So, we totally took our first tram to Letny Gardens. Big park. Very dog friendly. The goal was to hit up a beer garden that has the “Best View of Prague”.... which everything here has, just refer to the brochure/sign/etc. On the way we saw the metronome. HUGE... very cool for an unexpected treat. It was after 15648646512314 stairs, so at the time I might not have appreciated it well enough. Totally found the beer garden after that and it did have a great view of Prague. And lots of well-behaved dogs. It made me miss Sam. Not the well-behaved part. That's not my dog at all... just the floppy ears and running.\

TA-DA people! That was our day... in a tiny little nutshell. You got the gist though... tomorrow's much calmer, but we're not going to have Internet access for a while. Pops/Mama/Mom Cown-- don't freak out. We'll write more when we can.