And so we come to our final day in Prague and almost the last of our holiday.
Today we took a gentle stroll through Letna Park. This large park sits above the city and contains numerous walking tracks set amongst a sparse planting of trees. One of the things in the park that can by seen from quite a distance is the giant metronome. It was erected in 1991, on the plinth left vacant by the destruction in 1962 of an enormous monument to former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The 23 metre long Metronome is now mostly a scenic vista and a meeting place for young people.
The area behind the Metronome is also a popular skate spot where skateboarders from Europe and around the world congregate and film throughout the year. I took the shot below whilst we were at the skate park watching skateboarders doing their stuff.
As we kept wandering we noticed Prague Castle looming on our left (hard to miss really) and a small deep valley between us and the Castle. The valley was full of trees but no stream which seemed a little odd. Further along one of the trails we were able to cross the small valley via a bridge. As we were crossing the bridge towards the Castle we overheard a tour guide explaining to her group that the small valley was in fact the Castle’s moat! Ah ha things now made sense.
After wandering around the Castle grounds for some time we decided to head back to the river and hire a paddle boat and chill out. Each day as we crossed the river into the Old Town we had seen these little paddle boats out and about and thought they would be a good way to spend an hour or so drifting under and around the shoreline and bridges. We were intrigued by one of the paddle boat hire places having an Australian flag fluttering happily in the breeze.
Yes, there was a connection with the land down under. The owner’s wife originally came from Melbourne but was now living permanently in Prague. So, into our paddle boat we climbed and spent a very relaxing hour exploring some of the river. It was a lovely way to end the day.
On the way back to our apartment we came across a shop window that had the most bizarre thing happening. One of the brochures at the Tourist Information Centre advertised a cafe where you could sit with your feet in a fish tank and the tiny fish would eat all the dead skin off your feet!
We had a chuckle over the brochure, placed it back on the stand and then thought no more about it. Now, here it was happening right in front of our eyes. A man and his son were happily sitting in the cafe window slurping on a drink and tiny fish were cleaning up their feet for them. What will they think of next?
Being our last night in Prague we decided to head out for dinner. But before that we attended a chamber music recital at one of the small chapels that dot the city. It went for an hour and included many small classical pieces that have become favourites over the years. Not the most exciting concert I’ve been to and the musicians seemed to be playing by numbers. One exciting thing did happen whilst we were at the concert – the heavens opened and rain tumbled down. A huge thunder storm rolled across Prague just as the concert started and cleared up just as the concert ended – brilliant timing. It was only the third time in the whole time I’ve been away that it has rained.
Ooh forgot to mention. Last night we went to dance performance at the National Theatre of Prague. Beautiful old theatre and wonderful contemporary dance pieces. Even I enjoyed them.
And so ends our travels for this time around. It’s been a wonderful 10 weeks away from Perth (and 4 weeks for Jule) but I am more than ready to return home (and the same for Gluten Girl). Tomorrow we would leave Prague at 3.45pm and journey to Perth via Dubai arriving home after 19 hours of travel.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the blog, I’ve certainly enjoyed writing it.
Best wishes
Damian