I forgot to include Kara and Bill with Ronald Reagan. Also, the outdoor cafes draped in flowers make the streets of European cities so beautiful. This one was along the water as we walked back to our ship.
We said goodbye to our family members and most of the passengers as 24 of us departed for our post extension in Prague.
We stopped in Slovakia and had lunch but we had little time to sight see other than our walk to the restaurant. It is a lovely city and I would have liked more time there. The center of town is a pedestrian way and you have trees all around you Very pretty.
This is the American Embassy. Bojana said each embassy is different and if we are not allowed pictures the guards will let us know soon enough. I waited for another brave soul to take the first one. He is still alive so I took mine!
This was the Performing Arts Center, a beautiful example of Old World architecture.
I am not sure what the story behind this is but it certainly attracted a lot of attention and produced many smiles.
I am always fascinated by buildings with the years still on them.
This is a Bratislava touring car if you have the time and don't want to walk. Tours are good because they tell you things you wouldn't know on your own.
As we approached the restaurant.
These gold crowns in the street indicate where kings have walked to their coronation.
After lunch we boarded our bus and continued on to Prague. We arrived in the evening and had dinner in the hotel with our friends from Virginia. The next day we were out bright and early to visit the Prague Castle area. This is quite a large complex and our walk was just an overview of all that is there. We received instructions how to return - Metro A to M stop (some Czech word), then switch to Tram 22. Easy enough! They were changing the guard just as we arrived.
Our focus point was St. Nicholas Church. Its spires stand visible no matter where you are so it was the meeting place if lost and all other directions were given from this reference point. We were on our own to look around, have lunch and return for the 1:45 bus back to the hotel or we could use the metro back on our own. We stayed awhile because we felt comfortable in finding the metro station and knew where to get on and off.
In one of the courtyards.
That evening we rode to Sychrov Castle for a short concert and dinner. This castle was confiscated during WW II. Can you imagine how surprised an Arizona resident was when in the 1990s the government contacted him to tell him he owned the family castle in the Czech Republic and the government was returning it to him!
The next day we visited Wallenstein Gardens.
Our next stop was so meaningful to me. It was Our Lady Victorious Church that houses the Infant of Prague statue. As a child I was always fascinated by the beautiful outfits that were put on these statues. It was sort of a Barbie doll Jesus to me. I know the story of how the statue was found after the war and the veneration that goes along with it but the clothes thing is still a mystery to me. We learned Mass would be said in English there on Sunday at noon so we decided that was how we would spend our day. Mass, lunch, Eiffel tower replica and then our Farewell dinner.
Our next stop was a complete 180, it was the John Lennon wall. No matter how many times the city painted it, it was written on again so now they just let it go. I think the only connection John Lennon has to it was the posting of him by someone early on. This is our Prague tour director, Bojana. She was fascinated by the photos of our RV. She said she had never seen such a thing and asked me to email her our photos to show her family.
The purple marker Bojana gave us didn't write well but I did my best to write Love From Texas.
Ted wrote the WW II favorite, Kilroy was here.
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