A trip to Prague: day 3
The last day of a vacation is always an uneasy one. You are torn between the desire to visit another new place and the necessity of getting to the airport in time for your flight. And this while not wanting to rush things.
Torn between two choices
We wanted to visit the observation tower at the Petřín hill. By the time we checked out of our hotel, caught a tram and reached the hill, it was already noon. Bells tolled at the cathedral on the otherwise quiet hill and as we started walking towards the tower, their distant echo could be heard.
There were parks on the hill and benches under shady trees. We saw a local climb one of the pear trees there and throw pears on the grassy ground below for his partner to collect. The wife approached the couple, asked if she could pick some of them and returned with four juicy specimens of the fruit. By this time we had realized that we wouldn’t have time to make it all the way to the tower so we just grabbed one of the benches and munched on the pears.
Sometimes memories of things completely unrelated to the place that you are visiting linger the longest. One such memory that’s still with me is of an old man walking past us with a loud radio. The song on his radio was familiar — Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire - but in a language I didn’t understand (given where we were, it must be Czech).
On our walk from the hill to the nearest tram station we came across some fascinating buildings…
Layers of construction
A lovely façade
…street cafés…
Restaurant Leone & Anna
…and other interesting things.
Detailed manhole cover and cobbled stones
Random graffiti
We stood for a few minutes staring at this ornate gate of the German embassy:
The German consulate in Prague
The forbidding but beautifully intricate door of the German consulate at Prague
At the tram stop we turned around for one look back at the streets we had been walking through.
Two angles and a tram line
One last look at Prague
All along our stay in Prague, the light had either been too dull or too harsh. On the tram ride back to the hotel I saw Charles Bridge illuminated by the most perfect light that a photographer could ask for. Pity it wasn’t our first day here!
Charles Bridge from the tram