Prague - Friday and Saturday (geocaching event, Wim's arrival))

Friday 13 July 2018

Usually I use my timeline on Google maps to find out where I have been on certain days or at certain times, because I track myself.  It's an interesting feature and I have been using it for quite a while. (Please don't tell me about security and all that, Big Brother has been around for a long time and I have nothing to hide....)  However, I wanted to say that it is a helpful tool for forgetful people like me and it helps me when writing my blog.  Well, usually! ;-)

Here in Czechia my timeline doesn't seem to register as well as elsewhere, because sometimes places that I am sure of that I have been to don't show up on it.  So.....  I don't know exactly what I have done on Friday.  Most likely I have just been at home, reading, playing Wordfeud and writing my blog.  All I remember for sure is that Ales and Lenka unexpectedly left after dinner for a weekend trip to Brno.  The planned BBQ with their daughters and Wim and me on Sunday was cancelled and I was left with very basic instructions, but I knew I would be alright.  

On to Saturday then.

Saturday 14 July 2018

Saturday was a very busy day.  I had two things planned: a geocaching event and picking up Wim.  So, I left early in the afternoon in order to spend some time in Prague.  Had I known that Wim's train would be delayed by two hours I would have probably stayed at home a little bit longer, because this was going to stretch out my visit to Prague also by two hours and walking around in the heat of the city takes its toll nowadays.

In the morning I walked to the shops to buy groceries and on the way I took this picture of a little church.

After that I caught the bus at 1 pm and got to Mustek station alright.  Discovered a different exit, so I wandered from there.  When I peeked into a side street to see if I could find a restaurant I noticed a huge 'pile of silver bricks' (well, that was what it looked like at first), which appeared to be a huge work of art, depicting the head of Franz Kafka.  Parts of the head were supposed to move, but it was not working all the while I was there.  I had found a restaurant and was sipping an espresso, keeping an I on the head...

I also discovered that the 'head' was a virtual cache, so that was a handy 'find'.  Another cache around the corner was again problematic because of the compass bouncing in the city.  One find was good enough for me and then I was on my way again.

As usual I took pictures of interesting items (to me anyway) that I saw on my walk.

View onto Charles Bridge from Legii Bridge

Plenty of tourists out and about on this beautiful day

 

I ended up, as planned, at the bottom of a huge hillside park on which the Petrin Tower could be found.  This is a kind of small Eiffel tower.  It's high on top of the hill and as I knew that the Petrin funicular would carry me there I was not going to do any climbing.  Besides, the funicular was included in my free ticket so why should I wear myself out? ;-)

In the end I only walked around through a few gardens, because the tower was not close to the end station and I did not have enough time to hang around for too long.  I had to be at Charles Bridge at 5.30 pm. I took a few pictures on the way up, at the gardens and again of the view on the way down.

Observatory at the top

Charles Bridge wasn't far from here, so I thought I would have time to have dinner somewhere, but it still took a while before I had found a restaurant that I liked.  Lucky me!  I was told that serving meals was going to be slow, because this lady was on her own.  No way.... So I kept going and bought a snack at a stall of the French food festival instead.  Then I walked on to the spot where Bruce and I were having our geocaching even, called "An Aussie shindig in Prague".  I was ten minutes early, but Bruce was already present with some of the more eager geocachers.  Gradually more were arriving and others left, so we had quite a mix of people to talk to and most brought TB (trackable items) for us to take back to Australia. I left it to Bruce to take them all home, (it was a full bag) since they are generally hard to get rid off in caches and he was going to have an event at home later where they would be taken off his hands anyway.

 #1975 - An Aussie Shindig in Prague (event cache)

A group photo with a few of the visitors

Bruce had to leave straight after the event as he had his wife and friends waiting.  I walked to the Kampa where I found a bench and sat there for a while reading.  I had to fill in two extra hours as Wim's train was delayed and would now not arrive before 9:47 pm. 

By 9 pm I walked to central station.  We were well prepared for our meeting place with exchange of pictures, but in the end that wasn't even necessary as I saw Wim coming from far.  Great to see each other again!  We bought his ticket and got on the metro.  At Luka we had to wait nearly an hour for the bus, because  we had not been able to make the 10:08 pm.  However, we made it home before 12!