Beautiful Prague - Day 3 - Clouds Over Prague

I woke up after not quite enough sleep, with a fuzzy head. After a few more hours rest and nearly a litre of water I was ready to go down to the breakfast room and meet the others.

There was only one table available and I had to hold the fort until the others arrived. Due to the large number of people we were short on various things, including cutlery (small spoons and knives) and other essentials such as white rolls and yoghurt with fruit. The others soon joined me and reminded me that from today we should be speaking exclusively in Polish. It wasn't easy with the noise of the other thirty or so people having breakfast. I managed to have a few cheese sandwiches and some plain yoghurt with granola. All washed down with a cup of tea.

After breakfast we reconvened in reception to see what sort of room we were being allocated (praying all the time that there was actually a room available). The good news was that we would be getting the room that we had originally reserved. It wasn't ready of course, but that was of little concern as we were heading off to do some sightseeing anyway.

First stop on our sightseeing tour was photographing Charles' Bridge (but from the other side, in less favourable weather conditions than the previous day). Then a little bit more exploration. A little island in the river. The Dancing House, which eschews the use of straight lines in its construction. Then an attempt to visit the Church of St Cyril (which was closed despite it being a Sunday). A short walk later we found ourselves in a shopping arcade with some unusual sculpture inside (specifically a man riding an upside-down horse).

A visit to a museum of Alphonse Mucha's work next. I hadn't really heard of Mucha before the trip to Prague but one of my artist friends back in Kraków had mentioned that his works were a must-see. As well as various Art Noveau poster designs there were also some very nice traditional Slavic designs. The others on the trip were also keen on the idea, so that's where we went.

We managed to find a place to eat with relatively cheap prices and a reasonable choice of food. I had three different types of pork on a skewer served with roast potatoes. The cider went down well, but was quickly absorbed into my system.

Back at the hotel we got our keys to the room that would be our final resting place for the next two days. Finally we could unpack our things. After a suitable rest period we set off to the city centre so that we could go to the 9pm mass in the main square. The service was in Czech, of course, so I understood very little of what was going on. The prayer/hymn books weren't really comprehensible either. Stand up, sit down, pray a bit. The interior of the church is quite impressive (no photos allowed though). Big arches and plenty of flashes of gold. I did get a warm feeling though. It wasn't from any divine inspiration or anything like that, I had a heater conveniently situated right beneath my seat. After sustenance for the soul (well, for one of us anyway) we crossed the main square for sustenance for the body. I had a bowl of halushky (anglicised spelling) from one of the stands. Potatoes, cabbage and gammon. Hmm tasty.