Strolling Around Mala Strana and Old Town

Prague Day 9 - Strolling Around

Our last day in Prague, so we decided to take it easy and just walk around and see what we see.  We went back down to the Old Town area and found the Basilica of St. James.  Another huge, baroque church.  What was lovely during our visit was that the organist was practicing so we had an impromptu concert as we looked at the church.  We wandered further down towards the river, poked our heads into the Rudolfinium, a big concert hall, and then crossed over the Cesky Bridge to the Mala Strana area on the other side.  There we wandered down to the water where folks were feeding a flock of swans.  It was lovely and mild today, in the low 50s and very sunny. It was very pleasant walking around.  Then we wandered down little cobblestoned streets off the main thoroughfares, looking in shops and admiring the beautiful buildings.  I had my daily  hot mulled wine.  We poked in a variety of shops and then had lunch in a little cafe near the Malastranska Square.  My lunch dessert was my beloved Trdelnik, my last of this trip.  After lunch we continued exploring the little streets near the river and found the church of St. Mary Under the Chain, the oldest church in the Mala Strana district.  The name refers to the chain that used to stretch across the river at the Charles Bridge to stop ships that were making their way upriver to make them pay taxes.  After we left the church we wandered some more and came upon the John Lennon Wall.  This is a wall full of graffiti, that during the communist era in the former Czechoslovakia was a place where those who yearned for freedom from communist rule wrote graffiti during the day, using lines from Lennon's songs and the graffiti would be painted over at night by the authorities.  Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989 the graffiti has been left alone and the result is a wall that is a riot of color.  Just around the corner from the wall is the John Lennon Pub the entrance of which is constructed to look like the entrance to the Yellow Submarine!  As we came around the corner from the pub, we crossed over an inlet and on the bridge we saw hundreds of padlocks.  Apparently, in Europe, since the turn of the century, it has been customary for young lovers to put a padlock on bridges and similar monuments with their names and marriage dates (or engagement dates) as an expression of their love and their intention for their commitment to be unbroken.  They put the lock on the bridge then throw the key into the water!  I had to laugh as I saw one padlock that was a combination lock!  I wondered if that couple decided to hedge their bets!!  We saw another batch of locks a little further down close to the Charles Bridge.  After that we walked back up to the Malastranska Square and caught the Tram back to our neighborhood.  We wandered around up here for awhile, since this was the first time we've been in this neighborhood in the late afternoon.  The place was hopping with activity, unlike at night when we've walked to our favorite restaurant for dinner and everything is closed and quiet.  At this point we are in the throes of packing.  We plan to return to the local restaurant that we like so much for dinner.  We have an early departure from here tomorrow morning, and are fervently hoping that the mass flight cancellations going on in the US today will have abated by the time we hit Detroit tomorrow.  Today's pics include a shot inside St. Mary Under the Chain, me in the cafe where we stopped for lunch, the Lennon wall and the restaurant that has been our favorite eating spot.  We're hoping for traveling mercies tomorrow!  And we will have to steel ourselves for the frigid temps after the much more mild weather we've enjoyed here!