Prague – Staré Město & The Glorious Sunshine

Prague – Day 3 Sunday 05/10/2008

Final day in Prague and I couldn’t have asked for a better day. I may have gotten a little bit burnt as well! I spent the final day in the heart of Prague where most of the tourist hang out, and that is Staré Město, Prague’s old town.

This is where all the expensive shops are, the shopping malls, old town square where the Astronomical Clock is situated, along with Tyn Church, Powder Tower further west, Henry’s Bell Tower and finally St Wenceslas Statue which I never got around to seeing. I’d had enough of statues, climbing church stairs and towers and was quite frankly sick of bumping into tourist left, right and center.

After wandering around endlessly on the cobbled streets, through narrow walkways of old town Prague and taken enough photos of all the landmarks, I headed back to Hradčany and sat in the gardens of Prague Castle resting the legs and just getting out of the sun.

I couldn’t help but notice people venturing around the Prague Castle holding green bottles with some form of liquid inside of them. I thought it may have been some holy water so I figured I better go find out what it is before I flew back to London.

At the Lion Court entrance to Prague Castle, I was following the sounds of some local music and stumbled upon some sort of festival with kids in cultural uniform dancing, singing and on a fun musical performance.

It was here, in the Royal Garden of Prague Castle that I found my answer to the green bottle riddle. There were very long queues of people waiting to sample and buy some alcoholic beverages from these wooden huts. The huts were advertising different types of local wines and you can make a purchase from the wine-dealer.

In exchange for your Czech Kroners, he will give you a small plastic cup of alcohol goodness. But for those keen on enjoying more of the exotic juice, you can purchase a 1.25 liter in yes, a green bottle. There is a brewer at the back of the hut who fills these bottles with the concoction from a large white drum using a hose.

I think the beverage contains a mixture of champagne or wine with a fruit juice probably apple as it appears to be cloudy. I didn’t sample any myself as the line was far too long and I had a plane to catch!

Since I got a black Mercedes van from the airport to the hotel, they decided to get me a white Mercedes van this time from my hotel to the airport. I thought all airports were smoke free but apparently not at Prague airport. You can sit on the massaging chair while puffing away at your smoke and not be criticized by local authorities.

At most airports you will see janitors pushing trolleys around with their cleaning products but at Prague airport, you will see girls on roller blades skating around picking up rubbish; now that is a first.

smiles