Rain, rain and more rain!

It’s like being back in Scotland!

This was the only day forecast for rain so we thought we would book an underground tour, smart right? 

The tour started at the office of the tour company, just a short walk from the Astronomical clock, at 10.30am; we had a lovely sleep and relaxed breakfast beforehand, and I was smart enough to ask for an umbrella before I left!

We were told the tour guide was running 10 minutes late due to traffic, not really a problem for us, but I did mention to Iain that I hope she is running as she makes her way to us! I felt super guilty when a girl ran past us, halted just beside us, skidded, and nearly fell, before saying she needed to grab her keys! Turns out her name was Maggie, and she was a crazy techno fan with red hair! She was also totally into the medieval and gruesome parts of our tour!

As I said, we booked this tour due to its ‘underground’ nature; unfortunately, we still had to walk overground to the underground places! The first stop was underneath a bar, just a 5 minute walk away. This was a nobleman’s house and the ground floor was the original level of Prague, also where the servants lived. The second floor was home to the nobleman, and at one point, the king of Bohemia (don’t throw me out a window, but I can’t remember his name!)         

After the first underground visit, we had to head overground to the next vault. As we were walking, the guide told us some interesting facts about the Czech Republic. The picture below is the coat of arms of Prague, and if you notice there is an arm with a sword being waved through the gates of the city. The original coat of arms didn’t have the arm and sword as they wanted to appear welcoming; that changed in 1649, after the Thirty Years’ War. This symbol represents the effective defence of the city against the Swedish army during the war.

The second underground passage housed an alchemist lab; there was a hidden door within the bookcase. We didn’t stick around too long, I do not like confined spaces!

The third underground passage was a dungeon, there were various torture devices and we all got to spin the wheel of death! Turns out I got death by the sword; apparently it was reserved for nobility, I always knew I was switched at birth! Iain on the other had got the “bonus” death, which was the ‘bronze bull’ so basically roasted to death in the copper belly of a bull placed over a fire!

After the fun of medieval Prague and dungeons, we decided to torture ourselves some more; this time with beer at the Pilsner Urquell experience. The museum was excellent, but I definitely preferred the tasting!  

The most important thing to note from the museum is the pour! If you notice any pictures of beer in Prague, the head is usually a third of the glass! This is not by mistake and they are not trying to con anyone, but the head is important for taste as well as stopping oxygen from getting to the beer! In terms of taste, the head is sweet and helps to counteract the bitterness of the beer, or so we were told!

As today is the day of torture, we managed to find a pub to watch the old firm game, it was going reasonably well until we had a player sent off. At least the beer and food was good as we ended up in the Oktoberfest Pub!

Clearly the football didn’t work out too well, so we ended up drowning our sorrows in Vinoteka, a very strange little wine bar in one of the many mini shopping malls. The wine was excellent, particularly the Chardonnay, which I’m generally not a fan of! I do look a little bit worse for wear!

Given we were in Prague, we decided to check out the Astronomical clock “show;” we had both seen it before but thought we better see it again! Even in the rain, there was still a huge number of people camped out to view the entertainment.

And since we were at the square, a picture of the gothic church I really liked, it looked even better all lit up at night!

We eventually decided to eat something and went to a traditional restaurant called U Dvou Kocek which was recommended by the walking tour company. I had their national dish, Svíčková, which is  sirloin beef in a cream sauce with cranberries, whipped cream and bread dumplings. Iain had fried chicken schnitzel, great for soaking up all the beer we had drunk!

It wasn’t particularly late, but we thought it best to wander back to the hotel, have an early night and be rested for the next again day!