Bill&Theresa: Day 3—Christmas in Prague and Defenestration!

St. Mary's Church.

Merry Christmas!! First order of business was getting to church (well, after breakfast)! To the best of our knowledge, there was a service at 10AM at St. Nicholas and also at St. Mary. Tough call. But, as it is Christmas, something about St. Nick seemed right! So, we tromped down to the Old Town Square (again), and found our way into the church. We found a pew and settled in. We found an “Order” booklet, and noticed it said “Hussite Czechoslavakia Church” on the cover. Uh…the Hussites have a habit of “defenestration”, that is throwing Catholics out of windows (to their death below). We were on the first floor, nevertheless, we hastened out and over to St. Mary’s. There were a bunch of people crowded at the back (in the narthex) at a sort of fence. We saw a place to sit, so went through and made it to a pew. Theresa observed the “bouncer” (OK, maybe an usher but…) headed our way presumably to throw us out, but as we entered the pew and knelt down, he turned back. To our disappointment, we realized Mass must have started at 9:30, as when we arrived it seemed to be in the middle of the sermon. But, we got as much out of the Czech Homily as we could and all was well!

Crowds not permitted inside. :-0

After Mass, we read the readings on Theresa’s phone, and then checked out the church. Theresa noticed, looking back, the group of people still against the “fence”, and unable to come in, and that we were freely moving about inside. It gave a foreshadowing of what Heaven might be like, with a few people in, and many outside the gates unable to get in. It made us ponder which side of the Gates we will be on that day.

Random interesting building with St. George slaying a dragon.

The "Old New Synagogue" in the Jewish Quarter.

Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral.

Crossing the river. Not sure about that statue, but Theresa is not hanging around to find out!

Charles Bridge in the middle. Fewer people today.

Someone hung chocolates on this tree for Christmas.
I debated taking one, but....

Beer Spa!

After Mass, we headed across the river for our “Beer Spa”. Apparently it is a “thing” here. They fill a hot tub with water, and some beer ingredients, and set the Jacuzzi. We sort of stumbled on it over the weekend when we were looking at the map around our hotel and wondered what that was. So, we found one available and booked it!! The setup is like a cave in a basement. There is the “tub” and a bed of straw. You get 20 minutes in the tub, and then the balance of the hour as you wish. There is self-serve unlimited beer in both light and dark. There is also a shower but they insist the beer is good for your skin, so you should not wash it off. OK. Sure. Well, at least it didn’t leave us smelling like old beer all day! As we departed, they gave us a “gift” of a bottle of the light and the dark beer they have on tap.

After our beer spa, we headed to a restaurant (feeling a little buzzed). We had goulash with beef, some sort of fried cheese (really good!) and of course, more beer (it’s the easiest and cheapest thing to drink around here!).

Medieval torture device?
No, a personal sauna!

All you want light and dark beer! Self serve!

Goulash and Beer!

We continued up the hill to the Prague Castle, which surrounds St. Vitus Cathedral. Prague Castle is the Czech version of the White House, and has been the seat of the country’s authority for 1000 years, from Kings to Presidents. We decided to visit the Cathedral first, and found a bit of a line. We kept tracing it to find the end, and when it doubled back on itself realized the line was over 250 feet long!! But it moved quickly, and we were inside maybe 15 minutes later. There were certainly beautiful things in the Cathedral, but it was sort of stark and bare, with richly adorned chapels in the side aisles. There was a lot of history, but we didn’t have the audio tour, so guessed our way around much of it. By the time we got out (and found a “WC”) it was 3:45, and we then learned all of the buildings were closed! Well, we have a two day ticket, so I guess we come back?

Even the train tracks are cobblestone!!
(Theresa is not walking on them, however!)

To Theresa’s disenchantment, we opted to walk back down the hill. Uneven cobblestones on a steep slope is (I now know) not her favorite! We clocked in a mere 15,800 steps today (dwarfed by our 23,000 yesterday), but tomorrow, I think we’re buying bus tickets!!