I scheduled our first “Free walking Tour” of Prague for 11:15 so we wouldn’t have to rush too much in our lazy morning way. By the way, they no longer call it a free walking tour rather they say “pay what you wish.”

We got ready, stopped for coffee at a dumpling shop, where they make a really decent espresso. And walked about 20 minutes to the Powder Gate to meet our group. The gate itself was covered with scaffolding so we immediately moved to the next gorgeous building which, I think, is a theater:

Our group was about 25 people and we were the only Americans.  Most were from the UK.  The guide from 100 Spires Tours, was great.  He gave many pertinent historical and architectural details without practicing his stand up comedy routine with us.

Here are some of the things we saw on this introductory tour:

Then on to the Jewish Quarter.

If I am remembering correctly, this guy is Jan Hus. He brought Protestantism to the area in the 15th century and was burned at the stake by the Catholics for doing so. One interesting fact he told us was that The Czech Republic is the least religious country in Europe.  About 80% of the people consider themselves atheist or agnostic.

On to the Charles Bridge. Lots of things are named for King Charles IV maybe the most important figure in Czech history:

The tour ended at 2:00 at the poignant John Lennon Wall. The wall stands for Freedom (with a capital F).  I loved the story that the country broke free from the ruling communist government just through the persistent protests of 300,000 Czechs.  They call it the Velvet Revolution because noone died during the protests .  

We walked back home along the other side of the river and walked over the Legii bridge closer to our apartment.

We had a well deserved rest time.  This tourist thing is hard work! Then we went out again to get some bread and wine.  The shopping took us in a different direction where we explored new streets and shops.

I cooked us a chicken vegetable stew in the apartment, which went great with the rustic bread we got.  They called it plain white but it looked a little darker and tasted like sour dough.  Anyway—delicious all around.

We were both pretty tired and watched The Lincoln Lawyer and Nobody Wants This and went to sleep.

I would say we had a great first full day in Prague.