This morning for breakfast, we decided to try the bakery across the street from our apartment.  I was able to decipher some words in Czech that were similar to English, and I bought us two different pastries that had broccoli in them.  Oh.My.God.  I swear to you that these were the most delicious pastries I had ever eaten.  I mean, seriously… they were incredibly delicious.  One of them is pictured below.

Out in Old Town Square, I noticed another demarcated meridian line.  As it turns out, it’s not really a locational indicator as much as a time indicator.  The line marks where the shadow of the former Marian Column was cast at noon each day.

The day was absolutely glorious, and we headed across the river.  Our first stop was the Senate complex, which contained some lovely gardens.

There was also a rather strange addition, a large section of drip wall.  Inside a cage covered in drip wall were several very large owls who blended very well into the crevices of the stalactite walls.  Once in a while their huge heads would mechanically rotate.  Here is a bit more information about this area known as Wallenstein Garden.

Then we headed up, up, up toward Prague Castle.  It was truly a dizzying succession of winding, narrow roads followed by a long staircase.

The view from the top was amazing!  I cannot believe how far we climbed.

The castle complex is made up of many interesting buildings.  We toured just a few.

We made our way back down the long staircase and had lunch at the base.  I was very interested in the hot chocolate with rum on the menu, but we were told there was a ban on all hard liquor in Czech Republic.  Jim looked it up on his phone and apparently several dozen people have died and others were left blind by drinking bootleg liquor containing methyl alcohol that had made its way illegally into the distribution channels.  The ban has been in place for about a week, and they’re still working on finding the guilty parties.  Scary stuff.

Back down in Old Town Square, we visited the Sex Machines Museum.  What can I say?  It was certainly interesting!  Hard to say whether it was worth the $12.50 each that we paid for admission.  We had dinner at a ho-hum Irish Pub that allowed smoking indoors.