Day 24 – Prague Second Day – Saturday June 16th

We woke up at about 9:30am. Breakfast was the same, and afterwards, I met up with all the guys, Lanny, Chappie, Amelia, and Ginna. We walked once again to the main square with the astronomical clock. It was lunchtime by this point, so we ate at a nearby restaurant. I had the ribs for the third day in a row and continued to believe they were the best ribs I had ever had. We made the walk over the Charles bridge, which was beautiful and lively with its statues and performers and caricature artists. We headed up to the castle on the hill and happened upon Greg and Scott who we were walking to meet anyway. Graber took us over to the cathedral within the castle walls. It was like a smaller Notre Dame, so it wasn’t anything I hadn’t already seen better somewhere else. The castle was really a bit of a disappointment since there was little to do. It was very much unlike the castle in Krakow which was meant for tourism.

We went from there past the Charles bridge to go pedal boating. On the way, I spotted the locations from Mission Impossible where the car explodes, the girl gets stabbed, and Tom Cruise runs down a flight of stairs to see it all happen. It was pretty cool to recognize an onsite location like that. The pedal boats were very cheap to rent for an hour, so we had no problem getting out on the water. I was in a boat with Rob, Greg, and Graber. We just pedaled on up to the higher boundaries of our boating area and drifted down the river for an hour. It was the most relaxing part of the trip so far.

We went straight to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner at Graber’s house. We took taxis over and had no problem getting into the house. We were told security would be pretty tight and that we needed passports. It really wasn’t that big of a deal once we got there. The Graber’s did a wonderful job of making it feel comfortable. The house of the ambassador was beautiful; I can’t believe Graber lives there every day. We took a brief tour of the house and then went swimming in their outdoor pool. For dinner, we had hamburgers, taters, salads, and fruit. Afterwards, we just relaxed in the library and listened to beach music. I really had a wonderful time.

We left after several hours to go have Graber show us some bars and clubs that he liked to go to at night. I had a great time that night. I got back to the hotel late with a large group of people and went to bed after a wonderful day in Prague.