(Passed lovely old buildings on route)

Yesterday we started late. The tap-tapping has moved a little down the street but outside our house they have introduced the big hammer. The big hammer is louder and pounds more bricks. It is very effective – the path looks completely even.The big hammer begins earlier… So we went back to sleep once it had completed it’s section and now the tap-tap doesn’t seem so bad. In fact it’s beginning to sound like a lullaby.

(Don’t know what this building is but that looks like a spiral staircase under the clock)

Anyway, we started late. We were going to the art gallery, called Veletržní Palace and on the way we needed to book our onward transport to Krakow. We are travelling by overnight sleeper train and are very excited as we’ve never travelled that way before. We decided to walk to the train station as Prague is very manageable by foot. But, you know how some places don’t expect people to walk to them? So they make the footpaths nearby very (very) narrow? Ensuring that cars rush by millimetres from your elbow? This was one of those places and I promised my inner child we would be taking the metro out of the train station. We did arrive safely into a very modern concourse and proceeded to the international ticket desk. There we met a lovely lady who spoke English (I think everyone here does) and she did her very best to find us a sleeper to Krakow but they were all gone 😦

(There were beautiful art deco houses near the art gallery)

Yes we were momentarily sad…. but when the lovely lady found us a day train with reserved seats we thought of lots of reasons why we wanted to go on the day train…. em, I brought my crochet and now I will have an opportunity to use it; we will see the countryside; we will have opportunities for adventure and peril as we negotiate changing trains, twice; we might meet interesting people and hear interesting stories. So all good. Forget everything I said about the night train – we are now taking the day train to Krakow.

(Our tram)

We had to have a green tea and a toasted roll after that. Then we proceeded to the art gallery. It is on the other side of the river and still within walking distance but remembering my promise to my inner child, we took the metro. By now we were off the grid on our city map so we had to revert to the compass app again. Before long we needed human help and asked a couple of women chatting outside a house for directions to the Veletržní Palace. Well we though we were saying Veletržní Palace… “art gallery?” brought smiles and a very enthusiastic reaction to our being able to walk there. We were very pleased with ourselves, we must look like seasoned walkers. Fifteen minutes later we were beginning to understand their reaction. Eventually with some more human help we arrived at the gallery.

(This is the Charles bridge, I hope to get more pictures of it later in the week, it’s always crowded)

It was well worth the walk. They have a beautiful art collection and a fantastic glass lift to bring you to the top of the gallery. There are lots of interesting Czech artists but also lots of international art too. They have Rodin, Monet, Cézanne, Surat, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Munch, Klimt, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, lots of Picasso. There are five floors so we needed coffee and a biscuit afterwards. That’s where we met a very friendly girl who gave us walking directions back to Old Prague. She suggested we take the tram… we did.

We’re going to take a bus tour tomorrow, Mairead.