Finally in Prague

When we last checked in on our heroes they'd overcome a same day flight cancelation, booked another flight for the next day, then made it to Europe. 

Unfortunately we had some flight connection issues and so were stuck in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol for a long unplanned layover.

That's ok though because now I had 14 euros to spend. Probably broke down to one euro per person per hour stuck in this damn airport.

On the bright side it's a very nice airport and had lots of fun Dutch things to look at.

They had some of the fanciest looking airport restaurants I can recall seeing.

My tea came with a little baby stroopwafel on the side.

I ordered like s big brain tourist by choosing everything with the word "Dutch" in the description.

Dutch 'Kroketten'

Two Dutch beef croquettes, bread, butter, and mustard

Lydia was excited about the slice of:

'Dutch' Apple Pie

Made with organic apples from 'the Olmenhorst farm'

We then headed to an airport lounge to rest and continue eating out of boredom.

They had tomato juice in glass bottles.

I stumbled upon these mints back in the day when I visited Amsterdam with Clarence like 800 years ago, and seeing them again brought back some good memories. I think getting old means you just sit around and remember things.

Finally we made it to Prague, Czech Republic.

One of my favorite things about visiting Prague is Lydia has already been here but I have not. So my country count goes up by one but hers stays the same! Bwahaha!

Our hotel was in Prague's old town and we got that delicious entrance to a place where adventure lies around every alley and your hype music is the sound of luggage wheels bouncing on cobblestones.

The hotel room's ceilings were amazing.

We were already behind schedule due to our travel setbacks so there was no time to rest.

The Charles Bridge had a lot going for it. Construction began in 1357 under Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. My favorite theft victim Wikipedia says that this bridge was the only way of crossing the Vltava river until 1841, which made Prague a big travel hub connecting Eastern and Western Europe.

It was nice to see the Ukraine support in a lot of places. I actually had some family and friends comment that it seemed risky to go this far east during the war in Ukraine, but my thought was that if Russia has attacked NATO it would pretty much be the end of days anyway. People are constantly surprising me with novel ways of being scared.

The bridge is covered in fun mostly Jesusy statues as well.

Lesser Town Bridge Tower

Prague was full of places baking these conical dough things over coals.

They are called trdelníks but I don't know how the hell to pronounce that so I'm going to call them coney cakes.

As if the cake wasn't enough, they also put ice cream inside of them! These people are geniuses.

The Old Town Hall, conveniently located in the Old Town Square, which I am sad to report brings to mind Lil Nas X' Old Town Road, is home to the famous Prague Orloj, or astronomical clock. It is the third oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest that still works.

We were lucky enough to be there on the hour to see it chime.

Speaking of lucky, I love the German Christmas markets so much, and it just so happened that Prague has very similar Easter markets! Maybe I've just loved European markets in general all along. Goodbye Christmas!

It was cold out and so was a good opportunity to drink various types of steaming booze. There was hot wine, hot cider, and this joint was selling hot mead.

Coney cakes for dayz, put you in haze.

There was a fun street performance happening complete with a man pretend rowing a boat around.

We took a little walking tour of the previously mentioned Old Town Hall.

And we saw the big clock's insides.

It was fun to see the little saint parade happening form the interior perspective when the clock chimed again.

More cool ceilings like back at the hotel.

"The Old Town Hall was created via gradual acquisition of individual burghers' houses, which were then connected into a single whole. Today, the Old Town Hall comprises five historical houses. Their interiors testify to the remarkable evolution of the complex; the guided tour takes visitors into a Gothic chapel from the late 14th century, a council hall dating back to the 15th century, and an assembly hall from the Art Nouveau era. A visit to the Romanesque underground is an experience unlike any other."

Luckily the Old Town Hall has a giant clock tower.

The tower was fun because it provided both a good view and a place for Lydia to be terrified.

Later we saw a production of Der ferne Klang at the Prague State Opera.

The building was magnificent. It might be the most extravagant theatre that I've ever seen.

The show was in German but it had English subtitles.

"Love that falls victim to creative obsession and the tragic fate of the girl who, owing to her family's poverty, becomes a prostitute are the key themes of the late-Romantic opera Der ferne Klang (The Distant Sound), an almost Freudian study of the chimeric artistic ideal and the degradation of women in a heartless and indifferent world."

Any culture that depicts food and drink as pretzels and champagne has officially won the game.