From Santorini to Prague

Monday April 3 was a beautiful blue sky, sunny day in Santorini.  However, we were leaving for Prague for the last week of our vacation.  Stavros took us to the small Santorini airport and we caught the 11:35 flight to Athens- in the air for only 30 minutes.

On the way we passed some vineyards where the vines are close to the ground in a basket shape

Luckily, the gate where we landed in Athens was only minutes from the gate we departed from for Prague.  Our 1:15 p.m. flight landed in Prague about 20 minutes early at about 2:40 p.m. Prague time (one hour earlier than Greece).  Lukas, a friend of our VRBO hosts Pavel and Rob met us at the airport and took us to the apartment.  It was drizzling, so having door to door service was great.

We have splurged a bit on the VRBO apartment for our final week.  Pavel and Rob's place is awesome.  It is about 600 square feet (the biggest place we have ever stayed at in our journeys).  It is spotless and has all the amenities.  It is located at the border of two cool neighbourhoods about a 35 minute walk from the town centre.  We are in between the Zizkov and Vinohrady neighbourhoods.  Lots of great art nouveau and art deco buildings.  We are on the 3rd floor of a five story building on a square that has an amazing playground with a small basketball court on it.  There was a welcome note in the hallway coming into the apartment.  Pavel was there to meet us and orient us to the apartment and the neighbourhood.

The bedroom with deck outside

Deck area

Living room and dining room

Kitchen area and dining table- hall leading to bedroom and bathroom

Very modern shower

Outside of our building 

Detail on the building

Playground with basketball court on our square

View of our building from edge of playground- we are in the far right building

Alain caught a bad cold yesterday and is not feeling well.  We decided to get a coffee, buy some provisions and eat dinner at the apartment.  

We are very close to the famous TV Tower, which is Prague's tallest landmark.  It was erected between 1985-1992.  There are ten giant crawling babies that appear to be exploring the outside of the tower- an installation called Miminka (Mummy) by Czech artist David Cerny.  The installation was done when Prague was European Capital of Culture in 2000.  The babies came down at the end of the year, but a public outcry saw them reinstated and they are now a permanent fixture.  A bit creepy but definitely now part of the Prague landscape.

TV Tower

One of the babies on the tower

Lots of interesting architecture in the neighbourhood

Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord on Jiriho z Podebrad Square

We ended up at Le Caveau ( recommended by Pavel) on the Jiriho z Podebrad Square, where we had a coffee and shared a plate of olive tapenade, sheep cheese and sun-dried tomatoes that definitely hit the spot.

Outside of Le Caveau

Alain at Le Caveau-folks having pre dinner drinks and coffees

Our tapas plate

Great poster at Le Caveau

We found a fish store and bought a piece of salmon, then stopped at a cheese store where we bought some cheese.  We had earlier passed a small wine store where people were spilling out onto the street having a glass of wine.  We decided to check it out.

Vinoteka Noelka- folks having wine in the street

There was a woman working there who asked us to wait a minute for someone who spoke English. Lo and behold, it turned out to be Lukas who had driven us from the airport.  It appeared to be his place.  He gave me a glass of white wine on the house!!!! What a coincidence.   People were also coming in and getting litre plastic containers filled with house wine from barrels.  Great neighbourhood scene with folks of all ages there.

Alain holding my wine (he is not feeling well, so didn't want to drink)

Filling the plastic bottles with wine

With Lukas-- what a surprise!

We then went to the supermarket and back to the apartment.  Alain made a salmon dinner as I worked on the blog.  We are listening to the Jays game on Sirius XM (10:00 p.m. Prague time in the top of the third inning).  Go Jays Go!