Distance traveled: 9.8 km
Cumulative distance: 1240.0 km
Maximum speed: 124 kph
Temperature range: 19 - 24 degrees.
Our last full day in Europe, our last day in Prague, we had a leisurely, almost lazy morning. Down for breakfast - and our hotel , the Clement - has one of the better breakfasts we have enjoyed here in Europe. You may know that it is pretty much standard that breakfast is served every morning in a hotel. I'm not talking a total carb load of do-it-yourself waffles and biscuits and gravy with mud served for coffee, peeled hard boiled eggs out of a bag and last summer's apples, I'm talking a variety of cheeses, a variety of cold cuts, scrambled (generally) eggs, fresh breads and buns, often hot sausages, bacon or some other, croissants, yogurt (we even had home made yogurt at one hotel), granola, cut fresh fruit, salad, cooked vegetables like tomatoes and peppers and often, much more.
Despite the fact that I had to return the motorcycle this morning, I wasn't in too big a hurry as it was raining lightly and I really didn't want to ride in the rain however, after watching it from our window for an hour or so and it only got worse, I thought I better just get out there so I dressed, wore a hoodie under my motorcycle jacket and put on rain pants and rode away. It wasn't actually that long to get to the motorcycle place Pujcovna Motorek Praha, all of 20 minutes but I had to fill the bike's gas tank before returning it and there was a gas station literally walking distance from the bike shop so it was a few extra minutes. I met the young lady who seemed to be the brains of the operation, Michaela, which I was happy about because when I picked up the motorcycle, she had flown to Dubrovnik to pick up a rental bike that a renter couldn't manage. Over the many weeks that I had been investigating rental places, I had developed a little bit of an affinity for her so I had been disappointed when I didn't meet her as I took the motorcycle.
I was actually quite relieved returning the motorcycle, as sad as I was about it. No longer having to worry about somebody else's property, wondering where I was going to park it and would it be safe and whether it would be lonely outside by itself all night for two weeks straight.
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| Michaela and me. |
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| No expensive signage here! |
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| There were 40 motorcycles around the corner! |
She actually paid for my Uber back to the hotel, which I am sure they do for all their clients since she had it on speed dial. I was back at the Clement within about an hour. And the rain had let up.
We started to organize our belongings for the trip home, then went for a long walk back to the pedestrian-only Charles Bridge, where we had been before. Nan wanted to do a little shopping from one of the licenced artisant merchants on the bridgefrom whom she had bought earrings before.
After the shopping, we continued to the other side of the bridge and stopped in at a little cafe where we had stopped on our first day here with our bicycle tour of Prague.We had been in such awe of the pastries I had dreamed of going back there but in fact, I actually thought it was further away. We were just wandering around for a place to have a small bite of lunch and it was Nan that realized we were at the same place as before.
We continued to walk around after lunch, not being in a hurray again however, we did notice some storm clouds heading in the direction of the bridge so while we didn't hurry, we walked with a little more intent. Here are some more pictures taken from the bridge and on the walk back to the hotel. I apologize that you have seen some of these scenes before but that was a month ago!
I actually had a much more extensive video but the Blogger platform told me it exceeded the 100 MB limit. By 20 fold.
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| Avocado sandwiches all around. |
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| Great looking desserts. |
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| Some interesting pitchers. |
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| Our selections. Nan had pistachio cheesecake. I had an apple pie with meringue and almonds on top. |
For our final dinner in Prague, we returned to the Alforno Trattoria Petrske namesti, an Italian restaurant around the corner from our hotel and where we had eaten with the Dresden bicycle crew August 31.
It was very busy, even outside despite the fact it had been raining an hour before. We could have choosen one of the two-tops you see in the centre of the floor but we opted for a four top on the edge so that we could sit beside each other. There was a gentleman sitting alone at the table next to us and I felt a little like we were taking his private space so I tried to not be intrusive as I squeezed between the tables and joined Nan on the bench.
We had a nice meal, very simple. Just carrot soup each then we split the pizza special, which was fennel salami, gobs of mozzerella cheese, basil leaves, pesto, cherry tomatoes and other stuff. We sat right beside the pizza chef's workstation so we watched the pizzas being made. The mostly looked pretty good (maybe not the tuna one so much) and they cooked in four minutes. One for the two of us was plenty.
And then we got RAKed. The fellow beside us, once he had finished his meal, got up and went to the till and paid. Then, as he walked out, he and I looked at each other and nodded our acknowledgements. Then a minute later, to our utter amazement, the waitress came over and told us he had paid for our entire meals! We were stunned and rushed to the door of the restaurant hoping to see him walking away but he was lost in the crowd. We have no idea why he chose us for a Random Act of Kindness but there it was. When we got back to the hotel, I put up a Google review of the restaurant and told a somewhat abbreviated version of this story in hopes that he would look at the restaurant online and see the review. It was a great finale to our trip.
I'll do one more post to let you know that we got home safely. Not entirely sure I will get it done Wednesday night but I will have a little wrap up to close it off.