There are some sights that one expects to see in the main cities of central Europe. Horse drawn carriages for example. They are there only for the tourists, and even though they have ‘tourist trap’ written all over them, it is hard to resist a stately drive around the city streets. A lot of the experience depends on the condition of the carriage and the driver. ‘Stately’ implies a snazzy carriage and smartly dressed driver. We have a habit of getting, ‘somewhat run down carriage with wild haired driver’. (Who may or may not have been introduced to the concept of deodorant). Of course, once a large horse has pooped into its “doggy bag”, the matter of personal deodorant becomes irrelevant.
The classy carriage that inspired us to take a ride
The carriage we actually rode
This horse is used to being photographed
There are some sights which do have a relationship to their surroundings – if you stretch your imagination. As we walked through one of the gardens at Prague Castle, we stumbled across an exhibition of birds of prey. Waddy held an eagle or falcon (bad memory lapse). It had a hood over its eyes and was placid, but all the same it knew it had someone new on board. This was six kilos of bird (around thirteen pound), so Waddy’s smiling visage became strained after some time. Jay held a smaller bird, a peregrine I think. She even got brave enough to tickle its tummy. Those photos were overexposed on account of me fiddling with the light meter in the bright sunshine, so only the bird appears on this post.
Keep looking this way Waddy. We’ll let you know if he is going to bite
Jay held this inquisitive fellow
The speech maker
Do I have to listen to this?
What’s he saying?
Look alert now
Then there are the sights that are just plain weird. We stumbled across signs for an ‘Indian Festival’. It made sense of why we had seen ladies in saris earlier in the day. It was really a Hare Krishna gathering, something I haven’t seen for many years. In addition to the standard orange robes, there was much more colour on show. The lady entertainer in the photo looks as if she is giving a performance of traditional Indian music. In fact she was simply singing the usual Hare Krishna chant. Over, and over, and over, and – well, you get the idea.
Third week of July 2013, Garrulous Gwendoline, still in Prague
The Reluctant Retiree 
Fun to read another “Boomer’s” impressions of Prague. Best wishes with your blog!
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Thanks Kate. I have several more posts to write on Prague before I am finished. Hope you enjoy them. GG
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