Well I'm awake at 1:30 so I guess now is a good time to write about our day. We both slept well and I had to wake mom up at 8:50. We had another lovely breakfast and met Dagmar at 10:00. We took tram number 22 from the hotel to Prague Castle. It is an immense complex of buildings in different styles. It was originally designed by Maria Therese from the Hapsburg family in Austria. It is now the president's office building and site of many other government functions.

Interesting fact - the uniform of the castle guards was designed by the costume designer for the movie "Amadeus". much of that movie was filmed in this area.

It was a beautiful view from the castle grounds overlooking the city of Prague, however notice on the right side the Starbucks. There is some product placement for you.

After getting our fill of the beautiful scenery, we started down the hill. It is quite a hike if you are going to walk up the hill. On our way down we stopped for hot chocolate. We had our choice of 50% hot cocoa or 70%. We took the 50% which was rich and delicious. Then we stopped at a cute little gingerbread shop. There were molds and many different gingerbread cookies. At the bottom of the hill we reached the Charles Bridge.

At this point we had to say goodbye to Dagmar. It was a fun two days and she was an excellent guide. Before she left she bought us two tickets to go on a short boat ride. Upon getting on the small boat we were offered a drink of wine. tea or coffee and a small cake. The boat ride lasted about 45 minutes.

This time of year the sun doesn't rise until nearly 8 a.m. and is setting around 4 p.m..

After the boat ride we went in the small exhibition of Nativity scenes.

And my favorite...

It looked like a fish nativity scene but I'm really not sure what it was. I think that these are fish shepherds.

Another beautiful view of the river and castle.

We walked back over the bridge to have dinner / lunch at a small restaurant that Dagmar recommended. I had the beef goulash and dumplings again. It was delicious.

After dinner we did some shopping and bought a couple of small gifts. We found a Haagen Dazs ice cream shop right across from the entrance to the mirror chapel. So we had to try it out.

There was a very comfortable sitting area on the second floor where we could watch everybody walk below.

At 7 o'clock we went into the Klemendium complex to the Mirror Chapel. We saw a concert which lasted a little over an hour. There was an organ, violin, flute, baritone and soprano. At the end they did a couple of Christmas songs. It was very nice and the atmosphere was perfect.

After the concert we took a taxi back to the hotel. Note: taxis are extremely expensive but we were too lazy to find the tram back to the hotel.

I will leave you for the evening with a few more shots of the Charles bridge.