Monday, Day 21, the boys didn't leave the Airbnb at all. They wanted a day to do nothing, so we let them have it. Paul and I decided to sit at a café and have a coffee in the morning, then went to the grocery store, which I/we do almost daily, because we have to carry everything back with us and then up several flights of stairs, so I'm not buying a week's worth of groceries. One of the things city people have to get used to when you don't have a car. It works, but there have certainly been days when I was too tired to go back out to the grocery store to get dinner stuff, so it's eat whatever we have left in the fridge/cabinets kind of dinner! But on this Monday afternoon after our coffee and store run, I went in search of a pedicure, which I found nearby. It was very different from my usual pedicures in the US, there was no tub of water to soak your feet in, I was sitting more on a dentist's chair and she just sprayed my feet with hand sanitizer, then went to work on the nails. ;) My toes look great now though! We had take out Indian food that night, which we all enjoyed thoroughly. It was a low key day that we needed. 

Tuesday, everyone left the house and the boys went in search of a chess café, while Paul and I took a tour of Klememntinum and the Baroque library, "The most beautiful library in the world." The library is from 1722 and really is gorgeous. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed to be taken, so if you want to see it, you'll have to Google it. We also went to the top of the Astronomical Tower, which was really interesting, it was a place where they studied astronomy and meteorological measurements, they've been measuring and tracking the temperature daily since 1775. Plus, great views at the top! 

The boys enjoyed their freedom for a bit, even though the chess café was closed, so they ended up just walking around while waiting for us to finish our tour. After that we went in search of the Paternoster lift. This is an elevator that was first built and used in England, but have closed down due to safety concerns a long time ago, well there are still several being used in Prague today. The elevator has no doors, so these open boxes just go up to the top then shift to the side and come back down on the other side. It is an eternal loop, so there is no waiting for it to arrive. The one we rode in is located in the back of the City Hall, not exactly a tourist destination. We all had fun (although a little scary for me!) riding this elevator a few times. My pictures are not great, since the lift was moving. Braydon said that was the highlight of the day! 

Thursday, day 24. This was a lazy day, but quite lovely. Paul decided he brought too much stuff and he didn't want to lug it around for the rest of our trip, so he gathered some of his extra clothes and headed for the post office to ship it back to Charlotte! As much as I'd like a lighter bag, I couldn't part with anything except a few pairs of socks, for some reason I brought 9 pairs of socks! Not really necessary when you have a washing machine, and we are now into flip flop weather. Anyway, after Paul's post office ventures we met at a cafe near the park and spent several hours there, the boys eventually met us down there separately. It's so nice to be able to give the boys some freedom here, we feel quite safe with them walking around exploring, finding ice cream and pizza on their own.

Friday, another gorgeous day in Prague. We've been so lucky with the weather, sunny and in the 70's for the most part. We took a funicular ride up to Petrin Hill, where a mini replica of the Eiffel tower stands. On top of the hill are some pretty rose gardens, an observatory, an old monastery, a mirror maze and the tower. The boys and I did the mirror maze, Paul opted to skip this, although I hadn't planned on going in either, but they wouldn't let Braydon in without an adult. It was a funny little tourist attraction, with the mirror maze then those mirrors that distort your body, so lots of selfies and laughs! We walked down the hill instead of taking the funicular back down, made our way over to Kampa Park to look for more giant baby sculptures. There was a guy selling Aperol and Hugo Spritzers in the middle of the park, so I had to indulge and got a Hugo Spritzer, it was very good. I'm not a fan of the Aperol one, which is very popular here. Friday night, Paul was able to finish up work a bit early so he and I went out for some drinks. We've been walking past all these great little wine bars for over a week now and dying to check them out, we finally did. These little places have so much character, and most have little tables or window seats outside, or you can just stand on the sidewalk-no open container laws here.

Wednesday we decided to take a little train tour around Prague. Picture those cute little trains that kids ride at a carnival, but tall enough for adults to sit in it. This little train took us on a one hour tour around Prague, driving past some of the major sights and giving us some history. It was an easy way to see the sights, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone coming to Prague. Around the half way point, our driver pulled over and got out to get himself a cup of coffee, standing chatting with the woman behind the counter for a good 5 minutes, as the rest of us just sat sweltering in the non-moving train. Afterwards, he drove us around the corner where the changing of the guard was happening at the Prague castle, but he parked in such a way that we couldn't see anything, we sat there looking at nothing for 10 minutes! Had we known we were sitting there we may have asked if we could get out, ,but our driver was in the engine portion of the train, and so in a totally separate section. Anyway, it was odd. We just walked around after the tour and then made our way back to the apartment for Paul to work.