{"id":1266,"date":"2016-04-12T06:53:57","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T06:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1266"},"modified":"2016-08-21T01:58:28","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T01:58:28","slug":"final-day-in-prague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1266","title":{"rendered":"Final Day in Prague"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, my last day in Prague, I flew to the Schwartzenberg Palace museum like a homing pigeon. I saw a number of excellent paintings, but\u00a0when the guard pointed to the stairs to the top floor and insisted I go up those steps, I was reluctant. Arms and armor? Not really my thing. Despite my shotgun series, I’m more amour than arms \u2013 make love not war, right? \u00a0Like this new\u00a0bride, posing on the edge of the parapet.<\/p>\n

\"Romance<\/a>
Fall \u00a0in love! But please, not literally.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But sure enough, I saw some things that imprinted on my retinas like a flashbang.\u00a0It\u2019s how artists in every media insist on creating beauty no matter what, no matter when, no matter where. That\u2019s what gives me hope for our species.<\/p>\n

\"Just<\/a>
Just throwing down that gauntlet could do some damage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"detail<\/a>
detail of a gun stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Consider<\/a>
Consider what kind of force was behind the blow that made this dent In the shoulder, from behind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"helmet2\"<\/a>
This is what Payton Manning really should be wearing on the field.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Okay, it’s not all sliced ham and great art.<\/p>\n

Prague, the dark side:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smokers exhale outside of every building entrance and exit.<\/p>\n

All those picturesque cobblestones are bilateral ankle fractures waiting to happen. They also function as outdoor ashtrays, and the gaps around each stone is packed with smoker debris, filters and butts. Ew.<\/p>\n

City of 100 spires, yep, and ten thousand tourists for every freaking spire. We infest the place like lice. It\u2019s it just as true in March as June, apparently.<\/p>\n

Where there are tourists there\u2019s a whole of lo identical, cheap\u00a0crap for sale. It may be touted as\u00a0made in Prague<\/em>\u00a0but bro, it\u2019s\u00a0made in China<\/em>.<\/p>\n

April weather is a fickle, unpredictable bitch, lurching from sleeting to sweating in a day.<\/p>\n

Prague, the bright side:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Golden Well was exactly suited to my taste and temperament. Small, historical, located out of the crush of nightlife and at the foot of the castle complex. Authentic, tasteful, comfortable, and one of a kind. And the staff? Top quality.<\/p>\n

The architecture lives up to its rep. Every street and alley in the historic center is replete with wonderful buildings. A time traveler\u2019s parade that marches on from the Medieval Our Lady Before T\u00fdn church to post modern 1996 Dancing House, Fred and Ginger. Bonus; everywhere is close, and pleasantly walkable.<\/p>\n

Not one bad meal. Delectable takeaway available on every street. From pink Prague ham to luscious patisserie to tasty banh mi to the Michelin star inventive excellence of Field<\/p>\n

The most beautiful library in the world in the\u00a0Strahovsk\u00e9 monastery. My idea of heaven.<\/p>\n

Number one best thing about Prague<\/strong> – my daughter joined me. She\u2019s curious and intrepid. We notice the perfect eyelashes on an otherwise too sweet painting of the Virgin and naughty loaves of bread and oysters. We like picking up fun facts via audio tours. We appreciate inventive food. And we both like exploring, at our own pace, our respective agendas, sharing information and experiences afterwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, my last day in Prague, I flew to the Schwartzenberg Palace museum like a homing pigeon. I saw a number of excellent paintings, but\u00a0when the guard pointed to the stairs to the top floor and insisted I go up those steps, I was reluctant. Arms and armor? Not really my thing. Despite my shotgun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,137],"tags":[111,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-1266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-prague","8":"category-short-trips","9":"tag-armor","10":"tag-schwartzenberg-museum","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/va-with-rk-and-iphone.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-kq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1277,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions\/1277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}