Tuesday afternoon

We took a break when we crossed the Charles Bridge. Lunch, wine, relaxing. I had garlic soup with croutons. Yum. And Czech wine. I really like Czech wine. Sort of smooth and dry but just enough fruit to not be pucker-y like a chardonnay.

The garlic soup was good. It was a cool day to start with so it seemed like a good idea. And it wasn't too heavy. I have been seeing a lot of meats and potato heavy stuff on menus. Which is good. I love potatos and bacon. I mean hello, Irish ancestors! But not for today. Downside is my breath smells like garlic, but tough.

We took the tram up the hill to the Strahov monastery library. The tram is cool. A bit like the T in Boston. Except they are more relaxed about paying. You buy a card, they check it on occasion. You have it, sure. You don't...uh-oh.

Strahov was great. The old books and the art. They are renovating one hall of the library, so we saw the Theological Hall...I felt right at home. It was amazing. THey have some interesting artifacts as well. The monks collected all sorts of stuff so it's like a museum too. Dried sea life, shells, armour, weapons, and cannon balls. And narwhal tusks and penis. Those were fun.
I think my two favorite things were the portable library desk. It is a desk and the chair folds down to fit inside and on the other side was a mini stepladder to reach the books.
And the second thing was a huge book holder that turned. You placed your texts on it and could spin it so that you were reading what you need to interpret the texts. I know a few exgesis classes that would want that.
The librarian at Strahov had to have me explain exegesis, but he got it when he knew what I was talking about! He laughed and agreed that's what it was for.

After leaving the monastery we had great views of the city. Which reminded me of Edinburgh castle actually. Being so high up and seeing all of the area.
Some of us walked down back to the hotel. We did stop for wine. Martin, one of the coordinators, knew a place. It's very good wine. So we did Happy Hour Czech style.
And of course we found a gelato shop. I had nutella gelato. Oh yummy. But the strawberry was good yesterday too.

I found the John Lennon wall. I had read about it, but didn't think I'd see it. Very cool.