Goulash with dumplings

I shouldn’t have had a double espresso on Saturday night after our concert. Especially since it was actually after midnight so it was really Sunday morning! It had been such a lovely evening that we stopped at a café in the old town and sat outside chatting in the warm darkness. We didn’t realise how late it was. However the late night coffee meant that I was absolutely hyper when we got back to the apartment. James fell asleep straight away but I was wide awake for another two hours or so. I read my book and prowled around the room. It was also party time in Prague and a number of revellers sounded as if they were just underneath our bedroom window. But to be fair that wasn’t what kept me awake, it was my self-inflicted caffeine hit that did that.
So I was a bit tired when James woke me, but I did want to get out and see the city so I forced myself into the shower and that revived me a bit. At the recommendation of James’ colleague Gerry, we had breakfast at Obecní Dūm, five minutes walk from our apartment. It’s a splendid grand old café decorated in Art Nouveau style. We sat outside and watched the world go by while I ate my muesli with yoghurt and fruit followed by bread rolls with honey. Meanwhile James got stuck into a Czech breakfast which consisted of sausages with horseradish sauce, followed by apple strudel!
And now our explorations really began. We looked at the amazing buildings in the picturesque Old Town square before heading into the Jewish Quarter. We visited the Pinkas Synagogue which has the names of the 80,000 Czech victims of the Holocaust painted on its walls. It was very moving, and so was the exhibition of drawings made by the children confined in Terezin, most of whom died. I noticed that most had birth dates in the early 1930s (like my Mum) but they had died between 1941 and 1944. The drawings were so innocent, of everyday things - it was very sad. We emerged blinking into the sunshine in the Old Jewish Cemetery which was very peaceful with hundreds of gravestones all leaning against each other. Here is buried Rabbi Loewe, who made a stone golem to protect the people in the Jewish ghetto. Until one day it ran amok and he had to shut it in the attic of the Old-New Cemetery!
We then crossed Charles Bridge - oh my goodness it was very busy! We found a pleasant restaurant called La Patrona for a restoring lunch, before heading up a steep flight of stone steps to the Castle. It was so warm and sunny that we decided to stay outdoors to enjoy the sunshine, so we continued up the hill a bit and crossed into the upper part of Petrin Park which is beautiful and overlooks the red roofs of the city. There were lots of lilac trees in the park and their scent filled the air.
Andersons always ascend to the highest point possible, so how could we resist climbing the 297 steps to the top of the Petrin Viewing Tower? It was hot and I was well out of breath by the time I got to the top, but oh boy the views of the river and city were stunning.
We zigzagged down through park, all the while being treated to views of beautiful Prague laid out before us. By the time we crossed the Legii Bridge and walked for about fifteen minutes back to our apartment in the Old Town I was hot and bothered. I tried really hard not to grump at James, who was doing a grand job of navigating us through the streets, but I’m afraid that I didn’t fully succeed. It was so great to fling open all the windows and lie down on the cool bed for a rest.
We decided that we wanted to eat at a traditional Czech restaurant so after consulting our trusty guide book we chose Staromestská which was right on the Old Town Square. It turned out to be an excellent choice, and my goulash with dumplings was mouth-wateringly good. After a long and lingering dinner we wandered round the square and the narrow streets of the Old Town, enjoying the atmosphere of this amazing city.