Day Two

Sure, I watch my daughter head off down the street, not knowing where she is going nearly every day.  Why should this European city be any different than the one I live in?

Armed with her backpack, 100 crowns, a charged cell phone, a map, her sketch pad, writing instruments and knowledge of where the bookstore is, off she strolled on her own.  We found her an hour later, sitting on a bench sketching these rather interesting looking vents.  I told her not to cross the Charles Bridge and S2, Bea, Pete and I were ready to cross it (having skipped the Kafka Museum). So it was fortuitous that we found her.

Thus, Day 2 of the road trip proceeded.  It was just a casual stroll around Prague, but what a great place for a stroll.  It is my third time in Prague and I love that my navigator instincts can take me from the tram stop at the bottom of the castle to Shakespeare's Bookstore without looking at a map.  I love the Charles Bridge and the statues, the art vendors, the buskers, the architecture, and the diversity of the tourists.  New this trip ... Segway tours....tourists hovering over the cobblestone streets, wearing helmets as they follow their tour guide.

It is also a wonderful opportunity to catch up with Moscow-era friend, Bea, and her husband, Pete, who are here cat sitting.

It's a far cry from the monsoon of yesterday, which included a 2 hour traffic jam due to flooding on the autobahn, arriving in Prague in the dark, raining cats and dogs, and trying to parallel park the car.  Restaurants were closing, but we found an Indian restaurant with amazing food.  NS  bravely ordered something she'd never had before, plucked the lone green bean off the top and popped it in her mouth.  "Funny story," she says.  "That wasn't a green bean."  The waiter noticed her gasping for breath and offered to bring her something to help.  She's amazing, that daughter of mine!  

Klaus arrived safely in LA with hilarious stories of the live coverage of the Germany-Brazil soccer game ON THE PLANE.  He was flying Lufthansa after all.

From NS's sketch book :