Playing Hooky

Reed gazing down from the tower.

On Tuesday, Elliott's Dad was supposed to visit. He canceled. Earlier in the fall, my parents were supposed to visit. They canceled. Both health reasons and we are hopeful for a speedy and full recovery of both grandfathers, who we love very much.

Needless to say, we were all hugely disappointed. The boys were so excited for their Grandpa Marty to come this week, so they could meet him at the airport, show off what they know about Prague, share our favorite places and restaurants. So, in honor of our love for our parents and grandparents, the boys and I played hooky.

First, we slept in. Hallelujah! For a brief second, Elliott thought I might get up at 6:30 with him and make him breakfast. But, alas, that was not in the cards for poor Elliott.

After a small amount of bickering between the boys that began with hunger and started to gain momentum, we headed to the Globe Cafe; our favorite Sunday brunch expat place where they serve American-style breakfast and play Motown. The boys got some good old-fashioned pancakes with maple syrup and bacon, of course, and I got some cinnamon french toast with slivered almonds. Not such a bad start.

The funnel of books.

After breakfast, we wandered down some side streets to Old Town Square. We went to the library. Why, yes we did, and it wasn't all my idea. Here we saw a cool funnel of books exhibit in the lobby. Apparently, I was the only one who didn't immediately realize there were mirrors involved to make the funnel look like it was many stories long. We went in the library to see what English books they had, which weren't many, but I did pick up Peter Mayle's, French Lessons, just because I sort-of miss the french scene. Reed found some Czech sports magazines.

When we left the library, we saw two men trying to hang crystal chandeliers as part of an art exhibit. Leo struck up a conversation with an older couple after hearing them speak English. We talked with them for a while and then moved on to the square where we climbed the tower for some more great views of Prague. It never gets old, looking at Prague from different vantage points. Taking in autumn is sort of melancholy because I know this will be our one and only fall here, so I stare at the colors in the hills surrounding Prague and try to take in its beauty every chance I get.

The funniest thing about observing the square from the tower was first hearing some crazy lady ranting as she walked down the street. Reed was afraid she was going to come up the tower. I assured him that crazy people (sorry to offend with my political incorrectness) don't typically tour. Then he spotted a young college-age couple playing the karate game. A game that I thought the boys made up, but Reed said cousin Jonah and Gill taught them. You start out by bowing to your opponent and then you take turns making karate moves and the first person to hit the other person loses. So we watched them play down below and when we were done with our tour of the tower, they were still playing. I wanted to say something to them, but the boys wouldn't allow it.

We saw the usual suspects in the square: the medieval band (Reed can now identify new members), the silver mime guys, and the puppeteer. A segway guy came and asked if we wanted a tour. I hate segways; I think they are an embarrassment. No one looks cool on a segway. Am I right? But, they are fun, and the guy was nice enough to let Leo and Reed try it out. When Leo got on, I fully expected him to point north and take off, but he didn't.

Reed was still full from breakfast. Small miracle, so we put off getting a nutella crepe. I convinced them to walk down Pariska, which is now a ritzy street, but once took you into the Jewish ghetto. We walked down the street, nodded at the Old-New Synagogue, and walked across the Stefaniku Bridge to Letna Park to see David Cerny's Metronome. Crazy. It used to be the spot where Stalin's humongous statue was (1955). It had taken the country 5 years and millions of dollars to build the monument and soon afterwards, Krushchev denounced Stalin and had the monument blown up (1962). I guess the communists had a bunker in case of nuclear war in that big pedestal you see under the metronome.

Next to the Metronome is a string of random shoes--some pretty nice Nikes according to the boys. Not sure what it all means, but reminiscent of when we were students at Madison and would often see shoes hanging over State Street Mall.

View of Prague from the Metronome.

Reed throwing his hat. Not sure why, but does he need a reason?

And that was our hooky day. There was a 50% chance of rain, but the rain held off all day. Small amounts of bickering between brothers, but mostly all good. I call it a huge success and we actually saw what I had thought we'd see, which we all know is fairly rare with kids.

That evening, we met up with Elliott for Leo's baseball game where he pitched the whole game, and only let in a couple of runs. The rain held until the very end of the game. All good. We ended the day with dinner at one of our local places, CafeTerapy, for pasta, paninis,  stirfry, and red wine (right, no pivo).