Cold, Wet and Miserable

Cold is easy to deal with, rain is also easy but cold and rainy just sucks. Weather in Prague this time of year can be unpredictable. I believe the daily weather reports are designed to keep the tourists optimistic and out and about and spending money. Maybe this is a little on the cynical side but how can the weather reporting agency be that wrong all the time.

The sun rises at 04:00 this time of year. So unless you put towels or blankets over the windows sleeping in is difficult. I guess you could always use a sleeping mask but for those of us that already sleep with a CPAP machine additional stuff on your face just isn’t going to happen. Anyhow, I like to check the weather report early to modify an already planned day. First thing is temperature. Now in Europe temperature is reported in Celsius and converting to Fahrenheit can be a real pain. Temperature usually dictates if my 12-year-old gets to wear shorts and flip flops or jeans, sneakers and a jacket, which she hates. Then you also have to take into account the temperature swing. What’s good in the morning may be miserable in the afternoon. Then there’s the rain. Rain can come at any time and rain here is cold, bone chilling cold.

Yesterday we decided to go o the gallery at Vicerod Castle. To get there we had to take a subway. BTW the mass transit system in Prague is fabulous. Even the directionally challenged can find their way around, just ask my son Jordan who can get lost using a GPS. Anyhow, it started out OK. I suggested that we dress warm because it was greyer than usual and there was a very light rain. Isabella decides to wear shorts and flip flops. Keep in mind I said dress warm but I am used to talking to walls so out we go. The outing wasn’t that bad until we got to the subway stop where we had to walk to the castle. That’s when the rain and wind picked up. So we decided to have lunch and sit out the rain. We ate at a Thai place called Tam Tam. The food was great. I would recommend this place to anyone.

After we ate we decided to give the castle a try. After all how bad could it be, the castle was only a short walk away. It’s raining, it’s cold and the wind is blowing, really hard. Ever seen five umbrellas turn inside out at the same time? It would have been pretty funny if it wasn’t so cold and wet and windy. Now this excursion has become a mission. We are going to get to the castle gallery if we die trying. The point being that once we get inside the gallery it will be warm, dry and out of the wind. So we follow the signs and enter the castle property, on the property we follow the signs to the gallery. Earlier I had mentioned how Isabella was dressed, well by now she is unhappy, with wet legs, blue lips and a pretty nasty attitude. Finally we get to the gallery. It’s not inside. The gallery is a garden alongside and atop the exterior castle wall. Yes that’s right, it’s the shooting gallery.

At this point I put Isabella in my jacket and we all decide to hump it out of there back to the flat to get hot showers and thaw out. The bright side is that without this little life harrowing experience we would not have had a great lunch.