Tired feet, smiling faces

We got a little bit of a late start this morning. The hot water burner in the apartment decided to take Sunday off, leaving the shower a little on the frigid side. Our route to Praha Bikes was detoured by 3 or 4 km's as we wound our way around the marathon. Both of these left Oleh a little grouchy with us. After we told him how great he was. How much we appreciated his service and, all the people that we were going to recommend him to, his smile re-emerged. By the time we put our bikes together and paid Oleh for all of his time and support, we'd become best friends all over again! CHECK :-)

A few lessons learned ...

1) It's difficult working your way against the foot traffic of 10000 marathoners who have just completed 42 km and are anxious to find their spouse, partner, children, parents, medic, anyone that they know.
2) Those working in the service sector (waiters, clerks, Oleh) don't always -- or maybe ever -- believe that the "customer is right". They have never been taught to say thank you. The guidebook warned us that they can quite often appear rude or grumpy. Perhaps a remnant of having been communist governed from 1948 until 1990.
3) Czech craftsmanship is as good as anything we can compare it to in North America. Every detail is finished well.
4) Czech women like to appear well-dressed. Czech men? ... Not so much.

Enjoy some of today's tourist sites. Tomorrow morning we start on the bikes to Český Krumlov.

John Lennon "Imagine" wall

Homage to mothers ... "In Utero" sculpture by David Cerny

View of city rooftops from Prague Castle

Keep smiling & keep cycling!