castr — Diary of a Sugar Dandy

This has been a rather rough trip on the jet lag front.

I woke up at 4am wide awake. Stayed in bed till five then went down to the bar and had a croissant with all the flight crews heading out to work.

I lobby lounged and wrote this mornings post and finally at 6 the ballroom was open for breakfast! And then at 630 the gym opened and I went swimming since I've been a bit sore after all of this traveling.

Flat Paul in the castle gardens!

Mama woke up at 7 and at 830 we were on the bus to head to Prague castle. The tour was ok. The castle interiors are not on view so we just doddled around the exterior. There were some amazing buildings and I love the sgraffito buildings with faux stone carved into the stucco.

I did learn about King Rudolpho who sounds like a total dandy turning part of the castle into an exotic zoo and owning thousands of horses.

Sadly, while we were touring the church one of our friends got pick pocketed. I didn't know that still happens! Wallet in front pocket the rest of the trip.

Flat Paul and the castle guard!

More Sgraffito!

Flat Paul in Church!

We then drove down to the old town and walked last the Jewish ghetto. We are touring that area tomorrow but walking by I was dazzled by the Art Nouveau villas piled high with peacock ornaments and Jugendstil text.

We made our way to the famous astronomical clock along with thousands of other people. Gross. But we heard it ding and I liked the skeleton who rang the bell as a statue across from him stared in the mirror refusing to see time pass by.

Then we experienced our first and hopefully only 'Goddammit' moment of the trip. I heard great things about the Decorative Arts Museum and we asked five people where it was and everyone told us a new way to walk. After an hour of exhaustion we made it to the museum. It was closed. After I let out a massive F bomb we regrouped and found a cab to take us to lunch at Cestr.

Yet another amazing creation by the Ambient team they focus on even more meat.

We dined on:

Shoulder Clod with whipped potatoes (delivered in a copper pot)
Beef Tenderloin with truffle sauce and a side of gorgeous spinach
Two big Urquells of course to wash it all down

That really did us in so it was back to the hotel to nap for the rest of the afternoon.

We booked dinner at La Degustation a Michelin star restaurant with a massive tasting menu. And yes, you got it, it's owned by the Ambient group.

This was probably one of the most amazing meals I have ever had. While it was over the top there was a coziness to it that made it comfortable. enjoyable and relaxing. Not like a high energy dinner at some hot spot in NYC.

We decided on the six course meal opposed to the eleven course meal. We weren't sure we could stay awake that long.

We had:

Onion, leek, cauliflower, pumpkin pasta