Today we planned to do a 'free' walking tour of the Old Town. When they say free, it really means that at the end of the tour one donates what one thinks the tour is worth. So after fixing a little continental breakfast at our hotel, we walked to the market square to meet our guide. It turned out the market square in this town is a bit different in that the town hall is in the middle of the square and the "square" surrounds it. It took us a bit to find the meeting point at the statute of Fredro who was a famous comedian in history times. Simon, our guide, greeted our group of about 20 in a light rain. The group was very international with participants from England, Belgium, USA, Germany, Holland, and Poland. He led us on an interesting tour through the OLD City and over to Cathedral Island. When the tour was over he noted that he was doing two other tours that day and the 2pm walking tour to the Jewish quarter & WWII history. So we decided to take it, and began to make our way back to the meeting point. Along the way we re-visited the central market and found a little bakery and decided to purchase some pastries. And that's where the story got interesting.
As I stepped up to the counter to order our items, the male clerk said "Alaska, are you from Alaska?". He was referring to my Alaska Airlines hat that I typically wear. I said "No, we're from Seattle." He proceeded then to recount the fortunes and misfortunes of the Seattle SuperSonics including their move to Oklahoma City. It was another powerful statement of both how small the world is and the impact that the team had on the world.
Back at the meeting point a smaller group gathered for the 2pm tour, and off we went. Fortunately the rain had stopped and this walking tour was completed in the dry. At the end of this tour, Simon, our guide, recommended going to Floor 8 of a local shopping center to get a rooftop view of the city which we did. The view there was terrific. We made our way back to the market square photographing all the little gnomes (an eclectic symbol of the city) we could. Near our hotel we found a Taco bar and enjoyed a Mexican meal which was actually quite good. After that dinner, we walked across a nearby pedestrian bridge and toured Malt Island (named after the Malting plants that were here up to the 1970's when they were blown up. We ended our day watching the France-Belgium World Cup game in which France won 1-0.
Tomorrow is another big travel day as we make our way down to Cesky Krumlov Castle in the Czech Republic. We weren't able to visit this castle on our trip north, so we're fitting it in our trip south to Heidelberg.
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