"Czech" it out!! (part 2)

The puns I can make with "Czech" are endless and not very creative. Along with all the historical sightseeing Cameron and I did, we also went to two museums- the Communism museum and the Chocolate museum. Both were interesting, but only one had free samples. Yumm. The Communism museum was educational, but it would have held my attention more had it had more propaganda and visual aspects, instead of the verbose history lessons accompanying pictures of important communists. As an extra jab in the ribs to communism, the museum is located in a building whose other two inhabitants are a McDonalds and a casino. Ha-Ha!

The chocolate museum held my attention quite well. There was a section on the history of chocolate, a movie on the harvesting of coco beans and the procedure for making them into chocolate (and bark to munch on while watching) , and an exhibit with chocolate wrappers throughout the years. My favorite (besides the samples) were the posters discrediting some myths about chocolate...

And the chocolate chapstick Cameron got me... not very good for moisturizing the lips, but a delicious snack!

We also went on a guided pup crawl to some of Prague's oldest breweries. There is a pub in the house an executioner lived in (eating meat was not advised) and is said to haunt every night at midnight. We also tasted the original Budweiser, which was never exported until recently and has had problems with a beer of similar name but poorer taste, and had a beer at U Fleku, a beer hall dating back to 1499. The picture below is of Cameron holding a glass of the "original" Budweiser.

On our way home, we stopped at the famous "spa town" of Carlsbad on the Czech/German border. I was hoping for hot springs to rest my sore legs in, but much to my disappointment the hot springs I had read all about are just bad tasting water fountains. Scattered around the town are twelve wells flowing with mineral water formed by geological fault lines. The water is supposed to have healing powers, and people sit around

 them sipping the warm, sometimes hot, spring water from little porcelain cups. To me it tasted like warm sea water and the mineral build up on the faucets and catch basins was a turn off, but Cameron was braver and tried several of the different springs.

Here I am sipping from my cup in front of a very steamy mineral water fountain. The whole atrium was warmed by the shooting water, making it quite cozy.

These large wafers are a popular accompanist to the mineral water. We tried a lemon one, and it was a lot better tasting than it looks!

We will "Czech" ya later!