DAY 23: Our free day to explore Prague! Woke up late at 10, had breakfast then headed to Prague Castle, first stop being the Lobkowicz Palace museum. The Lobkowicz family were the royal family of Czechoslovakia before it was overtaken by The Nazis in WW2 and then nationalist communism after. The Lobkowicz family, beginning with .... and Polyxena Lobkowicz accumulated countless land, castles and other treasures and wealth between the 17th and 20th century (ie pretty much owning all of Prague), but Maximillian (grandfather) and Martin (son) Lobkowicz were forced into exile, fleeing to USA during WW2 with only the clothes on their back, leaving behind their entire family legacy in Czechoslovakia.

It was an extremely extremely interesting showcase of family oil paintings of the Lobkowicz family and dignitaries; invaluable treasures such as the baby Jesus doll, family artillery guns and armour, ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN music scores of Beethoven (Symphonies no. 2, 3 and 5 were actually dedicated to the 7th Prince Lobkowicz) and Mozart and Haydn; ornaments (extremely intricate carvings of landscape made from ivory and wax!), ceramics, furniture, musical instruments of the Lobkowicz family and an ornate chapel and music hall used to entertain guests over the centuries. It was an extremely fantastic and interesting museum to visit, although the ancestral relations were a little confusing, visiting the museum with the audio tour made you feel like you could witness the Lobkowicz family in their height of glory back in the day.

Walked around St. Nicholas cathedral at Prague Castle, found some lunch around the Prague CBD area (tried the Czech specialty beef goulash, which tasted like the Chinese beef stew, though saltier) and the 'Krušovice' beer (pretty good), found an Absintherie, Where we had some absinthe ice-cream, and an absinthe Mojito! Pretty yummy! The wall was filled with alot of bottles of all different varieties of absinthe. Very cool bar, would definitely be good to have this in Sydney (the absinthe salon in Surry Hills doesn't compare).

Roamed the streets aimlessly some more, saw the trumpeting and marionette puppets at the Old Clock Tower on the hour at 7pm, had random Portugal tourists take photos with us, window-shopped in the rich Jewish area, then found a non-smoking pub 'La Casa Blu' in the Jewish area that served mexican food (beans and protein for Anjuli!). The 'Staropramen' beer was quite good, although I still preferred Pilsner Urquell.

Back on the tram at 10pm back to the hostel...Dresden and Berlin tomorrow!!