A few afterthoughts:
a) Re my San Diego trip, I forgot to mention that I also had lunch at Coasterra (great waterside views), and revisited the mountain town of Julian (see my driving directions).
b) Back in San Diego, I also revisited Captain Fitch’s Mercantile, a bookstore in Old Town. Sadly, it’s become less interesting (to me, anyway). On my visit last year, they had shelves and shelves of Dover classics on history and mythology, and I bought several. But now, while they still have plenty of Dover, it’s mostly just children’s books.
c) In Prague I revisited another bookstore, Kanzelsberger on Wenceslas Square, but that was a little disappointing too. On my previous visit their English-language section had lots of books by Čapek, Kafka, and Hašek. On this trip they still had plenty of Kafka, but no Čapek or Hašek. I did pick up Bohumil Hrabal’s Closely Watched Trains, Umberto Eco’s Numero Zero, and a new translation of Hans Fallada’s Little Man, What Now?, though. (I read the first two at cafés in Prague and am just finishing the third now.)
d) One of the most distinctive features of Prague is the various black and white tile patterns that adorn the sidewalks. You can get a good look at them in backgrounds in the first half of this video:
You may have told me, but I’ve forgotten: did you ever visit the KGB Museum? Or is that classified information?
Incredibly, though we stayed in the Questenberk Hotel right next to the Strahov Monastery, we never made it inside the monastery, invoking the same excuse–“We’ll go to it later, because we’re right next to it”–until we ran out of time. On the other hand, I did learn assassination techniques and get to hold a Soviet-style machine gun at the KGB Museum (I think it was an AK-47, but I’m not sure). (I hesitate to write this in the current climate of opinion, for fear that it might be interpreted as expressing an *intention* to become an assassin, collude with Putin, or become an “active shooter.”)
Distinctive or not, I missed the tiles entirely. I’m guessing this is because I was either gazing upwards at the starry heavens above, or inwards at the moral law within. But there’s always a next time.
I didn’t get to the KGB Museum, though I have been to the Museum of Communism on the other side of the river. Maddeningly, despite being to Prague four times I’ve never gotten to the Strahov Monastery either, despite frequently passing near it (since when I visit Prague Castle, instead of walking up [as I did on my first trip] I take the tram up to Pohořelec and then walk down, which takes me past the Monastery).
You certainly chose a hotel in an area with a nice view.
If you walked from the Pohorelec stop to Prague Castle, you undoubtedly walked past the Questenberk Hotel. It’s right across the square from the tram stop, and yes, a great view: at the top of the hill, looking down. We had hilltop seats for Prague’s New Year’s Eve fireworks celebration.
Yeah, looks like it’s right at the point where the street splits into Uvoz and Loretanska — both very pretty walks down the hill.