Prague: June 29

This morning, Dempsey's allergies were acting up, and she decided not to go to the zoo with us. We armed ourselves with rain jackets and umbrellas, as the sky looked very socked in.  We were proven correct, as it succeeded in sprinkling or raining the whole day long.  We took the tram to the suburb of Troja, across the river to the north of Holesovice and Bubenec, which has a distinctly country feel to it.  Its most celebrated sight is Prague's only genuine chateau, or zamec, perfectly situated against a hilly backdrop of vines.  After our tour of the zoo, which lasted about 5 1/2 hours, we walked the grounds of Troja and admired its geometrically elegant gardens.  But first the zoo, founded in 1931 on the site of one of Troja's numerous hillside vineyards.  The zoo has had a lot of money poured into it and now has very imaginative animal enclosures.  All the usual animals are on show, including elephants, hippos, giraffes, zebras, big cats, and bears.  A bonus in the summer is the fact that you can take a chairlift from the duck pond over the enclosures to the top of the hill, where the prize exhibit--a rare breed of miniature horse known as the Przewalski--is located.  We climbed the hill up to the Przewalskis and saw rare pandas, giant tortoises, Komodo dragons, Amur leopards, Polar bears, tapirs, and many animals I have never heard of or seen.  We stopped on the fly and had a salmon sandwich and a Fanta, and could barely tear ourselves away from the large cats, which we adored, photographed, and concentrated on again and again.  Returned to Narodni and Tesco, bought a stamp for one of Alexandra's postcards, and then bought some provisions for tonight's dinner.  Dempsey is doing Portobello mushroom burgers tonight, and I am looking forward to seeing the last half of "Charades," since I am not nearly as exhausted as last night!  Great day!