Prague

I was in Europe for nearly the entire month of September 2007, traveling by train from Denmark to Prague via Berlin, then to Lausanne, Switzerland, and Paris. I had an extra empty collapsible bag so I would have plenty of room to pack a lot of penguin Christmas tree ornaments. This is the only one I found, and it it’s not technically a Christmas tree ornament. I found it in a gift shop not far from the remarkable St. Nicholas church in Mala Strana, Prague’s lesser quarter across the Vltava River from old town. It was among a lot of other glass ornaments, but none of them had a Christmas theme, only butterflies and flowers and things like that, probably intended as sun catchers to hang in a window. There are worse examples of cheating in my collection, so I’m happy to have at least this one souvenir from my big European adventure to hang on the tree. I saw a lot of penguins during the trip, Christmas shops too, and I found a great little Royal Copenhagen penguin at a flea market in Copenhagen, but there were no penguin ornaments anywhere. Two years later when I went back to Prague, it was a different story. A side trip to a couple of Bavarian towns yielded so many penguins that it more than made up for the dearth the first time around. But that’s a tale that will take up several posts down the road.

Glass penguin with red beak and feet

Acquired: September 2007, shop in Mala Strana, Prague

Number: 375

Size: 5 inches tall

Price: 195 CZ Korunas (about $10)