Exploring Prague!

Slept in till a luxurious 9am! Went down to breakfast to find a buffet that one might expect at lunchtime! Plenty of cold meats, cheeses, cocktail sausages and bread rolls were lain out in addition to cereal and oranges. Where were the bacon and eggs?! Ended up making hot dogs for breakky!

Di and I headed out around 10:30am for town! We caught the metro to Malostranska which got us out at the foot of the Prague Castle. We climbed the old castle steps (Stare zamecke schody) to the castle’s entrance and found swarms of tourists already there!!! Nuts!

There was a nice view of the city from the top of the castle steps and after taking it in, we battled our way against the hordes of tourists and through the narrow passageways and stairwells to the castle entrance! We found the ticket booth and with tickets in hand entered the Golden Lane. It’s basically a quaint little lane with a row of shops and an exhibition on weapons and armour from medieval times. Don’t really know what’s so golden bout it! Again we found ourselves in a river of tourists and with the drizzle that started, it was difficult to take our time and enjoy browsing the stores and exhibition. In the end, we were funneled through the exit at end of the lane!

We checked out Dalibor’s Tower next which used to be a prison and a torture chamber. Then we headed further inside the castle to St Goerge’s Square. We decided to check out the Old Royal Palace next. This turned out to be a stately hall with an adjoining chapel and throne room. Didn’t spend too long here again due the amount of ppl!

We headed out and around the corner to the spectacular St Vito’s Cathedral! We were dismayed to find a pretty long queue formed around the side of the cathedral but thankfully we only had to wait around 10-15mins to get in. Inside the most stunning thing were the colourful and intricate stain glassed windows! We walked around the many chapels before coming to a stairwell. We decided to climb it and 280 steps later up a spiral staircase we had reached the top of one of the church’s towers! Here we had an amazing view of Prague from all angles! Took plenty of photos and videos of the city’s famous buildings and the river with its many bridges. Afterwards it was all the way back down and out of the cathedral.

We checked out St George’s Basilica just because it was included in the ticket price but it turned out to be rather plain compared with St Vito’s Cathedral that we had just visited. Inside people were lining up to go down to a crypt which we think may have had a shrine or tomb dedicated to St George. In any case we were sick of lining up and our stomachs were grumbling so we left!

We headed back down the old castle steps to Malostranska and started looking for a place to eat. We ended up in Restaurace Malostranska which seemed reasonably priced with a traditional Czech menu. Di ordered roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut, and I had a pork schnitzel. Both were quite nice, though Di’s roast pork came in little lumps rather than a steak and the dumplings weren’t like Chinese dumplings, but rather like white bread cut out in circles!

After lunch we crossed the Charles bridge and saw the many statues alongside the bridge. Out numbering these statues were the stalls for tourists to buy their drawn self-portrait, jewelry, paintings and pictures of the city. We then checked out the Don Giovanni. Prague is famous for their puppet shows and this was one of the places which had 1 metre tall puppets. After finding out the price and that most of the show was singing and not in English we decided to keep heading along the street. We found a nice gelato shop where Ben had pistachio and I had caramel crème ice-cream. It was really nice.

Our next stop was the famous astronomical clock tower. We were there 5 minutes early and surrounded by tourists. On the hour, the skeletal statue rings a bell and begins to turn over an hourglass in its hand. There are windows further up which open and statues glide across them and face the crowd momentarily. The main bell then chimes (we think 17 times as it was 5pm) and the whole thing is over. The audience begins to applaud. I let out a big ‘is that it?!’ What a let down! It looked far more impressive than that performance!

After this disappointing event we took a walk to the Jewish Ghetto to see what we could find. We found out that they charged 300 Kr to see a handful of synagogues and their cemetery. Considering how late it was we thought it was too expensive since we probably only had a few hours to go through it. Also, we were only really interested to see maybe 1 synagogue and the cemetery which apparently is very unordered. We walked around the Jewish Ghetto and were able to sneak a peak into the cemetery and the outside of the synagogue.

We left then for a wander. Not really knowing what to do at this stage. We ended up briefly at the Powder Tower which was famous for storing the gun powder during its day and then headed through the shops for dinner. Jaz had recommended a restaurant near our train station so we headed there.

Dinner was huge, and quite good. Very meaty though. We ordered the pork leg in beer sauce and the quarter duck with potato dumplings and red cabbage. Halfway through some other guys from our tour found us and also had similar dishes. The pub had an interesting myth attached to it.

A beautiful woman, married to a rope maker lived in Prague. Her husband would travel away as his skills were needed elsewhere. Being bored, the woman asked her husband if she could open a pub. Her husband, being innocent of any misconduct arranged it and so began the pub. However, her clientele were male and soon it became known that she offered drinks and other services. When news of this spread to her husband, he returned to see it for himself and strangled her to death via his rope. It is said that her ghost now remains in the pub where she is cursed to relieve those with a broken heart. To accompany this story is a portrait of her in the pub.

After dinner we wandered around to do some shopping and returned back to the hotel.