10th January - Prague
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2008
1
15
28
Trip End
Jan 26, 2009
Prague,
Bohemia,
Czech Republic
Saturday, January 10, 2009
We hit the ATM before heading to the tram stop and catching the number 3 trams to Wenceslas Square and checked out the big statue in his honour and had a quick look inside the very impressive national museum (which is apparently fairly boring) while we thawed out a bit. We then walked across the square (well down the length of the rectangle) past the McDonalds, Starbucks and KFCs. We stopped at a department store to use the conveniences and at a jewellery store for Penny to buy a charm for her bracelet.
Making our way back to the centre of town we stopped at the Municipal House but were unable to climb the Powder Tower as it was closed
Franz Kafka statue
. We went back to the City Hall, climbed the tower in which the astronomical clock is housed and were rewarded with an excellent view over Prague and over the crowd that had assembled below for the hourly bell ringing. Penny considered it the best tower she's ever climbed, as it had nice wide walkways to go up instead of tiny narrow stairs. In view of this fact we couldn't understand why anyone would choose to use the lift that was also provided, but we were the only ones walking.After this we found our way to the Spanish Synagogue that was of course closed on a Saturday, but did have a very impressive Kafka statue out the front. We kept going through the Jewish quarter and found our way to the cemetery that was also closed.
We made our way down to the Rudolfinum building on the riverfront and went to the Museum for Decorative Arts that is situated opposite. It was nice and warm so we bought tickets and headed on in. They had displays of all sorts of things, one room for crystal, another for fabric (including a good tapestry of Achilles being married and slain, and also the Trojans landing in North Africa). The best room was the clock room with some very impressive Baroque time-pieces that I'm sure would have Paul Keating drooling. Others would have gone straight to the pool room.
We also got a great view over the Jewish cemetery from the window; it was amazing to see how cluttered it all was with tombstones literally on top of each other.
After this very pleasant visit we headed along the river, over the bridge and up to Prague Castle
More of St Vitus
. We went straight into the St Vitus Cathedral, built in the 14th century, which was absolutely stunning. Darren had to photograph it from every angle, and of course Penny had to take a few photos of it with Darren's head in front of it, too. We then bought tickets for other buildings in the castle complex, decided that the "short unguided tour" was for us. It included a visit to the Story of Prague Castle exhibition, which we short surely would have to be warm - but we were wrong. It was relatively interesting - the history is pretty fascinating, actually, but really too much to take in at once - but we were fairly distracted by being absolutely freezing. Still, we gave it our best shot, then visited the St George's Basilica, the oldest church building in the grounds (founded in 920) and the Golden Lane, which was mostly a row of fairly nice souvenir shops, where we bought some postcards, including a second postcard for the cats - how tragic.We decided to visit a square that Max had told us about close to the Kampa Island so we headed towards Charles bridge. It was pretty darn cold so we stopped for a coffee at a local shop for local people on the way just before Charles Bridge. Darren had a coffee and a pastry and Penny had a hot wine and a piroh (sort of like a Chiko roll but made with real food) and all for 90 korunas! We luxuriated in the warmth of the cafe and not being ripped off then headed off to St Nicholas church (Mala Strana version) which was unfortunately closed for the day but we did have a great view of the castle looming over us.
We found our way to the three sided square (so it's actually a triangle) which had a great statue in the middle and a nice little church (with a small original part out the front) at one end then walked to Kampa then back to the bridge and then walked home.
Lazed about for a bit then went out for dinner at U Semika (same as our first night) where Darren had the goulash and Penny had turkey noodles (no noodles involved - obviously a glitsch in the translation), both of which were very good, washed down with a couple of beers. We also both had dessert - apple strudel and cream and hot raspberries and ice cream - yum. Only 650 korunas too!
