We woke to cloudy but clear weather. It didn’t rain until about 6 pm when we were
safely home. We did have a few sprinkles
during the day but not enough to get the umbrellas out. It was a fun day; frustrating at first, but
once we found our way to the old center we were fine.
But we spent more than an hour getting on and off of the
wrong trams and finally with instructions from a local we boarded the dreaded
Metro….and we were at the Main Train Station where we’d arrived yesterday! From here we knew where we were. The first thing I did was purchase a LARGE
city map. The hotel had given us a map
but very small and hard for our old eyes to read. We started walking towards the castle and
soon found lots of old buildings, churches, museums and plazas. We stopped at the Church of St. James…but
they had a no photo rule so there are no photos of the inside of the beautiful baroque
church.
Soon we saw a tall building with people at the top; looked
around and found the ticket booth and the information that there were
elevators! But, before going up we waited
for ten minutes for the 11 am show on the clock that was mounted on one side of
the tower. At eleven the doors opened
and the little men came out and then the roster crowed to announce A huge crowd had gathered and we all enjoyed
the show. Then up the tower for the
views.
Our next quest was to find the Charles Bridge. With directions along the way we easily found
the bridge and bucked the crowds to walk across it by entering through the
Powder Gate. We took lots of photos
with everyone else and enjoyed the stroll on this pedestrian only bridge.
On the other side we looked for a small hotel that Jim’s
sister remembered; not sure we found the right one but it only has eighteen
rooms and is very quaint and called “At The Three Ostriches” or as they say in Prague “U Tri Pstrosu” in
the Czech language. We’re pretty sure
it’s Ostriches as they are painted on the building.
Walked all around the area under the bridge and found a
bride and groom on a bridge loaded with “locks of love”. Discovered a cute little café Restaurant
called Marnice overlooking the canal…decided to go back later for an early
dinner before heading home.
From the bridge we continued walking up and up and up and up….finally
arriving at the Castle at the top of the hill.
We found all sorts of fun things designed for tourists…funny old cars
that will drive you up the hill for a fee.
Motorcycles with a sidecars…and a gold Porsche. Jim said it looked like a film of gold over
the car? Everyone was taking photos of
it. The castle was great. There was an open-air Starbucks at the
top~! We arrived just in time for the
changing of the guards. Many buildings
composed the entire complex including St. Vitus Cathedral located in the center
of the main buildings. St. Vitus was again
baroque in style and beautiful.
I found another bride and groom taking their photos in front
of the castle (they say it’s not a palace).
Soon it was time for the long walk back down the hill, stopping along
the way to see the inside of St. Nicolas Church…photos were allowed with a fee;
and then to our early dinner at our little restaurant near the Charles Bridge. I had
Prague Goulash with dumplings and Jim had Beef in a cream sauce with
dumplings. The dumplings were slices of
white bread but very fresh. Best of all
were the large mugs of beer! It wasn’t a
sunny day but we’d done lots of walking.
Back towards the castle for a few blocks to the Malostranske
Plaza where we found Tram # 12 and our ride home. This was what we should have caught early
this morning. Home about 3:30 pm in time
to relax, do some laundry and use the wifi.
Enjoy the slideshow below:
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