Sept 29-30
A long, fairly boring bus ride (but on a rather fancy bus) took us to Prague in the afternoon. Our hotel room is wonderful! A suite with a nice living area, a Jacuzzi tub and a small kitchen area AND it's in a quiet but very central location right at the base of the Charles Bridge. The bridge is a pedestrian route across the Vltava River that was packed with tourists when we arrived. There are all kinds of street vendors and artists on the bridge making a total zoo on a sunny Sun. afternoon. We took a walk across the bridge to the Old Town Square where there is a clock tower that was built in the 14th century. it has an astronomical clock and on the hour little windows open and figures of the apostles walk by the open windows. The actual chiming is done by a skeleton figure demonstrating that death is coming! Unfortunately, I couldn't get pics of the skeleton or apostles but here are a couple of the clock.
On Mon, we had a walking tour from the town square to the castle and heard some of the history of the Charles Bridge and the statues on the bridge. The best story was of Jan Nepomuk, a priest that was drowned as punishment because he wouldn't reveal to the king what the queen had said in confession. When his body turned up 3 days later, there was a halo of stars around it. Apparently, this is a pretty popular legend in the Catholic church as a lesson to priests of the sanctity of the confessional. His statue was too surrounded to be able to get a pic of him but here's one of the towers of the bridge.
We walked the Royal Coronation Road from the Old Town Square to the castle which stands on a hill overlooking the city and is the largest palace complex in Europe. It was a LOOONG uphill slog. We were given a choice of getting on the tram or walking but it didn't look all that far so we walked....not a great decision. The picture shows the cathedral of the castle and all the buildings surrounding it are part of the palace.
A long, fairly boring bus ride (but on a rather fancy bus) took us to Prague in the afternoon. Our hotel room is wonderful! A suite with a nice living area, a Jacuzzi tub and a small kitchen area AND it's in a quiet but very central location right at the base of the Charles Bridge. The bridge is a pedestrian route across the Vltava River that was packed with tourists when we arrived. There are all kinds of street vendors and artists on the bridge making a total zoo on a sunny Sun. afternoon. We took a walk across the bridge to the Old Town Square where there is a clock tower that was built in the 14th century. it has an astronomical clock and on the hour little windows open and figures of the apostles walk by the open windows. The actual chiming is done by a skeleton figure demonstrating that death is coming! Unfortunately, I couldn't get pics of the skeleton or apostles but here are a couple of the clock.
On Mon, we had a walking tour from the town square to the castle and heard some of the history of the Charles Bridge and the statues on the bridge. The best story was of Jan Nepomuk, a priest that was drowned as punishment because he wouldn't reveal to the king what the queen had said in confession. When his body turned up 3 days later, there was a halo of stars around it. Apparently, this is a pretty popular legend in the Catholic church as a lesson to priests of the sanctity of the confessional. His statue was too surrounded to be able to get a pic of him but here's one of the towers of the bridge.
We walked the Royal Coronation Road from the Old Town Square to the castle which stands on a hill overlooking the city and is the largest palace complex in Europe. It was a LOOONG uphill slog. We were given a choice of getting on the tram or walking but it didn't look all that far so we walked....not a great decision. The picture shows the cathedral of the castle and all the buildings surrounding it are part of the palace. |
| Main entrance to castle |
The next 6 hours were spent at the palace. It is truly gigantic and is still the seat of the government with the parliament, the senate and the president, the ts palace. There are numerous other residences in the complex. In one of the palaces, we attended a concert for an hour or so and then saw the private art collection of that family, the Lobkowicz family. This family has been prominent since the middle ages and continues to be prominent despite having to emigrate to the US during both WWII and again during the communist era. They are now back in Prague. There are fabulous views of Prague from the castle.
We spent time also in the St. Vitus cathedral of the palace and also in the the old cathedral, the St. George, that was constructed in the 9th century and became a convent when the new cathedral was built. Really tired feet brought us back to our hotel.
Dinner was at a pub frequented by locals that is just around the corner from the hotel where we tried some really good sausages, house made, and local trout along with plenty of Czech beer then made it back to our hotel to call it a night and rest our feet.
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