Last Day in Prague
Today was the day to see the things we missed and also to use the tram/metro tickets that were burning a hole in our pockets. We started in Old Town Square (where we began our time in Prague) because we really had only explored a small part of it. We visited the 2nd largest church in Prague, St. James, whose claim to fame is a hand.....A REAL HAND....of a thief who was trying to steal from the church and the blessed virgin appeared and grabbed his hand and wouldn't let go so the hand had to be cut off and it hangs in the entry area of the church.....yes, really!
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| Close up was photo of postcard |
The church was actually a very pretty church despite this ridiculously macabre relic. It has a bit of an orthodox appearance that is unlike the churches is Italy and France.
The oldest university building in central Europe, Charles University, is also off the square. There is no central campus anymore and the various disciplines are scattered in locations across the city. Most of the original building has been rebuilt and is completely modern looking except for this weird thing on the side of the new building that I suppose was kind of a bay window.
We strolled some side streets and admired old, architecturally interesting stuff and did a little souvenir shopping. Then we needed to come back to check in for our flight tomorrow since we hadn't been assigned seats and we wanted to be able to get decent seats for the two flights to Rome.
Now began our public transportation segment of the day. We took the tram on a long route that took us up the hill where the palace is located, through the elegant neighborhoods around the palace where all the embassies are located, the far side of the park we visited yesterday and around to a place where we had a wild boar lunch. More tram riding to see other parts of the city that weren't quite as interesting other than we hadn't seen them before and they were too far to walk to. A metro ride took us to the Jewish Quarter where we stopped in at the "most beautiful synagogue in Europe" (no pictures allowed), saw some more nice architecture, saw the Rudolfinum (the big concert hall), then back to the hotel to get our stuff together for the trip tomorrow. Dinner plan is for some last tastes of homemade sausage and some apple strudel.
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| Rudolfinum Concert Hall |
Today was the day to see the things we missed and also to use the tram/metro tickets that were burning a hole in our pockets. We started in Old Town Square (where we began our time in Prague) because we really had only explored a small part of it. We visited the 2nd largest church in Prague, St. James, whose claim to fame is a hand.....A REAL HAND....of a thief who was trying to steal from the church and the blessed virgin appeared and grabbed his hand and wouldn't let go so the hand had to be cut off and it hangs in the entry area of the church.....yes, really!
The oldest university building in central Europe, Charles University, is also off the square. There is no central campus anymore and the various disciplines are scattered in locations across the city. Most of the original building has been rebuilt and is completely modern looking except for this weird thing on the side of the new building that I suppose was kind of a bay window. 
We strolled some side streets and admired old, architecturally interesting stuff and did a little souvenir shopping. Then we needed to come back to check in for our flight tomorrow since we hadn't been assigned seats and we wanted to be able to get decent seats for the two flights to Rome.
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