#293 pdin 2 - vacation memories day 12 - Prague (16 Sept)

at St. Vitus Cathedral // ussie by Lizzie

It's our last day in Prague and we need to see lots of stuff! The plan was to explore the west side of the Vltava River, including Prague Castle and parts of the Mala Strana (Lesser Town). We got an early start because the hotel would not have water from 7:30 am to around 7:00 pm, so we wanted to get out and about before the water was shut off.

Why was the water being shut off, you may be asking? The City of Prague was doing some work on the waterlines in the area. The hotel assured us they would provide bottled water for drinking as well as buckets of water for flushing and washing. Oy. We just decided to spend most of the day out and about.

I wanted to have a traditional Czech breakfast of a kolach and coffee, and luckily there was a kolacherie not far from the hotel. A kolach can be sweet or savory. Lizzie and I each had a sweet and a savory. Here's a pic of mine:

kolaches

The kolcach on the left is nutella with lemon curd, and on the right is ham and cheese. The bread is slightly sweet and chewy. I thought they were both delicious. After breakfast, we walked back through the square and stopped in a cool academic bookstore where I bought a blank notebook, which I call my TBW books (to be written), and postcards. We passed by this magnificent and ginormous statue in Old Town Square:

Jan Hus Monument in Old Town Square

The walk to the castle didn't take long, probably about 20 minutes, at least to get to the steps going up to the castle.. The steps were long and pretty steep; it was about three quarters of a mile uphill. We had to stop a few times along the way, and we were not the only ones stopping to catch our breath. Here's a pic of the stairs from the top:

the stairs to Prague Castle

It is free to enter the castle grounds, but there is a fee if you want to walk on the Golden Mile (the medieval shopping street), the Old Royal Palace, and the cathedral. We chose not to pay and just wander at our leisure. You can also schedule tours, which we had for Monday, but the tour was cancelled as I explained in a previous post. There was still something going on at the castle because the police were checking underneath vehicles, and there was quite a few police and military personnel on site. 

The castle is a grouping of individual palaces where the noblemen lived, the main palace, and the cathedral. Prague Castle is enormous. Most of the individual palaces are now museums, but there is still official business done at the Old Royal Palace. In the middle of it all is St. Vitus Cathedral which is incredible. We stared at it for a long time.

the back of St. Vitus Cathedral

the side of St. Vitus Cathedral

front of St. Vitus Cathedral

If/when I get back to Prague, I'm going in there!

Here is a pano of the Old Royal Palace. There appears to be some squinching of Lizzie's hair on the right.

Old Royal Palace

We wandered around the grounds looking for the gardens. We found sort of a canyon with paths, but we couldn't quite figure out how to get down there, then we decided maybe we didn't want to have to work our way back up, and there were other things we wanted to see, so we kept moving. 

We stopped to have a beverage at Cafe Sternberk in Sternberg Palace - no, I didn't spell those incorrectly, they are different - then we went into a small sculpture garden where we felt we had to pose like a couple of the statues:

There were also cardboard cutouts of knights in a gift shop, and we had to put our faces in those:

the knight was tall, and I am short

Lizzie's hair wouldn't fit in the helmet

We left the castle and wandered around looking at whatever we could see. There weren't as many tourists outside of the castle, and the old streets were quiet. The farther we got from the castle, the emptier the streets were.

the Archbishop's residence with St. Vitus in the background

a quiet street in the castle district

We made our way over to Strahov Monastery. We considered going into the library there, but decided to go to the pirovar (brewery) instead for a bite to eat and a beer, of course. The beer was excellent.

cheers!

After this snack, Lizzie and I decided to make our way down the hill to see a few more things that were on our list for the day. What I can tell you is that no matter how you choose to get up to Prague Castle, it is uphill. I think I'm glad we got all our climbing over with in the straight shot up the stairs. Coming down through the charming streets was a delight. 

Prague!

so pretty!

I'm a sucker for a flower shop

There were a couple of gardens Lizzie had researched that we wanted to see. One of them was hosting a private event, so we couldn't go in there. Guess we'll save that for next time. The Vrtba Garden was open and we paid a small fee to enter. It was small, and so beautifully designed and maintained.

From Vrtba Garden, it wasn't far to the Lennon Wall, so we figured we'd better see it. It wasn't pleasing to me at all. I'm sure at one point, it was cool, but now it's just a mess.

Lennon Wall

 

However, just down the street, you can see this:

the water goblin Kabourek watches over Devil's Stream

A fun fact I learned walking around the Mala Strana is that the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda took his last name from a Czech poet, Jan Neruda. We passed by the Hotel Neruda and I wondered if Pablo Neruda had spent time in Prague. He did visit the city, but didn't stay long, I don't think. Cool name, though. I think I might like to stay in this hotel. I really liked this side of the city.

We went back across the Charles Bridge, admiring both sides of the river and the beautiful bridge itself.

on the Charles Bridge looking at the west side of Prague

another pic of Prague from the Charles Bridge

By the time we made it back to the hotel, I had logged over 19,000 steps, just over eight miles. I was beat! It was good that we tired ourselves out, though, because we decided to get to bed around 8pm in order to be able to meet our driver at 3 am for our ride to the airport to catch our flight to Amsterdam at 6 am. We had a quick dinner at the restaurant near the hotel, watched the crowds gather for the Astronomical Clock "show" then went upstairs to bed.

pooped out in Prague

The next vacation memories post will be about Amsterdam! I plan to write about it on Wednesday.

See you tomorrow!

PS pdin stands for Posting Daily in November :D