Praha Prague

27 May - Day 73

 

Today we left Krakow, drove for 6 hours and then arrived in Prague.

At the hotel, we were greeted and processed by Peter, our 14 year old receptionist. All the locks in the hotel are controlled by fingerprint scanner. It's awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28 May - Day 74

We took a free walking tour of Prague today, during which we explored the Old Town, the Jewish Quarter and the New Town.

Starting in the Old Town Square, we witnessed the hourly show of the astronomical clock, where all the figures standing around the clock come to life and start dancing while a trumpeter trumpets on his trumpet from up in the tower. Apparently, this is possibly Prague's biggest attraction even though neither of us had ever heard of it.

Also in the square is the Church of our Lady before Tyn.

Our guide, Tom, condensed the city's 2000 year history for us. Basically, Prague has had a pretty terrible time except for when Charles IV was ruling and now, the last 20 years.

We walked down to the Vltava River, where we were shown the palace grounds (the largest ones in Europe) from a distance and the concert hall where Dvorak's New World Symphony no. 9 (the only piece of music they took to the moon in 1969) was debuted.

Then we were taken to the Jewish Quarter where we saw many synagogues including one that keeps a Golem in the attic and another which is considered the most beautiful in Europe (there are a lot of things in Prague that are considered the most beautiful in Europe).

We next went to King Wenceslas Square, the site of Prague's Velvet Revolution against the Communist regime in 1989.

Nearing the end of the tour, we also saw Mozart's Theater (the most beautiful concert hall in Europe) where he premiered his Don Giovani opera.

 

After the tour, we ate lunch in the Old Town Square. We went to one of the many stalls they have there and bought some Old Prague ham, which is a lot like regular ham except that it's from Prague. And old. But no, it was pretty good.

Afterwards, we crossed the busy Charles Bridge which is lined with buskers, trinket vendors and artists.

We climbed the hill to the palace grounds for a view of the city even though Prague, as with most cities, is much nicer looking from the inside than it is from the outside.

We then walked around the grounds a bit and Czech'd (hohohohohohohohohoho, hilarious) out the cathedral, which conversely has a really cool exterior but on the inside looks like every single other church ever built ever.

Then we got on the tram and went home.