Prague, Czech Republic – October 2, 2012

Web Site Issues Statement – Apparently, my understanding of what is required to transfer our web site to another web host was not correct at all.  We knew the current web host account would expire on October 3, 2012, so we had transferred it to another provider about a month before we left.  There were some issues, but we thought all was well.  The only problem was that the “transfer” did not move any files, that is a separate process.  We had to extend the current web provider contract by three months while we figure out how to move everything.  It was a little scary because we initially thought everything had been deleted, but we had 48 hours to extend (pay some $$$), so everything should be back to normal.  We apologize if there were any periods of time that the page was unavailable.

Now, back to the travels……..

Our second morning in Prague started out with overcast skies once again.  The forecast had been for partly cloudy skies, but that was not the case.  After eating breakfast at the hotel restaurant, which was very good, we gathered our gear and headed out to the Old Town area.  It was about a 20 minute walk before we started to see all of the tour groups, so we knew we were headed in the right direction.  Basically, we walked to the Charles Bridge and took a right turn on one of the streets just passed the bridge, and headed to the town square.

In the middle of the Old Town Square, there is a large open area, hence the term “square”.  The tour groups were all gathered up there heading in different directions.  In the area of the Square is the Tyn Church, which is partially obscured by a building in front of it that is connected to the church, and is called the Tyn School.

On the other side of the Square is the Old Town Hall, which has an astronomical clock on the tower called the Orolj.  Of course, the tour groups were all at the Town Hall to see the clock operate on the hour (it was 9:00 AM), but we headed in the opposite direction, waiting to see the clock after the crowds had dispersed.  When we did go back later, there did not appear to be a lot of moving aspects of the clock, probably similar to the astronomical clock we had visited in Strasbourg, France, so we never actually saw it “work” on the hour.

We just wandered around other parts of Old Town, stopping a few times to visit some of the stores.  There were a couple of Bohemian Crystal Shops in the area, and some of the cut crystal was beautiful.  These stores sort of reminded us of being in Murano, Italy with all of their glass.  The other item that a lot of stores carried was Russian Amber, there were jewelry stores all around that were selling all kinds of amber jewelry,  and what appeared to be black diamond jewelry.

We headed back over to the Charles Bridge, and were pleasantly surprised to find it was not nearly as crowded as it had been yesterday.  We walked across, heading back over to what is called “Lesser Town”, which is at the foot of the castle area, between the castle and the Vltava River.

We had explored part of this area yesterday looking for the Child of Prague Church, also called the Church of our Lady Victorious.  When we arrived at the Church yesterday, it was late in the day, and there was a Mass getting ready to commence, so we could not look at the inside of the church, nor in the gift store.  This church is famous for having the Infant Jesus of Prague Statue, which is a wax coated wooden statue, that originally came from Spain.  I have added a link to the official website of the Church of our Lady Victorious to read about this holy statue.

By the time we had looked in the gift shop at the church, and in the surrounding shops, the sun was coming out, finally…….  The buildings in the city were much more beautiful with the sunshine highlighting the colors, and with blue sky in the background.

We had hoped the sun would come out in the afternoon, which was why we planned on visiting the Cathedral and the palace grounds again later in the day.  Our sunshine prediction was coming true, so our plan had been correct.  We also planned to purchase the entry ticket for those buildings, so we could also enjoy them from the interior.  Of course, the Palace is at the top of the hill overlooking the City of Prague, so we had hoped for some nice sunny photos of the city from those heights.

As was the case for a lot of the attractions we have seen on this trip, they are all Castles or Palaces, and therefore, had to be built on top of a steep hill.  We climbed and climbed and finally got to the top.  There certainly was no lack of exercise on this trip.   I would venture to say we walked from 6-8 miles per day, if not more, a lot of it up and down hilly paths.

Once we made it to the top, we purchased our tickets for what is described as the “short” tour, which consists of the tour of the St. Vitus Cathedral,  including areas in the main part of the Cathedral that are not accessible for free, the Old Royal Palace, the St. George’s Basilica, and the Golden Lane with Daliborka Tower.

The best two parts were of course the St. Vitus Cathedral and the Old Royal Palace.  The Basilica was really old, and had not stood the test of time that well.  The Golden Lane was interesting, it was a re-created street with all of the various shops and dwellings.  They were really small, and the people must have been pretty short since the beds and ceilings were really low.

The St. Vitus Cathedral was very interesting, it contained the vaults for the remains of many of the Royalty of Prague, including some from 900 AD.  Based on the  dates on the crypts, many died young, several less than 25 years old.  There was also the St. Wenceslas´ Chapel where all of the coronations take place since it was the private chapel of the kings.  This chapel contains the remains of St. Wenceslas´, the main Czech patron saint.

There were many very pretty stained glass windows in the Cathedral, as well as beautiful side chapels.  Here is a link to the main website for the Prague Castle Web Site.

There is just too much to show and explain in the blog itself.  If you go to the website, and select the Castle Map tab. it shows the layout of the Palace area, just cursor over either the the Roman Numeral items, or regular numbered items, and a separate box will show up with a link for additional information.  Everything we saw was interesting because we were not really exposed to Czech History as children, most likely due to the fact it was part of the Communist regime when we were growing up.

The Old Royal Palace was also interesting, more for the sheer interior size of the building.  The main area was at least 250 feet long, or more, and about 75 feet across.  It was a large clear interior space, with a wooden floor.

The area was large enough to hold jousting events inside of the building.  There were also some side areas, one specifically for keeping the royal records, where scribes had their own balcony area so they would remain separate from the royalty.  It also contained a lot of Coats of Arms for both the royal families and other nobles from the towns in the area.

After finishing the tours of the four items included on our ticket, we headed over to get some good photos of the city skyline with the sun out.  The afternoon was just a great day, the temperatures had to be in the 70’s, and the sun was still shining.

We headed back down the hill and walked along the river between the Charles Bridge, and the bridge that went over the river near our hotel.  This time, we walked on the opposite bank from the Old Town side, and took a few good pictures of the river.

This is also the side that contains the locks for the river boat traffic.  They apparently are on a schedule, since several boats are tied up inside the lock, and when it is full with several of the long scenic river tour boats, they close the one end, drain the water (in this case since the traffic was going down river, and then open the other end.  It appeared that some of the boats may be in the lock for 30 minutes or longer.  The traffic all goes in one direction since there is only the one set of locks, and then later in the day, it changes to go in the opposite direction.

We finally made it back to the Boat Hotel Matylda, and went to our room, opened the glass door, and had some wine while we enjoyed the sunny river view.

The plan was to eat at the restaurant that is in the boat next door, but is also part of the Hotel.  This is the same restaurant where we had our breakfast. We waited for our reservation time of 7:45 PM, actually going over a little early, we were hungry after the long day exploring Prague.

They initially sat us at a small table, looking over to the concrete roadway running along the river.  There seemed to be some confusion, and they came and then took us to a much better table, sized for 4, which had a fantastic view of the river, and of the lighted Palace and Cathedral on the hilltop.  There was a jazz band, and the hotel staff had suggested making the reservation because of the crowds that come to hear the band.  We were glad we had followed their advice, the restaurant did not take long to get crowded.  They had an extensive wine list, and since the genre for the food at the restaurant was Italian, we ordered a bottle of Italian red wine, which, according to our waiter, was the favorite of the wait staff.

We both had a different pasta dish, some grilled vegetables and a basket of bread.  The bill totaled 1,400 CZH, and was 1,610 with tip.  It is hard to see big numbers like that, and even harder to figure the tip.  However, in reality, the actual cost in dollars was about $85.00.   So, for the food, wine, desert, and atmosphere, we felt it was actually a really good deal, just a shocker when presented in the local currency.  This was our nice dinner that we had planned to do in Paris, but had skipped since we just did not find anywhere we wanted to eat, and because we were always on the go.

We headed back to the other boat where our room was located, which was also a nice part of the experience, there was no more walking, no trams, etc, just a 30 second walk on the dock to our room.  We got the camera gear and headed back out to the nearby bridge to get some pictures of the Castle lit up at night, and of our hotel.

Tomorrow, we are getting up early once again, this time to have breakfast at the hotel at around 7:00 AM, then packing up to head to the train station for our bus ride to Nuremberg, Germany, which is our next stop.