Up at 05:00 – I don’t get up this early when I’m not on holiday – taxi to the airport. Arrived in good time, enough to have breakfast (expensive but we had to use up the Romanian Lei). The plane had about 20 people on it so quick to get on and had a row of seats each.
Arrived in Prague, hopped on the bus and paid this time, then onto a train, then a tram, then walked about 500M to the hotel. Phew!
The room wasn’t ready but we sat in the restaurant and had a cup of tea, then went out. It was cold, probably about 5C, and overcast. The hotel is about a 3 minute walk from the Castle, so we headed towards it. Out the front, but not too close, was a small group of shops selling the usual tourist fare and some food stands. I have to say they got the balance right – it wasn’t tacky, they weren’t pushy, and it was good to have the opportunity to buy something to eat or a souvenir. Every other place we’ve been has been inundated with pushy touts.
We got there in time for the changing of the guard, but so did about 200 other tourists so we couldn’t get close. Went in through the gate and there were still more tourists.
The castle is more like a small village surrounded by walls. There is a massive cathedral, a smaller church, a palace, and lots of shops and cafes.
We bought a ticket for the main attractions and the first on the list was St Vitas Cathedral. We’ve seen a lot of Cathedrals and Churches in our travels, and I think this is one of the best. My favorite is still the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but this one was very impressive. Huge on the inside, with beautiful stained glass windows. An ornate pulpit, and a silver (I think) shrine (I think).
We came out of the Cathedral and into another Chapel, St. George’s Basilica, which was built in 920. Had a quick zip around that, then onto the Picture Gallery which was just pictures and uniforms of the various military units. Not too engrossing. Crossed over the road and went down into an exhibition on the story of Prague Castle. This had loads of artifacts from the history of the castle, including Mammoth bones. It was a large collection and a bit too much to take in. Next up was the old Royal Palace. We entered into a huge hall, then wandered around the place. The ceiling in one room was painted with the coats of arms of various families, which was interesting.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed, we decided to head back to the hotel and rest in the room. The receptionist took us down a flight of stairs, outside into a courtyard with a view of a park, down some more stairs and finally to our room which had a small entrance hall, a study area, the large bedroom and the separate bathroom. I couldn’t believe how big the place was considering it was right next to the castle.
Chilled out for a couple of hours then back to the castle to visit the other rooms we’d paid for.
First up was the Golden Lane, a small lane way with houses and shops built against the castle wall. Some were in use, others were mocked up as they would have been when in use, like a goldsmiths and a guard’s house. All of them were tiny.
Running along the top of these buildings was a corridor which was used to defend the castle but now housed dozens of suits of armour and weapons. I found this quite interesting, but Song didn’t.
Our final building was Rosenberg Palace, which was set up as a refuge for noble women who had fallen on hard times.
That was it for our ticket, so left the castle and walked down the steps to head for the Charles Bridge. If you’ve seen a picture of Prague then it probably had this Bridge in it, it’s the one with statues on it. It was full of bloody tourists like us, so took photos as best we could. Apparently the best way to get photos is to get up before dawn and go there. Nope.
Starting to feel a bit hungry, we dug out the Lonely Planet guide and picked a decent restaurant that was close. They were booked but squeezed us in as long as we didn’t stay too long. As usual, I ordered something local. To start I chose a sheep’s cheese spread with whole meal toast. Song had vegetable soup served in a bread bowl. For main I tried Wild Boar shoulder ragu with mushrooms and a traditional potato dish.
The cheese was nice, basically tasted like cream cheese. The Boar was not what I expected and really tasted like beef. I thought it would be more of a gamey taste. The potato thing was very bland and was more like a heavy sponge cake and pretty tasteless.
Song ordered traditional Czech pancakes made from cabbage, sausage and herbs but which were more like a fritata and were also bland. Pretty disappointing to be honest. However, the evening wasn’t completely wasted because we also had a couple of local beers. Prague is famous for its beers apparently, so I decided to try some. I ordered the house beer, which was nice. Song ordered a mix of light and dark, which reminded me of Kilkenny. Song didn’t drink much so I had to reluctantly finish it off.
The meal cost about $50 which was actually very good value – the restaurant was in the same street as all the designer shops like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex etc so I assume is a bit posh. It’s just a pity we didn’t really enjoy the food.
More sights tomorrow, and I walked 14.92 Km today. We’re here for 4 full days so can take it a bit easy.
