July 22nd-24th, 2003
Map courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps
The train from Vienna to Prague took about 5 hours. We pulled into Prague in
the afternoon and decided to go for a walk after eating an early dinner. The
hotel suggested a Greek restaurant across the street for delicious food.
Imagine, three Americans in Prague eating Greek food! Anyway, wandering
down the street, we found a park with a steep incline overlooking the city.
It was a hard walk up since we stuffed ourselves at dinner, but worth it! The
evening sun on the tops of the buildings was really pretty.
Wednesday morning, we ate breakfast in the room and then set off for
Prazsky Hrad (Prague Castle). Prague castle was the seat of the Bohemian
governement since its founding 1000 years ago and occupies 18 acres.
As the tram trudged up the hill toward the castle, we weren't sure what
stop to take. Luckily, we ended up in the Royal Gardens to start!
As you approach the castle, everything else is dwarfed by St. Vitus Cathedral!
Unbelievably, the cathedral took over 600 years to complete (finished in 1929).
The inside of the cathedral seemed even larger then the outside! The stained glass
windows were quite detailed and pretty (created by Czech artists).
In case you're wondering, there are 287 steps to the top of this cathedral! The
views were beautiful. I took several shots, including the one at the top of this page.
Around the corner from the cathedral was the Old Royal Palace (Stary Kralovsky Palac).
The main hall of the castle was said to have hosted jousting competitions. In May 1618,
the citizens of Prague threw two Habsburg officials from the windows of the castle
(known as the Defenestration of Prague) and began the Thirty Years' War. It was quite
the view from the castle.... must have been a long way down!
These were other buildings around the Castle grounds...
After the castle grounds, we found a little cafe on the river to relax and have lunch.
We had a great view of the Karluv Most (Charles Bridge). This is the famous bridge with
all the statues on it. Of course, after lunch we walked across the bridge with the hordes
of other tourists. Built in 1357, the bridge is used by street vendors and tourists today.
Crossing the bridge to the east side of the river bank, we found all the rest of the tourists and shops! Czech is known for it's glassware and garnets, of which both were beautiful. The shops go on for blocks and lead to the old town square. Of course, the show stopper in the main square is the big astronomical clock! Every hour the clock chimes and comes to life. A stream of apostles parade past the little windows, while the skeleton and a couple of the little figures move.
**** Click on the clock below to see larger detailed pictures of the clock! ****
**** ****
Located on a peaceful grassy hill just around the corner
from the Loreta was the Stahovsky Klaster (Strahov Monastery, 1140).
This monastery houses a large library which was maintained by the monks
over the years. It was unbelievable the amount of old books on things
like medicine, law, science, religion, and maps. They had some of
the oldest and smallest bibles. One was only as big as your fingernail.
They also had little collections of things like butterflies, moths,
fish, shells, bugs, and coins. The communist government actually
closed this monastery at one time and imprisoned many of the monks,
but it survived. The rooms that stored the books were beautiful
to see with or without the books!
(No pictures allowed inside, but this was taken from the hill)
See a couple of pretty pictures of the monastery books on a different web site,
http://user.intop.net/~jhollis/strahov.html
P.S. This was a cool bridge and scenery we saw on the train ride to Berlin.