Today's pictures are here on Flickr.
Since I had all day today (Sunday) and one more night at the apartment, checking out in the morning, I originally planned to relax for the day, get some writing done (both here and figuring out future plans), and then on Monday I’d go to the Castle Quarter while leaving my bag in the room. That would end with dinner, picking up my bag, and heading to the train station.
Instead, while walking around looking for a place for lunch, I found myself at the Charles Bridge again, which is very close to the places I wanted to see on that side of the river, so I figured I may as well take advantage of the good weather to go up to Petrin Hill and see the Castle. I didn’t think about the fact that I was going to use this day and night for staying in, as I would have to leave my bags and check out of the room the next day. That realization came in retrospect as I was off doing other things – oh well.
Going south from Little Town takes you to Petrin Hill, which has a memorial to the victims of communism at the base, and then the funicular takes you to the top of the hill with its own mini-Eiffel Tower (which I declined to climb) and great views of the city. It’s also an all-downhill walk to the Castle Quarter and only requires one payment to go up (rather than coming back down and taking the tram up or walking it).
I passed on viewing the Strahov Monestery and its 10th-19th century library, and the Loreta Church (which is big with people on pilgrimages to holy sites, as this is supposed to be a part of Mary’s home from Nazareth), and went to the castle area. As Mel Brooks said, “it’s good to be the king”, and this was their home and place of worship for over 1000 years. The guidebook said to avoid the area in the morning, as that’s peak bus tour time of the day, so I went there after lunch. I lucked out and got to the main gate right at the changing of the guard (which is not nearly as impressive as at Buckingham Palace) and then entered the St Vitus Cathedral. As medieval Europe was big on relics, this church has tombs and bones of a number of local saints. But wow, it’s huge. And the tomb of St John of Nepomunk inside has literally a ton of silver. It’s amazing that all this dates back to the 1300s at the earliest. Next building was the Old Royal Palace, which has a hallway big enough for jousting tournaments (which is what it was built for) and a copy of the Czech Crown Jewels (the originals are locked up). St George’s Church has the tombs of some of the royals. The Golden Lane is a newly-reopened (this year) walkway with replicas of period homes and shops, with an impressive lineup of suits of armor and weapons. The castle tour ends with an amazing panorama of the city.
On the way back I passed the monument to Czechoslovakia’s WWII dead and came out at the river at the bridge north of the Charles. The bridge is hard to resist at sunset, so I strolled along it again and took some more pictures of the full moon, spectators, vendors, and statues lining its length. I had dinner at the Hotel U Prince on the Old Town Square: tortellini stuffed with veal, with tomato sauce, bacon, basil, and garlic. Yum! I also had a big mojito, which was pretty much the first non-beer or wine alcoholic drink I’ve had since I left the US. And that was it for the night.
Today's pictures are here on Flickr.
(Originally posted 10/16/11 at 12:08am, Hallstatt)
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