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Sunday, June 17, 2012

Prague

A few weekends ago, there was a public holiday long weekend, so I took an extra day off work and we spent 3 nights in Prague.  It's pretty incredible that I can leave work at 5pm, and by 8:30pm we are in different country- still takes some time getting used to after having spent my whole life in Australia.

Old Town Square
As we walked from the train station to try and find our hotel, which was in a great location just near old town, we were walking through some narrow winding streets when they opened up on the main square.  It's surrounded by beautiful old cathedrals and towers.  This is where the astronomical clock and clock tower stand which each hour drew massive crowds waiting to see and hear it chime.

Astronomical Clock
It is a beautiful city full of gothic architecture and colourful buildings, and of course many many spires (Prague is nicknamed City of a hundred spires).  We had a great view from the Petrin Tower, built on a hill which looks out over the city.  It looks kind of like the eiffel tower and apparently it's peak is higher above sea level than the eiffel tower's- but only because of the hill it stands on.  This is good for us, because we took the stairs.

The Petrin Tower
The view from the  top of the tower
The famous Karlov Most (Charles Bridge) is worthy of its title as one of Prague's most popular attractions.  The statues lining the length of the bridge were incredible and creepy, and it was great to see both in daylight and lit up by the streetlamps at night.




We also spent a fair bit of time at the castle grounds, which is full of historically significant, and beautiful, old buildings, such as the St Vitus Cathedral and the royal palace. It was here that the Second Prague defenestration took place which triggered the thirty year war. After having recently been in Germany and seeing and reading about the impact that this same war had on places like Rothenburg ob de Tauber, it was pretty incredible being here.

The entrance to the castle grounds
St Vitus Cathedral
The other side of the cathedral
Some of the other things we did and saw:

  • Prague beer festival- 1 litre steins of Czech beer for 3 euros. We were only there in the afternoon so it didn't have the full atmosphere, but it was still heaps of fun
  • Food festival- Prague's best restaurants were doing lunch in the park. The food was good, but I generally prefer quantity over quality so wasn't terribly impressed at the small, expensive portions
  • Delicious restaurants- we ate some great Czech food - lots of dumplings, braised meat, stew, cabbage, potatoes. My favourites were a braised duck, and a crunchy fish salad- it looked like a plate of chips, but they were actually fried fish!
  • Opera- we didn't just do food related things. We went to the state opera and saw the Marriage of Figaro, which was actually quite fun. One of this opera house's calls to fame is that Mozart frequently visited and played here. He debuted some of his operas here, and it is apparently the last remaining opera house that Mozart actually performed in, so it was fitting to see a Mozart opera there.
  • Wenceslas Square- one of the main city square where there is the national museum and the King Wenceslas statue
  • Dancing House- buildings that are built to look like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing


I think we earned our food though- we must have walked 20 or 30km over our time there. The cobblestones are not the greatest thing to walk on, so a comfortable pair of walking shoes is a must. It was also really hot, in the 30's. We had bright sun most of our holiday which is good, but because it was quite cool here in Amsterdam before we left, I was not at all prepared clothing-wise. Other than this it was a really great weekend. Prague is not the kind of place I fell the urge to go back to again, but it is a beautiful and interesting city which was definitely worth the visit.

Prague Beer Festival
Delicious, filling and cheap food at Czech restaurants
Marriage of Figaro at the Estates Opera House
Dancing House
Inside the St Vitus cathedral
Outside the Opera House
In Prague, the fish ARE the chips
Old Town Square by night
Gateway above one of the entrances to the Charles Bridge
Crowds walking through the streets near the Charles Bridge

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