Prague - a wonderful city :-)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAH ! I spent 4 nights in Prague last weekend with my friend Júlíana. We arrived on Thursday and left again on Monday. Here is the tale of the journey:

Day 1: We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Pyramida, that is situated above the castle district in Prague. We got a room on the 9th floor so we had excellent view ! After checking in we started exploring the city. We walked from the hotel down to the Castle district (Hradcany), through the Malá Strana district and to the famous Charles Bridge. The two pictures show a steep alley and me in the castle district. The weather was cool but we were well clothed so that was no problem. All the beautiful houses, the colours and the decorations kept us busy with the camera. In the evening we enjoyed a dinner at the hotel's restaurant. We went to bed, tired but happy after a good first day :-)

Day 2: We woke early and enjoyed a good breakfast at the hotel. Then we went down to the Strahov monastery to look at the amazing library there. There on display were tiny books from the middle ages, illuminated manuscript as old as 9th century and an old natural history collection. Next we walked up the hill Petrín to see the Petrin observation tower (see picture on the right), that is an imitation of the Eiffel tower, only smaller (60m). Then we went to Prague Castle. There we first went into the St. Vitus Cathedral. They started building it in the 14th century but only finished it in 1929. And we thought Hallgrímskirkja took a long time to build ! Inside kings and important persons are buried. It has an amazing rosette window of stained glass in front. (see picture below). Unfortunately the tower stairs were closed, so we couldn't climb the 279 steps to the top (a hellish climb I know from past experience, but worth it for the view). Next we visited the St. George Basilica. It is a very old church that has foundations dating back to the year 915 (see picture to the left)It contains the remains of some 13th century frescoes. Next we looked at the Royal Palace. Most amazing to me were the large ceramic stoves. In the palace cellars we saw an exhibition of the castle's history. There we saw the grave clothes of kings and queens, old artefacts and even graves of former castle occupants. It was great. Then we went to the Golden Lane. (see picture below) It is a street of tiny houses that hug the castle wall, painted in bright colours. They now house small shops. Then we went to an observation deck below the Golden Lane, where we enjoyed a fabulous view of the city. Afterwards we walked over the Charles Bridge to the Old town (Staré Mestro). There we ate dinner at a nice restaurant by the Old Town Square. Mmm, and we had some wonderful banana splits as desert :D

Day 3: Saturday was spent in the Old town. We went to the Old Town Square and watched the apostles peeking out from the windows of the Astrological Clock on the Old Town Hall (see picture down to the right). After that we went up into the tower of the Old Town Hall, where the view of the old town was just great. We then went on a guided tour of the Old Town Hall and the cellars underneath it. Very cool, and we learned a lot about the countries history. We then went in to the Church of our Lady of Týn, that towers over the Old Town Square. Very nice, but no match to St. Vitus. Then we spent the rest of the day examining the old town and shopping at the chrystal boutiques. In the evening we had dinner at the hotel and then some cocktails at the hotel bar. Very nice way to round up the evening :-)

Day 4. Sunday we took a day trip to the town Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad, see picture below left) that is situated about 12o km west of Prague. It is a health spa town, where people have been coming to benefit from the healing powers of the warm springwater found there. As true tourists me and Júlíana bought some special drinking mugs and tasted the water. ARGH YUK YUK ! Healthy or not, this was disgusting ! It was salty and with a metallic taste. In the old days they made people drink up to 50-60 glasses pr. day. I would sooner have died ! The town is very beautiful, with wonderful old houses and some historical locations too. In the evening, when we got back to Prague, we went to a restaurant located in a cellar by the Old Town Square. It was great ! The had a band playing folk music, garlic hanging on the walls, wild boar skins as decorations and mmmm, the food was great ! We had roast duck with piquant mushroom risotto. I asked for a large beer and got a 1 L mug ! I managed to finish it, but only barely. Then we went back to the hotel and had some ice-cream before bed at the restaurant. Mmmmm :-)

Day 5. Going home proved to be more difficult than we thought. The flight was delayed 2 1/2 hours, grrrrr. But finally we arrived at Keflavík around 16:00. I was home at 19:00 and was happy to find out that all my chrystal glasses had made it home safe. Wonderful journey was over, now I just long to be on the road again !