A busy day in Prague

This morning I went for a training run (I finally didn’t slack off). I started out by going over the Charles Bridge and running what I thought was a semi-planned route around the city. It felt strange because my typically sound sense of direction seemed off. After a few miles I tried to get my bearings and was totally lost. I kept running. Eventually I came upon this huge tower. It was a TV tower. I was completely in the opposite direction from where I thought I was. That’s strange. I don’t remember crossing another bridge to get here.

With my bearings set, I navigated myself back to Old Town to get to my hostel. Nothing there was looking at all like the area where my hostel was. Then it hit me. You idiot. Charles Bridge has two sides. You’re staying on the other side of the bridge. You don’t even know in which area you are staying. After that discovery, I made it back fine.

After getting cleaned up, I went to the new St. Nick’s Church, right by the hostel (not to be confused with the old St. Nick’s Church which is where I thought I was staying). St. Nick’s (The Church of Saint Nicholas) is a large, ornately decorated church which was built in the late 1600s and early 1700s. The exterior isn’t a grand sight but the interior deserves a visit.

Inside, several chapels, altars and statues line the way on the outside of the pews as one approaches the center altar. A pulpit made of purplish marble is adorned with gold statues. Gold work accounts for the Corinthian portions of the great columns that hold the massive structure.

I enjoyed seeing St. Nick’s. It is truly a beautiful church and certainly rivals many of the cathedrals I’ve seen.

Once I left St. Nick’s, I walked up the hill and a number of steps to reach the castle. I was just in time as the Changing of the Guard ceremony would commence in a few minutes. People were already lined outside the castle, waiting to catch a glimpse of the show.

The ceremony itself reminded me a lot of the one at Buckingham Palace although it had a bit less pomp and circumstance (no horse parades or marching bands). But it was still a spectacle as it’s always interesting to me to see how different countries’ soldiers perform a drill parade.

After the ceremony ended I, along with the bulk of the spectators, proceeded inside to tour the castle. I purchased a “full” ticket which allowed me access to all the stops and an audio guide for two hours. It was quite expensive - 650 koruna in total (about $40).

Saint Vitus’s Cathedral was my first stop inside. The outside is much more ornate than St. Nick’s. It’s a Gothic style cathedral (I actually figured that out on my own; I feel so architecturally sound) which was built starting in the 14th century and finally completed in the 1920s. The interior was just as grand, with huge columns flanking the main aisle and stained glass windows letting in the daylight.

On my way to the next part of the castle tour, I took in some views of the city from the south side of the castle. The castle provides expansive views of the old and new towns, the river and Petrin Hill just to the south.

My next stop was Saint George’s Convent. The convent has since been replaced by a museum consisting mostly of paintings. One of the special stops on the full tour, the works were nice and were mostly scenic paintings (which I like) but they weren’t anything special.

I then proceeded to the Golden Lane. The Golden Lane is a small portion of the castle grounds along a road which is comprised of artisans cottages. Now the cottages are filled with various gift shops - knick-knacks, Christmas decorations, old instruments, books, etc. The doors to these cottages were very low; probably only about five and a half feet tall at most.

At the end of the Golden Lane was a staircase leading to a small dungeon. The dungeon had a small cell which could hold a single prisoner, a prisoner cage about the size of an indoor dog pen and several other torture tools.

This wrapped up my tour of the castle as I needed to get to the National Museum before it closed. I was glad I toured the castle but there was no need for the “full” ticket. Actually, I probably could have gotten by with no ticket as most of the grounds were open to all and the cathedral was free. And the audio guide (half the cost) was definitely not worth it. It contained a ton of information but unless you’re really interested in a detailed history of the castle and are already familiar with basic Czech history, most of the information will go right over your head. The information boards held enough of a description to get me by.

I crossed the Charles Bridge to get into the new town on my way to the museum. Construction on the bridge was finished in the 14th century and it once served as the main route connecting the old and new towns. Today, the bridge has a number of painters and performers that line its sides as numerous tourists (like me) walk from one end to the other.

I got to the museum about a half hour after I left the castle. That gave me about 30 minutes before it would close. Today is the free day (first Monday of the month) so I didn’t need a ticket and I knew right where I needed to go. I had only planned to see one exhibit on the history of Earth. The exhibit was interesting, with many pictures, videos and 3-D displays depicting the Earth over time, its formation, composition and the many wonderful places in existence today.

It was then 3:00 and having only had a hot dog all day long, I was hungry. In the vicinity was a bar and restaurant a read about that serves a number of unique Czech beers. I found a table at Pivovarsy Dum and immediately found my choice - a beer sampler of eight of the beers brewed by the restaurant. The sample included light, monthly special (blueberry), nettle (a type of plant), banana, wheat, coffee, sour cherry and dark. The banana was definitely the best out of the unique beers. The sour cherry was also good and the dark was the best. The strangest looking one was the nettle - it was green! To go with my beer, I had a small order of the goulash and dumplings.

After eating and drinking, I took a slow walk back towards the hostel. Along the way I stopped to see the exterior of the National Theater before crossing the bridge. One of the islands under the bridge had a number of trees that had leaves that were just starting to turn orange and yellow. This certainly added to the beauty of the surrounding city.

Eventually I made my way back to the hostel. Before going in, I decided to head back up to the castle to try and find the Royal Garden, which I had missed earlier. I didn’t find it but instead found the South Garden, which I’m sure isn’t nearly as nice. The best part of the south garden was the views overlooking the city below.

I got back to the hostel shortly after I left the castle grounds. After booking my hostel for Berlin (my next stop), I made my way out to find a small meal, maybe a beer or two and hopefully a free outdoor concert somewhere nearby. When I left, it had begun to rain - so probably no concerts. I came upon a small market which sold a variety of goods, including sandwiches. I picked one up and on my way to the register decided to grab a couple dark beers. The price of these beers - a whopping three korunas a piece ($0.18 each). Sweet.

I ate my sandwich and drank one of the beers back in the kitchen in our room as a girl from Shanghai named Chin Chen (or something similar) dined on some sort of noodle dish. She had arrived a couple days ago and had been on excursions out of town ever since. So tomorrow is her first day of touring. I gave her a few pointers from what I learned today. I did not confess the blunder I made on the hostel location this morning - she knows where we are and that’s all that matters.

Tomorrow I continue touring Prague. It should be at a slower pace as I did quite a bit today.

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Part of trip: Europe Backpacking

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