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Published: August 21st 2009
Monday 17th August
A day at Prague Castle
It was a very comfortable night in our bargain accommodation in Beroun.The only adverse feature was a car alarm that went off a couple of times in the night.And given that we had read that car theft is a problem for tourists in the Czech Republic we wondered whether we should go down and check that RR was still there.The receptionist assured us that they had not lost a car from behind the barrier to the road,so we went back to sleep,once the alarm was turned off.
Breakfast was described as a “Swedish table” but it actually turned out to be a bit more than that.Not quite the full English but there were eggs and sausages and we ate well to prepare us for a day of sightseeing in Prague.
We called into the Bank to change some Euros into Korunas and joined the queue for the single teller available.Seems like banking queues here are the same as in NZ!!Armed with thousands of Korunas for our €200 we made for the railway station and a train to the city.
Beroun must have been a major station in the heyday of Czech railways before
the days when the local people could afford cars at the number they do now that communism is well in the past and their standard of living has risen with their involvement in the EU.The staion sat in the middle of a huge rail yard with seemingly dozens of tracks criss crossing each other and yet there were no carriages or wagons waiting in the yards with somewhere to go.
The station is pretty dowdy looking and it seems the railways haven’t had much money spent on it for sometime as the rolling stock(carriages) used were from the 60’s and had seen better days.However they obviously still serve their purpose.
It doesn’t look like many people use the trains as there are only a handful waiting on the platform for the 10.18am express to Prague.While we waited for the train to arrive we checked out another ‘train’that was heading for another town west of Beroun.It was more like a bus on wheels and was diesel powered.
Our train turned out to be from Nuremburg,Southern Germany and eventually it arrived 10 minutes late.However as an express it rattled along and although we didn’t make it to Prague on time it was
still a quicker trip than the local.Seating was in separate compartments which in days gone by doubled for sleeping and made the trip a bit different than the suburban train.
We didn’t have a map of Prague and had left the Lonely Planet back in the hotel preferring not to carry too much in the heat.We had thought that perhaps there would be a tourist office on the station but there wasn’t.So we struck out in what we thought was the right direction to find the main area of the town which wasn’t obvious from the railway station.
A short walk bought us to the main shopping street which was a wide avenue with a very grand building(the museum) at the top and the street dropping away towards the old city and eventually the river that winds it way through the city centre.
We found a tourist office and armed with a walking map we walked down through the narrow streets of the old city to the main square where there is a fascinating astronomical clock which shows the seasons,star signs,the time and goodness knows what else.We gazed up at it trying to make out what it was all about
along with hundreds of other tourists.We had missed the chiming on the hour and so we shall have to make another visit to see the display that happens each hour.The square is a meeting place for many of the walking tours available in the city and as we moved around we must have heard about half a dozen different languages.
Crossing the river our next goal was the Prague Castle which sits above the river and commands the skyline above the old city on that side of the river.The day was now warming and it felt like it must be about 30C although the heat was bearable for walking as there didn’t seem to be much humidity.The castle has only been open to the public since 1990 and we think it was used for military purposes during the days of the communist government.It has seen a lot of history including the arrival of Hitler when Germany annexed Czechoslovakia in 1938.
We purchased the long freedom tour of the castle which is really a small town in itself with dozens of buildings built at different stages over the 500 odd years that the castle has been there as the focal point.
One of the buildings our pass gave us access to contained a history of the castle site dating back to BC times with items on show uncovered in various archological digs that have been carried out in the last 60 odd years.It was clear as we read through the history and moved between displays that this country has been ruled by people from various parts of Europe depending upon who had the biggest army!!
Probably the most striking building on our freedom tour was the St Vitus Cathedral a huge Gothic building that was built not long after the castle was started.
The castle itself is spread over several buildings as it has been added to over the years.The main building on show was a massive hall that has hosted coronations etc etc over the years and had a history worth reading about all of its own.
As we expected there are a large number of tourists looking over what is probably the number one attraction in the city but the area the grounds cover is very large and the people seem to melt into the landscape and it is easy to move around most places.
After nearly 4 hours
visiting all the buildings our ticket covered we headed back down the steep hill to the old city to walk across the famed Charles Bridge and back to the railway station for the trip home.We walked through the narrow streets and called into the gardens that commenarate the country joining the EU.
As we got near the Charles Bridge the crowds swelled in size and our progress became much slower.At a cafe a young woman was offering 500ml glasses(plastic)of cold beer to go at Kc30(about €1.25).Naturally we availed ourselves of this offer as it had been a hot day and there is nothing like a cold beer to revive oneself.
It seemed a bit strange walking down the street drinking a beer,we couldn’t do this at home!!!So we just stood there in the middle of the pedestrian mall and soaked up the atmosphere of the crowds and the tower ahead of the bridge we needed to cross,and drank our beer!!
The bridge is undergoing significant repairs and this spoilt the views downstream from the bridge.However ,most of the statues that line the bridge can still be photographed including the one that bring people flocking to it to touch the nose
of a dog that is part of the statue.Just what it all means we were not sure and we couldn’t get close enough to it so we will have to come back again to do the deed.
The crowds didn’t become any smaller as we continued on our way back up the main shopping avenue and back to the railway station.The trip home will be on a local train so we have a ride of over an hour and give time to take in the scenery a bit more than from the fast express train this morning.
We tried another cafe for dinner tonight and enjoyed the balmy evening under the umbrella watching the locals go by on their evening strolls.Again we dined for around €20 including a couple of beers each and felt very satisfied at the end of it.We didn’t try anything too flash just pizza for Gretchen and a penne pasta for me.
Tomorrow we might just have a very quiet day and do some local sightseeing.
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KJ
non-member comment
The long avenue
Just a bit of history to add-the long avenue in Prague was the site of The Velvet Revolution in 1989-that's when the people said they had enough of Communism and things began to change. Hope you didn't strike any pickpockets on the bridge-its so crowded with people tat it is a popular spot for ligth fingered people!