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Published: January 4th 2010
Day 24: Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Vienna, Austria to
Prague, Czech Republic Another driving day that I don't remember. At this point, the cold was attacking my throat and I was just hoping it didn't turn into strep (which is what usually happens) (Captain's Log, Stardate 1.3.2010: Never turned into strep. However it has now, 17 days later, turned into a nice phlegmy cough- best cold ever!)
We get to Prague and instead of heading to the
Ibis hotel, Enzo drops all of us up at the "top of Prague" (as I call it) at the
Prague Castle and we're going to do a walking tour down thru the town to our hotel. Let me skip ahead by saying that that night, when we got to the hotel, I checked the weather and it was around 10 degrees for our walk (-11 celsius). One main attraction for this walk was one of our tour members, Ash (no, not our Ashton) who decided he didn't need a coat so just wore his shirt sleeve shirt. Surprisingly, he lived. i still don't know why he did this.
So, we stop and smile at the poor guards who are standing outside the castle trying to
Prague Castle
more of a palace in my humble opinion...ignore all us tourists and then we head thru the gates to
St. Vitus. It was locked, so we peaked in before heading back out of the gates to look over the city of Prague and take in their copy of the Eiffel Tower,
the Observation Tower, (which is slightly taller than the Paris one- to me, it looks different than the Paris one, but that could be the cold medicine talking.) We then head down a flight of stairs that would make Rocky Balboa cry if he had to run up them. We meander thru cobblestone streets and past buildings that are frozen in time until we get to the
Charles Bridge.
The Charles Bridge is named after, what seems to be, their most beloved King, Charles IV (and I didn't have to Google that- remembered it for some reason.) So, many things named "Charles" in this town. It's a very impressive bridge with statues all along it showing different saints or stories. Unfortunately, half of it was covered in scaffolding as they were doing repairs, but it was still majestic. We get to the other side of the bridge and, after a bit more walking, make it into the [
Old Town Square where
we can see the
Prague Astronomical Clock. On the hour (except in Munich it seems), little pieces of the clock are supposed to move and so forth. Unfortunately, we're not there on the hour so we'll have to head back later to see if Dave is lying to us once again (JOKE Dave). We glance at the Christmas market that is there and head on thru towards
Wenceslas Square. This square is quite long and wide so there is a Christmas market in the middle with big stores (mostly chains) on either side of the street.
Dave asks us if we want to explore Wenceslas Square or if we're ready to go to the hotel. We've been walking for about an hour and even those of us who had thermals and double layers on were starting to freeze, so we whined that we wanted the hotel so he led the way. We climb up a hill for 10 minutes and we're there. But wait! We then need to go around the corner and we'll find Enzo unloading our luggage. So I strap my backpack on (44 pounds), grab my day backpack and laptop, and walk back to the hotel. I'm told Natasha
already has the key so I wait in line for the elevator (not doing 4 floors with that backpack) and get to my floor. And, by that time, I've forgotten the room number. Luna tries to remember for me so we knock on one door in hopes that it's Natasha, and it's not. We try a couple more doors before I do my best "Stella!!" imitation and yell Natasha's name. No response. We go back to knocking on doors and Luna finds it (lifesaver) and I go in and dump my bags.
An hour later, we are all in the hotel restaurant for dinner. It was a good meal and Dave has offered to take people to some bars around town afterwards. Hell-to-the-no for me, I'm done. I play on the computer for a while (big shocker!) and go to bed.
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Chris
non-member comment
You saw Marlon Brando and Sylvester Stalone in Prague?
Hills, Castles, and Bridges, oh my! Amazing looking place, but not sure I'd want to hike about in 10 degree weather either.