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Published: January 20th 2010
So yesterday was our long day of travel. We got up at 5am, and left for the train station. Bruges has never been so empty! Our train to Brussels left at 5:58am, and was only an hour. Then we took a high speed train to Frankfurt. We had about 40 minutes between trains so we walked around the station a bit and ate some breakfast. Our B&B had packed us a nice breakfast to go. Our next train was also a high speed one to Dresden, which is near the border of Germany and the Czech Republic. I slept a little on that train ride (5 hours). We then had a more local train from Dresden to Prague. Most of the train ride was alongside a large river. It was really pretty. We got to Prague about 7:30pm and tried to figure out the metro/tram system. It took us a little while, but we figured it out. An info place wrote down what number tram's we needed and the stops we wanted to get to our hotel. That helped a lot. The first tram we took moved us into town - a pretty far distance from the train station. The other
tram we needed had stopped running for the evening, so we walked the rest of the way to our hotel. It felt good to be here! We went around the corner and got some dinner at a restaurant: Restaurant U Karla. We got .5 liters of some pilsner, which while not my favorite style, was very refreshing. Adam got some stuffed pork and bacon dumplings and I got some chicken schnitzel. It was all good and filling. The hotel has free wifi at the bar, but my phone won't connect. They also have 3 computers, so that's nice.
This morning we got up, ate some free breakfast, and left to go exploring. We walked along the river and came to Karluv Most (The Charles Bridge). It's a big bridge that has a lot of statues on it along the way. It also has a lot of people selling stuff. They even had an organ grinder! Once on the other side we followed signs to the Prazky Hrad (the Prague Castle). We had to walk up a steep hill and then a bunch of steps. It was tiring, but at the top there was a fantastic view of the city.
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The Charles BridgeWe entered through the 1st courtyard, where there were 2 guards in uniform standing still. Then we entered the 2nd courtyard. We wandered around a bit and then decided to buy a ticket to go into some of the places. We did a short tour (self-guided). We went into the St. Vitus's Cathedral, which was huge. It had these high arched ceilings and amazing stained glass windows. Also a giant pipe organ! It was impressive. The outside was cool too - there were gargoyles on it. We then went into the Old Royal Palace. There were some rooms to walk into, not a lot of furniture or decoration. But we wento into a room were people were defenestrated! They survived. Also this one room was decorated with all these coats of arms all over the walls and ceiling. We also saw the Bohemian Crown Jewels. There was a crown, a sceptor and a thing that looks like a holy hand grenade. We made our way through St. George's Square to St. George's Basilica. There was a lot of imagery and statues depicting him on his horse killing a dragon. Inside there was a crypt as well as a wall with
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on the Charles Bridge old tombstones. We then went through Golden Lane, which was a small street with little buildings that used to be housing. Now they are little shops. We went upstairs in one of them that had a large display of armor and some weapons. They doorways to the shops were all so short! We we inside another one that had old instruments - some violins and small accordians! At the end of the lane, there was the Black Tower - which seemed to be a place they held and tortured prisoners. Outside of it was a cool sculpture of a skull comping on a guy's back.
We then walked down past St. Wenceslas' vineyard and back toward our hotel. Our feet were really tired. The castle is about 1.5 miles away. When we got back we snacked on some power bars and finally ate our chocolate from Bruges. It was really really good. We took a nap for a bit, and then made ourselves get up and go get dinner. We went to some restaurant that was below street level and kind of decorated like a lodge - wooden chairs, tables, animal furs on the walls, a little pond with
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View of town from the castle fish and a mini waterfall. We got some beer and Adam ordered some pork goulash. I got grilled chicken. There was a lot of meat on the menu as well. Adam's goulash was good - like a stew. It came with some dumplings and brerad. Afterward we came back to the hotel, checked the internets, and I took a bath. The tub we have is huge. It was really relaxing and nice.
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