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Prague, Czech Republic:
Prague, or Praha as it is called locally, is by far the most beautiful and fascinating city we have seen on our trip thus far. The architecture and many of the buildings date back to the 13th and 14th century, and most of the “newer” buildings are at least 100 years old. Our hotel is about 15 minutes away from the city, in an area that looks more like Ukraine or Romania than Prague, but it is a very nice hotel.
Our first full day we did our usual practice of going on an all-in-on inclusive overview tour of the city, which has proved successful so far. So we started our tour in the famous Wenceslas Square in front of the massive National Museum. The tour lasted about 6 hours, during which we were able to see just about everything you could have wanted in Prague. We walked down the Wenceslas Square and into the Old Town Square. This is where the oldest Astronomical clock in the world is located, still standing and in fairly good condition from the 14th century. The buildings in the square were not really that old, but most of them had
Astronomical Clock
Oldest astronomical clock in the world. Circa 13th century, clock rings and animates every hour on the hour. restaurants and bars that went down underground into cellars that were from the 12th and 13th centuries. These were really neat, and some had been converted to high-class restaurants that made for a really interesting contrast.
From the Old Town Square we went to the Jewish Quarter where the oldest synagogue in Europe still stands, and the Jewish cemetery. Then we walked down to the river and to the Charles Bridge that was built in the 14th century. This had amazing gothic statues all along the bridge, and led the way towards Petrin Hill and the old part of Prague. Different from the Old Town Square, the oldest part of Prague is called Lesser Town. Many of these buildings are several centuries old, and just amazing architecture. This is the Prague that you see in movies and hear about, and it’s amazing to see. I couldn’t stop from taking pictures of all the buildings and statues! Then we made our way up the hill in the rain towards the Prague Castle. This castle was amazing, and there’s nothing I can say to even give it justice, so you’ll have to see for yourself in my pictures. The view from
Jewish Synogogue
Oldest Jewish Synogogue in Europe, still standing in original condition. the castle was incredible, but the rain and clouds made it difficult to really see everything. The view of Prague from the castle looks like I would imagine it did centuries ago, with all of the old buildings and statues of the city dotting the horizon. Hopefully these pictures also turned out well and you can appreciate the view.
This was the end of the tour, and after so much walking and trekking up and down the hills through the rain, we were exhausted. We got something to eat, and started the walk back towards Wenceslas Square where we would get the tram back to the hotel. We hit our beds hard at about 8pm for a nap, but when we woke up we were just to tired and exhausted to do anything. My whole body was sore, and we were doing good to get up and get dressed long enough to go get dinner. But that was all we could manage for the day, and we’d start again in the morning!
The next morning we went back to the Jewish Cemetery to get a closer look because they only pointed it out on the tour. The cemetery
City View
View of Prague from the Prague Castle. Very rainy and cold that day. was closed for the Sabbath, but we could still see it, and we spent some time walking around the old Jewish Quarter. There were only 6 of 17 original Synagogues still standing, and they were all really great to see. For the rest of the day we walked around this area and into Old Town, where the square was packed with people on a Saturday afternoon. They had all kinds of artists, musicians, vendors, and dancers in the square and it was very close to what I expected to find in Prague. It was a great sight.
We spent the night back in Wenceslas Square where we ate a great dinner and drank some wine while we waited for the rain to die down. It has rained every day so far on our trip, which has been pretty disappointing, but it hasn’t stopped us from doing and seeing everything we wanted to and much more. We have run into a lot of other college-aged Americans, and some of them have done the opposite of our route. (Started in the West, and traveled up through Italy, Switzerland, and into Germany and the Czech Republic, etc.) They have all said the
Prague Castle
Prague Castle. Originally started in 14th century, additional sections added in 17th and 20th centuries. weather further south is beautiful and very summer-like. This is good news, because from here we are only heading South!
We are on the train now from Prague to Munich, so we are definitely exited to go back to Germany. The Euro is also much easier to use than the Czech Krown, which has a conversion rate of almost 20-1. The train station in Prague is in terrible condition, and looks more like a station I would expect to find somewhere in the Ukraine or Russia. And if you can believe it, we actually made it on a 9:15am train this morning, so we were pretty proud of ourselves. We’ll arrive in Munich by about 3:30 this afternoon, so we have about 6 hours ahead of us.
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