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June 4, 5, 6, 2008
Prague, Czech Republic
Another 3 hours on the road and we arrived in Prague. Prague is also a very popular place for visitors from all over and the city is full of shops, restaurants and an amazing variety of architecture from the several thousand years that someone has been living here.
In the past Prague, Vienna and Budapest were the most important places in Bohemia, and Prague was a cultural and business center ( A larger city than Paris or London at the time ) for the region. The city is home to some spectacular old buildings, churches, and bridges over the Vtlava River. We enjoyed a walk to the city center to check out the city and we weren't disappointed. This is a very interesting place and not unlike Budapest. They do a commendable job keeping the city clean considering the foot traffic they get.
Thursday morning we spent some more time wandering around aimlessly and in the afternoon we took a city tour that covered the most important highlights with a very good guide to fill in the historical and cultural details. This tour included a walking tour, a boat
ride on the river and under the Charles Bridge, and a bus to some out of the way sites. The highlight is probably Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. These 2 hilltop buildings have been around for about a 1000 years and are amazing places. There is an amazing amount of history here dating back thousands of years and many places of interest from the 14th and 15th century when this was a very important center for this part of Europe. Another favorite place to visit is an old Astronomical clock in a large city square. An amazing contraption !!
As usual there are too many castles and churches. It's no wonder there were revolutions against these guys. The same problems happened to the church and and the overly rich when the people finally got fed up with the lavish way their money was being spent ( wasted ). It really is unbelievable the amount of time, money, and other resources that were spent building these palaces, castles and churches.
I wonder how the peoples lives would have been changed if they had been able to devote all this time money and effort to improving their own lives.
After traveling to some of the “basically” non secular places we have been to it is evident that the same problem exists today in many places and for the same reasons.
The economy looks relatively strong here with good industrial facilities and of course the tourist trade.
Czech Republic is not using Euros ( Yet ) so we had to get used to another currency. The center of the city is St. Wenceslas Square ( A really a long avenue with limited traffic. Yup !! same St. Wenceslas as in the Christmas Carol ) where most of the tourist action is. There is a lot to see an do in Prague and we would highly recommend this as a very good place to visit.
We spent a quiet day on Friday and our last night in Prague we took in a “Little Culture” and attended a concert with the Prague Royal Orchestra at one of the very beautiful old concert venues in town, The Municipal House. This is a very beautiful place and there is something special about a live orchestra, ( without speakers or amplifiers,) and some wonderful acoustics. The music was Mozart and Straus with ballet
solos and opera singers filling in. A very nice evening. Not for us every day but a nice evening just the same.
Prague has been one of the highlights of our adventure and a very interesting place to visit.
Tomorrow we head north to Berlin for a few days there.
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Smithkim
non-member comment
Place to visit in Prague
The thing in Prague, that should not be missed in Prague is Petrin Observation Tower, a smaller version of Paris's Eiffel. It is 60m tall, which doesn't seem to be that high. But adding the Petrin hill, which is 318 m high itself! Imagine overlooking the whole of Prague with panoramic view, which is just magnificent. The only thing that it takes 299 step climb to reach the viewing platform. When the weather is good and air is clear you can see the highest peak in the Czech Republic. There is a funicular service, which I really enjoyed too, from Ujezd street in Mala Strana which takes passengers up to the summit of the Petrin hill and the Observation Tower.Prague is good place for tourism actually. I didn't spent that much money and managed to have a really good hotel in the city center booked from www.prague-hotels.org.uk. Prague is the place to be!