Prague Castle

Prague Castle

I fell asleep so deeply after my 0700 alarm that when I woke again at 0800 I had no recollection of silencing the alarm.  Kim had some work to do this morning to sort out some bookings in the UK.  We had a simple breakfast of cereal while he did that.

Finally, we left our room around 1000 heading up to Prague Castle, an area I don’t recall visiting 26 years ago.

We retraced our steps from last night to Charles Bridge and from there walked without much guidance from maps, uphill in the general direction of the castle.  Magically, we arrived at the guarded entrance of the castle and found the signage to one of the several ticket offices.

There were several ticket options and we chose the one with what we thought were the most important sights at a pricey NZD32 while Kim had a senior discount which brought it down to around NZD21.

Our choice of ticket included four sites or sights which we visited in the order that we found them:

1. First up was the very Gothic St Vitus Cathedral. This was a stunning place inside with some very colourful but perhaps contemporary stained-glass windows.  One of the many side chapel altars was a work of art to me, more so than the main altar. Surprisingly, the southern side of the cathedral was more richly decorated than the front with golden mosaics and golden grilles. Construction of the cathedral commenced in 1344 but was completed in the 19^th and 20^th  It was finally consecrated in 1929.
2. Second was the Old Royal Palace, of which we visited a large but bare function hall, a defenestration area (where people were thrown out of the windows) and a Diet (parliament) hall.
3. Third was the St George’s Basilica. This simple basilica is much older and dates back to 920.
4. Lastly, we visited Golden Lane. This area housed the palace guards originally.  There was a museum of armours upstairs in one of the buildings.  Each of the small units on the ground floor housed a trade which visitors could enter for a look-see.

While I balked at the price of the ticket at first, the glory of St Vitus wow’ed me completely and I was soon glad that I had paid the price.

Around 1230, we wandered down the hill a different way rather than backtrack.  It wasn’t bad after having started only at 1000 today!

We made our way to a Chinese restaurant which we had seen offering lunch specials.  At home, I wouldn’t have raved about the food but here it was a welcome change of spice and umami.

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Further explorations

After 1630 we headed out again, stopping at the six hundred year Astronomical Clock for its hourly ringing along with the moving figurines.  I don’t have much recollection of this from 26 years ago but we were both very disappointed.  A little skeleton pulled the bell-chain while two little blue windows above popped open.  A series of tiny figures paraded past the small opening of the windows briefly.  And that was it!

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We continued to Wenceslas Square in the newer part of Prague before grabbing a sandwich and salad to share at the food hall of the Palladium Mall.  Both were excellent choices.  Finally, we tried the Chimney Cake with a dollop of ice cream in it.

We were glad to have tried it in the mall rather than on the street as it got a little messy with the syrup and ice cream.

When darkness fell, we ventured out to absorb hoping to absorb a different atmosphere.  Surprisingly, things weren’t as illuminated as I had hoped for.  It wasn’t disappointing as it was still very beautiful.