Vysehrad & St Nicholas

Vysehrad

We slept in again till around 0800 and had a leisurely breakfast of cereal and fruit in the room.

Today, the plan started with a visit to Vysehrad, a riverside fort not far away from the city centre.  We got there by Prague’s underground, which was free for Kim being a senior citizen.  He also had various sights in the city at a discounted rate.

The walled fortress, contains parts as old as the 11^th Century (in the form of a small rotunda and the significant Basilica of Sts Peter & Paul) but other parts are from later eras like the 14^th and 19^th Centuries.

We walked around parts of the fortress wall and noted that a further wall protected a larger lower area.  When we got to the Basilica, we didn’t feel like paying.  It looked nice from the glass door but how can one beat St Vitus from yesterday?!

We found the cemetery and had little wander and then took a tea break en route back to the metro.  After about 2h after we had arrived we took the metro back.

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Kim navigated us to the Palladium Mall and got us seriously “lost”, taking us over a much longer distance.  We specially returned to the mall for lunch because of the awesome fast food salad place called Ugo Salaterie.

Nicholas vs Mikulase

After a rest, we walked across Charles Bridge to Mala Strana to visit St Nicholas Church.  This church shouldn’t be confused with a less significant one in the Old Town Square by the same name.

Interestingly, Nicholas starts with an “M” in Czech (and neighbouring languages).  So, it is Svaty Mikulase.

Here, Kim had a discounted senior ticket again.  The baroque church couldn’t be more different from the Gothic St Vitus cathedral.  It was light inside and full of gilded statues and decoration.  The ceiling was decorated with paintings.

Upstairs in the gallery there were oil paints from the Stations of the Cross.  I don’t appreciate the dark style of oil painting that look like they need to be backlit!

On the walk back, I saw Charles Bridge lit in the glorious sun for the first time this trip.  But with the crowd, I had no mood to take any photos.

We had a beer in the Old Town Square amidst on and off drizzle.  We finished the day with two salads back at Ugo Salaterie with some supermarket bakery pizza slices.