Prague, Czech Republic

Bern and I have just returned from a 4 night trip to Prague, a beautiful and romantic city even despite the weather being a litle cool this time of the year (top temperatures of 0 and -1 degree Celcius). Four days is plenty of time to enjoy the city in a relaxed manner. Above is the famous Prague Castle situated along the Vltava River and the visible towers are from St Vitus church situated in the middle of the castle.

Charles bridge which is flanked by many ancient statues is a great way to walk to the castle. As we stayed in a hotel that was quite central (Imperial Art Deco- a great place ot stay, I might add), most tourist sites are of walking distances.

I have to say that my favourite building is the majestic Church of Our Lady before Tyn, located at the Old Town Square which was built in the 14th century.

We also had a chance to meet up with a colleague of Bern's who now lives in the Czech republic. He was kind enough to show us around for a day and took us to an authentic Czech pub called U Pinkasu. We had a few intersting dishes at this pub. The above dish is worth a mention probably because I would probably not eat it again. The left of the picture depicts fried pork fat (which was quite nice) and the sausage in the middle was a pork blood sausage. Bern's friend pierced it with a fork and alot of fat oozed out of it and the contents were actually quite soft (not like a black sausage). I was game enough to try it, but that is all I would say. To the right of the sausage is stir fried greaves (a nice word for spare parts of any animal) topped with fried onions. Another dish that needs an acquired taste.

Another random fact- the first Pilsner Urquell beer was drawn from U Pinkasu in 1843.

After dinner, we walked back to the Old Town Square to admire the Astronomical Clock which is on the southern side of the the Town Hall which was built  in the 14th century. At noon each day the clock will ring. It starts with the angel of death, depicted by a skeleton on the side of the upper clock ringing a bell. Then two small windows above the clock opens and statues of saints (I think) appears and rotates in the window. The whole things last only a couple of minutes at noon each day. Be ready to crowd with other tourists to watch it.

More pictures of the Church of our Lady before Tyn

This is the Old Town Square during the day. The building on the left is the town hall with the astronomical clock.

We also climbed to the top of the Town Hall and had a good view of Prague. Unfortunately, it was a lttle too cloudy. I can imagine what it looks like in summer though.

 

The main attraction would be the Prague castle. Bern and I pretty much spent a whole day there just admiring the architecture and history.  I won't bore you with any details- at the end of the trip, I was information overloaded as usual! So I'll just describe some of the things that you can expect to see. The above is the St Vitus cathedral.

Inside the cathedral with its vast hall and high ceilings.

Rozmberg Castle

Vladislav's Hall with late Gothic desgins

Church of All Saints

Chapel of the Holy Cross

We also spent an afternoon browsing the National Museum. It is very grand insde but you actually have to pay to take photos. Bern sneaked some in anyways!  :)

On the last night, we went to watch Swan Lake. A ballet with music from Tchaikovsky depicting the story of a girl that had been cursed and turned into a swan. A prince then falls in love with the swan but was tricked into marrying someone else. Unlike the current hit movie Black Swan, this had a good ending. Would love to visit Prague again in the future - especially when the weather is warmer.