Prague, Day 1

Last week, Pete and I took a trip to Prague for a few days without the kids. We wanted to go away together before he deploys, and the only criteria for our destination was 'somewhere to take pictures.' Prague didn't let us down. We came back with over 700 of them.

Now it's hard to edit down 700 pictures, so these posts will be a little long, which is why I am breaking them down into days.

We stayed in a place called Hotel Caesar Place, which I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone heading to Prague with a car. Prague isn't a place you want to drive around, and you don't want to park your car on the street. Our hotel had underground, locked parking, so we left it there for three days and walked the whole city. We had a very large and very free breakfast at the hotel, which we took full advantage of. We stuffed ourselves at breakfast, munched on trail mix during the day and then only had to pay for dinner. It was great.

We figured we walked anywhere between 5 and 7 miles per day, just seeing the sights.

I have a thing with old doors. This is one that struck me as "very cool."

This is the Prague National Theatre, one of the things we were told we had to see. It's very large, but not as old as other building in the area. It was built in the second half of the 19th century. It is home to plays and movies.

We were told that Prague is THE place for architecture, so we took many pictures of just that.

This is King Charles. His statue stands at the entry to the Charles Bridge, the oldest bridge in Prague. For a long time, it was the only bridge that connected the two halves of Prague. It was constructed in the latter half of the 14th century and finished in the early 15th century. It is lined with 26 statues, all very Gothic in look and feel.

The thing that intrigued me the most about this bridge was the foundation on which it was built. Back in the 1300's, people believed in the magic of time and numbers. The founding stone was laid in 1357, on the 9 of July at 5:31. This is a palindrome: 135797531. A spot was chosen for the ending of the bridge that lined up perfectly with the tomb of St. Vitus (for whom the Cathedral is named after) and the setting sun at equinox.

While we were there, construction and cleaning was being done on the bridge, which is what you see in this picture.

Some of the 26 statues.

Everyone that walked past this one, and a few others, stopped and touched the gold knobs at the bottom and took a picture. The knobs are actually 5 stemmed leaves, and if you touch it with your left hand, it will bring you good luck.

The streets were tight, and the buildings extended forever.

The St. Nicolas Church, not to be confused with the Church of St. Nicholas, which we saw later.

We actually got to climb to the top of this church, in a very narrow, and very long, winding staircase. This is the view from the top. Once we were up there, the clock struck twelve and one of the castle guards came up and blew a tune into a horn, which echoed through the entire city.

While inside this church, we learned the Prague has been called "the City of Towers." There are over 150 towers, mostly bell towers, in the city. All of the bells chime on the hour, so you can imagine the sound.

More cool architecture.

Another awesome door.

When I see these old doors, I can image what a family picture would look like in front of it.

Or I can see how cute my kids would look leaning against it. Maybe that's why I like them. Or maybe I just like to think about all the work that went into them.

Just to show you how crazy parking is in Prague.

And I took this strictly to show how old the establishment was.

The gate to Prague Castle and the St. Vitus Cathedral. Each entrance was guarded by uniformed castle guards, and we actually got to watch the changing of the guards.. It was very cool. And very precise.

Yes, these statues depict murder and torture. Don't ask me why.

We were told that the castle itself wasn't that interesting, which was true. The castle is just a building that surrounds the cathedral. The cathedral is mistaken for the castle by most people.

This is the Cathdral of St. Vitus. I took more pictures here than anywhere else.

The moldings on the cathedral reminded me of upside down crowns, although I am not sure thats what they really were. We noticed them on almost all the cathedrals/churches.

Inside the cathedral.

It was very cold inside here; the church was built in the 15th century and is still used for Sunday Mass.

Inside the cathedral lies the tombs of kings/bishops/hierarchy members and the dates they served. Some dated back to 1350. It was amazing.

As you can imagine, the entire cathedral was lined with stained-glass windows.

The organ pipes.

This is an area where one of the tombs lies.

The center of the church.

We ended each of our three days at the same restaurant for dinner. We were so impressed with the food and the price we decided to just keep eating there. These were some of the meals we ate.

Pete had salty pancakes (non-sweetened crepes) with turkey, chicken and vegetables.

I had chicken breast with pepper sauce and fries.

For dessert, Pete had chocolate and strawberry ice cream.

And I had crepes filled with sour cream (not cream cheese) topped with strawberries and ice cream. This could have been my meal, it was so big.