CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague (April 9 - 15)
April 9 -10
Prague is an interesting city as it was not damaged by either World War, so the city is rich with history. Our first few days have been spent getting orientated with the long foreign street names (which we can't even pretend to pronounce) and the narrow, winding streets.
So far, we have managed to locate the main highlights, including the Prague Castle and Charles Bridge which have become our favorite landmarks. Unfortunately, the Charles Bridge is under restoration, so the pictures might include some of the construction mess. The Astronomical Clock in the Old Town is very interesting as well (the guide explained all the parts), but we have yet to be there on the hour when it chimes, but we do have a few more days here....
After our walking tour today, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant just outside of the castle, and spied this rather interesting grotto wall, which prompted us to investigate the Wallenstein Garden. There was a beautiful white peacock strutting its stuff, and the artifical stalacites which made up the grotto wall.
April 11-12
Our next couple of days we spent thoroughly exploring the Charles Bridge (early in the morning before the gaggle of people start crowding the streets/bridges), Prague Castle and the surrounding gardens in and around the castle.
During our walk through the gardens we found several great picture taking opportunities and captured the view of the Old Town and the river and its many bridges.
The next day, we strolled towards the National Museum and the State Opera end of town by walking down Vaclavske street. This was a busy street with lots of shops and hotels.
Of course during our walks, we stopped at each and every market that we encountered. The biggest was in the Old Town square where we found Easter symbolized by the "Easter Tree" which was decorated with balloons and paper cutouts of bunnies. Perhaps we can start a new tradition in Canada?
The evening wrapped up at the State Opera, where we both experienced our first opera, Carmen. The building interior was spectacular (unfortunately our pictures do not do it justice), and the opera suprisingly enjoyable (thank goodness for the english subtitles!). The irony of this opera is that it was in French, about the Spaniards and gypsies, and viewed by us in the Czech Republic.
April 13-15
On Easter Monday, Scott and I wanted to avoid the Easter weekend crowds, so we spent most of the day walking through the parks in Mala Strana, and climbing Petrin Hill (and of course taking more pictures of the Prague Castle - which Scott held in the palm of his hand). It was a pretty steep climb to the top of the hill, and we had every intention of climbing to the top of the Petrin Hill Tower (aka mini-Eiffel Tower), but common sense cut in and we opted for beer.
We wrapped up the evening with a classical concert in the oldest church in Prague called St. Martin in the Wall church. The acoustics in this church were unbelievable as you could hear every note clearly and the music literally went through you. We actually ended up seeing 5 of these such concerts during our stay, and this one was by far our favorite.
Crowds really thinned out after the weekend, and we as souveniers given our limited luggage space and jokingly considered starting a fridge magnet collection or key chain collection. Fortunately, we did find some smaller prints from the vendors on enjoyed having space while walking across the Charles Bridge. We have struggled a bit with what to buy and finally found a couple of prints from the vendors on Charles Bridge that we can take with us.
We went searching for the Jewish quarter and spent a bit of time walking in circles to find the Jewish Cemetary. It was kind of neat as they had built this cemetary up several meters to add more graves. Anyways, we did eventually find it, only to discover they wanted 300 crown each to view - so we snuck a 'free picture' through the exit gate. Ironically, we have been able to find this location easily since then.
Old Town Square crowds had thinned out a lot as well, so we were able to get a clear picture of the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, and the neat building decorations.
Our last day, we elected to do the tourist thing - and took a lunch cruise down the Vltava River. There was virtually no one on the boat, so it was a peaceful cruise. Scott is seen here waving good bye - and hopefully to one of my last pictures of Charles Bridge or the Castle. We climbed our last tower (Watch Tower on the Charles Bridge on the Lesser Town side), and were pleasantly surprised to find we were the only two on the lookout level.
For now, we say good bye to Prague.
