Imanuel and Brenda's Travel Blog

We spent the rest of the evening huddled up with the maps and guidebooks working on a game plan for the next day. We were determined to see all the sights of the city the next day and maybe do some shopping as well. Despite being worn out by the long days in Berlin, we had a long drive ahead of us and wanted to leave the following day by lunch at the latest. We got up early and it was bitterly cold. The first ferry left at 9:00 am so we started by foot down the road back to the bridge. Peter’s “little bit further” turned out to be over 2 Km. After the previous day tram debacle, we didn’t want to mess with the trams or buses, so we walked all the way back to the underground station even though there was a bus station a couple of blocks closer to the campsite. As it turns out, the subway wasn’t complicated at all. There are three lines and a couple of exchange stations. The center of town is just a couple of stations down for the station nearest to the campsite on the B train. The only problem that morning was that we didn’t have any coins left and the machines in the subway take only coins. Coins are still used widely in Europe but particularly so in the Czech Republic. We didn’t see any machines there that would take bills at all. For the subway this is not a big problem as most of the stations have small shops that sell cigarettes and other knickknacks, which also sell tickets. As always, the tickets from the shop must be validated before boarding the train, tram or bus.

We took the subway back to the Mustek station and, as soon as we emerged onto the Vaclavske Namesti, we saw the city in a different light. In the haze of the early morning and almost devoid of visitors, the city seemed at peace. We were free to stroll down the street towards the city gate as we admired the amazing architecture. The entire city is like an open air museum. Everywhere you look you see something interesting, whether it be an elaborate statue inside its niche atop a doorway, brightly colored frescoes on the side of a building, facades painted to give the impression of three dimensions or hidden courtyards or cafes in between buildings. Before we realized it, we arrived at the city gate and marveled at its size. We walked through the gate and observed the details inside the arch. We continued towards the old town square stopping to check out a couple of the many shops that lined the streets. Without the throngs of tourists everywhere, the souvenir shops and exchange houses didn’t seem quite as offensive to the character of the city as they did the night before.




Upon arriving at the old town square we had to pause for a moment and take it all in. We looked around the square with mouths open as we admired one building after another. The square is dominated by a giant statue of Jan Hus, a Czech preacher who was tried for heresy and burned for preaching against church corruption a hundred years before Martin Luther.

On one side of the square rise the spires of Tyn Church, so named because of its interior courtyard that leads inside. In fact, we had trouble finding the entrance to the church because the outside of the courtyard is populated by cafe and there is only a narrow doorway in between the tables that leads into the yard where the entrance is located. Even though the church has been rebuilt and added to, there are records that mention a church and a nearby hospital in that same site since the 1200s.

We walked over to the Old Town Hall and saw the people gathering for the show as the astronomical clock chimes every hour on the hour, but the clock was being repaired. We had heard that the mechanical figures that danced around were nothing to write home about anyway so we went inside to climb up to the tower for a view of the city. After climbing several flights of stairs, one pays the admission and there is a glass elevator that only has two buttons: one for the top and another for the bottom. After some initial grumblings, the elevator took off and whisked us speedily to the top. The view from the narrow walkways around the tower was amazing. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but old buildings. I had seen a similar view in Salzburg on my previous trip to Europe but here the old city was much larger and almost all was extremely well preserved.




We set off in search of the Charles Bridges, which we had been told was not to be missed. Walking down the labyrinth of medieval streets, we were on the lookout for a place to have lunch since we had had an early start and were already famished. All of the restaurants along the route most tourist take to the bridge were twice or more what we paid the night before for the same food! Arriving at the bridge was like a revelation. There were Postcard-perfect views of the river in every direction. The bridge itself is a major art piece with intricate statues every few meters. By this time the tourist were out in force and the bridge was already pretty crowded; however, that didn’t matter to us anymore. We were happy to take our time crossing the 1,700-foot span admiring the artwork that formed the bridge itself as well as the artwork being sold by local artists along the way and the amazing alpine landscape that surrounded us. Near the center of the bridge there was a band playing Dixieland jazz. This odd soundtrack did not seem out of place, however, since there was such a festival atmosphere throughout the entire bridge.







On the other side we ventured off the main street to find a place to eat and our theory was confirmed as less than one block from the main thoroughfare was an Italian brick-oven restaurant with very reasonable prices. The food was quite good and substantial and the place had spades of character even if it wasn’t local cuisine. We took our time during lunch and recharged our batteries for the long trek uphill to the fortress that dominates the old city.



On the way to the castle, we stopped at the church of Saint Nicholas where Mozart once played the imposing 2,500-pipe organ. The incredibly ornate interior of the church, made up of white and pink marble and yellow gold, stood in stark contrast to the austerity of the German churches we had visited before. Every inch of the ceiling was covered in frescoes depicting angels and clouds and sky making you feel like you weren’t inside a building at all. The paintings also contained arches and towers with shadowing that created a three-dimensional quality and added to the illusion that the church went on and on forever without any ceiling. I guess the designers’ intention was to give the visitor a feeling of eternity like in heaven. We checked out the chapels were multiple clergy are buried and went upstairs to an exhibit of a series of paintings depicting the passion of Christ. On our way up, we saw a lady intently looking out a window. She happened to be Latin American and, when we stopped to see what she was looking at, she explained that they were unearthing a skeleton on an archeological dig next door. We thought there was just some construction going on; however, there was in fact an almost intact skeleton, skull and all, being unearthed. Even though some of the buildings we’ve been looking at date only two or three centuries in their present form, people have been living, worshiping and dying here since the first century and there is always the possibility that any new excavation could reveal ancient artifacts or even human remains.









The walk up to the castle was monumental to say the least. We had already walked quite a ways from the campsite to the city and we still had a lot more to walk. Once on the top, we were rewarded with even more amazing views.

We decided to forgo the museum located inside the palace and went straight to the Cathedral of Saint Vitus, which was only finished in 1929 but was started 600 years before that. If the size of St. Nicholas was impressive, St. Vitus was downright gigantic. It’s spires that reach up to the heavens and are decorated with every sort of mythical demon imaginable. Our European history book says that the decoration of doorways and spires of cathedrals was where medieval artisans could let their imaginations soar and I can see why. The outside of these large churches is completely covered with gargoyles and monsters more inventive than any modern sci-fi or horror movie creator could dream up. One could spend years trying to decipher every figure on a single church and would not be able to count them all; it’s incredible.

The church is done in a gothic style which, as we have learned, is meant to let more light in with its thin structure and arches filled in with stain glass; however, because of the darker materials used inside, the church looked gloomier than St. Nicholas. The stain glass does create a nice effect and when you look at it from a distance, you can see how detailed the scenes depicted in them are. It is hard to believe that the medium is crystal and not paint.

We descended from the castle and were able to witness the changing of the guard on one the guard posts leading outside the castle. I had gotten so good at navigating now that we were able to go straight to an underground station (which just happened to be the same one we arrived at the previous day when we were lost) and take the train to our next stop which was the so called Old-New Synagogue. This 700 year-old synagogue is one of the oldest in Europe and still remains after multiple fires and many massacres. The interior was solemn and simple with rough wooden benches around the perimeter and few furnishings and artifacts used for worship. Right in the center of the temple, sat the rustic stand where scripture is read using large rolls as has been done since antiquity. The building gave a sense of being much older than 700 years since it was remodeled fairly recently in an orthodox style. One could easily imagine such a temple in Israel during Jesus’ time or even earlier.

I wanted to visit the old Jewish cemetery, where 100,000 people are buried but, by the time we found it, we discovered that there was a separate ticket that needed to be purchased that gave you access to several sites and there wasn’t enough time to see them all. I had already purchased another ticket for the synagogue and it would not have been worth it to spend the money on the extra ticket and see the cemetery alone. Besides that we were so tired by now that I don’t even know how our legs were still able to hold up. We did not go back to the camper after the cemetery, however. We wanted to leave early the next day and still had some shopping to do and wanted to get online to talk to the family. Brenda was able to find some very unique jewelry at a place called Pilgrim and we bought some souvenirs; however, the rest of the shopping wasn’t that great. Designer clothing was particularly expensive here. A polo shirt from a place like Tommy Hielfiger or Lacoste would cost what amounts to over $100! There were T-shirts that were $80 and up and jackets that were almost $500! This stuff is overpriced as it is, but the prices here were incredible.

After spending some time at yet another smoky Internet café, we went in search for a restaurant. We ended up eating at the same place as the night before since it was very good and the prices were great. By the time we got back, we had missed the last boat and had to walk all the way back. On the island the road was in almost complete darkness at times and we prayed that this was a safe neighborhood but there was virtually nobody out in the street. Needless to say, when we finally arrived at the van, we were probably as exhausted as we’ve ever been. Despite the unbelievable surroundings this campsite has facilities that are… shall we say… “rustic”. We had considered putting off the shower for the next day when we would hopefully arrive at a modern and better-kept facility; however, after such a long day we needed the shower. You needed to put in a 40-crown coin to get hot water for something like 4 min. I was too slow and did not have any more coins so I had to finish showering with cold water in the unheated bathhouse when it was something like 40 degrees outside. Ouch! At least I forgot about how tired I was for a while. In the end Prague redeemed itself and seduced us so with its charms that we ignored the throngs of tourist and walk to exhaustion in order to experience every once of the city.