The hotel had a really great continental breakfast, so we joined a cute older couple from Spain + a giant tour group from Russia and loaded up on breakfast before we walked (hiked?) up to Prague Castle. I want to say it was about a 2-mile walk, but the second half was a rather steep climb. We burrrrrned those calories. Our path took us back through Wenceslas Square, Old Town, and the Charles Bridge before we headed up. The day was beautiful, and the weather was great, so the walk was really nice.
Taken from the bridge.
Because we got an early-ish start on the day, the bridge was waaaay less crowded. So much nicer.
Heading into the streets around the base of Prague Castle.
This was the beginning of our climb upward. We just did not even know.
It was a gorgeous, extremely quaint journey up to the castle, the path winding through what I would call "quintessentially European" streets and buildings: narrow streets, cobble stones, window boxes. It really felt like we were walking through scenes from a book. We did not do an official tour of the castle complex or buy tickets to go into all of the buildings, so I don't have lots of fabulous pictures or stories about those things. We wandered around and enjoyed the views, primarily. I have since learned that the castle dates back to the 9th century, and that it is the official resident of the president of the Czech Republic. It's pretty sprawling and encompasses many buildings, including several chapels in addition to the cathedral.
Views from the top
Not sure why I was leaning in so far...probably resting after our climb.
The cathedral inside the castle grounds was stunning.
Flying buttresses. See? Arts in Western Civ was not for naught.
Seriously. It was breathtaking. And simply enormous.
You can't quite tell in this picture, but there is an amazing spiral staircase in there.
While we were being SUPER cool on the way out and translating some Latin on a sign (#thephdwifelife), we saw this cardinal (I believe?) walking through. Brad snapped this as proof.
Castle gates
To add to my ever-growing collection of lamp post pictures.
After leaving the castle. we decided to swing by the Kafka museum. Neither of us are exactly Kafka fans, but as he is a famous Czech author and we were in his homeland, we thought we check (Czech? <--sorry. Had to.) it out. When we got there, the museum admission was more than we wanted to spend on something we only sort of cared about, but we wandered around the bookstore for a while, looking at some of the neat Kafka paraphernalia.
On our walk to the museum, we passed a bookstore, and the main book in the window display was Metamorphosis. What are the odds? Probably decent, if we're being honest.
The museum.
View of the Charles bridge from behind the Kafka museum.
After making our way back toward Old Town, we went to the traditional Czech restaurant we'd learned about during lunch the day before. That was an excellent decision! Brad had something duck, and I had goulash in a bread bowl. It was fantastic.
When we finished lunch, we made our way back to the Old Town Square to check out an art exhibit we'd seen advertised the day before. There was a triple exhibit of Dali, Warhol, and Mucha, and we decided we wanted to see the Alfons Mucha exhibit (partially because he was Czech and partially because I really liked what I'd seen of his work). It was fascinating and really beautiful! I'd never really seen his work before, and I kind of loved it.
More views from the square.
Mucha
An ad for the exhibit featuring one of his pieces.
We had another early morning flight the next day and needed to get to bed early, so we wrapped things up on the early side, after wandering around for a bit longer (and eating more trdelnik. We may or may not have returned to the Italian restaurant for dinner before packing our bags and getting ourselves organized for our travel across the ocean. It happens.
The next morning, we had to leave Prague (sad) but were excited to head back and see the girls. We really did miss them! In the airport, I spotted this sign:
and had to take a picture in memory of Last Holiday. Does anyone remember that movie? Brassarts love it, so I was excited to spot this.
Also, on our flight to Amsterdam, we were seated smack in the middle of the Netherlands' national men's volleyball team. Y'all. They were so TALL. Brad sneaked this picture of the SHORTEST player. Look at the 5-ish inches of head clearance he has! Most of the other guys actually had to tilt their heads to the side a bit and walk out slightly leaned over to get off the plane. What in the world?
Thanks for following along with our European travels! We had a fantastic time, and it was so good to remember what it's like to finish complete thoughts and sentences with one another, rather than reminding children not to interrupt. :) I hate having to play blogging catch-up for so long, but I'm always glad when I've gotten it done.
Next up: Greece! Wait...what??
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