Our walking tour with our tour guide started off at Hradcany Castle. Prague is separated into a few different areas of the city and this one is at the top and contains some amazing views. It also contains the royal palace and St. Vitus Church. The royal palace is still in use today as the government building. I really wanted to go into the church and when I returned up to this area later in the day I found out that it was closed for the day due to some concert. I was really bummed, especially because I had walked all the way there, however, the outside is very pretty.
After this, we headed down to the main square in the center of town. There is a lot in the square including two churches. The first thing we saw was the Astronomical Clock. Apparently, this is the oldest one in Europe and not only displays the date and the time, but also whose name day it is. In the Czech Republic, each day of the year has a name attached to it and babies have to have a name from on of those 365 names. Then, they get to not only celebrate a birthday, but also a “name day” based on what name their parents choose.
One of the churches is the Tyn Church. This church is a mishmash of gothic and baroque styles, which makes it very pretty. They don’t allow photos inside, but the outside is nice. The towers are actually different sizes and are sometimes called “his and hers towers.”
The other church is the Church of St. Nicholas. This church might not look as impressive from the outside of the Tyn Church, but inside a huge chandelier completely dominates it. When I first got there, mass was going on, but I was able to come back and get photos of the church.
After this, it was time for our river cruise. It was a relaxing cruise with an “all you can eat” buffet and I had Czech beer. Our guide on the cruise was very knowledgeable and we got to try traditional Czech food.
Fun fact: Budweiser is apparently Czech. I thought it was American but I guess not. I actually had it on tap for dinner.
After the cruise I basically wandered around. I crossed over Charles Bridge a few times. This is a really cool bridge that is very useful to get between parts of the city. It gets really packed later in the day.
I walked with George (friend from South Africa) over to the John Lennon wall. It used to just be a normal wall but it has become a place where you can legally graffiti. It is covered in messages and John Lennon’s face dominates over parts of the wall. The cool thing is that it changes daily so these photos capture a little moment in time.
After this I pretty much just wandered around. I saw a few random churches and ended up walking along the river. It was nice to just walk around with no idea where I was going. Tomorrow, we will be heading to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest.
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