We took the metro to Malostranska from where we continued on a tram journey to the Prague castle.
The Prague castle is the largest castle in Europe and therefore we dedicated most of our time wandering around the castle, visiting the lovely Basilica of St. George, museums and exhibitions, also part of the castle as well as some buildings that belong to the castle.
You can buy different tickets, depending on what you want to see. John and I went for the 'small' tour for the price of CZK250, which included the following:
- Old Royal Palace
- Basilica of St. George
- Rosenberg Palace
For almost double of the price you can add the following to the tour:
- The Story of Prague Castle
- Convent of St. George - National Gallery
- Prague Castle Picture Gallery
- Powder Tower
For more detailed information about the Prague castle, click here.
We must have spent at least 2.5 hours at the castle if not more, so plan enough time for the castle visit.
There is a summer palace we wanted to visit too but it is much further out and you have to take a tram to get there. Unfortunately, John and I could not find it. It was clearly marked on our street map but when we got off the tram stop we were suppose to get off, we could not find any signs for the summer palace.
Several streets are leading into different directions and it was way too cold to check them all out so we left after approx. 10 minutes of wandering about. To be honest - I doubt that it was open at all as it was the end of January and this sight might only be open during the summer.
I recommend to ask at the tourist office for advice before you start exploring the city :-)
Nevertheless, it was an interesting journey on the tram. I love people watching and interestingly, there were more old people on the trams than young ones, and I am talking about the locals, not tourists.
Back to Mala Strana, still on the west side of the Vlatava river, also called the 'Moldau' in German language, we took some photographs of the front of the Charles bridge.
Before we went for a walk over the famous Charles bridge, we went to a lovely restaurant for lunch. I was keen on trying the Czech goulash with their famous dumplings so we both ordered two portions of lovely goulash and two pints of local lager. It was delicious!
The stroll over Charles bridge was interesting but immediately, John and I knew that we should come back at night when all the lights are on. Especially that particular night when we were there as it has been snowing during the day and we were hoping to get some lovely photographs taken (don't forget your tripod!).
Because we had a very late lunch, we did not feel extremely hungry but we were craving for cakes so we walked around the old city until we found a nice cafe bar called Cafe-Cafe. The cakes were mouthwatering and the ambience was really nice. We ordered two amazing looking cakes and a bottle of lovely green Veltiner white wine and looked at the photographs we took during the day.
Our hotel had a small sauna which could be booked for private use so we warmed up in the sauna after we returned to the hotel.
Later in the night, after a quick nap (we were exhausted from all the walking around with freezing temperatures), we went to the Charles bridge again and took some fantastic pictures. We were extremely lucky as there were only very few people on the bridge. It was approximately 11.30pm and around -2 degrees Celsius. Lovely!
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at another bar for a shy good night drink.
The next day would be as exciting and busy as the previous day but we had only 3 days and wanted to make the most out of it.
So watch this space for further updates!
--> Photos of day 2 of our Prague visit
No comments:
Post a Comment