Today, we went for a walk in Prague. First we walked down to the Charles Bridge. This is the big famous bridge in the city that has many great views and a bunch of artists that put up shop on it during the day. The statues on the bridge were fantastic and it was nice to be able to walk down it and see what all the merchants were selling. We didn't buy anything, but many nice pictures were to be had. The bridge was having some renovation done to it, so it was partially closed. However, this allowed you to see how they were restoring it (you could see all the original stones labeled and stacked as well as the inner guts of the roadway).
After the bridge we walked up to the Castle District and did the tour. It was quite a climb up the hill with the final portion being at least 120 steps but once you got to the top, the view was incredible. You could see the entirety of the old and new towns of Prague as well as some of the districts up on top of the hills. Entry into the castle got you access to 5 sites (we saw 4... The Cathedral, Basilica, Golden Road and Palace). Some of the sites were closed, but the St. Vitus cathedral was amazing as well as the Basilica and Palace. We rented the audio tour gadgets that let us know what we were looking at as they didn't have descriptions at the sites.
After a light lunch and a walk around the rest of the area, we walked to the tram to take advantage of our 5 day pass. This let us get on and off whenever we pleased so we went to to the metro and took the train to the Baby Tower in the west side of Prague. This is a very large TV tower that has some viewing platforms and a restaurant. It also has about 10 very large babies crawling up the side of it. Contrasted against the gray sky it really looked like a testament to the Communist era absurdity that created it. The district that the tower was in was the first really poorer area that we saw in the city. During the day it seemed safe, but at night I do not think I would want to walk alone there. Needless to say we found a cool pub called the Cool Pub that had really cheap beer. We also found laundry soap that was not over priced so we can use the washing machine and have non-petrified feeling socks. There was also a Petro-Canada station, which was a very strange thing to see in the Czech Republic.
We then took the train back to a shopping district and visited a Prague department store. We found a new mouse for $10 (so nice to have). We considered getting a cellphone for $12 with 200 minutes but decided against it. Rea bought a new pair of jeans (Cherokee brand). We then bought some beer, sandwich fixings and other food for our trip tomorrow (more to be explained later in the post).
For dinner we went to the Moon Chinese restaurant and had some hot and sour soup, beef stuff, chicken stuff and rice. Not bad for the price and kind of a neat small feeling setup.
Tomorrow we are going to Kutna Hora which was the whole inspiration for this Europe trip. The town has an ossuary in it that has all sorts of things made from human bones. I imagine it will be the size of a small bathroom so I bet I will be slight disappointed, but since it was what set us off for wanting to come here in the first place, it will be nice to see none the less. The town is an hour out of Prague so we will catch the morning train and make a day trip out of it. There is also a Gothic cathedral to see and a silver mine, so I am sure we will have lots of fun there. Lots of pictures to follow...
Pictures brings up another topic. The Internet here is very slow, so it is hard post photos. Hopefully in Venice we have a better Internet situation and we can get posting again. Right now, I think we will have to deal with just text updates unless someone hits the Turbo button on whatever router we are tapping in to.
Follows are some more thoughts on Prague...
I think that everyone here has a Weiner dog. I have seen at least 20 since I got here and many of them run around with no leashes on in the park (other dogs have them on). Maybe Weiner dogs run free here and this is the natural habitat. Maybe they eat the pigeons...
The transit system is awesome. Best I have seen yet in Europe (which has only been Amsterdam, but whatever). There is no reason to use a taxi as the transit can get you to within a 5 minute walk of where you need to be.
Prague also has some shady characters. More than Amsterdam. Keep an eye out for them.
5 days will not be enough time in Prague. Plan to spend at least a week or come back (which I hope we do some day).
Your beer comes with a head on it. Don't worry about it as it is part of the experience. Beer head tastes better when you are on vacation. Also, don't buy beer in the tourist areas unless you like to pay more then you should.
The cobble stones are very slippery when they get wet.They also hurt your feet after a week and a half of walking on them.
Czech Crowns are kind of hard to deal with. There are about 10 varieties of paper money and many coins as well. It is very easy to get your head turned around with it when you are not really paying attention. The iPod Touch has a currency converter program on it that makes figuring out what stuff really costs a little easier, but the rule of thumb is 100 Crown is equal to around $6 CDN. At least that is the ratio I use.
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