Day 25 Prague

We had very good sleeps last night & started the day with breakfast in our hotel basement. It was very nice - big choice of juices, teas & coffee - and they very nicely made me a cappuccino.  There was bacon, scrambled egg, baked beans & sausages along with a European type breakfast of cheeses, tomato, cucumber, cold meats & a ridiculous choice of breads, rolls & croissants. As well as this was a big bowl of muesli and lots of seperate bowls of dried fruit & nuts so you could add whatever you wanted. Also fresh fruit, yogurt, and a selection of sweet tart, cheesecake type slice & a mousse type cake with kiwi fruit on top. Obviously we couldn't try it all, but we certainly ate plenty. We've got two more mornings to try the rest.

We then headed out and got on a tram to Ujezd which was near a funicular that took us up to Petrin.

At Petrin was an observation tower (modelled on the Eiffel Tower)

& a building with a mirror maze. The sky was a bit hazy to bother going up the tower for a view, and the view from Petrin Hill was incredible enough.

We didn't bother with the mirror maze either as the thought of feeling lost didn't appeal to me at all. Instead we wandered alone down the hill towards a monastery, pausing to watch a dark squirrel (Cam always seems to spot them). We also witnessed a woodpecker in action - cool!

 The monastery was a nice building, but we're accustomed to those now. We kept walking towards the castle area we had been at yesterday, but we were approaching from a different direction. 

We found Loreta (Loreto Shrine), Every single church or point of interest in Prague charges a relatively high entry fee, so you have to be selective which places you go into as there are so many it would cost a fortune. We googled this one and it had good reviews so decided to pay up, along with an extra Kc100 payment to be able to take photos. Very glad we did as it was incredible - very baroque with lots of angels, gold & diamonds to be seen.

A few ugly cherubs too...

It dates back to the 1600's and there were several tiny chapels, a treasury area with a famous diamond 'Monstrance' which was covered in 6,222 diamonds

....along with many other similar treasures.

And a few I'd like to take home...

There is also a newly discovered crypt with frescoes (Raising of Lazarus after Rembrandt).

The clock tower was also charming and chimed on the hour for us. The advantage of these entry fees is that when you do go in somewhere there aren't too many people getting in our way.

We walked on down the hill to St Vitus Cathedral & took a quick look inside.

It was very nice but didn't compare to where we had just been. We did decide to go up the St Vitus Cathedral bell tower though, as we were missing spiral staircases with 287 steps. We had to pay for this but thankfully there weren't many others on the stairs...there are no landings, just a continual spiral up, and you have to come down the same stairs. Would be very unpleasant if you had to pass lots of people as it was pretty narrow.

We made it to the top puffing as virtually anyone would and the views were fantastic...worth the effort!

Next we walked back down the pretty path we had taken yesterday towards Lesser Town,

but turned off under the Charles Bridge, as had read there was an alternative walk that was interesting. We found the infamous 'pissing fountain' & sat people watching for a while.

It's a bit cold on our faces today, our bodies are warm but the air is chilly, so decided to find a cafe or bar for lunch. We came upon many so called "typical Czech" places & picked one that we liked from the outside, even though it didn't look that busy. Got inside and it was like a rabbit warren with lots of little rooms and there were actually quite a few people there.

We asked for their recommended beer, as apparently Czech beer is very good & ordered our food. I ordered goulash with bread dumplings

& Cam ordered potato dumplings filled with smoked meat & onion with white cabbage.

Both were really yummy. There was also a stand with 10 pretzels on each table, so we shared one pretzel.  

I assumed it would be free but it was added to the bill along with a cover charge & city tax, so the final cost was considerably more than you'd expect from the menu. Then the waitress made sure I knew her service was extra (I'd read a 10% tip was usual).  We were still happy with our meal & it was good value when converted to NZD but you can see how tourists end up spending a lot more than they expect.

We then crossed a different bridge back to the old town in search of the Old Town Square, Tyn Church,  & Astronomical clock.

It was pretty crowded here & big Chinese New Year celebrations taking place so we didn't stay long. 

We found our way to the Jewish quarter & paid to go into a synagogue, museum & Jewish cemetary.

We couldn't take photos in the synagogue but could in the graveyard. Parts were interesting but not a highlight. 

We had pretty much seen all we had in mind for the day so decided to take the metro to Pragues main station to see where we should have got off yesterday. It was much more like we expected - very new, shiny & busy. The train platforms were confusing though & we suspect we would have struggled to find our hotel from there too.

We caught the metro back to our hotel & stopped off at the supermarket for breads and cheese to have in our room for dinner. We also googled Czech's top beer, and Cam found a bottle of it at the supermarket to try tonight.  

Only walked 16km today, but quite hard going on the cobbles!

I left Cam in our room for an hour & went looking for a small backpack to buy...but couldn't find one. We think we will struggle with a large bag on french trains next week so need to find a small bag so we can just have a small bag each. We are finding we can wear the same clothes for several days so should be able to fit a weeks stuff in a small backpack - not my usual style!

We think we have seen most of sights of Prague now, so tomorrow should be relatively leisurely.