Thurs, July 24: The Prague Castle (pražská hrad)

IWe shook up our morning routine today by waking up extra early to beat the crowds at the Prague Castle. The walk to the castle was uphill but enjoyable, and only about five minutes from our hotel. The castle overlooks the city and its sea of red rooftops. Our first stop was the St. Vitus cathedral. It was first a rotunda in 929, and was further developed in 1344. The final façade was completed between 1871 and 1929. 

Are you God fearing yet?

Within the cathedral lies the St. Wenceslas' chapel. Good king Wenceslas was killed at the hands of his brother. A door in the chapel contains the Bohemian crown jewels, and only seven keys exist to the door. The jewels are viewed only about every four years (I picked this up from a tour guide standing close). 

Remember St. John Nepomuk from the Charles bridge? (Probably not). His tomb is here, and four life-size angels surround the tomb. 

Next on the list was the Old Royal Palace. The most exiting part of the palace was the window where the defenestration of Prague occurred. For anyone who has ever studied European history, this term has huge significance. Through this window, two catholic governors were tossed out a window, sparking the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Curiously enough, and apparently not important enough to include in history textbooks, the two men thrown out of the windows survived by landing on a dung heap and the church set up two obelisks to commemorate the miracle. 

The infamous window

As we sat down to see what was next on the agenda, feelings of exhaustion settled in, and mixed with the cold, caused a deep longing for a warm bed (for me, anyway). Because it was actually cold, and I didn't have a jacket, and we all needed a nap, AND our hotel was near, we decided to take our afternoon break a bit early. At 2:30, feeling refreshed and dressed in layers, we returned to the castle. On our second visit, we saw a huge exhibit of all things Prague. We learned about the first settlers of the area (they settled around the Prague basin and we saw some pottery shards), the early lines of kings (the Přemysls) the customs of the area, the burial rituals (they tied bodies down with rocks so they wouldn't come back from the dead) the jewelry (look at the picture!) ..well, we saw everything. 

As promised

We went on to walk around the Basilica of St. George which housed the remains of St. Ludmilla, king Wenceslas's grandmother who was strangled whole praying by Drahomirá, the king's mom. 

Chapel of St. Ludmilla

A quick walk around the palace gave an idea of daily life as a Czech royal, and a view of the Golden Lane provided some insight as to where rudolf II's marksmen would have lived. 

A (royal) room with a view

The inside of one of the cottages on Golden Lane

For the second day in a row the attractions closed right at five, so we had a long amount of time to get to the concert we were going to see at the Clementium Chapel of Mirrors. The hour-long concert consisted of a string quartet and an organist. Mozart, Bach, Smetena, Dvorjak and Vivaldi were all in the repertoire. It was beautiful and our hard fought front row seats were ideal. After the concert we went to dinner at a nice Czech chain restaurant that came recommended in our guidebook. Huge beers, goulash and Czech pancakes filled our table. If there is one thing to say about the food, it's don't eat the dumplings. Have your beer, your goulash and your schnitzel, but avoid the gross hunks of water and dough at all costs. Ew. In case that puts a downer on Prague cuisine, let me share a good use of water and dough: trdelnik. 

They translate as doughnuts, but the pastries are much healthier and debatably tastier. Wrap dough around and around, add sugar, cinnamon, almonds and nougat, roast over coals, and there you have it. Trdelnik. Now try and say it. 

We ended our night with a beautiful walk across the Charles. Will Prague ever cease to amaze? 

Na shledanou! (That's goodbye, you silly American)