A Quick Visit to Prague: Day 2

We'd planned to get up fairly early and walk most of our route today, but I was completely shattered so instead we invested in a £3 all day rover ticket for me (Ian travelling free of course). It was money well spent and saved our poor legs.

First stop was the Dancing House, resembling a dancing couple and inspired by Fred and Ginger it was built in 1994 and is occupied by a Dutch insurance company.

We then caught a tram and headed over the river to get the funicular up to the Petrin Observation tower. It was a glorious morning

At the foot of Petrin Hill this harrowing series of bronze statues portrays seven broken, decaying men descending a flight of stairs. These sculptures commemorate the victims of Communism in the Czech Republic and shows seven phases of a man living in a totalitarian state, representing the gradual physical and psychological destruction of humanity. A bronze strip that runs along the centre of the memorial tells the devastating story of the years between 1948 and 1989. Over 200,000 people in what was formerly known as Czechoslovakia were found guilty of political crimes. Of these, 248 were executed, 4,500 died in prison, 327 died when trying to escape the country and over 170,000 people fled or emigrated.

We were in good time for the half-hourly funicular ride and took our seats in the empty lower carriage with the idea we'd get a good view over the city as we ascended. Unfortunately just before departure a hoard of French schoolchildren got on and our view was totally obscured. And, as with the majority of French teenagers, their odour soon pervaded the tiny carriage. I did manage to push my way to the window and snap a couple of images.

Once at the top there was a lovely rose garden

and lots of trees - these lads certainly had their work cut out leaf collecting.

We walked quickly to the Petrin Tower as we wanted to beat the French (don't we always!!) It was built in 1891 and stands 63.5m high on top of the 318m hill - so we hoped for good views. Oh, and there are 299 steps.

This was the only place we'd been to that didn't take credit card, but the rather grumpy lady in the kiosk pointed us to a cash machine so we could get the necessary. There is a lift but it's so small that it's reserved and free for those with mobility issues and over 70s - hurrah, I just pretended to be Ian's carer but had to pay of course. The views were certainly spectacular but as you can see, the weather could have been a bit better.

St Vitus Cathedral and the castle complex with the high rise suburbs in the far distance.

Strahov Monastery

There are many palaces and houses contained within the castle walls

Towards the Old Town with the Charles Bridge in the centre

Looking upriver towards Fred and Ginger

When it was built, the Charles Bridge was the only river crossing but as you can see from this view down river, there are now many bridges.

A rather austere looking football stadium

On descending we then wandered through the park, past the monastery and down towards the castle complex. Firstly we visited the Loreto Church, one of Bohemia's most important centres for Christian pilgrimage. It has a Baroque facade but for some reason all I took was the bell tower and a door!

Quick rant - many buildings in Prague charge extra to use a camera, yet allow every Tom, Dick and Harry to use their phones indiscriminately. What's the difference? A photo is a photo, especially in this day and age when a mobile phone can shoot RAW and take huge, good quality images. Also, until you see what there is to see and the lighting conditions, how do you know if you want to use your camera - rant over.

Walking round the cloisters there were little chapels and statues to numerous female saints, each with a brief synopsis of their lives. The stories all followed a similar patter; beautiful young female, married king, became a nun/did charitable work, revered by all, fell out with king, got imprisoned, tortured on the rack or similar (which didn't appear to have much effect) and finally, beheaded. It doesn't sound very funny in print, but walking round reading about these amazing women and their lives and them all suffering a similar fate, we ended up with the real giggles. Anyway I took just a couple of phone picture, because there was no one around!

In the church were the most hideous cherubs and disembodied heads all around.

This one seemed to represent a dentist, with pliers and a tooth in hand.

Walking past the back of the Loreto, we spied this pool through a fence - I wonder if it's for leisure or maybe Baptism.

We were now in need to a sit down and reviving drink so stopped off in a little cafe for a cuppa and an expensive piece of cake - given the cost of it, we decided that was lunch! Whilst we were sitting there we heard marching music and the army walked past - it was then I realised the 12 o'clock Changing of the Guard ceremony was about to take place. We'd only just been served, so had no chance of getting down to palace in time to witness the whole ceremony but we caught the very end.

Meanwhile the artists in the area had to take a break.

And into the Palace Complex itself which contained many buildings but not much accessible which was disappointing. We bought a Circuit B Ticket which gave us access to 5 separate areas.

St Vitus Cathedral is a very impressive building but we were very close to it, so with a wide angle lens on perspective had to take second place. The building looks very different from 3 sides.

Inside there was a one way system and half way round I spoke to a steward about the camera v phone issue and he told me I could use my camera as long as it was without flash. So I then had to force my way through the hoards and start again. It is a beautiful building.

The caption on this wooden freeze depicting the Charles Bridge has date of 1630 but I'm not sure if that means it was made then.

The windows are rather lovely.

and the reflections too

From there we went into the Old Royal Palace which quite frankly was a complete let down. Having been round the glorious buildings in Copenhagen and StP we had high expectations but we could only go in a couple of rooms and there was nothing much to look at.

And then into St George's Basilica which was a rather plain but very serene chapel

Then on to Golden Lane, which is a series of buildings originally built in the 16th century to house the king's guards. Some of the tiny houses have been re-dressed to show how they were furnished in the 17-18th centuries, others are tourist shops.