The Czech Republic

Here's the first installment of the promised pictures. Our first stop on our trip was Prague. We arrived at about 1:30pm and after finding our guest house and dropping off our bags, we immediately hit the town. This is the main square of Prague's Old Town, aptly named Old Town Square.

This a side view of the tower where the astronomical clock is located, and the tiny church that is attached. This is also in Old Town Square.

Here's the astronomical clock. It tells the month, date, sign of the zodiac, position of the moon, saint's day, Bohemian time, temperature, whether or not the Twins are up against the White Sox....Ok, so maybe not all those things, but it tells a ridiculous amount of information with all it's little wheels and minute hands, though I never could figure out where it told the time. Each hour little figures come out from the top two doors and a bell chimes. (Joe would have really loved it if it could have given him an update on the Twins. Eventually some other tourist saw Joe's baseball hat and gave him a copy of an American sports newspaper, so he could find out what had been happening.)

This is Tyn church, also in Old Town Square. It was the main church of the Hussite movement for 200 years.

Here's the powder tower, where the stored all the gun powder back in the good old days. This is just off Old Town Square.

Our first Czech beer. Joe was really excited to sample the beer here, and particularly these in the cute little glasses.

After that first beer, we had...another beer. We stopped in this teeny restaurant on the way back to our hotel, and it turned out to be some of the best food we had in Prague. Joe and I are both drinking a Budweiser, though a far cry from the Bud here in the States. This is the original Budweiser, brewed by Budvar in the Czech Republic. The American Bud ripped off the name and tastes nothing like this (hence the reason we're actually drinking it). The original Budweiser is sold as Czechvar here in the states, though it's not nearly as good from the bottle.

Here's Joe sampling the local fare. It's pork with two different kinds of kraut: one sweet and one more sour. It also came with little potato-pancake type things that were delicious.

Here's our hotel in Prague, Hotel Anna, which is definitely recommended if anyone's planning a trip here. It was about a twenty minute walk from Old Town. The extra distance from Old Town is worth it for a little extra quiet, though this does explain why my legs felt like they'd run a marathon by the time we left Prague.

This is the view from our window at our hotel.

Our hotel was just off this square, Namesti Miru, where there was a handy metro stop under this church (or it would have been handy if we had chosen to use it rather than walk walk walk).

The second day we went across Charles Bridge to the Little Quarter and the Castle Quarter. The gate behind me leads to the Castle Quarter. The Castle Quarter was my favorite part of Prague. Old Town was cool, but the rampant tourist kitsch got old pretty quickly. The Castle Quarter felt a little more authentic.

We got to the Castle Quarter early, so we were able to duck into the Golden Lane here when it was free, and not packed with other tourists. Most of the shops were still closed, but the lane of tiny houses and shops was still cool to see. This is where the goldsmiths used to live. Very small goldsmiths.

Inside the castle courtyard is also St. Vitus Cathedral, which is a huge imposing church. They're currently working on cleaning up all the black gunk from the outside, so one side was covered in immense scaffolding (this turned out to be a theme for the trip). The church was started in 1344 and finished in 1929. Yes, those dates are right. Along with all the gargoyles and Gothic decorations on the church, there are also carvings of some guys in suits. Those are the guys who actually finished the cathedral.

Another view of the exterior of St. Vitus.

More of St. Vitus...

Here's the inside of St. Vitus.

One of the stained glass windows in the cathedral, reflecting against the gilded painting on the wall.

Here's Joe taking pictures in St. Vitus. I figured I'd get a picture of him doing this, since this is the pose he had most of the trip. (This is why you'll see many more pictures of me than him.)

The organ.

St. Wenceslas is buried in St. Vitus, and we thought this must be his tomb, because it's so darn shiny, but after we were back in the hotel we consulted the guide book and apparently it's the tomb of St. John Nepomonk, a saint of the Czech people. Guess that's why you're supposed to read the guide book while actually in the buildings you are touring.

This is a view from the Strahov Monastery, overlooking Prague. You can see St. Vitus Cathedral on the left.

Here's a self-portrait of Joe and I in the same spot.

This is the street leading from the monastery back to the Little Quarter.


Joe liked his first dish of Czech food so much he had basically the same thing again. This time it came with dumplings rather than the potato-pancake things. Joe was in love with the kraut during our whole trip. He learned his lesson after the mystery meat pates in England, though, and ate his favorites frequently but in moderate portions, rather than gorging himself all at once. I'm glad to say this trip therefore had far less gastronomical excitement than the last one.

Here's a view of the Castle Quarter and St. Vitus from below in the Little Quarter.

After several days in Prague Joe and I were ready to get out of the city, so we took some day trips to nearby towns with their own castles. This is a picture of the first castle we went to, Karlstejn. This is the first view you get of the castle on the hill above the little town after walking from the train station. You come around a corner and suddenly this this, like something straight out of a fairytale. The castle was built in 1350 to house the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire.

Here's another picture of the castle, and below it is the little restaurant we ended up eating lunch at.

After following the twisty little road up to the castle, we decided to tour it. Joe is displaying one of the granola bars we bought earlier in the day. He got a kick out of the name.

Here's a view of one of the towers from the castle.

Joe on one of the castle walls.

A view of the town and the valley below the castle.

Here we are eating (and of course drinking) at that little restaurant below the castle. The beer we're holding, Gambrinus, turned out to be our favorite beer. We stayed in the cute little place for awhile and enjoyed several more (this is why it was ok that always walked rather than take that handy Metro).

Our last day in Prague we took another day trip to Benesov, another little town outside Prague. From the town there is a clearly marked trail through a large and beautiful forest to this castle, Konopiste. This is what our guidebook said, anyway, and as it turns out, the trail is definitely marked very clearly, but only when coming from the castle toward town. If you're coming from the town, it just so happens that there are about five other clearly marked trails through the large woods, leading who knows where. The forest was definitely pretty, though it became slightly less so after an hour of aimless wandering. Luckily we finally saw the big white turret of the castle above the trees, and were able to start heading the right direction.

The interior of the castle is meticulously reconstructed based on photographs taken around 1900. We toured the private flat on the third floor, and it was lavishly decorated, though most of it was with antlers. The castle belonged to Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Hapsburg throne, and he was more than obessed with hunting. He killed more than 300,000 animals, and most of the trophies are used as decorations somewhere in the castle. After touring the castle, we walked back to the train station in Benesov (only took 20 minutes on the well marked RED path), and then caught the train back to Prague.

After touring Konopiste, we went back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and then walked right back to the main train station to wait for our night train to Krakow. Our guidebook said that you could book a sleeping compartment, which was our plan since I find it impossible to sleep sitting up, but we were never offered a choice. Instead, when the ancient, incredibly dirty train adorned with much graffiti pulled up, it was cars and cars of compartments like this one. We managed to get our own compartment, but I slept for a total of about 45 minutes during the 8 hour trip. Luckily I had a good book...and was able to buy two more for the next leg of the journey.

That's it for the Czech Republic. Stay tuned for Poland and Hungary!