After Berlin we took an early morning train to Prague. This was our first train ride in the light of day so that we could see the landscape. The landscape only remained interesting for about 10 minutes though, especially when you have caught a 6am train. So, we read and snoozed our way to Prague.
We had already reserved a room in a youth hostel when we got there, so we didn't have to worry about finding accommodations. Not that we would have had much trouble-- about twenty people jumped on us as we departed the train, telling us of their wonderful rooms. It was a little difficult to find the place that we had reserved. Even though it was on the fifth floor over the train station itself, it was quiet.
After we had checked in, we went out to explore the city. One of the first things we noticed was the large number of stores that sold fine crystal and glass. The next thing that we noticed was that (after of course clutching our chests at the actual numbers presented, then doing the conversion to American dollars) the crystal was all quite affordable. Cheap even. We calculated how much it would be to buy a set of crystal while we were there, but decided that we'd just get one pretty thing.
Once again we began our search for dinner. Our guide book once again promised an interesting restaurant, if we could only find it. The lure of a traditional restaurant seemed worth the long walk and bother of locating the place. It turned out to be in a log cabin behind a beer garden, behind a building on a street that branched confusingly several times. The atmosphere inside was festive. The stools were half logs with animal hides stretched over them. The single room had a giant grill in the middle and a live band consisting of three violins, stand-up (and strolling) base and hammer dulcimer. We had an interesting dinner of sausages, potatoes and other delicacies. Then we returned to our room for a good night rest.
The next day we decided to go to the Prague castle. This was an interesting
walled structure with many impressive buildings inside. We stopped in awe of
the imposing St. Vitus Cathedral. (It's even kinda spooky)
Inside the cathedral was richly decorated and even held an ornate altar
made of silver with angels and things on it. It was in this cathedral, that
I dropped Andy's camera on the stone floor. We were worried till we
discovered that this had fixed the flash, which was previously not working.
We also climbed up the cathedral's north tower (about 450 steps as opposed to
Paris' Notre Dame with only about 250). We're still not sure why we climb
the towers, the heaviest questioning of our sanitiy seems to come between
gasps at the top of the towers. But we were treated to a beautiful view of
the city through the morning haze. Prague is built on seven hills, and the
castle was definitely at the top of one of them.
Within the castle was the Vladislav Hall, also known as the Great Hall. At the time it was built, it was the biggest hall of it's kind in central Europe. This is where coronations were held, and it was even big enough to hold indoor jousting matches.
We even found an interesting toy museum on the castle grounds. There were toys of every vintage ranging from wooden and tin toys to old Steif mechanized window displays. They even had an interesting collection of Barbie dolls, which included some European versions of the doll, including French Riviera Barbie, who was topless. Not likely to be found in the United States.
That evening we wandered around the city again. Walking down the hill from the castle we crossed the Charles Bridge. This bridge has a sculpture about every 20 feet along both sides and was lined with street vendors. The vendors were closing up when we got there, so we hit the stores. We were searching for one really neat piece of crystal to be our souvenier. We eventually decided on a vase made by Ceasar Crystal, which is one of the better manufacturers in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately we don't have a picture to display here because it is still on a slow journey to the U.S.
There was plenty of entertainment. It seemed that there were about four
classical music concerts going on and at least two marionette operas. We
were unable to attend any of the performances as we had to catch a night train
for Munich on our way to Innsbruck. It will
just have to wait for the next
time.