Prague, Day 1

We wanted the chance to visit Prague, and even though we were going to go closer to Christmas we decided to make the trip now so we wouldn’t get stuck by any lockdowns or quarantine. After Zoey’s gymnastics class on Friday we took the train all the way up to Prague, which took almost seven hours. The kids did really well, even though it was a long ride. We walked to our hotel which was right on Wenceslas Square. There was supposed to be a Christmas market in the square, but they were closed down. However, there were still several stalls still open, even against the rules of the city. For dinner we got some food at the market stalls and took it back to the hotel to eat.

The next morning we got an early start. This guy was sitting on the bench right near our hotel, and we had a discussion about what he was looking at.

Our first stop was the Prague Castle, which we took the metro to get to. We walked up, up, up the steps to get to the castle, but the view of the city was lovely from the top of the hill.

The buildings in the castle were all well-kept with some very old buildings next to ones that looked newly restored. There was a straw nativity in the middle of the square, which was interesting. In fact, we saw several straw nativity scenes throughout Prague.

St. Vitus Cathedral was our first stop in the castle, and it was rather imposing both outside and in. The outside is elaborate with all the spires reaching to the sky and it is the centerpoint of the castle.

The inside of the cathedral has some of the most beautiful stained glass I have seen, and so much of it! The pictures definitely don’t do it justice, but the windows were so intricate with tiny, angled pieces and unique mosaic color combinations.

The other interesting component of the cathedral is the wood. The wooden doors were beautiful, and a juxtaposition to all the glass. The simple wooden carving of Jesus on the cross was in contrast to the complex doors. There was also a carving of the city of Prague. The rest of the church details were ornate, particularly the two-story organ.

We next went into the Old Royal Palace, which held rooms for the diet, and most impressively, the famous windows from the defenestration of Prague (all three times). This was one of my favorite stories from my advanced placement European History, so of course I had to tell the kids all about it. On the walls and ceilings were crests from all the important government families, and these beautiful archways led us out of the building.

We then went into the other church, St. George’s Basilica. This was definitely not as ornate as the cathedral but was founded in the 10th century. The inside is large and imposing, sparse and austere.

In the castle is the Golden Lane, a street on the edge of the castle wall filled with stores and dwellings decorated with furniture, items, and artifacts that represent different eras when people lived here. There were people still living in this stretch until after WWII! Franz Kafka also lived here for two years. A film historian, Josef Kazda, lived here and used his home to hide films from the Nazis. The house is stacked with film reels (or at least the boxes), and Zoey thought these were dishes!!! The second story of the wall of the castle houses an armor museum with armor, weapons, and torture devices from several centuries of battle. Outside of the lane is a round cannon tower with a prison in the basement.

We walked from the castle down to the Lesser Town, or the west side of the river. We walked by several Christmas trees, the Parliament building (definitely not as pretty as the Hungarian parliament), and down several lovely streets with few people.

We made our way to St. Nicholas Church, which although was another pink and white marble church seemed more ornate than most. There were lots of large white statues, some of which were in violent positions. All of the statues were looking down, which is something the kids noticed. We could go up to the second floor of the church which was neat. We liked getting to look down and across the sanctuary.

Not far from the church is the Lennon Wall, so we made a detour to take a quick look. This is a section of wall filled with graffiti, most related to local or global political and/or economic causes. The kids all got to write their names on the wall, which they thought was totally cool.

We made our way to the Petřín funicular which took us up to the top of Petřín hill. At the top of the hill is the Petřín lookout tower, which looks like a miniature version of the Eiffel tower.

Of course we had to walk up the 300 steps to the top, which wind around the outside of the tower. At the top you could feel the tower swaying, which was a little scary! Zoey found a painted rock up here and will keep it to hide later. The view from the top of the tower was great, and you could clearly see the Charles Bridge, the St. Vitus Cathedral (which looks black when seeing it from overhead), and the rest of the city.

From the top of the tower the kids saw a playground, so we had to stop and play. Zoey liked this tree; she said it looked like it was trying to hang on to its leaves with all its might. We took the funicular back down instead of walking because it was starting to get dark. On our was back to town we passed ‘the first non-smoking café since 2003’ and I had to get a picture as proof!

We walked across the Charles bridge, and although the towers at either end were illuminated the bridge itself and all the statues lining the bridge were not. We will have to come back tomorrow during the day to better see the bridge. Although we see a lot of street performers, these were arguably some of the best. One guy was playing the box as a drum, but I think it had some sort of synthesizer inside to change the sound though because it definitely didn’t sound like a box. The other guy first played a cymbal almost like an upside down steel pan with no mallets. He then got out a big horn and began playing that, making different sounds and beats. It was so awesome! We gave them some money, and I was half tempted to buy one of the CDs they had out.

Walking across Charles bridge brought us right into the city center, which was packed with people. So much for not having Christmas markets; the place was packed enough as it is even without them! The large buildings are lit up, which makes them really pretty.

There were lots of Christmas trees, which are especially magical at night. Willow had to stop at each one and sing ‘O Christmas Tree’. It was pretty cute.

The kids were ‘starving’, so we got them a snack, which for Ronin was a marshmallow mushroom (the only mushroom you will ever see him eat), for Willow was a gummy shark, and for Zoey wasa few pieces of caramel. Walking to Old Town Square we saw the astronomical clock lit up at night, even though it was not close to the hour so we didn’t wait to hear it chime. We also walked by the Powder tower and saw some nice Christmas lights on our way back to the hotel, even though the pictures don’t capture the sparkle of all the lights.

Just in case you didn’t know, our hotel made it clear the correct way to use the shower.