We had rain overnight, not that we heard it, dear reader, but I was up early to hit the sights before the tour groups arrived and the school groups had crawled out of bed. Seriously. So many school groups. Are there any students actually in school in Europe?
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| The square was quiet. |
I wandered through the old town following, well, my instincts. The central square was easy (now) - it's so close to where we are staying. Not content with that, I charted my own course on foreign streets. Yeah, I had no idea where I was going. My sense of direction is usually pretty good, (except in London, no idea why). I trusted my judgement and ended up outside of the old town.
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| Never worked out what this one was about. |
The car traffic increased as did that of the trams. The number of people also climbed radically as I moved towards the main part of Prague. Probably time to turn for home. My marker is clear from just about everywhere, unless you are stuck in a narrow backstreet of towering buildings. The spires of the Týn Church, a fairy tale castle like rooftop. That's home and off I went.
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| How could you get lost? |
By the time I reached the apartment, I was a little cold. It was still cloudy and the drizzle, Hamburg style, never really stopped. Time for a cuppa and to plan the day in more detail. We decided to stay local because the weather was going to be OK, but still a little cold. As a result, this post will be more pictures than words. No, I don't believe me either, but that is the concept.
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| Why would you build in front of a church? |
Breakfast today was at Pauls, a French bakery chain. They were not as good as I remember, but everything was acceptable. Then it was back Billa for some grocery shopping and afterwards home to really begin the day.
On the edge of the old town, near where we had breakfast, is Powdergate, so named since it housed the gunpowder needed to fight off an attack. It stands as one of the few remaining original gates into Prague, commencing the King's way through the old town, across the river and up to the palace. The wall has long gone and Powdergate could do with a steam clean. And the 'straight road' resembles a dog's hind leg. A badly broken one.
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| Showing its age. |
Just around the corner is the Municipal House. It is beautiful, outside and in, despite the advertising banners that adorn the exterior of the building. The inside is all marble and stained glass and harks back to a bygone era.
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| It'd look better without cars in front. |
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| The café in the Municipal house. |
Next stop was Wenceslas Square. It is another world heritage listed 'must do' in Prague and is surrounded by history and historic buildings. The Grand Hotel Europa, known for its colourful façade is still undergoing renovations. No access. At the top of the piazza, well, it's not really square, is the Prague Museum, in front of which is a statue of King Wenceslaus I, also known as St Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia.
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| The hotel. |
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| The Wenceslas dude surveying his square. |
Leaving the good king Wenceslas, we charted a course for the State Theatre. Good King Wenceslas is today's title and I wish to distance myself from it as far as possible. It has been recorded by so very many people but to punish those do want to listen I have selected an extra special version. It can be found here.
Before we made our destination, we espied a Pandora store. Direction change. In we go. To be ignored by all staff. And three of them weren't serving customers. I'm sure they were involved in important work ... unlike serving customers to make a sale and keep the business afloat. Jayne did not buy a Pandora form Czechia. She was unimpressed by the staff and the jewellery on offer.
The Estate Theatre is an interesting building but we were unable to go inside. Outside shots will have to suffice. One of its claims to fame is that it hosted the world premier of Mozart's Don Giovanni in 1787. It is, in fact the only theatre left standing where Mozart actually performed.
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| A side shot of the Estate Theatre. |
The St Agnes precinct was next on the agenda. It is a convent founded by Wenceslaus' sister Agnes, who renounced all her wealth and titles to establish a Poor Clare order in Prague with riverside land donated by her brother. (I renounce my wealth, but you can just buy this for me, and ... ) Over the centuries, the site has been subject to the political machinations of various occupiers but it is now heritage listed and Agnes, who has been treated like a saint since the 13th century, was finally canonised by JPII in 1989. I'm not sure who paid for that. The grounds were interesting. Aside from a children's play area, there were sculptures strategically placed at every turn. We have little concept of the purpose, but they certainly created a talking point.
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| Go and play over there kids. |
After we wandered through this tranquil area, we stepped out onto a bustling four lane street to commence a riverside walk back towards the old town and the famous Charles Bridge, the King's way across the river to the palace on the hill. We did not dwell on this iconic bridge as it would be the focus of our next day's excursion to the palace.
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| Um, yeah, sooo it's a sculpture. |
Instead we turned back towards home and our final tourist destination for the day, the Klementinum precinct. A bit of an anti-climax as much of it is no longer open to the public. It apparently houses a fabulous Baroque library and has a long Jesuit history (but who'd boast about that: Abbott, Joyce, Fisher?) but we could not access it so it was a simple wander through some old baroque buildings to get to the other side towards the old town and home.
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| Bad light for photography. |
And with that, it was time to return to the tranquility of our apartment and rest for a while before dinner.
As always, decisions needed to be made about dinner. We checked the notes left by our hosts. We looked at web reviews. We pondered what cuisine to have. We reflected on restaurants we had passed on our walks. We finally made a choice. The restaurant that was closest to home.
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| Cute. Alforno was the restaurant. |
It was, yes, you guessed it, Italian. The octopus and risotto were superb. In fact, it was the best octopus I've had outside of Greece.
Time to rest our feet.
Until next time.
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