One Week in Prague

Happy Holidays from Prague!   

My trip was a bit of a whirlwind and kicked off with an auspicious start.  I tried to fly out on Saturday in order to be there on Sunday, but after a three hour trip east as we were just about to go out over the Atlantic we were notified that there was a mechanical concern with the fuel in the wing and we were turning around to go to back to Chicago.  So after a six hour flight, and a total 10 hour round trip, I was right back at our house where I started.  Reboot to Sunday and I was back on my way.  The negative was that I arrived on Monday and missed a few of the morning sessions of my meetings.  All in all, the week went well after that.  It was a good session and I met a lot of new people.  Luckily, it wasn't all work and they had scheduled in some Prague tour time. 

We did a walking tour at two different times so I was able to see the bulk of the city which is great.  Boiling down all the pictures into a few that gives you a snapshot of my favorite sites proved to be difficult.

I'll start off with a church...for my mom's benefit...This church is several hundred years old and I remember it because it has a human forearm hanging inside.  The legend goes that a thief tried to steal Mary's jewels.  When he did so, Mary reached out and grabbed his forearm to stop him.  He screamed for help, and his forearm was ripped off as he escaped.  They hung the forearm (which is apparently actually human remains, but is so old you can't tell) from the wall to deter other thiefs.

The inside is very dark, and very cold.  It is very expensive to heat the churches and so they just don't.  As we were told, since church lasts for an hour they assume you'll be ok.  It was pretty chilly while I was there and sometimes you could see your breath which was a bit strange.  That said, it was incredibly ornate and beautful.

We did a lot of walking around the streets - one of my favorite pasttimes in European cities.  They have a distinct feel to them that I very much enjoy.  Many of the streets are cobblestoned - this one is entirely closed off to vehicle traffic for pedestrians.

Interestingly enough, most of the buildings in Prague didn't have numbers until the last century.  Instead they had ornaments on the building, and this is an example.  So instead of saying I live at 123 on X Street, you would say you live at the golden angel on X street.  There were many examples of these - there were violins, angels, chalices, etc.  all very unique and interesting.

We continued our walk into the Old Town Square, which is a likely destination if you're in Prague.  It's incredibly European and reminded me of similar squares in Poland.  Loved all the buildings and unique atmosphere.  There were Christmas markets set up, cafes, and many people milling around.

On the edge of that square is a beautiful church.  We were unable to go inside, but the thing is massive and is just so striking to look at.

Within the square, we also stopped at the clock tower.  Every day from 8am - 9pm there is a ceremony at this clock tower.  The clock itself is an engineering feat - it was built hundreds of years ago and yet tells the time, date, and astrological sign.  There are other elements, but I'm forgetting right now.  At the top of the hour, those two windows above the dial open and the 12 apostles go by the window.  There are also pictorals of some of the deadly sins - greed, envy, etc. and after the ceremony a man plays a trumpet signalling that we have made it through another hour.  I'm oversimplifying and probably getting some of it wrong, but it's a unique ceremony that has been going on for a long time.

From Old Town, you can look across the river and see the castle.  This is where our first tour ended, but since I was staying on Friday night I was able to do the second tour which took us to that side of the river.  So glad I did.

When you get Prague Castle, as it's called, you learn that it's not just one castle but a huge area of grounds.  We entered from the top, and came up to the back of it, where you actually drive in to the President's offices and residence. It's quite high up, and along that walkway you can look over the side and see where a giant moat used to be.  It has since been drained and is a valley of grass and trees, but I can imagine it when used for protection.

Once inside, this is the first giant courtyard we encountered.  The inside areas in this section are for public events and museums and such.  There were lots of guards walking around which seemed very German to me.  Many of us commented that the way they marched and such resembled Hitler's style.

From the entrance you also notice the huge Cathedral that sits in Prague Castle.  The size is immense and to me feels like two churches instead of one.  And actually, it took so long to build that the left side is in one style of architecture and the right side in a later period.

Up close, you can see that the entrance is very ornate.  The size of it is also hard to capture from the lowly 5 ft 4 inches tall that I stand.

Inside, it's incredibly beautiful.  We were not permitted to move from the back section as there was a ceremony in process.  This church is fully-functional and holds mass regularly.  This is another one of the churches that are very cold as money is not spent to heat them, but the stained glass windows were worth it.

We toured some more of the grounds, and then made our way down into the town below.  This was probably my favorite spot in Prague as it feels untouched.  I got a nice snap of the castle from down below, but just thought the atmosphere was great.  If I return, I'd like to spend some more time in the shops and cafes along here.

We returned to the other side of the river along the Charles Bridge which is aligned with statues.  St John Nepomuk, which is photographed below, has a really neat story and many people come to touch the bottom part for good luck.  He's the national saint of the Czech Republic and died in the Vltava river that this bridge crosses.  I'm not really sure that I even wished for anything specific, but did touch the statue just the same.

The trip ended on Saturday with a long journey home and I was definitely ready. I didn't land until almost 7p that night but was really happy when I walked in and saw that Sawyer was still awake.  She gave me many big hugs and told me she missed me which felt pretty darn good.  She was pretty wound up from dancing to Christmas tunes and I didn't help, so Sawyer stayed up till about 9:30 that night, and after an hour of "sleeping" ended up in our bed for the evening.  She's a bed hog but atleast she slept in till 8 the next morning.

Isla won the prize though - she slept till 8:45 that morning and gave me a chance to get caught up on some much needed sleep.  She spent the rest of the day letting me get caught up on some much needed cuddling.  She was very attached all day Sunday which I didn't mind at all.  Her first tooth finally broke through (so Mark tells me, I have yet to see it) and so she spends a lot of time gnawing on pretzel rods. 

We had a nice day catching up on Sunday, and tried our best to give Dad a much-deserved break.  Huge applause to Mark because he did fantastic watching the girls.  They had a two days at home with Grandma and Grandpa, which Sawyer is still talking about, but otherwise Mark held down the fort...not an easy task on your own.  And now we're hoping for a pretty quiet week ahead of Christmas.  It'll be a quiet holiday for us as we're staying home and have no visitors coming, but I think we figured out last night what our plan for the weekend is.  I'm excited - I think these two are really going to love it!