Prague – City Tour

Interesting journey getting to Prague.  Sitting at the gate in Minneapolis (MSP) at the very end of the concourse (very end=nowhere to go) waiting for our flight, three CBP officers quietly approach the group seated behind Tim, talk to a man, and handcuff him.  Guy sits down, another CBP officer joins, and within minutes lead the guy away….never to be seen again.  Impressed with how the CBP handled themselves but confused as hell as to where they came from and where they took the guy.  Seriously – we were at the end of the concourse!!

Pre-boarding finally started and then abruptly stopped.  The announcement said something about slight delay due to issue with door.  And then another “thanks for your patience, slight delay” announcement.  And THEN….”boarding will be postponed due to an accident with the door”.  WHAT!?!?!  Final announcement before boarding said something to the effect that the door issue was not something that would affect our flight.  *whew* Was beginning to think this was NOT a good sign!  Left about an hour late, which meant we would have to hoof it through Charles de Galle (CDG – Paris).

Never been through CDG airport, never need to again!  Worst airport we have ever seen.  Fortunately flights were delayed due to thick fog which allowed us time to get to our gate, time which was much needed!  We disembarked from our MSP inbound flight, immediately leaving a secured area….no Customs. 

Then we had to go through security to get to the transfer area for our gate.  Then we got on a bus and drove for freaking ever to get to our gate.  We literally drove under jetways, within feet of the noses of aircraft.  It was a tangled mess of roads!!  We were dropped off in front of our gate 58, but when we went in the doors, we were at gate 20 something.  Our gate was on the other side of a glass wall – we could see it through the window.  Keep in mind we are AT a gate.   A secured area, AT a gate.  We followed signs (past other gates) to get to Gates 40-70 or so…   following the signs led us to…   Customs.   Okay, no big deal, not long lines, so we went through Customs (even tho we were already in a secured area).  Still no big deal, until we rounded the corner with a loooong line in front of…. SECURITY???  We walked through multiple gates to get to the security?  Really? 

Once we passed security, we had to walk completely around the inside of the building to wind our way to the gate.  Finally time to board (almost 2 hour delay), we line up, boarding passes checked, and then we’re shoved on a very tightly packed bus.  Once again, we drive through some crazy tangle of roads (even crossed a runway, first waiting for the jet screaming down the runway) to our plane on the tarmac.  So crazy.  Takeaway lessons – AVOID CDG at all costs when possible, and anyone who says that ATL/ORD are the worst airports in the world have never flown through CDG!!

Once settled at our hotel in Prague we walked about 1.5 miles from our hotel toward Prague Castle/Old Town areas, mostly walking along the Vltava River.  The sun set while we were out so we were able to enjoy a lovely view of Prague Castle at night.  Once finished wandering around we hopped on the tram and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Here are some pictures from the short day.

Charles Bridge with Prague Castle in background…

And of course, it’s always yummy to grab some local street food…

First full day in the capital of the Czech Republic!  Hopped on the tram to head toward Charles Bridge again.  Ok, we hopped on A tram but not THE tram.  For the record don’t trust Jay to read tram numbers from a distance.  After a slight side trip to a random neighborhood we made our way to the right tram.  Along the way we noticed a road that was cordoned off by police officers.  There was a tent set up behind them so it looked like a festival was about to happen.  Fun later maybe??

Our walk to Prague Castle started with a walk across the Charles Bridge, constructed in 1357.  The bridge sits on 16 piles, each of which has a massive statue at the top.  Artists and jewelers line the bridge to pedal their goods and there are a few street musicians along the way as well.  After crossing the bridge we were on Mala Strana, a charming street in Prague known for shops and restaurants.  We slowly wound our way through/up the streets (up because we were at a constant incline leading up to the castle) to the steps leading up to the castle area. 

Charles Bridge

Old Town side of the bridge

The Bridge

Lessor Town Side of the Bridge

Mala Strana from the Bridge Gate House

The outside of the castle was cordoned off and monitored by police and at the exit of the palace was the palace guards (barely saw the end of the changing of the guards).  We walked around the square and decided that, due to the long line, we could skip the inside of Prague Castle.  We noticed a couple of vehicles with “Press” on the side setting up camp in the middle of the square.  We asked the police what was happening (thinking maybe it was the lighting of the mayor’s Christmas tree?) and they said there was going to be a demonstration.  If you’ve never experienced a strike or a demonstration in European countries, it’s interesting because they are scheduled (one year the baggage handlers at an airport were on scheduled strike from 1 pm – 3 pm).

After heading down the steps, we decided to step into St. Nicholas Church for a quick look.  Yet another spectacular European church!  The Bohemian Baroque architecture was dark but so stunning.  In addition to walking through entire sanctuary we climbed the stairs to the balcony thus got a bird’s eye view of the area.

After that, we found a charming little restaurant for lunch just off of Mala Strana, and then headed back over Charles Bridge.  We went directly to Old Town, got to the Astronomical Clock a couple of minutes before two therefore we got to see the top of the hour spectacular.  Tried to enter Church of Our Lady before Tyn but the church is closed for two hours in the afternoon. Got to peek through the back doors which, considering photography isn’t allowed, was just fine for us. 

And of course, a Beer Bike….  As long as you peddle, you get all the beer you want through a tube.

We could hear drums and saw flags in the distance, so we figured we must have missed a parade of some sort.  A stage was being set up in the main square of Old Town so again, must be some kind of festival or something going on!

Heading back to the tram stop, we again hear drums ahead.  We catch up to find a parade of sorts, with men in weird masks playing fifes and drums.  Can’t read Czech so we really didn’t know what was going on.

Once back to our hotel, we asked them what was going on in Prague.  Turns out that November 17^th is the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy.  It commemorates two very important events in Czech history – in 1939 there was a student demonstration against the Nazis.

Lives were lost and thousands ended up in concentration camps at that time.  In 1989 there was a demonstration against the Communist government which led to the Velvet Revolution (collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia and breakup of Czech and Slovakia). 

For the past 6 years, Nov. 17 has become “the” day to protest.  The marching drummers were staging a political protest of sorts. The demonstration at Prague Castle was a protest against the Prime Minister of Czech, who many believe is super corrupt/embezzled from the government.  So now it all makes sense – TV cameras, police all over, cordoned off areas.  Thankfully we missed all of the mess from these demonstrations!! 

Tomorrow – yet another adventure we cannot wait to share!

Huh?  Vienna you say?? 

Surprise – we spent the day in Vienna, Austria! 

It was a long day but worth it.  Tim wanted to see 4 Eastern European capitals – Budapest, Bucharest, Prague, and Vienna.  We saw two earlier this year, are staying in one currently, so decided to take the journey today to finish his “quad-fecta”.

We had a semi-private tour as there was only one other couple on the trip.  So, rather than a big ol’ bus we were in a 9 passenger van.  Much more comfortable and easier to navigate to some of the sites that were contingent upon the size of vehicle.  Our driver, George, was quite a driver!  Older gentleman, spoke little English, drove like a bat out of hell!  Our guide, Elena, told us it would take 5 hours to drive from Prague to Vienna (which, based on research, we knew was a high number).  Including the 20 minute “comfort stop” at an incredibly charming little Czech town, it took just under 4 hours.

Comfort stop…

Our first stop was Belvedere Palace, the former summer home of Prinz Eugen.  We were dropped off on one side (the Lower Palace) and walked the length of the gardens to the other side (the Upper Palace).  The Lower Palace has been used as a residence a few times and now houses art collections.  The garden between the two palaces is spacious, well manicured, and has several water features/fountains.  It is so beautiful in the fall we can only imagine what it looks like in full spring bloom!

George picked us up and whisked us away to our next stop, which was the last time we saw the minivan until nearly 6 pm.  In other words, we walked all day…..all day….miles and miles on cobblestone streets in the cold.  And we would do it again given the chance.

We walked to Hofburg, a building that has played a part in Austrian history for nearly 700 years and now houses a variety of things including the National Library, several museums, and the Federal President’s office, in it’s nearly 2500 rooms.  One monumental event that took place at Hofburg was when Adolf Hitler gave a speech announcing the “union” of Austria and Germany in 1938.

If you want a peek at how dirty buildings get over the years as they age, notice how the Hofburg looks blackish in some areas, and whitish in others.  This is not different materials, the whiter looking areas are where they’ve been cleaning the building.  (They are working on the whole building.)

Another stop we made was at St. Stephensdom (St. Stephens Cathedral) which was once the tallest building in Europe.  The current building was built in stages spanning a couple of centuries beginning in 1303.  As with Hofburg, this cathedral has been active in the history of Vienna.  Mozart’s body laid in state in St. Stephens, the catacombs contain the remains of many Habsburgs (arguably the most important ruling family in Vienna), and a multitude of artistic treasures are housed there as well. 

The bell in the bell tower is the second largest bell in all of Europe and was cast from the metal of captured cannons during the Turkish siege in 1683.  The interior of the cathedral is absolutely impressive, but the unique Baroque architecture of the exterior is impressive and amazing as well.

Mozart is everywhere in Vienna!!  He was born in Salzburg but is very much a claimed son of Vienna.  We made a quick stop outside of the last apartment Mozart inhabited in Vienna before his death.  One of thirteen apartments…who time to compose tons of music and move thirteen times in their adult life?!!

We also visited St. Peter’s Church, another impressivce specimen of Baroque architecture.  The dome contains a fresco of Virgin Mary’s Assumption, there is a magnificent organ in the back balcony, and when the church was overhauled many years ago many of the statues were redone in gold.  The gold really stands out against all of the dark features in the sanctuary.

We walked through several pedestrian/shopping areas and were continually amazed at the beautiful buildings tucked in here and there – a spire seen between two buildings, a dome popping over the top of a shopping center, even Roman ruins in one place (oh those damn Romans were everywhere!!  🙂  ).

Sunset is around 4:30 so daylight was fading during the afternoon portion of our walk.  It made for a cold afternoon, but a beautiful one.  The city has started hanging their Christmas decorations and those that were hung were lit.  One pedestrian area had massive chandeliers (well….light arranged in the shape of chandeliers), another had massive red Christmas balls supended over the walkway, and another area was setting up for one of the famous Christmas Markets that starts in a week. 

Speaking of Christmas Markets, we did get to see one but didn’t get the chance to visit it.  It was in the foreground of the New City Hall which is beautifully illuminated at night!!!  The bright lights of the Christmas Market and the ice skating rink added to the festiveness.

Vienna City Hall

Our return trip to Prague was nothing like the trip down to Vienna.  Snow was moving from north to south, Vienna is south of Prague so we travelled through the snow storm. 

Traveling through the Austrian countryside during a snow storm was certainly a wonderfully unique adventure, but our bat-out-of-hell driver’s skills kept us on the edges of our seats a few times.  Literally on the edge when he clipped the edge of the road!  Aside from the “excitement” of the drive, it was absolutely beautiful to see the trees perfectly covered with snow.

We woke up to a chilly, snowy Prague.  More of a rainy snow, but cold nonetheless!  We headed toward Charles St. Bridge again with no particular plans in mind.  Having time to spare before our afternoon activity, we decided to ride the tram line to the very end, giving us a true picture of life in Prague outside of the heart of the city.

We saw houses and apartment buildings, local shops (grocery, hair salons, hardware store, etc.), as well as schools and everything else you can imagine in daily life.  Definitely an interesting glimpse in contrast to the hustle and bustle we have seen of Prague in the last few days.

Our afternoon excursion was a trip to Kutna Hora, about 90 minutes outside of Prague.  Kutna Hora is considered the second most important city in Bohemia (the region of Czech that Prague is located in).

Silver mining was a huge boom centuries ago.  We visited Saint Barbora’s Cathedral, which is a nice Roman Catholic church.  If you’re wondering, Barbora is patron saint of miners.  And firefighters. And artillery. And chemical engineers.  And several other things.  Obviously she is a pretty busy saint!

We took a walk through the old cobble stoned part of town ending up at the town’s fountain.  What they call a fountain we call a cistern with spigots.  The town folks were dying from arsenic poisoning and the source was traced back to the water supply.  The town built an aqueduct (thanks for the brilliant idea Romans!!) that fed into this fountain thus allowing the town to have clean water.  And less dead people.

—WARNING—    —WARNING—

DO NOT PROCEED

IF DEAD PEOPLE (or bones)

is too graphic for your delicate sensitivities…

(it’s going to get real)…

Speaking of dead people, we visited The Ossuary in Kutna Hora.

Why does “dead people” bring this up you ask?  Because it is a chapel (sacred place) made of bones from about 60,000 people.  Seriously – you read that right….chapel made of bones (okay, maybe decorated, not truly made). Might sound super creepy but it is actually truly amazing!  It’s suprisingly artistic and beautiful.

The bones were from victims of a plague in the 1400’s (in other words, nobody was killed for the purpose of harvesting their bones).  A Cistercian monk decided in 1511 to use the bones to make formations in very tasteful fashion.  Due to a couple of chapel collapses, the formations have been rebuilt most recently in the 18th century.  The final decoration added to the chapel was in 1870 and the “author” signed his work by adding his name and the date using bones.

One of the most interesting pieces is the Coat of Arm of the Schwarzenburgs.  In honor of the conquering of a Hungarian fortification in the late 16th century, an emporer asked for an addition to the crest.  A skull (supposed to be a Turk’s skull) with a raven appearing to poke out the man’s eyes.

Without further ado (or description), we’ll leave you with a plethora of pictures from the Ossuary…

(cue the creepy music)

First, sorry for the tardiness in getting this post up.  We left our travel laptop at our family’s house over Thanksgiving.  Now, on to the post…

Last day in the Czech Republic!

We spent the day in the medieval town of Cesky Krumlov, located in the South Bohemia region of Czechia (if you now have Bohemian Rhapsody in your head- you’re quite welcome).  During the two hour drive, it started snowing.  It was a winter wonderland and added to the charm of the picturesque village as buildings were snow-covered when we arrived.

Our guide was a wizened older gentleman (kind of reminded us of a gnome), who liked to talk A LOT, but was overall very personable and nice.

This is him:

Our first stop was the Cesky Krumlov Castle complex.  The castle was closed but we were able to walk through the museum area.  There were the typical museum like displays, which if you’ve followed our previous travels you’ll know that in this part of the world, much of their history was violent and thus they take much pride in their arms and armor.  Similar here (although nothing can touch Peles Palace in the Romanian Carpathians).  Here are a few photos of both the outer courtyards as well as the museum to give you a feel of the place:

And of course much of the items of the day they used to live (showing bedrooms, offices, etc. along with other curiosities such as this collection…  (can you guess what they are?)

And of course all of these castles, manor houses, and palaces had to have a heating system for the harsh winters, so we found the typical heating “blocks” in many of the rooms, all quite warm and radiating off heat, functioning well:

Next we were able to climb the tower for a spectacular panoramic view of the town, almost 300 feet above the Vlatava River.  The wind was blowing and boy was it cold at the top (although we were able to stay warm from the 60,000 steps up to the top – or at least that’s what it felt like)!  Definitely worth it for the view and the pictures though.

Here are some pics of Cesky Krumlov proper, which is actually on an island, protected by the castle.

The claim to fame for Cesky Krumlov is that it is a very picturesque medieval town, still paved with cobble and quaint as it was back in the day.  While this is all of course true, it definitely caters to the tourist crowd, with mainly shops, restaurants, and lodgings along the cobbled paths.  Yes, there is still a large church, some apartments and what not, but it is mainly a commercial area.

The rest of the day was spent walking through the town, checking out the quaint shops and restaurants (okay, the ones that were open…..there were a lot of closed businesses that day!!).

Here are a string of photos showing the charm of a cobbled medieval town:

(This is just outside the castle gates, where you first come into the town.)

This was the main square of the town, of which the tourist center, the church, along with many restaurants and hotels were around.

And of course we were on our own to find lunch in the town.  We walked past a lot of restaurants that were closed, before we found a quaint (dare-we-say-hole-in-the-wall as it was the width of one archway) gypsy restaurant.  (It really was a gypsy restaurant, with items such as gypsy stew on the menu.)  We of course opted to have chicken schnitzel because that sounded very good at the time.

Here is the restaurant:

You can see the arch in the ceiling at the end, this defined the width of the restaurant.

And of course our chicken schnitzel:

It was getting dark as we were leaving, but as places began to light up, that made the town even more quaint and lovely.  Here’s an alleyway that as you can see was well lit, along with the castle “arches” that we crossed back under:

Upon returning to Prague we decided to go to Old Town for dinner.  Arriving in the area, we realized that we didn’t bring a camera or a phone and that we really should have.  After eating dinner, we headed back to the hotel to grab said camera/phone and then headed back out to take night time pictures of Old Town and Charles Bridge. Did we mention that we didn’t head back out until almost 11 pm?  And that the trams only ran until midnight??  Tim had us on a timed scheduled (x # of minutes on the tram, x # of minutes to walk, etc.) which we were able to adhere to.  The drawback to all of this?  By the time we got back and packed it was 1 am and we had to get up at 3 am to catch our flight.  SO worth it though to see Charles Bridge, the Astronomical Clock, and other sites at night!!

Here are some Prague-After-Dark shots…

This is Church of Our Lady before Tyn, which is across Old Town Square from Old Town Hall:

The astronomical clocks on Old Town Hall:

This is the Old Town bridge tower for the Charles Bridge:

And although we walked down a lot of dark streets, nearing mid-night, it did not feel unsafe at all (of course you maintain a heightened awareness of your surroundings, but still no feeling of evil doers you might feel in an American big city).

And we of course did our best to try and get a shot of Prague Castle across the river lit up at night.  That was a tricky shot, and here’s the best we could get on an iPhone…

Our trip home was long but uneventful. Got home in time to drop off our bags, pick up a new set of luggage, and head to the farm for Thanksgiving. 

Another whirlwind Collins vacation in the books!  Who knows where the next one will be?!  (Jay has ideas of course)