Prague Day #3

10/8/07

Today we went sightseeing in Old Town (called Staré Mĕsto), which is where our hotel is located. This is the “heart of Prague” where the government sits. It is near the Vlatva River, which used to constantly flood the city, so in the 13th century they began gradually raising the buildings by constructing new buildings on top of older foundations, which means that there are a lot of cool cellars and basements in a lot of the restaurants and hotels. So cool! The architecture of the buildings here is really beautiful and amazing. No matter what kind of building it is, even if it bears no important significance, it still is built with the same kind of beautiful architecture and sometimes even statues on it.

Through the middle of old town runs the Royal Way, which is kind of a like pathway to the castle. It starts with the Power Gate, which was begun in 1475 by King Vladislav II Jagiello as a ceremonial entrance to the city, but it was left unfinished when the king moved into Prague Castle. It’s still cool looking.



Then it goes along Celetná, which is a street that has a lot of restaurants and hotels on it, and then into Old Town Square, which is covered with beautiful buildings and churches,







Church of St Nicholas (we couldn't go inside)




as well as the Old Town Hall with the Astronomical Clock on the side of it. The Astronomical Clock is insane. It was built in 1410 by a master clockmaker and has different rings for indicating the regular time, sunrise and sunset, Bohemian time, the houses of the zodiac the sun and moon are in, and more.

Old Town Hall:


Astronomical Clock on the side of Old Town Hall:


After Old Town Square you come to Little Square, which is really just a small square with a fountain and some buildings, but they were cool looking.

VJ Rott building:





After Little Square, it continues on Karlova street, which has some churches on it, as well as the Klementinum, a Jesuit college, which later became part of Charles University (the large university in Prague built by King Charles - you will notice many other things with the name Charles as we visit them, like Charles Bridge, Charles Square, etc). We did not go to see Klementinum or the rest of the Royal Way yet because we are waiting to do that later in the week when we visit the Castle, so you will hear the continuation of the Royal Way when we write that blog.

We did venture off the Royal Way as well, and we went inside this amazingly gorgeous church called the Church of St James. It was the most amazing thing we have ever seen. Every inch of it had paintings, sculptures, and more. Even the ceiling was painted! These pictures don’t do it justice, but hopefully you will get the idea.

The entire church (or what we could get in the picture, there’s more on the sides):


The Altar (isn’t it amazing?):




The Organ (unbelievable):


Crucifix:


Virgin Mary:


Other Statues and Views of the Church:






Here are some other various pictures from around Old Town:

Hotel Pariz (I’m sure it’s way expensive):


TGI Friday’s sign (I refuse to go into any American restaurants while we’re gone!):


What this sign means, we aren’t sure. Don’t hit the kid playing ball in the street?


After sightseeing and eating (of course), we found a sports bar right near our hotel and hung out there all night. We met a cool group of Americans. The 2 guys work for a company that restores and refurbishes buildings all over the world, and they are in Prague working on the American Embassy! What a cool job! One of the guys has lived in Alaska for 40 years and his wife was there visiting him. The other guy is from Charleston, but neither of them spends much time at home. We have met so many interesting people on our trip so far. I love it!

After they left, we hung out and talked with our server. Her name is Adela and she was really cool.



Paul decided to take Irish Car Bombs, but they don't call them that. So far we have tried several Czech beers. Most of the restaurants only serve one kind of beer (Pilsner Urquel, Budweiser (but it's not the like kind we have in America), and some other ones I can't think of, all of which have been very good). But it seems like the bars serve more than one kind of beer. It is our goal to try as many as we can find, along with eating all the yummy food we can find (isn't that what vacation is all about?) ;)