Finally, I felt I was in Prague! Prague Castle, Charles Bridge & Old Town – 17th June 2011

Tags

Castle, Charles Bridge, Old Town, Prague

Sorry about the brief hiatus I took from continuing on my experiences in Prague. I had gotten just a wee bit carried away on blogging about places I would love to visit.
So now back to Prague! 🙂

Finally had some time to tour around the real touristy sites. First on the list: Prague Castle.
Along the way, I was intrigued by the facade of buildings in Prague, the relatively flat non-protruding facade.

And then I got a bit lost trying to get to the castle and ended up on the Charles Bridge. This was supposed to be the second stop after the castle, so that it would lead me to the old town. So I quickly walked on this bridge to get to the castle. And it was at Charles Bridge that I finally felt like a tourist, like so many others there. 😛 It had seemed like 90% of the tourist populaion have descended on the Castle+Bridge+Old Town, especially in the old town.

Finally, after a lot of huffing and puffing, I finally made it to the Prague Castle.

And what an entrance! Just a tinge of violence, no? 😯

So when one continues walking, the imposing structure of the Cathedral of St Vitus comes into sight.

So I walked into the cathedral and one could only take a brief look if one didn’t purchase a ticket for more ‘sightseeing’. So I went to buy a ticket that covers most sights within the castle at the tourist office. 😎

Its so interesting that its the soot in the city that’s causing the darkening of the facade of these churches in Prague, giving it the distinctive blackened experience. But, personally, the air in Prague didn’t seem as polluted as that in HongKong, or worse, Shanghai.
The interior of the cathedral, with a tall nave.

Lots of lovely stained glasses!






Then out of St Vitus I went. Just some info….there’s a toilet just nearby the cathedral, which requires an entry fee. But that’s fine as the toilet was kept clean. 😉
One last view of St Vitus from the ground.

I continued walking until I saw a building with this poster displayed outside of it.

Well, just gotta go up to take a good look! There’s an additional charge to go up the tower for the spectacular views, of course!
So after more huffing and puffing, it was nice to catch some breaths while taking in the views.


Now, for the bird’s eye view:



This is a map of the 360 degrees bird’s eye view possible.

Off to other buildings!


I think this is the Basilica of St George.



I quite like this basilica. Nothing too showy and it exudes peace.
This is found at the exit of the basilica. Very pretty. And I was snapping away and while doing so, caught the attention of the guard. Who then mentioned something about photo sticker?? Did he mean I gotta pay to take photos????? 👿 Hmmm, not going to pay! Just as well I was more or less done photo-taking anyway! 😉


The most showy piece in the basilica:

And these were obtained from another building (Probably at St George’s Convent)

Continued walking and then suddenly there seemed to a lot of people walking about in that area. Turned out I had ended up in the Golden Lane. Golden Lane is an ancient street (dating back to 16th century!) where there are 11 small houses. I found the colourful houses very cute! 😀


So these houses now contain some armoury and are mainly souvernir shops.



The interior is separated from us by glass windows.


And the narrowest bed ever!

All the walking requires some good Czech beer. 😛

And it was good indeed. 😎
Back to more walking. Saw this rotunda on the way out.

Another view of the entrance. I’m still wondering the meaning of such gory displays.

View from outside of the castle.

Saw a cute tram along the way to Charles Bridge.

The crowd started to thin out outside of Prague castle but hey, I just needed to backtrack the route I took to the castle!

And finally at Charles Bridge. If I remembered correctly what I read in the guidebook, legend has it that along the bridge lies buried the real golden sword. So keep staying hopeful you will come upon some gold while at the bridge. 😉

Lots of statues of saints (I suppose!) along the bridge. Each of them a different one and I think the number lies in the range of 30s.


Legend has it that if one touches the feet of this statue (or is it the statue of the above pic?), one would return to Prague. Needless to say, there was a queue in line just for that activity. Yours truly joined the line of course!

Took me a while but I finally got to the other end of the bridge and whoa, seems like the entire tourist population had been hanging out there! My next destination in mind was the Old Town Square. But I had well and truly lost my orientation. My map was staring at me instead of me staring at it. So what does a savvy traveller do? Follow the crowd of course! 😎 Ain’t I smart? 😎 😛
Seriously, the crowd carried me to the Old Town square! And I was first greeted by the sight of the Astronomical Clock.

The Astronomical Clock

The Old Town Square with lots of space around. No claustrophobic feelings one sometimes get in Asian countries.

Old Town Square

And I got lucky to chance upon some sort of a food fair at the square!


Very nice food smell wafting through the air.


And I was feeling a bit hungry and got this potato dish.

Potato dish

The potatoes were a bit chewy, nothing like the potatoes I ever had before. It wasn’t bad but one could only take so much potatoes before realising they are not fries. 😯
There is of course the Jan Hus Statue in the middle of the square but it was not a very pretty sight with pigeons homing onto the statue.

Jan Hus statue

And then I saw this lovely church tower and realised it is the Church of Our Lady before Tyn. So I had went about finding the entrance, which took me quite a while because the entrance was through some sort of a building. Following the crowd helped me out another time, although the crowd was getting out from that portal instead of heading in. I soon realised why. Because it was closing time! 😡
I could only peek into the church from the metals bars covered with plastic. 😦 A real pity because the church seems quite stunning, with lots of gold embellishments.

Church of Our Lady before Tyn

Things seem to be winding down thereafter and I decided it was time to head back to the hotel lest darkness falls upon me.
And down this long escalator I took to head back to the hotel to pack up, as I have a morning flight back to CDG for my flight back to Singapore! I was missing home and was happy to start packing up. And nope, I didn’t buy much except for some postcards and that Lego torchlight, so no luggage woes on the way home! 🙂

Long escalator leading the way back to hotel

Enjoying the Lego Museum on the husband’s behalf – 16th June 2011

Tags

Lego Museum, Prague, Taj Mahal

So gotta get some glucose before heading to the conference.

Croissant, hotdog and ham 🙂

Off to conference. Was too lazy to head to anywhere during lunch break, hence I headed back to lunch at the restaurant in the hotel. Hmmm, I decided to have some pasta for lunch (did I mention the only restaurant at the hotel is an Italian one? And I’m not quite fond of italian food. 😯 )
And I was so pleasantly surprised by this:

It was such a refreshing dish of pasta!! Simple taste yet it kept me wanting for more!! I love it! 😀

So after the conference ended for the day, I headed to the Lego Museum! Although my husband is a lego enthusiast, even the offer of a trip to the LEgo museum couldn’t tempt him to Prague. 😐 Anyway, I offered to go on his behalf; I was curious myself.
To get to the museum, gotta take the metro. Pretty advance looking station huh?

This museum is actually a private museum, showcasing the private collection of a Lego enthusiast! Now, that’s what I call a true enthusiast! 😉
With this being a private museum, the collection is indeed very impressive.

Will just let the pictures speak for themselves.




I like this car!





Still in the first room.

Love anything with dogs 🙂

Moving into another room.

Taj Mahal - everyone knows this of course!

The lego version of Taj Mahal is really pretty. If it were on sale, I would have bought it.

Another room. But I’m not quite sure what series these belong to…I’m grouping them under Star Wars.

This is Star Wars for sure…




I was still awed by the first room and walked back to it to take just another look. The museum wasn’t closing, just that the lights are the control of motion sensors.

There’s this lego man at the end of the museum, at the area where kids are allowed to finally touch some lego and do whatever they want with it. 😮


And a souvenir for the husband. An eco-friendly torchlight. I had thought Lego would be cheaper in Prague because there’s a Lego factory in Czech but when I went home, and went shopping, saw the same model on sale for a much lower price! 😯 Well, the model on sale at home is blue and I’ve got the classic yellow one, so it ain’t too bad. 😳

And with that I went back to the hotel, looking forward to another nice dinner from the Italian restaurant. There’s nothing like a delicious salad! 😛

Lunch break at Narodni Museum & a little bit of Wenceslas Square – 15th June 2011

Tags

Narodni, Prague, Wenceslas

I had breakfast in the restaurant in the hotel. Croissants, yoghurt and fruits were available. Croissants while not as good as those in France, were still pretty yummy. So then I was off for the conference and nothing but science happened. turns out there’s about 2 hours for lunch. And the metro Vysehrad is about 3-4 stops from Wenceslas Square, I thought I could pop into Wenceslas square, take a look and grab some lunch.


The Narodni Muzeum (National Museum) is just in front of Wencelas square. Well, since like there’s nothing to do in Wenceslas Square but to shop, I decided to head into the museum and try to see if its worth paying for. So upon entering, there’s a couple of statues at the lobby.

And when one looks beyond the statues, one could see the lovely ceilings and staircases.

Besides the normal entrance fee for the museum, there’s an additional fee for photo-taking in the museum! Which I thought was ridiculous! And there’s also a fee for the audio guide. So upon adding up the entrance fees, the fee for the audio guide and the the photo-taking fee, its all adds up to a LOT of money! It ain’t cheap! I couldn’t get over the fee for photo-taking! Such fee is unheard of!! It seems that upon paying the photo-taking fee, one would get a sticker to paste on one’s top and one wouldn’t be hindered from photo-taking. Well, I was determined not to be ripped off (world savvy travelller tip #2)! 😡
The cashier reminded me that since I’m not paying to take photos, I can’t use my camera. And I simply put my camera into my bag to show her ‘Fine’! 👿
So I went into the main hall and I was taken away by the ceilings and the frescoes. Its pretty, but didn’t take my breath away like those in the Louvre.


See, I managed to take photos without paying a darn fee! Just make sure no staff is in sight when snapping away. 👿
This museum is really quite boring. Nothing very interesting. Eventually I stopped listening to the audio guide simply because I wasn’t interested anymore.

There’s a section on minerals and stones and I was interested mainly on these:

There’s an upper level you can go to, more on natural history. Seriously, I have seen better exhibits. 🙄 So the upper level is more interesting in terms of its interior decor, and that’s just about it.




Afterwards I went back to the hotel to read up on Wenceslas square and then saw the section on Narodni Muzeum and I saw something along the lines of ‘rather dull with lovely ceilings’. 🙄
Enough is enough. Out into real world again. And then I realised I had gotten a ticket even for the new wing of Narodni Muzeum. I was a little apprehensive as I walked towards the new wing, which is a separate building.


Well, the new wing was slightly more interesting as its more about modern history. And I saw this and I realised Mendel was a Czech. And I thought the only Czech I know is Tomas Berdych. 😯 Great work by Mendel, and I could totall understand his work. My understanding of Mendelian inheritance is actually quite good. 😎


So then I grabbed a burger and went back to the ugly conference centre.
After the conference was done for the day, I returned to Wenceslas Square and decided to walk around to check out what they have in Prague. And then I saw H&M. At that point in time, we didn’t have H&M in Singapore and I like H&M for the plain tops they have which are good for work. So of course I went in. Was quite happy to take quite a few pieces of clothings 🙂 until I remembered my luggage woes. Had to put the clothes back onto the racks. 😳

Wencelas square wasn’t very crowded. Which was a bit surprising to me. And this further reinforced my opinion of Prague being a fairly quiet city.


Know what? I’m missing Paris already! I walked around the square and didn’t see anything really interesting. I was ready to get some food for dinner and head back to the hotel and just chill. But there seems to be nothing along the main streets except for McDonalds (which I had for lunch) and KFC. So dinner was KFC. Pathetic I know, halfway round the globe to have KFC in Prague. 😥 Yeah I’m suffering from Post Paris Depression, otherwise known as PPD.

Off to Prague solo! – 14th June 2011

Tags

Prague, Vysehrad

I shall start off the Europe escapades from Prague as the photos of our France trip are in a laptop that I can’t find in the house! 😯

Anyway, after sending my husband off for his flight back to Singapore at CDG, I headed for my flight to Prague. Big problem we had was the huge amount of shopping we did…but we really didn’t buy a lot of things, i reckon its mainly the jackets we brought along for the unpredictable Paris weather. So all in all, we ended with 3 luggages (bought the 3rd one at the factory outlet at La Vallee). The plan was for him to bring back 2 luggages, freeing me to roam Prague with one. But we forgot about the weight limit! 2 luggages he was to bring back added to over 30kg, way over the baggage limit allowed. In the end, the airlines allowed only 26kg for him to bring back. So I had to deal with 2 luggages; although the total weight added up to 25kg, the weight was spread between 2 big luggages. BUT I forgot that my Air France flight allowed for only ONE luggage! OMG!! 🙄

So what did I do but use that brain of mine? One luggage was smaller than the other, so I transferred the contents of the bigger luggage to the smaller one and squeezed the smaller luggage into the big one! Voila! Now I have only one luggage! Back to the luggage check counter. 😎

‘Sorry, Miss, your luggage is over the limit of 20kg.’ What?? 😯 😯 Turned out the luggage weighed about 25kg! The very kind staff then said perhaps I could remove some books or items that I could hand carry and she’ll accept the luggage at 23kg. Well, I have no choice but to go back to one side and took out all those bottles of L’occitane I had bought. Back to the counter, to the same staff of course!
‘Very well, Miss. Luggage is 22.8kg and I will check that in. Just to double check, you do not have liquids in your handcarry bag?’. WHAT???? 😥 I swear I was that close to tears! ‘Hold on Madame, I have bottles of liquid in my handcarry bag.’. 😥 😥 😥 World savvy traveller? 😕

Back to the side to repack again. Finally back to the check in counter and managed to get everything in place. I am very certain, that very nice Air France staff was taking pity on me. And did I mention I got a few stares every now and then while re-packing, especially from the people who were sitting down in the area. In fact, a passenger on the same flight sure noticed all my antics and even congratulated me when I collected my luggage from the belt in Prague. 😎 😎 😎

Am I glad, I had lots of time to spare after sending my husband off and decided to check in early. By the time I got everything settled, i had like only 30 mins left. 🙄

Uneventful flight to Prague. Arrived there mid-afternoon. Changed money at the money changer at the airport, about 200 euros gave me quite a bit of Czech koruna. Then met up with the driver I had arranged with the hotel for transport. And first impression of Prague as we drove to the hotel, was it is a quiet city. Hotel I booked was Rezidence Vysehrad, which was actually a service apartment, with a balcony, nice bathroom and a kitchen.




And there’s some lavender plants!

And the park at Vysehrad that I didn’t expect would give me grief at night….

Only issue I had was there was no air conditioning. It was fine at night when it was cool but when the sun came out in the afternoon, my only mean of ventilation was to open the doors leading to the balcony. Oh and another issue was, the hotel is very close to the park at Vysehrad. On a night when weather was good, laughter and sounds carried very well to my room, and needless to say, I didn’t have a good sleep. But on the other night when it was raining cats and dogs, I had a most wonderful sleep! 😛

So by the time I settled down in the hotel, I had to go register at the conference I was to attend over the next 4 days. Reason why I chose Residence Vysehrad was because its less than 10 mins walk away from the conference centre. Gawd, the conference centre is ugly! So un-Prague-like! 🙄

Anyway, by the time I’m ready to go sightseeing, its about 5 plus. Not quite sure at what time the sky will start to turn dark. In Singapore, the skies would be dark by about 7.30pm everyday for 365 days. In Paris, the skies were not completely dark by 10.30pm. In Provence, it turned dark by 10.30pm. So being the world savvy traveller, I know that I shoudn’t be out alone in the dark in a neighbourhood I am totally new in, especially since a key is required to enter the hotel.

It turned out that Vysehrad is a bit of a tourist spot! Lucky! 😉 That meant I can pop over to the sight and run back to the hotel should it turn dark fast.

So Vysehrad is actually a castle containing the Basilica of St Peter and St Paul and a cemetery wherein lies many famous people. With just a very brief map I got from the receptionist, I headed towards where the entrance to Vysehard seemed to be. Saw a couple of people along the way; place didn’t seem too busy.

Oh, I just googled and read that this rotunda is that of St Martin and it dates back to the 11th century!!! 😡 And I passed by it without much of a glance! 😡 This means i have to go back to Prague again, no? 😀

So nothing really special came up along the walk until I saw this….

Ahhh, the basilica…So I kept walking towards the Basilica.
The basilica is just next to the cemetery. The way I was going seem to lead me to the basilica through the cemetery. You can see the tombs in the following photos. I wasn’t very comfortable taking pictures of the tombs so, sorry about that. But suffice to know that the tombs there are lovely! Some rather grand looking with lots of carvings etc. This cemetery is a really nice one because there’s a lovely piece of musical chime sounding from the basilica at every hour. Really melodious piece. The guidebook also mentioned that this cemetery is a popular one amongst the famous people because of its location at the peaceful Vysehrad and the music from the basilica makes for a real good resting place.

Hmmm, its sooty! 😐 I found out later that the soot in the air makes all these buildings sooty, thus giving them a distinctive dark coat.


I must say, I think I’m rather brave, a petite traveller, half way across the globe from home, visiting a cemetery alone in the evening. Anyway, I was glad to find the exit at the cemetery led me to the front door of the basilica.

I didn’t try entering the church ( I think I was just too chicken to probe around in a place where they might not speak English at all!). Sigh! Anyway, there was a couple at that area and they didn’t try to enter the church too, so maybe the church was closed? 🙄
So then, having lost all sense of direction, I just wandered along the path I saw in front of me. And I saw this:

And I walked and I walked and I think I got lost….


So the path I ended up walking was along these walls and it was completely deserted. Now I should tell you I had brought along a swiss knife I asked my husband to get for me. I just made sure my hand was clasped around the swiss knife in my bag in case something or someone springs on me (world savvy traveller tip #1) 😳 And I know some bodycombat! I went for classes in the gym! 👿

Anyway I knew I was lost, so I backtracked and walked back to the basilica and from around the basilica, I saw the path I had used to walk up the cemetery. So I walked down the same path and I heard a sound I like a lot – the sweet sound of a tennis ball striking the tennis racquet. Turned right and I saw a clay court with players on it! That sure made me smile as I remembered what just transpired in Paris when a certain charming Spaniard won the French Open title for the 6th time! 😀 😀 😀