Our second day in Prague we spent mostly at Prague Castle. Prague Castle is the oldest part of the city, and inside the castle walls there are a bunch of palaces, Saint Vitus cathedral, a basilica, a jail, military stuff, and a ton of other buildings that were residences that are now shops and smaller museums. We got up pretty early in the morning, and walked across the Charles bridge. This bridge is so famous in Prague! For hundreds of years it was the only way to get from the main castle area to the Old Town area. Since we were there early, it was pretty empty, but during the day it's usually packed with people. I took a lot of pictures of the bridge because as you walked across it into the castle area, it had such a feeling of walking back in time.
To get to the castle area, most people take a tram because it's up a huge hill (which is why they built there to begin with). But we decided to walk, and had some amazing views of Old Town across the river. Unfortunately the sun was still coming up and so we couldn't get any decent pictures, but the views from the path were amazing.
Finally, we made it up to the castle gate!
We opted for the ticket that lets you go in the most buildings, which we didn't regret at all. They have some amazing displays set up, and it was totally worth it. We started off with the oldest section of the palace. This is the main hall. The hall was huge, and had a giant staircase off one side, built just so they could bring horses up into the hall for jousting in bad weather.
Next, we went through an exhibit of the history of the castle. It was really neat to see how the castle started and changed. It was amazing considering they built everything before cranes and other heavy machinery! I was kind of amazed, there seemed to be a good crowd in the castle area, but there was almost nobody in the history exhibit. It seemed a shame.
After that, we ducked in the Basilica of St. George. It was the second church built in the castle area (the first is gone, the third is the cathedral), and has a much older style than the cathedral.
Right next to that, in the Convent of St. George, which houses the National Gallery. We made a quick buzz through here, but we had seen so much art in Russia and knew we were in for a lot of Van Gogh in Amsterdam, so we didn't linger too long. Like the history exhibit, it was pretty much empty, which made me kinda sad.
After a short break, we walked down to the far end of the castle, where we went through the prison and the Golden Lane, which was once barracks but is now little shops. It was so crowded in the shopping area that we scooted out of there pretty fast!
On our way back up to the cathedral, which we had planned for our last stop, we went in the powder tower. It houses and exhibit about the history of the Prague Castle Guard, and had a lot of cool military artifacts.
Our last stop in the castle was St. Vitus Cathedral. Neither one of us had ever been in a Gothic cathedral before, and it was so amazing! The buildings are all very close together so it was impossible to get a good picture. This was the best I could get of the front of the cathedral.
This is the inside facing the front, from about halfway up.
Facing the back, from the same spot.
The organ pipes, because I'm a dork and are totally fascinated by them.
A tomb, made entirely of silver.
St. Wencaslas Chapel.
The organ pipes again, I think this gives a better idea of just how big they are.
After the cathedral, we decided it was time to find some lunch. On the city tour we did the previous day, the guide mentioned the Strahov Monestary near the castle area that has been brewing beer off and on since the 17th century, but is now privately owned and has a great restaurant. So we headed on over there. It was so good! The food was amazing, and most of the seating was outside. The day we toured the castle area was one of the few nice days on our trip (that's what we get for traveling in October!), and so we sat outside and enjoyed the sun, the food, and plenty of beer. It was pretty late when we got there, maybe around 1:30, and I think we ended up sitting there for probably 2 hours. It was the perfect way to relax after a morning of sightseeing!
When we finally were tired of sitting in the sun, we decided a nice walk past the back of the castle and through a park (sort of on the way back to where we were staying) would be a good way to end the afternoon. Here's a picture of the cathedral, from the back side.
We also walked past the summer palace, right outside the castle area.
From the park, we had an excellent view of Old Town, across the river.
By the time we walked all the way back, we were pretty tired. So we spent the rest of the evening again sitting in the town square area, drinking beer and people watching. A great way to end the day!
Our third day in Prague, we decided to go on a beer tour. We had been talking about trying to make a day trip to Pilsen (yes, the home of pilsner beer), but by this point we were pretty tired and didn't feel up to it. So beer tour it was! We didn't actually take any pictures because the weather was so bad and, really, there wasn't a lot to take pictures of. Well, other than us drinking beer! And eating, of course. We went to 4 different breweries/brewpubs, and had beer at all of them. The one place we didn't go was Staropramen, one of the best known Prague breweries. So we headed over there. We just missed the last English tour, but we ducked into the tasting room and were able to talk the bartender into hooking us up! It was a great ending to our day of beer.
The next morning, we were off to Amsterdam!
