Day 11 - Praha, Ceska Republika

On our free day in Prague (Praha as the locals call it) we had a sleep in, so did not venture into town until 9.00. We went first to the castle, which is more like a village, on a hill with fortified walls and many buildings within the walls. We found the jail and torture instruments which were pretty gruesome.

We stumbled upon "golden lane" which is a lane of small houses built under the arches of one of the fortified walls. The lane is very pretty with colourful houses which are now souvenir shops with hand made souvenirs. On the top of the wall was a display of suits of armour and I got to shoot a cross bow.

We then explored the castle rooms, which were mainly rooms used for state business, like court and meetings. After this was another impressive church, St Vitus's Cathedral, around 700 years old filled with beautiful stained glass windows. There were plenty of relics of saints in this cathedral, so it must be a pretty holy place.

By the time we finished in the cathedral it was 2.00pm and our tummies were rumbling. We stopped at a cafe inside the castle walls and Stef tried Czech beef goulash. It was yummy flavour but had chewy meat.

We then went to the Charles bridge which has artists lining each side selling their paintings and painting portraits. The bridge had beautiful views. While we were on the bridge it started to storm and I think that I got some awesome pictures. We could not find any paintings we really liked on the bridge, and we lost our friends Lee and Maew as we were walking around, because it was so busy!

Stef had really sore eyes so we found a pharmacy and got her some drops. We also found some great souvenir shops and spent $$$. Before we left NZ we saw on the warriors Facebook page babushkas painted as sports teams in a shop in Prague. We found this shop and bought ABs and warriors babushkas. Lucky we did because Stef would have been pretty sad if we didn't!

Just before 6 we returned to the old square, which was even more beautiful during the day! We went to an Italian restaurant right next to the astronomical clock and had beer and bruschetta while we waiting for the hour to strike. On the hour a zillion tourists arrived and watched the twelve apostles come out of the clock doors.

At about 5.59 the storm started again and the marquee we were under almost blew away. When we finished our beers and left the restaurant it was so could and rainy that we all needed jumpers (even me!). Libby, Stef and I got awesome matching Prague drinking team jumpers.

We then went to explore the Jewish quarter, but unfortunately the cemetery with 12000 people was closed. The cemetery is so packed that all the tombstones are squished in together.

We then looked around for a traditional Czech restaurant and found a small pub-like place with a medieval torture theme. The beer was great of course 39 Czech krona (approx $2.30) for 0.5l! The menu was limited, so I had fried cheese (a traditional dish), Stef had corn chips and salsa and Libby ordered pork knuckle (again traditional). The menu said the pork knuckle was 185 CZK for 1kg, which Libby asked for. When it came out it was huge! She managed to eat most of it (with our encouragement of course), however, when the bill came (which was simply a list of values added up on scrap paper) she had been charged 388 CZK!! When she queried this the waiter said he thought we would like to share so they gave her 2.2kgs. Well played waiter. We were also sold bread we didn't want, which tasted gross. At least this was only 40 CZK though.

After dinner we returned to the old square one last time and decided to go to the top of the church tower. Luckily for us there was a lift. By this time we had been walking around for about 12hours. It was 9.00pm and we saw beautiful views with the sun setting. We also saw the bugle player play his song up close.

We returned home on the train after a quick visit to the powder tower and new Jewish synagogue. We were exhausted and after checking that Maew and Lee made it home we went straight to sleep.

Photos (we took a lot in Prague!):

1. People waiting to watch astronomical clock at 9.00pm
2. Me in St Vitus's Cathedral
3. Libby's pork knuckle with meat cut off bone
4. View from tower at sunset
5. Prague beers
6. Prague drinking team
7. Me outside St Vitus's
8. View of Prague from castle
9. Tyn church from old square tower at sunset
10. Fried cheese and pork knuckle
11. Stef on charles bridge
12. Babushkas!