For those of you who do not know, my ancestors on my father's side came from present day Czech Republic. So you can imagine that one of the destinations on my "To Travel To" list was Prague, or Praha in Czech (simply Prag in German). Robert's son David has also never been to Prague, and so when Robert told me of an idea that he had to visit it 'on our way' back to Würzburg so that we could both experience it, I readily accepted!
It was about a five hour drive from Stuttgart to Prague, somewhat shorter with the help of the autobahn, which doesn't have a speed limit. As we approached the capital, we could smell it before seeing it. As Robert informed me, being that Czech Republic is still a relatively young country attempting to recuperate after a long and hard communist occupation, it is still quite poor in many parts. As a result, new forms of energy production are still young (we did see a few solar farms) and coal is still the primary fuel burned for warmth. The smell was definitely intensely noticeable, however I didn't find it unpleasant. We checked into our hotel around 21:00 (yes, I have been converted to a military time supporter now due to it's lack of potential confusion) and then had a quick dinner up at the second level of the hotel. The hotel was two buildings. The first had 8 levels, this was the one we stayed in. The second had I think some of the extravagant suites, as well as the restaurant, and was accessible from the first building by way of a tram. We asked our waitress how to say "thank you" in Czech, a potentially helpful phrase, and the answer is "děkuji". Yes, it looks intimidating, but phonetically is not pronounced "dah quee" ...or at least fairly close to that, she understood well when I repeated it that way. I must say, my heart beat with a couple proud pounds as the words of the 'Pavlik' language came out of my mouth.
We would only have around 6 hours in Prague the next day before we would have to race back to Würzburg to drop me off and then Robert and David would return to Stuttgart so we turned in for the night and in order to prepare for an intensely packed following day.
We woke up the next day and partook in a truly amazing breakfast offered by the hotel. After this we packed up our things, drove into Prague, exchanged a little money, and began the tour of the city...
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| Adam and Eve Church...Adam is the slightly larger one on the right. |
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| Tower modeled after one in Venice. The good king captured the clock maker who created the one in Venice in order that he could make one equally as beautiful there....and then after completion gauged his eyes so he couldn't make any more. |
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| Why use a file for your feet when you have 32 degree Celsius water with hungry fish in it? |
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| National Museum |
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| St. Charles Bridge |
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| Statue on St. Charles Bridge |
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| View of the city from Pražský hrad (Prague Castle) |
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| Entrance way to the fortress and cathedral |
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| St. Vitus Cathedral |
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| It had the most gorgeous stained glass I have ever seen |
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| Into the dungeon |
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| Hmmm....doesn't look like the most enjoyable toilet |
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| Just enough room for a criminal to fit into |
There was also a small street fest going on in the more downtown part of the city. We scouted the booths, filled with tantalizingly delicious smelling foods of many sorts, and were able to somehow make a choice as to which we wanted for lunch. We then made our way back to the car and returned westward, back towards Deutschland, work for Robert, school for David, and the first of classes for me. Many thanks to them for hosting me for an amazingly fun week and a couple priceless excursions!
I can say that Prague was easily one of my favorite places out of all those that I have visited. I am not sure exactly what it was about it, but I felt completely at home there and loved the architecture, history, and culture of the capitol. An extremely interesting and beautiful city which I definitely hope to return to at some point in my lifetime!
