Prague, the city of thousand spires

Wonderful Hradčany and changing of the guard

We dedicated the sunny day to visit Hradčany, the pearl of Prague. On the left riverbank of river Vltava is the medieval city centre Hradčany, the biggest castle complex in the world, part of Unesco’s cultural heritage. After strolling in Charles Bridge, we continued our path on the steep street. We were desperate to finally climb the endless number of stairs. Climbing the steep street didn’t seem to end. Finally, we arrived to the end. Before us was the magnificent castle and in front of the fence, a crowd of tourists. We heard some noise behind us and noticed the military guard, marching towards us. How lucky were we! Changing of the guard was just happening and we had a chance to see this event. We followed the crowd of tourists and went into the castle complex to see Hradčany. The entrance is free, but the guards have to check you. Behind the fence is a completely new, small world. Mansion of the Czech kings is now the president’s seat and it’s surrounded by wonderful gardens, cafés, the baroque church of St. Nicholas, the Prague castle and St. Vitus Cathedral where the Czech jewels are stored. We wanted to see Gold Lane, but we had to pay entrance fee for that (the entrance fee includes the castle and churches). The street from the 16th century used to be the street of goldsmiths, who used to live and work in these bright houses. Today, the Gold Lane is mainly a tourist attraction with many shops.

Mala Strana, Kafka and Lennon

We continued our path towards Vltaca and searched for Kafka’s museum in Mala Strana. Czech-Austrian Jewish writer was born in Prague in 1883. An exhibition, representing the writer’s life in Prague, is open for guests since 2005. Kafka felt dark and limited (trapped in the city) in the mysterious Prague and the hallways and rooms in the museum are also dark and narrow. The path leads us by the cases, displaying letters, illustrations, books, and the most famous works like Metamorphosis, The Trial and Amerika. After visiting the museum, we also wanted to see John Lennon Wall, which is also located in this part of the city. The wall itself wasn’t anything special a couple of decades ago, but after Lennon died in 1980, the wall on the lonely square in front of French embassy was painted with graffiti of Lennon, his favourite quotes and lyrics from The Beatles. The legendary rock star became a hero of many young Czechs after his death.

The city square with astrological clock

After visiting Charles Bridge again, we went on the other side of Vltava river. Stare Mesto neighbourhood represents the old historical city centre, which is beautiful. The big city square is surrounded by many high buildings and restaurants. On one side, there is a big gothic church with two majestic domes which reach the sky, or so it seems. In front of the gothic church is the church with the famous astrological clock. Near the main square you will also find Kafka’s birth house, but a nice little café with his photographs and his works in the ground floor was just being renovated in time of our visit. Despite winter, there was plenty of street artists and tourists. The cafés were full in the afternoon hours. A nice, cheap and cosy HI hostel is located near the old city centre and HI members have 10% discount on their stay.

Close by, hidden between the buildings is an old Jewish cemetery and Jewish museum. After three days of wonderful smells on the streets, we decided to try their specialty - trdelník. The dessert originates from Transylvania. Hungarian general and his chef brought it to Skalica, which borders Slovakia and Czech Republic in 18th century. Today, we find trdelnik in many Prague streets. The dough is baked on the open fire and is covered in sugar and various toppings. We chose trdelnik with ice cream and chocolate sauce. It was really good and three girls would definitely be full by eating one trdelnik. Czech cuisine is similar to Slovenian. We really liked their traditional soups. Mushroom soup with pouched egg and garlic soup with grated cheese and bread were excellent.

Plečnik church, the dancing house and moving statue

Prague is a really big city, but it’s easy to see every attraction. Most of the attractions is in the city centre and you can easily walk from one attractions to the other. Sometimes it’s good to walk off the main road, get lost and find an attraction without searching for it. Wenceslas Square is an untypical square, or better, boulevard. The road is winding uphill to the highest point of the square, where you will find the national museum and in front of it, a big statue of St. Wenceslas (Czech national hero) on a horse. Countless shops and restaurants, impatient drivers and many cars didn’t charm us. We took a metro (the ticket is cheap and the connections are excellent) to Vinohrady to see Plečnik’s Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord. It is interesting that Czechs do not know who Plečnik is, but we were still so proud that Slovenian architect left an important imprint in Prague. Monumental church is designed as an antique temple and is really something special, also because of the glassed clock on the dome.

On the way to the newer part of Prague (Nove Mesto) we visited Kafka’s statue. 3D portrait constructs and deconstructs itself, it spins in every possible way and becomes a portrait again in the end. Crazy! In this part of town, we can also visit the architectural beauty, undoubtedly the most interesting and the most visited building, the Dancing House, which was built in 1996. Baroque and gothic intertwine in the quarter, but on a crossroad of two streets, this unusual building dances and offers a wonderful French restaurant on its roof with the most beautiful view on the city.

A trip to Kutna Hora

We make every trip a little more interesting by going outside the city at least for one day. We did that on this trip as well. We decided to go to Kutna Hora, which is 70 kilometres outside of Prague and part of Unesco’s world heritage. The city is known by Sedlec ossuary, which is about 3 kilometres outside of Kutna Hora. 40000 to 70000 skeletons are “decorating” this chapel. We took a train again and the drive went by really fast - it took us only 45 minutes. We got off the train in Sedlec and followed the signs for the chapel. When we went down the stairs to the chapel, it gave us the creeps. It’s really strange and creepy to see all the skulls, but also really interesting and unusual. Everywhere we looked, we saw human bones, even the arch and the chandelier were made out of bones. The time stopped for a while and my blood was ice cold. We would definitely recommend visiting it. We took a train again to Kutna Hora and strolled through the city, visited the church and had a cake and a coffee.