Prague & Cresky Krumlov Czech Republic

Hello from Prague,

Where to begin? First I must tell you that Prague (or Praha as it is spelled locally) is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. You need to understand we are really into history and architecture. In most places we have been we would see a building here and then a while later you would see another building there that were truly beautiful well preserved examples of building art. However, in Prague it is like almost every building you look at is a well persevered example. You find yourself saying “look at that” about once per minute until you hit saturation.

We stayed at a hotel very near the old town square (I will include some pictures from the square below). It happened to be the weekend when Scotland was in town to play the Czech Republic in the qualification rounds for the European championships so there were about 20,000 Scot’s in town with their kilts and drinking and singing. We had been on the road for a while so the first day was dedicated to some housekeeping chores like laundry and I needed a haircut. We then set out to discover the city at Prague castle which is the largest in Europe. We attended a classical organ and violin concert in the beautiful Dominican church St. Giles where the organ is from 1732 and enjoying some traditional Czech food and local beers at several local restaurants. We also traveled to Cresky Krumlov which is a small mid evil town also incredibly well preserved about 2 hours by car South of Prague. There is no way I can impart just how many beautiful buildings we saw here in these few photos. I would say if you love old architecture from the 14th to the 18th century being here is as close to feeling like you are living in that time as I have found. Well let me get to the pictures and show just how beautiful these two cities are………

This is an overview of the city of Prague from the Prague castle. Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic and with 1.3 million people is its largest city. You can see how it is positioned on the Vltava River. It’s has been called the city of a hundred spires.

The next four pictures are from the Prague Castle Cathedral which was amazingly beautiful example of the overall castle architecture. The castle has a long history dating back to 890 when the castle was founded. It has been the where Kings of Bohemia, Roman Emperors and presidents of Czechoslovakia and now the Czech Republic have ruled.

Above is another shot of the Vltava River with the Opera house dominating the string of beautiful buildings along the river front.

Here is my funny street scene for Prague. When a group of mildly intoxicated Scotsman meets a group of parading Hare Krishna’s well… a street dance ensued.

This is the Astronomical clock on the old town city hall building. The clock dates back to 1410 and shows the phases of the sun and moon, the current astrological signs and, oh yes…the time.

These next photos are just selected street scenes from our wondering around the city. Many of these are not famous buildings just another beautiful building in Prague.

These next three photos were taken in the old town square where we stayed in the early evening. The large church in the last photo is Our Lady of Tyn church founded in 1385. Looking at it from the square just after the lights came on looked truly unreal…almost like a movie set then you realize…WOW! This is real!

These next photos are of Cresky Krumlov where we spent a day. The castle was founded in the early 13th century and has been owned and traded through several families over the years with the Rosenberg family being the longest single owner. The building itself is interesting as all of the block like decoration is painted on the buildings which are basically flat. They were very into cemetery believing it brought balance and contentment so if a room has a door on one side but not the other…they just painted one on the other side. The picture with fire below was where we had lunch…roast pig’s knee…yum!

Well that’s it for Prague and Cresky Krumlov. Sadly after four days we must travel on to Krakow to see the Salt mine and the camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau. I will catch up with you all as soon as we can.

Zbohem