Reliving a Fairytale

As hoped for, I got a full nights sleep! We all slept well and allowed ourselves to sleep in until 9:30. We ate a simple but delicious breakfast of coffee and a beignet (from our hostess) at our apartment, then took off to explore Prague! Being my second time to Prague, the day was a mix of new and old. It will be better told through pictures:

Being close, we first walked to the Old Town Square:

The Astronomical Clock

John Huss statue

We then walked to the Charles Bridge...the oldest in Prague. *sidenote: while on the bridge, a man on loudspeaker started talking to the whole city and then an air raid siren went off. It made us feel like like we'd been transported back to the war era! (They only do this once a month)

Then up the hill to the Castle:

There was a man creating HUGE bubbles

At the top we viewed the "Castle"...which is actually a large Cathedral. That threw the girls off a bit. But their government buildings are still located there, so I suppose it is still like a castle...just not the old building that looks like one. The Prague castle is the largest ancient castle in the world!

At first we were confused about the second clock below the first one. But after looking closer (and having what we began to refer to as a Sherlock moment...because I am currently reading Sherlock to prepare for London :) ) we realized the top clock tells the hour and the second clock tells the minutes. 

The view from the top was also incredible. Prague is one of the most beautiful, fantastical cities I've been to!

We stopped for lunch at a little cafe and ate in the courtyard. Funny story: we were looking up good places for lunch and a particular restaurant looked good to us. We followed Whitney's phone to the spot...but couldn't find it! We started walking down to look but the arrow on her map would go away from the restaurant. So we just gave up and ate at the cafe (which turned out to be very good anyway). But as soon as we left the cafe, we walked down the street and literally the next door down was the restaurant we had been searching for. :)

After lunch, we started exploring. Our aim was to reach an "eiffel tower" structure on a hill nearby (called The Petrin Lookout Tower). On our way, we discovered a beautiful garden walkway by the castle that offered scenic panoramic views of the city. 

Cute backyard

The tower

Much to Anya's dismay, I expressed interest in climbing the 300 stairs to the top to see the view. :)

Apparently we counted 299, but close enough. 

Yay! We made it!!

Actually, it really wasn't that bad. :)

A picture just doesn't quite capture it fully

We really liked the old wall that ran along the outskirts of the castle. We later found out that it is called the Hunger Wall. King Charles had it built to help reinforce the border. Myth states that it helped provide employment for the poor during the famine of 1361. 

We thought this was a sport stadium, but after asking, we discovered it was originally built during the communist reign as a place for public speaking. 

Looking at our maps to find our way out. 

While walking down the hill, we followed a cobblestone path that led us through lush forestry and occasional sneak peaks of the views beyond. 

At the bottom of the hill, we walked along the river and made our way to the John Lennin wall. It was a sign of protest during the communist reign. 

On the river, people were riding different boats. My favorite was one that looked like a giant chocolate car. 

Tired, thirsty, and hungry, we made our way to a coffee shop aptly named I Need Coffee. 

We continued our journey to Wencelaus Square and wandered along the shops. 

I think the coffee kicked in

We found a traditional Czeck Restaurant for dinner and shared a plate of venison with potato rösti and potato gnocchi covered with a mushroom and parmesan sauce. It was delicious!

After dinner we walked back to the Old Town square and tried looking for pastries for dessert. We weren't having much luck, until we asked some tour guides if they knew of any. Luckily, one of them remembered a shop that is always open during their night tours. We found it easily and took an almond croissant and a Trdol (I dare you to try the pronounciation of that one) back to the square where we sat, talked, and enjoyed watching the people around us. 

Eventually, we made the short trip back to our apartment for the night. 

Before leaving, I got a Fitbit with my new phone so it's been fun to see how many steps and how far I've walked each day. 

Stats for the week so far:

Monday: 15,040 steps, 6.47 miles, 55 floors

Tuesday: 19,868 steps, 8.54 miles, 46 floors

Check this out-

Wednesday: 32,058 steps, 13.78 miles, and 84 floors!

Funny moments from the day (mostly just funny to us, but if I don't write them down, I'll forget):

*According to Whitney, the fountains we saw outside are drinkable unless otherwise stated. Yet when we tried to fill up in a bathroom sink, she didn't recommend it. Anytime we saw water, we began asking Whitney if it was drinkable. :)

*We became Sherlock and solved mysteries: the clock (hours/minutes), my watch (was it recording stairs or floors?), people coming up on our way down (but it was separate from the upstairs...how did they get there!)

*Broccoli, cauliflower, the museum (not the museum I was thinking it might be), Anya was taking us in a circle to the same place again

**Possibly best of all was our stories. Anya didn't know the story of Saint George slaying the dragon (there was a statue at the castle) so she made one up for us. A little later on, I saw a flag with four different pictures so I made up a story about the flag (four sons were given land to specialize in, the four would work harmoniously to provide for the other three, until they all became prideful in their talents and civil war broke out, etc...)

Whitney's topped ours the most. We saw a statue at Winceslaus square so she proceeded to tell us an elaborate story about a farmer who encountered a priest who'd had a vision. He was supposed to go to Prague. There he trained and did so well he was granted the hand (...here Whitney paused, so I asked "the hand?" He was given a hand? Haha!) of the princess to marry. Etc and so on it went. But later we saw a picture of the same person....with a hand in the picture!!

Later we found out it is actually King Winceslaus. 

I also saw this in a store :)

Sorry, no jumping pics. I forgot! :/ maybe tomorrow. :)