Day 19: Harry and Marv in Prague

Curlz and a beanie. The resemblance is uncanny! (Sans crowbar)

Since our desire for bagels had gone unfulfilled the day before, we swung past a place that promised some from the outset. This was not quite up to my Coffee Fellows standards, but they were pretty good. Dylan and I both ordered the tomato, mozzarella, pesto option with some coffees. The coffee was decent, they focused heavily on different types of bean - always a good sign.

So much cheese...

Our destination for the day was Prague Castle. We'd seen it perched up on the hill, lit up at night, and we were excited. We walked across the Charles Bridge, past many a tour group going the same way. There are some steep hills and stairs on the way up, there were a few distressed American women at the top, but we felt we were working off some of our trdelníks (the funnel cakes) along the way. There were beautiful views of the city from the top, and - you guessed it - more Christmas markets. 

We paid for our tickets and went through the main entrance. There were quite a few areas you could access, but we just picked the basic circuit - the Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, the Basilica, and the Golden Lane. The cathedral is an amazing building, very striking from a distance and up close. The stained glass was particularly impressive. Some parts of the cathedral are still the original 14th century building. 

We wandered through the cathedral, and then circled around the courtyard to the Old Royal Palace. A slightly less imposing building, it had some impressive architecture inside. The had interesting information about the lives of some of the royals throughout the years, though some parts had been destroyed by fire (classic).

The great hall

It had some impressive masonry

The jewels

Crests of the various members of office

There were even more markets in the central square, where we stopped for a hot wine. Dylan decided to live dangerously and have a grog. Rum, hot water, and lemon. Do not recommend, tastes gross. He had another mini honey wine to chase it down. We souvenir shopped around, and the moved on to the next building on the list - the Basilica. This was originally from the 10th century, and had some amazing old tombs inside that were lavishly decorated.

The back of the cathedral

They changed guards while we were having our beverages

Inside the basilica

Spooky scary skeleton!

We had walked through most of the precinct now, and the only thing left was the Golden Lane. I was skeptical. It didn't sound that fun. I was wrong. It was the best. Around a bend we entered into the Golden Lane. It contains old period houses all down a narrow cobble lane. One thing you learn about Prague - Franz Kafka was born there and lived there and wrote there etc etc, so of course, he had at one point lived in one of these teeny houses. They contained little sets that showed who lived there and what they did. The best part was one of the towers which housed a huge array of medieval armour and weapons. The armour was behind glass, but there was no one there to tell us not to touch the spears... There was armour, helmets, and weapons from various periods in history, including Viking and Roman, but most full sets were from the 14th and 15th centuries. We walked up a tightly wound staircase and into various halls inside the battlements that overlooked the hill. There were arrow slights that twisted around and lots of swords to look at. The best part was the crossbow range - I got to have a couple of shots. While I won't be winning any awards (yet), I think I did all right to hit the target three times.

The golden lane

Is it a gun? Is it a knife? It's a gknife!

Harry's next Christmas present lined up

Now I was thoroughly enthused by the Golden Lane, and we explored down it to see other tiny houses. At the end of the lane was the old jail with some lovely torture equipment for show. There were more views of the city from the wall, and we walked out the eastern exit of the castle.

Ross had suggested that there was a nice place for a drink right outside, and he wasn't wrong. It was Prague's oldest vineyard, and we had some hot cider and beer over the view.

After enjoying the views for a bit, we wandered back down the big hill. Dylan was keen to head over and check out the TV tower. We walked through town, found a happy surprise bookshop, and found another Christmas market, where Dylan got a bratwurst. Finding bathrooms in Prague can be a challenge. Most want to charge you money, and I refuse on principle. To solve this problem, we found another pub to have a pilsner and use their facilities. Definitely worth it. Dylan realised this was his fourth drink of the day, and it was only 2.30pm... but when in Prague, right? Sorry livers (and this day ain't done yet). I also ate some garlic toast that wasn't garlicky enough. They had put some raw garlic on the plate, presumably as decoration. I rubbed it across my toast to get some garlicky flavour, and people probably thought I was very weird. Delicious.

A cool alley led down to a restaurant on the water

The weather started closing in

Around the corner from this bar was the funicular which would take us up the hill to the TV tower. We made a bit of an error in ticket buying, accidentally buying two child tickets first. Whoops. We boarded the funicular and took off up the hill. As we rose up, to our delight, it began to snow! Finally! At the top it had just started to fall in earnest, so we ran around with the other children, trying to catch it. It was amazing.

Clear as mud

Adelaide's seen snow!

We paid around 10 bucks each to go up the tower (you could pay extra for the lift, but we needed to exercise). There was a winding staircase and a few stop off points for photos. It had an unparalleled view of the city, being higher than the castle. It was a great experience!

We ran around in the snow a bit more and then headed back to the funicular. Unfortunately, there was no where to buy tickets at the top with credit card, so we ended up using our illegal child tickets to get back down. Breaking the law in such a callous fashion gave me great anxiety, but it was all fine in the end. (The wet bandits strike again!)

As it was our last day in Prague, we thought we'd finish off with a visit to the Christmas markets in the square again before dinner. It was almost dark (since it was like 4pm), and we hadn't managed to catch any of the live acts yet. There were some people singing Christmas carols up on stage, so we got some hot chocolate and wandered around. I demanded O Holy Night, and a trio of singers delivered - my use of the force is growing strong. Dylan stopped off for a weird pizza-looking thing in the markets, and we ran into a fellow Aussie who recognised our accents.

Now it was time for dinner, since Dylan had eaten a pre-dinner snack. We found a pub nearby to our hotel that looked good. As soon as we got the menu, however, we realised it was the exact same as the place we'd been to the night before. It was a chain run by the Pilsner Urquell brand. Oh no! We had a beer and a cider out of politeness, and then decided to move on. We were keen to find somewhere to settle as the temperature had dropped to about -2. I suggested we check out the Irish pub that we'd seen advertised, called the Dubliner. Once there, we realised we shouldn't eat here either since it was our last day in Prague. Again, we had a beer out of politeness (Dylan had a Guinness). This time, we prepared and looked up a place to go to so we wouldn't get sidetracked. I found a Czech place nearby that had fancier cuisine. Dylan had pulled pork cheek, and I had chicken supreme. We had a chuckle over the Maclaren Vale shiraz they had listed for 100 euros. It was an $18 bottle back home... We treated ourselves to some dessert brownies and paid the bill.

Dylans Main

Dessert

By now we'd been out all day and were feeling a bit tired. We headed back to the hotel. But wait, what's this? We had a coupon for a free prosecco at the hotel bar! Waste not want not. We abandoned our jackets in the room and headed to the hotel bar. The restaurant attached to the hotel is called the Deer Hotel, and it was very fancy. There was an old Czech gentleman playing the piano. I was immediately very happy with this, and we had a great time listening to him play. Upon learning we were from Australia he promised to play something special for us, and launched into a version of Waltzing Matilda. We hung around for a little while for the music before heading back.

Dylan tried a Becherovka with tonic - tasted just like fireball!

Off to Berlin in the morning. Prague has been my favourite so far I think, Bruges has been unseated. A wonderful time was had, many pilsners drunks.

Until next we beer.
A+D