We wanted to get an early start on finishing our tour at the Prague Castle this morning. We read that crowds were crazy after 11:00 am, but whoever wrote that bit of wisdom was completely wrong. We chose (or maybe it would be more correct to say, Chris said we were going to) walk up to the castle from our apartment. It was a bit of a haul. The picture below shows only the last section of our hike.
Once we got in to the castle walls, the people were nearly wall to wall.
We did our best to navigate through the crowds and so many brides taking engagement/wedding pictures.
We toured the castle and then walked through the exit saying, “That’s it?” Indeed, it was. The view from one of the castle balconies was beautiful though.
As well the ceiling in the grand hall.
The Golden Lane, lined with brightly colored, tiny houses within the Prague castle grounds, used to be home to castle guards. Looking at the beds on display, those people were small. Even I wouldn’t have had a lot of room for stretching out. Today, many of the Golden Lane houses are tourist shops. Again, so many people out and about, it was hard to get a clean shot. I'd wait and wait and then have to speedily catch up to the rest of my family. Good thing Christopher is tall and easy to pick out in a crowd.
Chris has successfully taught his daughters to photobomb my pictures.
Since the castle was totally packed with people, we were more than happy to leave and walk through the upper garden toward the Queen Anne's Summer Castle (also known as The Belvedere). As we were walking toward the Summer Castle, I passed a family who remarked, “That’s beautiful, eh?” I asked, “Are you from Canada? The ‘eh’ kind of gave you away.” They were from Calgary.
In former times, this beautiful structure was known as The Great Ball Game House where a form of tennis was played.
Chris spent time looking at an art exhibit on the fall of the Iron Curtain on display outside and inside the summer palace.
I took photos.
After leaving the castle, we got on tram #22 and rode it as far as we could past the castle just to see where it went and to see a different part of Prague. However, we waited too long to get off at the last stop and had to ride the tram to the turn around spot. We thought it would just continue back down the hill in the opposite direction, but apparently the driver was aiming to take a break.
I loved the poppies that popped up in random spots.
We got off the tram and started walking back in the direction of the castle. Our first stop was lunch. Misha and Kristen purchased pizza at Pizza Pazza shop and Amy, Chris and I went next door to the kebab place.
We wandered for the afternoon to different sites around Prague. They had a small Eiffel Tower, extensive gardens that took us down the hill, and a small island on the Vltava River under the Charles Bridge.
I found the cutest little coffee shop called Coco Van under the bridge and snapped a few pictures.
Amy still hadn’t found a sweatshirt so we chose to let her finish some shopping in Wenceslas Square. We sat and watched the Hari Krishna pass us by as well as a couple who left their baby in a stroller outside a shop while they went inside for quite some time.
Chris treated us all to tredlnik, a tasty cinnamon rolled bread concoction. We saw stands to purchase the tredlnik all over Prague, however, locals are quick to point out that it is not a traditional Czeck treat. Perhaps it is becoming one.
We found the funky moving head.
My foot hurt. We all had sore feet from so much walking, 8 to 10 miles every day, especially when those miles were over uneven cobblestones. We returned to the apartment for much needed rest before trying to find a place for dinner.
We had hoped for a restaurant called Piknik Place but it was completely full with reservations. We ended up walking back up the hill toward the castle. So much further than any of us wanted. With all of the pasta and pizza we ordered on this trip, Chris made the conclusion that maybe our hearts belonged in Italy!
