Today is our full day in Prague and we have a voucher for a four hour free walking tour at 11am from the old town square which was near the laundry. We received the voucher from the company as part of our airport transfer At least we know how to get there and the walking time required. We leave the Hotel at 10am and get to the old town square in plenty of time. Gerard and Michael take in the famous astronomical clock. Lee and I locate our guide and find out the tour starts at 11.04am after the clock has chimed at 11am. In the meantime Gerard and Michael have eaves dropped on an English tour guide and his tour guide to find out all about the clock. It’s a bit like the one in Nuremburg where a few mechanical things do their bit and that’s about it. The guide was telling his group that he comes to the old square to see the disappointed tourists after they have seen the clock chime. At the end the rooster, positioned like a cuckoo does the very lame crow that sounds more like cuckoo.
So we watch the clock with bated breath, see all the mechanical bits do their thing and then the rooster cuckoo. Gerard missed the rooster and asked me when it would happen after it had all finished. I laughed he had totally missed it.
We joined the guide and proceeded through the old town square, to the lesser town square and then to the Jewish quarter hearing all about the history of Prague, the Nazi occupation, the Prussians and the Russian invasions. A very interesting history indeed. The stories from the Jewish quarter were most interesting especially from the Second World War where many of them were sent to Auschwitz and were gassed. Prague did not suffer the damage and devastation like many of the German towns we have been to.
We stopped for lunch in the Jewish Quarter and had some yummy wraps that were big enough for two to share. Then it was off to see the statue of King Charles IV of Prague and go across the Charles IV Bridge. Charles IV came from the days that Prague was part of Austria and he was the son of Marie Therese of the Bamberg’s. He was a very popular King, however he was very jealous and thought his wife was having an affair. She was catholic and would go to confession, so the King asked the priest to tell him what she had said at confession and the priest refused to tell him. This went on for quite some time until the King lost patience and had the priest thrown off the bridge. As he fell into the water five stars appeared and he is always depicted with a halo of five stars and there is a statue of him on the bridge and many all over the city of Prague. He became a Saint as a result of this.
Over the bridge we enter new town and walk up the hill to see the church and even further up the steep hill to see the palace. We had done a lot of walking again! At the castle we saw the changing of the guard, another massive cathedral and hear about the President of the Republic who lives in the Palace who is not very popular with his people. Apparently he is an alcoholic and no one likes him because he is friends with President Putin.
We leave the tour and walk back to our hotel. Ross our guide was excellent and you could not fault the free tour. It was great.
We decided we could only walk next door for dinner at an Italian Restaurant that was very nice and went well until we went to pay the bill and, as you are told everywhere about Prague, they tried to scam us on the bill with extra charges. We got that fixed and did not give a tip as a result. We had been warned about this and also about gypsies and pick pockets. We took great care and were vary careful in crowds, and I am pleased to say we had not problems. There were so many people around though, it was packed everywhere we went.
