We are sitting on the train for the first leg of our Eurail journey from Prague to Vienna (Praha to Wien to be more specific) after spending the last three nights in Prague! The most beautiful city in the world!
So many people had told me how wonderful Prague was, but after our experience arriving at the airport and the awful taxi driver on the way to the hotel I was very sceptical and ready to turn right back around and get out of there ASAP.
The next morning after a night in a gorgeous hotel (Prague is incredibly cheap!!) in a KING size bed (a huge luxury as they don’t have queen size beds in London so we have been sleeping in below average double beds since we arrived!), we headed off to explore the sights of Prague with our lonely planet in tow, they really should make those books lighter! Its quite a load! After a short tram ride we got off at a gorgeous church and decided to walk around to find the entrance, we started up a very steep hill which just seemed to keep going and going! We never did find the entrance to he church, but we also couldn’t find a way off this road, so up and up we went until finally when I was ready to snap and Sean was ready to push me back down the hill because my new shoes had caused me incredible blisters and I had becoming a winging Pom, we saw a small set of stair with a lot of people climbing them, we followed the crowds and came to a lookout over the city! And WOW!!!!! What a view! It was like nothing I had ever seen before! I think I stood there speechless for about five mins! The photos don’t really give it justice. It was incredible!
After almost wearing out the camera battery taking about 50 photos we heading into the Prague castle grounds to explore! This was a different sort of castle to others we had seen, and many would say not as beautiful, but it really appealed to me, the way each building seemed so different to the next, but they all worked together. It seemed to be more about natural beauty and liveable conditions rather than being a big display of wealth and greed as many of the others have been. It also for some reason reminded me a bit of the sound of music, something about the windows! From there it was down to the river and across to the astronomical clock which was definitely not as exciting as we had prepared ourselves for! But the Christmas markets alongside the clock were well worth a visit and over the three days we managed to down many cups of Mulled Wine or savarak as it is called in Prague.
After a quiet night we again headed out to climb the hill from the day before and buy some souvenirs. The temperature was dropping rapidly and we were hoping desperately to get some snow (sean had woken up to check out the window 5 or 6 times the night before).After strolling up the hill and back down we decided to walk across the Charles bridge which was jam packed with tourists, but we found some of the most wonderful little art and craft stalls, where I could have bought so many different treasures, but my poor backpack just wouldn’t be able to handle it.
After a short stop over in the hotel to defrost we headed off to find a beer hall Sean had ready about in the lonely planet. We got off the wrong stop on the tram and had to walk for about half an hour to find it (still with terrible blisters! Note to self never take new shoes travelling) and when we finally did find it it had closed down! So we went into the old town square to admire the Tyn towers all lit up like a haunted building and have another cup of mulled wine! We found a nice restaurant with very cheap traditional checz food and stuffed ourselves with dumplings and roast pork! As we came out of the restraint it started to snow and after doing a little dance in the street we spent at least half an hour admiring the snowflakes that actually look just like snowflakes you see in books, with all the little star like shapes! Its amazing! It was only very soft snow and was melting before it could form any cover, but for someone who has never seen snow before that was very exciting still. It continued that way most of the night and was still snowing when we boarded the train. We have seen some small spatterings of cover in a few patches and a small lake which had part frozen over, but as we get further towards Austria I think it may start to fill out some more!
The highlights of Prague would definitely have to be the view over the city, the Christmas markets around every corner and the mulled wine which kept us warm! That and the excitement over our first experience of snow (my first, Seans first this trip). Cant wait to see if Vienna is going to knock Prague off its pedestal of Best city!
