Hradcany castle!
Our first stop was the beautiful Hradcany Castle, where we saw the changing of the guards, the centuries old Cathedral of St. Vitus and a well where unfortunate free thinking woman aka. witches were drowned in the days of witch hunting. the metal cage the surrounds the well is rumoured to bring bad energy and tormented souls to haunt those silly enough to touch. luckily no one was game enough to test this theory.
The witches well in the central courtyard and the changing of the gaurds
The castle itself is amazing. perched high atop a mountain its cobblestone pavements are fantastic. My favourite part were the towers spurrets. Atop each spurret was a real golden ball. Hollow on the inside and containing the blue prints for all the buildings in the castle. Apparently Prague was often plagued by fires in the begginning of its life and the city officials needed a safe place for the blueprints. should they ever need to rebuild.
Here you can just see the golden balls on the spurrets of this church- these hold the blue prints incase of fires
The cathedral of St. Vitas contains the tombs of many bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors and is one of the most amazing cathedrals i have ever seen. something right out of fairytales. The inside was so beautiful and huge that all i could do was stare with my mouth open. I loved the stained glass windows and only wish it had been sunny outside so we could see the play of lights.
The cathedral of St. Vitas from the outside and the inside stained glass windows- i was a little too slow to notice my others photos from inside are blurry!
Our tour guide was wonderful after the changing over the gaurds she led us outside the castle walls where we could look out over all of prague with is amazingly beautiful red rooftops and colourful houses.
We then took the winding cobblestone streets down into the old city where we had coffees and hot chocolates before heading towards Charles Bridge and Old Town Square.
My favourite part of prague- getting lost in these streets..
Charles bridge was so beautiful. I had been looking so forward to walking it that i was in a daze the whole time. I was very eager to touch the statue of St. John of Nepomuk. By rubbing the statue it is said you will be asured to one day return to prague. I cant wait for the day!
Charles bridge and rubbing the statue of St. John
After quickly moving on we came to the Old town square of prague where we saw the renowned astronomical clock. I love this clock! its one of the oldest astronomical clocks in the world and the only one still working. On the hour every hour the clocks statues perform for the city below. The first statue death tolls the bell to say that the end of life has come and so begins the march of the 9 apostitles (no idea what happened to the other 3) and after this march the golden rooster crows to signal that death will not triumph and another hour shall be lived. the story sounded much better when our tour guide told it to us.
Another thing our tour guide mentioned that i thought was very interesting is that the majority of the Czech population have two birthdays- They have the day of their birth and their namesake day. Most czech names are chosen from a list of 365, with one name for each day of the year except national holidays. Any highly unusual name has to be checked by a special registary before being approved for the birth certificate!
Another little treasure of 'interst' in the old square was very eye opening 'sex machine museum' which provided everyone with half an hour of laughs and me with a renewed and disgusting understanding of the birds and bees haha.
Old town square- The crosses on the ground mark the execution site of 27 leaders of the rebellion against Emperor Matthias in 1621.
After our free time many of us were treated to a lunchtime cruise through prague. It was fantastic, the food was delicious and there was laughter and shots of traditional prague alcohol all round.
Afterwards many of us left the old town for a quick nap before another night out. my nap however turned into a day and a half recovery in bed as i was once again sick as a dog :(
