Prague Castle Tour

My whole trip to Prague can be found here.

 The history of the castle stretches back to the 9th century (870). The first walled building was the church of Our Lady.  The church on the left, Basilica of St. Vitus wasn't founded until the early 10th century.

The castle was continuously rebuilt, restructured, and added to up through the 20th century with the completion of St. Vitus Cathedral.  Somehow it survived the Germans and Soviet occupations of Prague and now exists as      the seat of the Czech government.    

The name St. Vitus was chosen because when the church was being built, King Wenceslaus, received the arm of St. Vitus from a Vatican emissary.

The legend says that Wenceslaus was very late to dinner with the Vatican emissary.  To punish him, the emissary devised a cruel joke to play at the dinner with other dignitaries to embarrass Wenceslaus. However, when Wenceslaus walked through the door, he had crosses in his eyes.  The emissary realized that he was not acting appropriately for a man of God and offered Wenceslaus anything in the church's treasury.  Instead of gold or riches, Wenceslaus chose the relic of St. Vitus.  The story is portrayed on the door to the church.

At sunset, the church towers glow.

The beautiful rose stained glass window sits above the main entrance of the church.  If you look closely beneath it in either corner are statues of the four men from the 1900s that oversaw the completion of the church.

It took nearly 600 years to finish  St. Vitus!

 One of the many beautiful parts of the castle includes this
mosaic of the rapture.  King Charles did his studying in Italy and fell in love with the mosaics that decorated the churches.  This particular mosaic has over one million stones in it.  





 The entrance to the palace is guarded by two Czech soldiers.  At noon they do a ceremonial changing of the guard, but I didn't have time to witness this.  The two statues are meant to intimidate people because, as my guide said, Czechs aren't very intimidating.  "Oh the Czechs are coming?  Great...do they have beer?"

Last thing I want to share is the jousting hall in the Royal Palace.

During the turn of the 16th century., there was a king who absolutely LOVED jousting.  Since the winter months weren't pleasant to sit outside and watch the revelry, he had one of the major halls renovated so that a man and horse in armor could fit through the doors.  It's 200x52x40  (ft.) with vaulted ceilings, one of the most masterful pieces of architecture at the time.

Stephanie Goes to Prague

“Hopefully we will have you safely on the ground soon.”  Those words after hearing the phrase technical difficulties in a plane aren’t exactly ones I’ve always hoped to hear.

Thus started my weekend adventure in Prague!  My first picture of the city...

I’ve organized this post a bit differently than some of my past ones.  There are a lot of stories because I packed in a ton of things.  So here I’m sharing pictures and the basics about my weekend and you can click on the very obvious links to read more about a specific part.  Also note...you can click on the pictures for a better view!

I arrived to my hostel around 9 pm on Friday night and was met by a pub crawl guide who convinced me to throw my things in my room and head out for a night on the town.

WORST pub crawl ever.  I had high expectations given my pub crawl in Dublin…thought we’d drink some good Czech beer and see some nice PUBS.  Nope, spent the night at really crowded clubs.  Also, I’ve gotten spoiled by the smoking ban in Poland and Michigan.  Czech bars are disgustingly smoke filled.  There are also people lighting up joints everywhere. 

 

Suffice to say I couldn’t get into a shower fast enough!

Saturday was cold, snowy, and rainy…like my feet were soaked by noon.  I couldn’t find my gloves so my poor hands took turns freezing as they held my umbrella.  It was so cold the rain froze on my umbrella...and mixed with the snow it was a mess.  A fresh perspective on the weather courtesy of Australians...

I did a walking tour of Prague on Saturday morning despite the nastiness.  Along the way, I met an awesome Aussie named Ashlee.   We became travel buddies for the day since we were both traveling alone.  

Highlights of the walking tour were the Astrological clock, lots of awesome architecture and Czech history.  The astronomical clock is the oldest working astronomical clock in the world and 3rd oldest altogether.  It was started in 1410.  There are three different ways to tell the time by it, the easiest being how many hours since the sun set the night before.

 

Pictured on the right is the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn.  The construction of this church began in the 14th century and is currently under renovation.  On Sunday, I took a peek inside and took a few "illegal" pictures!  It's an incredibly beautiful church.

Although not Czech, Mozart was apparently incredibly fond of Prague and found a very willing and enthusiastic audience amount the Czech people.  It was in this theater that his opera, Don Giovanni premiered.  There are still showings of the opera in the theater, and it is on my list of things to do next time I go to Prague.

More pictures and highlights along the walking tour are here.

After the walking tour, Ashlee and I grabbed some mulled wine (a new favorite drink of mine).  Then, given the cold weather and frozen state of our toes, we wandered into the Museum of Medieval Torture. I'm aware that the Church during the inquisition and many other people in power used different forms of torture to get "confessions", but the devices they used are incredibly strange, awkward, disgusting, and quite well-designed.  More torture things (WARNING VERY GROSS!).

After having a long time to thaw out, Ashlee and I decided to brave the weather and check out Charles Bridge, the #2 thing to see in Prague.  The bridge was started in the 14th century by then king Charles IV.  It is decorated with about thirty different statues and a stunning view of the Prague Castle, a bit obscured by the snow in my photo, but still beautiful.  Some cool stories about the Charles Bridge.

Amidst the wandering around Prague, I realized I kept seeing the Infant of Prague statues everywhere...and it dawned on me, I was IN Prague and should probably go see the baby Jesus.

I bought myself a beautiful piece of crystal with the Infant of Prague in it and stumbled into a priest who blessed me and my new statue!  

Saturday rounded out with a classical music concert inside an old Catholic Church.  Strangely enough, the church had a number of crazy colored balloons hanging from the ceiling.

 Sunday started where Saturday began, in church.  I couldn't find the Mass I thought I was going to go to, but stumbled on another parish with twenty minutes to spare.  So I started wandering around and snapping a few pictures.  I sadly forgot to get the name of the church, but it was the basilica of someone!

After Mass, I went to the Chocolate Museum to learn about the history of chocolate making in Prague and the world.  It was a lot more informative than I thought...AND I learned how to make chocolate pralines from the cool chocolate chef in the museum.  Wanna know how?  Read more here!

After the museum, I decided to climb to the top of the Astrological clock.  Scroll up if you forget what it looks like, cause the next pictures are from the top of it looking out at the city.

My last activity in Prague was a three hour walking tour of the Prague castle (also in the background of that picture).  It's the world's biggest castle according to  Guinness and the #1 tourist attraction.    Sunday in the Czech Republic was a big holiday, the first constitution of Czechoslovakia.  Although no longer a country, it was interesting to see someone sing the old anthem in the castle grounds.

The Prague Castle is the official seat of the president.  And my guide, a Czech native, called the three flags outside of the president's residence "overkill of patriotism."  So I told him about Union Station...and the fact that my family own multiple American flags.

For more on the Prague castle...you want these pictures!

One interesting fact about the Prague castle, the first president of Czechoslovakia was good friends with Mick Jagger.  Some how, Jagger found out that the Czechs couldn't afford to light up the beautiful Prague castle in their post-communist economy.  So he sent his lighting technicians to Prague and funded the entire lighting system of the castle. Czechs literally have moves like Jagger.

The tour ended at the John Lennon Wall.  A remnant of the communist era when Western music was prohibited, the Czechs started a small culture war with the Soviets over the wall after the death of John Lennon.  In the end, the communists allowed the wall to stay in place after trying to paint over it and block access on multiple occasions.  It is a continuously changing piece of art as people add their own favorite Lennon lyrics to the wall when visiting.

All in all, I fell in love with Prague.  I'm more than happy to answer questions if I can.  Wiki might do a better job than me.   And I REALLY hope you enjoyed these pictures!

Chocolate Museum

My whole trip to Prague can be found here.

 

Ever wonder how they make chocolates with things inside of them?  Now you're gonna find out! 

It starts with REALLY hot melted chocolate.

The mold has to be completely filled with chocolate first.

The mold has to be shaken to remove any bubbles that might prevent adhesion to the mold

.

After a few seconds, the chocolate is dumped out, leaving a hollow shell. Refrigerate.

After hardening, the chocolates are filled with the proper fillings.  Refrigerate.

After being covered with another layer of chocolate, the excess is scraped off the top.  Refrigerate.

Voila, delicious chocolate!

Other things I learned in the museum...a Czech invented the sugar cube.

 Mustaches deserve their own protection from the messiness of hot chocolate.




The Chocolate museum is also home to one of the largest chocolate wrapper collections.  It contains 125,000 wrappers from 5,300 companies in120 countries.





It was also full of chocolate propaganda.  

Charles Bridge

My whole Prague trip can be found here.

 Ashlee and I on the Charles Bridge.

I could attempt to remember the entire story behind this statue, or I could just copy the story off of Wiki for you.  I do remember that the modern Prague Jews find the Hebrew text to be offensive, but the Charles Bridge is a UNESCO site, so offensive isn't quite grounds for removal.

Courtesy of Wiki: The golden Hebrew text on the crucifix was added in 1696. In 1696, the Prague authorities accused a local Jewish leader of blasphemy. As his punishment he was ordered to raise the funds for purchasing of gold-plated Hebrew letters, placed around the head of the statue, spelling out "Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord of Hosts." The inscription was a symbolic humiliation and degradation of Prague Jews, forcing them to pay for a set of golden letters referring to God and hung around the neck of the statue of Christ (information from Steven Plaut, The "Vav" from the Charles Bridge).

History has a funny way of killing people off.  And the Czech people remember St. John of Nepomuk in a very special way with this plaque.  The confessor of the queen, St. John was a respected priest in the 14th century kingdom.  Unfortunately, as the queen's confessor he also knew all of her sins.  This led King Wenceslaus to demand St. John reveal the queen's secrets.  If you're familiar with Catholicism, you know that a priest cannot speak about the sacrament of confession, also called the seal of Confession.  In the end, he was thrown off the Charles bridge in about this spot. 

Museum of Medieval Torture

My whole trip to Prague can be found here.

Accused persons had to sit in this chair covered in spikes during their interrogation.  Any movement caused the skin to be pierced.  Talk about not squirming in your chair.


This device is called the Spanish Tickle Torture.  Unfortunately, it wasn't an amusing form of punishment.  Instead, the blades were used to literally scrape off the skin and muscles of the person being tortured.




Side note: I learned that when placed in the stocks, other citizens would unmercifully tickle the person being punished.  I always thought they just threw fruit and rocks at the people...but there actually was real tickle torture.

To the right is a sarcophagus style torture chamber.  This one amazed me greatly because the spikes are strategically placed to not pierce vital organs, causing the tortured person to live longer in agony.  You can't say the medieval people were stupid, many of the torture devices presented a surprisingly advanced level of medical knowledge.  Another example was a stake used to impale people from the anus or upside down from the mouth.  The stake wasn't removed because it stops the massive blood flow leading to an excruciating and lengthy demise.

Perhaps my favorite torture device was this one on the right.  It wasn't meant to kill people, but to punish meddlesome women or bad musicians.  It's called something fife, which if worn actually looks like the person is playing a fife.  The large metal thing goes around the neck and the fingers are latched into the finger holes or "key holes".  It really is a fitting punishment for the guy who butchered your favorite song.

There were so many other devices, many of them centering on sexual organs, but slightly inappropriate for my younger viewing audience so suffice to say I crossed my legs many times and cringed at the thought!

Aussies and Snow

My whole trip to Prague is here!

As a true blood Michigander, snow is not a big deal for me.  So, when I heard it was probably going to be cold and snowy while I was in Prague, I wasn't all that excited.  Snow means cold, slippery sidewalks and I wanted to sightsee ALL day and not worry.

Friday night it rained, and Saturday morning when I woke up it was still raining.

At breakfast, I met a few Australian girls (there were SO many Australians in my hostel) who were talking about the weather forecast.  These girls had NEVER seen snow and were thus quite excited at the prospect.

When I pointed out there was snow mixed in with the rain, there were so many squeals of excitement and heads pressed against the window that I couldn't help but be excited myself!  That was, until I had to go outside.

Ashlee, the Australian I sight saw with, had me take pictures of her in the snow everywhere!  It was fun for me to see people excited about something new, even though I wasn't a snow virgin.

Prague Free Tour

My whole trip to Prague is here.

There’s a tour company that gives free tours in cities around Europe…they’re AWESOME.  I cannot recommend the free tours enough.  The guides live in the city and you tip them at the end based on how you enjoyed the tour…this means they’re attentive and usually give you incredible bits of information.

So we started with the astronomical clock which I already told you about.  Every hour between 9 am and 9 pm, the clock has a special ring.  However, after being voted one of the most disappointing places of interests (it's ranked #3 in Prague behind the Castle and Church of Tyn), Prague decided to add a guy and a trumpet.  He places from all four sides of the tower walls.

One of the best parts of the walking tour is just being able to see all of the incredible architecture in Prague, famous for the Art Nouveau architecture style of the late 1800s and early 1900s (pictured on the left).

On the right, is an example of Cubist architecture and fittingly, home of the Cubism museum.  This is the art style made famous by Picasso!

Here's another picture of the amazing weather we had.  It made for pretty pictures, but MISERABLE feet.

The tour also took us through the Jewish part of town, which I really appreciated because often times tours skip the Jewish neighborhoods and fail to mention the hardships this group has faced in Eastern Europe.

On the left is the Old-New Synagogue completed in 1270.  It is said that the body of Golem (created by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel) lies in the attic. A legend is told of a Nazi agent during World War II breaking into the synagogue, but who perished instead. In the event, the Gestapo apparently did not enter the attic during the war, and the building was spared during the Nazis' destruction of synagogues

The Spanish Synagogue is much more recent, completed in the late 1860s. 

The synagogue is remarkable because it is covered in elaborate Islamic-style patterns, some painted and some carved and some covered with gold.

Along with all the sites, our tour guide Rachel imparted a vast amount of information about the creation of the Czech Republic and the history of its citizens, focusing a lot on the times of Nazi and Soviet occupation.