More Prague – Praha Castle, Cathedral and Parks!

On our second day in Prague, we crossed the Danube to the other half of the city and…. (click Finish Reading below)

Elora reminded us the Danube “goes all the way to Vienna!” (and to Budapest). There are several bridges connecting the two halves of the city. Although this bridge we crossed here wasn’t the most famous, it was still very beautifully decorated with statues.After crossing the bridge we had to hike up a large hill where we ended up with a great view of the city.It took a long time to hike the hill since Elora decided she needed to walk the whole way. We rested at the top under a nice tree, enjoyed the view, and recounted a nice “pretend story” of a Large Frog from Prague.At the top of the hill there was a large Garden, Castle, Palace, Cathedral compound. As you can see Ollie gets excited to see a fountain. He teetered up to it, pointing at it all the way.The fountain was quite possibly the most juvenile fountain we’ve seen yet. Most people think the classic period was elegant and refined, but with all the booty, breasts, and peeing children you come across you’d swear everything was designed by 15 year old boys… And naturally, you can probably guess who was most excited to take a picture and post it online.We see all of these amazing gardens, shrubs, and flowers and think it must be so easy to plant a beautiful garden back home. But I’m sure we wouldn’t have the slightest idea where to start. Elora really like this bush for the beautiful flowers and bees buzzing around.Next it was on to the main cathedral of Prague that is within the castle walls. The castle itself is difficult to take a picture of, as it is a bunch of buildings all connected together, like a little town. The church in its present form has been there since the 1300s.Europe has a lot of amazing cathadrals, but the one in Prague definitely ranks high on the list of the most amazing. It’s really the huge stained glass windows that surround you on every wall. It looks surreal.Everytime we enter a cathedral, Elora says, “We don’t yell in here. Can I yell in here? Ollie is talking loud.” Yes, she is already becoming a little tattle tale, “Mommy mommy come quick, Ollie is putting a knife in his mouth!” Calm down little one, it’s not even sharp…. (snark)Next we went into the coronation room. The floors and ceiling in the room were really neat, even though it is somewhat plain, by Bohemian standards. We want to decorate our house like this, but it would be hardly keeping with the village’s rustic aesthetic.More of St. Vitus Church, it was at one point part of the “seat of the Holy Roman Empire.” Whatever that means….St. George slaying the dragon. He appears everywhere…There was a little tiny village inside the castle walls as well. And as you can see it’s really little and tiny. Now it’s been made into various shops that sell old fashioned and ornate artwork or trinkets. Next it was on to the dungeon. Elora said, “People hang in there, it’s not very nice,” about this scary contraption. What an interesting girl she will grow up to be. Maybe she has a future in the correctional facilities… Here is Elora coming out of the dungeon, “I’m coming out of jail, I like the jail.”More castle view…over looking the city this time.On the way down we passed by the castle vineyard, because naturally when the castle was under siege they’d still need to press their own grapes into wine.We found a lovely farmers market, with artwork, wooden toys, and various touristy things. We bought some musical instruments for the kids. They were thoroughly excited with them right up until the point we paid for them. Then afterwards, not so much… Although Elora likes to bang on them when we listen to music at home.We finally went inside the St. Nicholas Church in old town square that Elora and Ollie were pictured in front of on the previous day. This church was from the 1700s, but was restored during World War 2 when the Army was stationed there. Strange, usually churches were restored after the war. Who starts a restoration project in the middle of a World War? Can you imagine the restoration artists’ disappointment if they had just finally put the last coat of paint on when the air raid sirens started to go off… Once again, can we say City Parks in Europe are the Best!The park is near the main train station in Prague, and they’ve actually modeled everything in the play ground on Prague itself. There are bridges, rivers, and all the various play stations represent major architectural features of the city. Not sure what the rocking bunny Ollie is playing represents… (Karen says it’s the zoo) And finally, the zipline represents the cable car in the big city park. But how cool is a zip line at a play ground? Elora loved it. We had to go back to the park 2 seperate days. See the video of her in action below.