Prague Day 2

We started the day by crossing the Charles Bridge to the side of Prague with the castle and parliament buildings. The city of Prague is so impressive with these medieval towers everywhere. It must have looked amazing a few hundred years ago when there were even more towers. There used to be hundreds of them, which were built by rich people to protect themselves and their families during various wars. Panic Room!

Here’s a neat statue dedicated to the famous author Franz Kafka that wrote a story about a young man riding on top of another man’s shoulders through the streets of Prague. The whole “headless” statue part is probably just a testament to Kafka’s odd stories; for instance a salesman being transformed into a giant cockroach.

Another church! This is one we didn’t get to go inside of last time we were in Prague. It’s very beautiful, and we can’t remember its name. Google didn’t help either.

These cathedrals are so ornate – I love to explore them.

Everyone checking out the cathedral. Elora loves seeing all the “treasures”. Oliver likes seeing how loud he can get before we make him leave…

This painting was in one of the side rooms of the cathedral.

We walked up to Prague castle and there were people EVERYWHERE. We couldn’t figure out what was going on, so we posed by the guard while waiting to see what the crowd was all about. Finally we saw a nice black car being excorted by the police driving into the front of the castle. It was the President, and there was a military guard to greet him, a band playing, and we got to watch him inspect the troops. No pics though, they didn’t look all that good being taked through the bars… but it was still a pretty neat experience.

After seeing the president, we went inside to the big cathedral. There were MOBS of people, and there was a huge line to get inside, so we just walked around outside and had some lunch before coming back to go inside.

Ollie playing “chase” by the fountain. He would run in circles waiting for someone to chase him. He cried every time we stopped…

This is the church Loreta. It was built in 1626 and was an important religious pilgrammage site. There are 30 bells in the bell tower which plays every hour. There are a few other bells that have been broken that are now in the courtyard, and it was interesting to see them, and read how difficult it is to make bells that are in tune. There was one that was out of tune and they tried to fix it by grinding out the inside, but this just ruined the bell.

This was our first visit to Loreta, and it is absolutely beautiful inside. No pics are allowed though, so we just have this one Chris took before they told him no pics! But there is a beautiful courtyard with statues and a small old church in the middle, that is the original church from the 1600s dedicated to Mary. I am so glad we found this place while wandering around the city. Oliver even learned to whisper while looking at the paintings on the ceiling in one of the churches inside.

Here are some street musicians we stopped to listen to. They played some awesome music, very fun and lively.

We returned to the castle, and walked in through the front now that the armed guards had left.

And we finally went inside the cathedral. Still lots of people, but at least we didn’t have to wait in line.

I love the stained glass in this cathedral, each window has a story illustrated in it.

Poor Oliver was so tired, he zonked out in the stroller. This was probably the quitest visit to a cathedral we enjoyed the entire trip!

Enjoying the view from the top of castle hill!

We found this random alleyway that had a pedestrian traffic light in it! I guess it is a good idea since it is so narrow, but really, do you have to wait for the light to turn green before you walk through the alley?

Walking back to Charles bridge! Prague has so many awesome looking towers and buildings, it is a great place to just walk around and enjoy the sights.

Here we are on Charles bridge again. We only had a couple days in Prague, but we saw quite a bit and tired everyone with all the walking!