A visit to Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral

The sun came out for us today!!  It made everything so beautiful.  (It was still cold, about 35 F all day long, but still lovely).

We started the day off with a trip to Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral.  We had a tour guide for the cathedral and the old castle.  He was a wonderful guide full of lots of stories. 

Got to see the changing of the guards at Prague Castle.

 Three churches have been built on the site of St. Vitus, with the most recent one begun in the 1300s and only finished in the early 1990s.  The front part of the nave was completed early, then a wall was built across the back side where the remainder of the nave would eventually be constructed.

Weddings can be held in the cathedral, if you can pay the hefty price.  Can you imagine getting married in this magnificent space?  It was used for coronations until the monarchy came to an end after WWI and the fall of the Hapsburgs.

There are two organs in the cathedral.  The older one is above and is no longer functional.  The smaller one, but the church is raising funds to build a new one as well as restore the older one.  The newest one will go in the back of the sanctuary under the rose window (the other two are on the north side of the nave).

We saw lots of statues of St. Wencelsas and St. Jana Nepomuckeho.  St. Jana (John) was canonized after several miracles including saving a drowning girl who said she saw John with five floating stars above his head.  Many of his statues have the five stars.  His very fancy tomb is made of real silver and weighs about 2000 lbs.  His tongue is considered special because he was the Queen’s confessor, and refused to tell her secrets to the King (and was subsequently tortured – although church-government intrigue also played into it).  If you look closely at the shield next to the cherub, you'll see the image of the tongue (ew! not sure I needed to hear that story)

The royal crypt is under the alter, but it is no longer open following the latest attacks in Paris.  Last year they closed it for tours except for Czech citizens, now it is closed to all.

This was a side chapel for St. Wencelas.  Wencelas was a beloved King before he was a saint.  He took time to work in the fields with peasants and was quite benevolent to his people.  He was assassinated by his brother at the young age of 29.

Travel is never complete without a trip to the store

I love grocery stores in other countries!!  So fun to see what different items are on the shelf.  I found a quick and easy dinner of non-hormone treated meats, cheeses, and croissants and my favorite yougert drink.  

Call me crazy, but it brings back great memories of Poland...50 different kinds of juice to choose from.  Adam used to experiment making all kinds of different mixes.  Banana juice - our all time favorite.

 And for dessert...Milka of course!  I'll be bringing some of the Milka with yougert home for the family because we can't ever find any except when we are very close to Austria.

An introduction to Prague

Despite the drizzly rain, we headed out to the old town to see the sites.  Fortunately my map sense and memory from previous trips held true and we made it to the square without a problem.

 Our brains were telling us it was about 3 am, but our stomachs decided it was definitely lunch time, so we found a nearby restaurant that happened to be listed as UNESCO heritage site!

 After a traditional Czech meal of potato cakes, goulash, and cabbage, we continued our walking tour.

The Black Elephant.

Jewish cemetery.  Used from about 1400-1750s.  There are 12,000 gravestones visible, with an estimated 100,000 people buried here.  The Jews were only allowed to bury their dead in this small space and eventually began burying them on top of previous graves. 

Jewish museum

Charles Bridge

St. Nicholas Church

Not sure which saint DJ is imitating  - ha

British Embassy - ready for our mission briefing

Mission briefing on the UK's policys

Found this set of buttons in the Embassy lobby a bit disconcerting...This is after we came through security.  Does this mean if you have something to deliver you signal what it is??

Home on the tram.  Very easy to use.  I have only walked Prague before, but now I'm sold on their tram system.

Hotel Chopin

I can't stay that I've stayed in too many hotels in Europe.  We mostly stay in youth hostels when we travel, so this was a bit of a luxury.  The room was smallish, but very clean and the bathroom was quite clever in its space saving design (same door for the toilet space as for the full bathroom, it was hung to work both ways.)

Trip to Prague with Model UN

Our trip to Europe began with a 30 minute delayed flight in Wichita which nearly cost us our connection in Atlanta.  We had to dash from A-32 to E-6 the complete opposite side of the airport.  We were almost the last ones to board, but we made it.  8 1/2 hours later we were in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, which we also dashed through, just clearing customs in time to board our next flight.  Surprisingly we were not asked a single question going through passport control (nor were we greeted/welcomed, but that was ok as long as there were no delays).  After 15 hours of airport travel, we finally landed in Prague!