Prague Trip (Day 3)

     Today was a little rainy in the morning, but let up around noon an turned into a really lovely day. We decided to walk a little farther than we had previously and cross the Charles Bridge to head up to Prague Castle.

Our first stop however was just around the corner from our apartment to sit down and have some coffee and pastries for our morning breakfast. Coffee and pastry shops abound along the narrow streets of Old Town, and they are all worth stopping at. The one that we chose had a larger selection than most, but to be honest, we chose mostly out of convenience than the number of their offerings. I had a makový koláček, which is very similar to a danish, the biggest difference being that the dough of a koláček is breadier, and not flaky like a danish, and the pastry itself is not as sweet.

     We hid under our umbrellas all the way from breakfast to the far side of the Charles Bridge where we stopped for coffee and listened to street musicians play Pete Fountain style jazz on the clarinet, accompanied by a bass, and a wash board player. They were very good, and it reminded me of visits to New Orleans, which gave me a pavlovian response to want a beer even though it was still early in the day. Fortunately that is not at all odd here in Prague, where drinking beer is a nearly obligatory act at any time of day. The beer was the local favorite, Pilsner Urquell.

     While we were sitting there and just about all rested up, Mother Nature had decided that she had gotten all the rain out of her system and the sky started to clear up. So we folded up our umbrella and hiked on, up a winding path of narrow, shop lined streets that led to the base of the Prague Castle complex. Once there the climb got quite steep, but we were rewarded for our climb by some of the best views of the city that we could have hoped for.

     Inside the castle gates, and through the main entry we were confronted by the immensity of St. Vitus Cathedral, one of the jewels of Prague, which is an iconic building that can be seen from all over Prague because of its prominent location at the top of the hill.. The front of the cathedral is very close to the surrounding buildings, and thus, hard to photograph, but the intricacies of all the carvings and statuaries that adorn it were amazing. We found the gargoyles especially fascinating. We made our way around the sides and to the rear of the cathedral where there was a large square from which we could get some nice pictures.
     As we left Prague Castle, we found a nice café part of the way down the hill that featured amazing views out on the city. The route that we walked that day had brought us full circle back to where we were staying so we returned home and rested up for some more exploring tomorrow.