Castle on the Hill

We started out our second day with a phenomenal breakfast that was included at our hotel. I am not a big breakfast eater normally, so I just got fruit, yogurt, a little scrambled eggs, and a pastry and I was stuffed. It would have taken me at least five full meals to try everything that they were offering at the buffet. 

We were excited to get started with our day. We headed out at 9am and didn't return from exploring the city until after dinner at 7pm. To say the least, we got a lot done!

First up was crossing the Charles Bridge to get to Our Lady Victorious which houses the famous Infant of Prague statue. But it took us awhile to get there because I had the need to stop so often to photograph what we were passing. And Charles Bridge was no exception! We have had great weather while in Prague (although no snow which we were hoping for), the skies were so blue that morning with little streaks of little clouds. I had read before visiting that the best time to visit Charles Bridge is in the morning because later in the day it gets crowded with tourists. And I can testify that this is the case for sure! When we walked back to Old Town Square just two hours or so later, it was packed with people. Still beautiful but Im glad I got the chance to photograph it that morning. We walked past several street vendors doing paintings but my favorite was listening to this little band of older gentlemen playing.

But finally we arrived at the Church and got to see the Infant of Prague. It was beautiful! St. Therese, who is my Confirmation Saint, had a strong devotion to the Infant of Prague so I have always kept a statue of the infant next to her statue in my room. I'm glad I had the chance to see the real thing. They also had an exhibit with all the various vestments for the statue, now totaling over 300!

Irish Coffees are certainly a favorite of mine! 

Still pretty full from breakfast, we weren't really in the mood for much for lunch so we split a sandwich and grabbed a drink before setting out on our 3 hour walking tour of the Prague Castle District.

 A couple of days before we left I had found a great price for a tour of the castle district so we gave it a shot. I was really happy with the experience. Our guide was a native Czech but lived in the United States for 14 years. It was a great chance to learn a lot more about the history of the Czech Republic- its formation following World War One and then it's splitting from Slovakia after World War Two and the communist period that followed.

Prague Castle is the largest surviving medieval castle in all of Europe, but unfortunately touring the whole of the inside would take 3 visits or so according to our guide, so we only got to see the grounds and hear about it's history from its several courtyards.
But we did get to go inside St. Vitus Cathedral, inside one of the courtyards of the Castle. We didn't pay to go all the way up front but admired from the back. It's a gorgeous gothic and neo-gothic cathedral built in the 1340's. There is a clear line between the two styles as the stone changes color. It very much reminded me of the beautiful cathedrals of Paris and Chartres that I walked from/to this past summer on my pilgrimage. I look forward to getting to learn so much more about church architecture over the next several months and start to be able to notice the key differences all on my own.

Our guide knew all the tricks, like getting us ushered outside that courtyard to an overlook just in time for a great view of the city as the sun was setting. And then in time to make the 4 o'clock changing of the guard, for which we had a front row view. I love the serious but also seemingly gentle expressions of the guards as they stand at their post and the ceremony that occurs every hour as they switch.

By the time we had finished our tour, it was nearly dark even though it was only 4:45pm. We took the tram back down to the base of the castle walls and then walked back over to Old Town. Since we crossed at a different point, we had gorgeous views of the Charles Bridge.

We tried some traditional Czech cuisine
for dinner that night. I had Moravian pork
 shoulder with cabbage and dumplings. 

For our third day in Prague, we only had the morning because we had to catch our train to Vienna midday. So we set out early to complete our list of things we had wanted to see. It was sad walking through Old Town Square and watch them taking down all the markets and Christmas decorations. Although it was comical watching them collect the giant ornaments into what looked like the biggest clear trash bag you have ever seen. 

We made our way back to Charles Bridge and on the way, stopped in upon a Mass being said by a Bishop at St. Francis of Assissi Church. We stayed long enough to hear the organ playing the beautiful music of the Gloria. We will be attending Mass once we arrive in Vienna tonight. 

 We had wanted to go on the guided tour of the Klementinum Library but the day before the lines had been too long. So we got there a half an hour before it opened to guarantee that we would get in on the first tour. It was actually a funny way I came to hear about this library. There was a picture of it on the supervisor computer at the Christendom library that I noticed one day and reverse-searched the image to discover it was located in central Prague. We learned that it has been closed for over a year due to a legal issue and just reopened to the public two weeks ago. So we were super lucky to get to see it! Unfornutately pictures were not allowed in the library itself because of the efforts to preserve the old books. But I bought postcards to be able to remember it and it really did look just beautiful as all the pictures from google.

The whole complex was built by the Jesuits in the 1600s-early 1700s. It was completed in 1722. It includes so much more than just the library. We also got to see the Meridian room where you could see the exact spot of light at the astronomical noon. But nothing compares to the gorgeous views that the astronomical tower provided. You had 360 degrees views of the city. But I was rather chilly up there. And then it was time to descend the 172 narrow steep steps.

Our last stop was visiting Our Lady Before Tyn Church back in Old Town Square. It is open only 4 days a week and has such limited hours that we hadn't gotten a chance to visit it yet. We technically arrived after it was supposed to have closed but were able to slip inside for a quick look and a few pictures before they kicked us out.

That marked the last stop on our Prague adventure. We went back to the hotel and gathered our bags and took a taxi to the train station. As I write, we are about two hours into our train ride, Vienna here we come!

The Brunette