Prague

6/26 Continued
We made it off the train early that morning, and found a nice hostel one block from the train station. We got a nice private room with two beds, and a shared bathroom was only a couple of steps down the hall.

I want to start this out by saying that I have been in Tampa, Orlando, New York, Dublin, London, and Amsterdam within the last month. When I started walking around Prague I was blown away. Most of those cities I mentioned before have nice architecture and some historical buildings mixed in with their modern ones. Prague on the other hand feels like none of the buildings have changed in hundreds of years. (And in many cases this is true.)

Pretty much every building we cam across had some sort of ornate carving or statuary on it somewhere. We passed through nearly thousand year old archways, and walked through cobble stone streets that were obviously cut and laid by hand. Even most of the sidewalks had carefully placed designs built into the cobbling.

As we made it to the city center we saw the grand clock tower, and their was a festival going on for the world cup. Their were small, temporary, shops set up for all kinds of food and drink vendors. The two that caught my eye in particular were the blacksmith, and the slowly spinning pork roasting over an open wood fire.

After filling up on beer and pork we wandered around and watched some of the world cup games on the big screen projector they had set up in the town square.

6/27
We went to the torture museum. They had replicas of over 100 types of torture devices, and descriptions of their use. One in particular that caught my attention was "The Noisemaker's Fife", a nifty creation they would put on bad musicians. (Oh, if only they had one of these for sale in the gift shop, I would put it to good use.)

From there we made it into an old cathedral near the town square and purchased tickets to watch a brass quintet there, later that evening. It was amazing to hear the musicians in the cathedral. The acoustics of the church gave the music an ominous feel.

After the show we decided to walk along the river in the evening to get some pictures of the water and buildings all lit up. What we found was even more amazing. There was a semi-permanent exposition of photos from around Europe, all focusing on the natural beauty and wildlife.

6/28
This was a pretty lazy day. We got up late and went straight to a tour of an old soviet nuclear bunker. It was interesting to see how the people had reclaimed it from being simply a bunker to a gathering place in some portions. They had repainted the entrance, and many of the walls, and even Microsoft had held the release for a game in it. There was also some preserved sections we got to go through. We got to see the air purification systems, and vintage gas masks and clothing. The best part was we got a beer deep in the bunker as part of our ticket price. The only bad part was that the tour guide spoke very fast with a heavy accent. Luckily at the end of the tour he gave us a piece of paper that had most of the information he talked about written on it.

6/29
On this day we decided to walk the couple of miles and see the grand castle off in the distance. On our way there her had to cross the famous Charles Bridge, and all of its beautiful sculptures.

After a relatively long walk on a hot day we made it to the Prague castle. Come to find out this is the largest castle complex in the world. The complex is more like a walled town than a castle. It was filled with historical and even current governmental buildings, along with cafes and street vendors to keep the tourists happy. (That includes us, we got fresh apple/orange/banana/strawberry smoothies that were amazing.) There was also a full cathedral inside the castle. It was partly under restoration, but amazing none the less. On our was down from the castle we found a small bar overlooking the city, and a vendor selling beautiful black glass jewelry.

6/30
Our last day in Prague. We packed our bags and had to be out of the room, and checked out before 9am. We hiked it over to a tour place we scoped out the day before and decided to take a bus tour over to Kutna Hora. This city is about 1.5 hours drive away from Prague, and it like the little brother. Evidently these two cities have been competing for centuries. (Unfortunately for Kutna Hora, Prague almost always won.) We saw the old Czech mint, and another cathedral that put even the one in the Prague castle to shame. The highlight of the tour, however, was the Ossuary. Evidently in the early 1900s the church decided to decorate the Ossuary with over 40,000 bones. There were chandeliers made of femurs, and pillars of skulls. It was somewhat gruesome if you weren't expecting it, but it was awe inspiring none the less.

From there we boarded our train back to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam round two to come in my next post.