We woke early and set out for Prague's biggest tourist attraction: The Castle. And when I say biggest, I'm being utterly literal. Prague Castle is a third of a mile long and includes four palaces, a cathedral, a basilica, the President of the Czech Republic, an art museum, a street market, and a TORTURE MUSEUM.
Inconveniently, Good King Wenceslaus decided to put the gate of his castle on the side facing away from the city, so to get inside we had to cross the river and walk the entire length of the castle to Hradcany Square. We also had to climb up nearly 100 meters of stairs, so a rest break at the top seemed like a good idea before going into the castle.
The adventuring party paid for the second-tier admission — access to all the buildings* but skipping the movie about the castle and its history. All of us actively dislike museums which make you sit through a movie before they let you see stuff, so we were happy to save some kroner.
The first part of the complex we saw was St. Vitus Cathedral, a magnificent Gothic pile on the outside with some gonzo Baroque touches inside. It can boast relics of St. Vitus himself and the giant silver tomb of St. John Nepomuk (who was martyred not far away when Wenceslaus IV — who I think we can all refer to as bad King Wenceslaus — had him thrown into the river).
After making our circuit of the cathedral we exited into St. George Square, where we detoured to the street market for sausages and drinks before tackling the old Royal palace section. That palace has the grand Vladislav Hall, the old Diet chamber, and of course the famous window from which the Imperial regents were thrown in the Second Defenestration of Prague. (The First Defenestration happened across the river at the town hall on Old Town Square. Evidently the Communist leaders of Czechoslovakia in 1989 knew enough to stay away from windows.)
We left through the door and had a look in at St. George Basilica, which is older than the cathedral but has a spiffy 17th-century facade. The interior is almost completely without ornament, apparently because of a fire back in the 12th century.
The final part of our castle visit was Gold Lane, a narrow street of tiny medieval houses built into the castle wall. Franz Kafka's sister lived there for a while, so he presumably visited from time to time. That house is now a bookstore, so I bought some postcards. No sign of giant beetles. There's also a decent museum of arms and armor, with replicas of medieval and Thirty Years' War equipment. To my delight, the collection of polearms included an actual Bohemian Ear-Spoon, which I first learned about from a footnote in the old D&D Players' Handbook. We skipped the TORTURE MUSEUM downstairs, and made our way out and down the hill back to the bridge, then to our flat. After all that walking and climbing we needed a nap.
Dinner that evening was at a Vietnamese banh mi restaurant, on our way to pick up some essentials at a nearby grocery. The grocery was part of the "Albert" chain, and our party of adventurers noticed some curiously familiar items and logos, especially on the store brand products. Yep: Albert's parent company, the Dutch giant Ahold, also owns the American Stop & Shop chain, one of my primary grocery sources at home. I regretted leaving my store loyalty card at home, as I could have tried to earn some gas points in Prague. We loaded up on soft drinks, breakfast food, and snacks, then headed back to our flat.
Early to bed that night. We were tired out from castling.
Next time: Synagogues!
*Except for the privately-owned Lobkowicz Palace. The Communists seized it but the reborn Czech Republic very nicely gave it back to the Lobkowicz family. You can get into that one, but it's not part of the package with the rest of the Castle. We decided to skip it.
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