It's All About Me...

A Walk Around Town

1:45 am, Mon, Oct 8, 2006

Today was our first full day in Prague. I had it all planned out but things didn't quite work out as I had thought. Nonetheless,we had a very rewarding day seeing lots!

The plan was to visit the Jewish Quarter in order to visit the Cemetry and series of Synagogues, but when we got there, we found out that it was a Jewish holiday (again), so everything was closed until tomorrow. Today was the first day of Sukkot, a week for commemorating the Jewish people's wandering in the desert, and was treated as if it were Sabbath. Note to self: always check with the Jewish Calendar from now on whenever we plan to visit any Jewish museums, synagogues and such while traveling!

Since we were by the river (Vltava River), we decided to go for a walk along it all the way down to Vysehrad (High Castle). It was a gorgeous day and was perfect for walking and sightseeing. We first took a peek into the Ruldofinum, the concert hall, and then started our trek down the river's estern bank. There were countless of beautiful buildings along the way, not to mention the unbelievable scenery across the river. The styles of buildings varied from Gothic, neo-Reanissance, Art Nouveau, Cubist to the modern (Tancici Dum/Dancing Building).

We took a slight detour along our way to check out the Kelmentium, the Jesuit's college built in the 1500's. There happened to be a small antique fair in one of the courtyards, so we wandered around that for a while. There were a few really cool antique irons that would add nicely to our collection (at least we are trying to build a collection), but I didn't feel like bargaining (and I figured we would get screwed anyway), so we just moved on.

Halfway to Vysehrad, we changed course so that we could test how long it would take if Iwere to walk to the Congress Centre (which is close to the Vysehrad) from the hotel. We walked past Karlovo Namesti (Charles Square), the Botanical Garden (part of Charles University) and a few churches (there are so many of them that we lost track!), but nothing too exciting. We ended up in a industrial/residential area where we could see the Congress Centre but could not access it because the road on the map that I thought we could take was really an overpass accessible only by Metro!

We ended up backtracking and headed up the hill to the Vysehrad. The view from up there was very impressive and the weather was just perfect. After a bit of wandering within the citidel and taking a peek into the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul (beautiful Gothic Church with twin steeples and interior described as 'a swirlng acid-trip of colourful Art Nouveau frescoes'), we went back down to the water and headed back to Old Town.

After a bit more wandering, we finally settled at one of the outdoor cafes in the Old Town Square for a late lunch and coffee. From where we were, we could see the Astronomical Clock ringing the hour without standing in the crowd and risking getting pick-pocketed!

We headed back to the hotel afterwards and napped for a few hours before May Shiu and Neil arrived. It was great to see them - we saw May Shiu last fall, but the last time we saw Neil was at our wedding 3 years ago. We walked out to the Old Town Square again and hung out at one of the cafes for a while before coming back. We had this amazing dessert: cottage cheese dumplings with plum fillings drizzled with poppy seed and melted butter - I don't feel guilty having such a rich dessert at midnight, after all, we walked about 32 km today!!

posted by Anne-Gigi @ 4:48 PM