Day 7, sightseeing in Prague
Friday, May 29, 2015
Today is a relaxing day. We don't have to ride and we have all day to explore
the old center of Prague so we had breakfast at a quarter to nine.
After breakfast we left the Botel and walked along the Moldau to "Parizska
trida", the street to the Jewish neighbourhood.
The big restaurant on the other side
is where we had a beer yesterday
In the Jewish neighbourhood, I saw a synagogue with two clocks. One western
and the other Jewish.
A synagogue with two clocks
One western and the other Jewish
The Jewish souvenir market
Just a funny car on the street
Our original plan was to visit the Jewish cemetery but we had to buy an
expensive ticket, just to see the cemetery and a synagogue, so we skipped
it and went on to Staromestske Namesti (The old town square).
Big statues on the old town square
Beautiful decorated houses
The Church of St Nicholas
Tyn Church
The old town square is a populair
place for romantic wedding pictures
One of the things on my list of things to see was the astronomical clock.
The astronomical clock of Prague is famous. It the third-oldest astronomical
clock in the world and was constructed in 1410.
Obvious, I was not the only one who wanted to see the clock strike the
hour. There were hundreds of people on the square.
The famous clocktower with the astronomical clock
The astronomical clock and a lot of people
At ten, a number of religious figures
past at the two small windows
Artist and children, having fun on the square
A beautiful painted building and some Segways
From the old town square, we walked to the Wenceslaus square, or
"Vaclavske Namest". On one of the street was a nice street market.
Dick looked at a few booths for souvenirs but he did not found
what he was looking for.
Street market
From the street market we continued to the Wenceslaus square but
first it was time for a cappuccino that we had at Alfredo Caffe.
Alfredo Caffe (yes, with ff and one e)
Sometimes when you walk in a city, you see a passageway to "somewhere".
It is often fascinating to find out what is behind such a passageway.
Today we found one that was the gate to a very original souvenir shop
with painted eggs.
Souvenir shop
Finaly, we arrived at Wenceslaus square. To be honest, it was a bit
disapointing. It was a big shopping square with expensive shops like
Marks and Spencer and a lot of bars, banks, hotels, casino's and
restaurants.
At the other end of the Wenceslaus square was the National Museum, a big
dark building. Some of the architecture on the square is worth looking at.
The buildings are beautiful but it was too "commercial" for my liking.
The National Museum
A cafe-restaurant in a old tram wagon
Everywhere in the Czech Republic, they sell glass art and Swarovski crystal
objects. Nothing to take home as a souvenir on a motorbike trip
Glass and Swarovski things
I was lucky that there was a Mc Donald's restaurant at the corner of the
square. When I was standing in front of their window, I had enough free
WiFi to use my smartphone to check if there was a Hard Rock Cafe in Prague.
There is one, at Male Namesti 142/3 so that is where we will have lunch.
From the Wenceslaus square we walked to the Nameski Republiky, Square of the
Republic. There is the Hybernia theater and a municipal house, theater and
opera house, both monumental buildings.
The Hybernia theater
The municipal house, theater and opera house
Isn't this beautiful !
In a street on our way to the Hard Rock Cafe, we saw two old
Skoda's that are used for city sightseeing tours.
Two old Skoda's
A interesting act of two street artist
The clocktower of the astronomical clock again
It was almost half past twelve when we found the hard Rock Cafe. A
friendly, beautiful tattooed waitress took our order. We both had a
Honey Chicken Sandwich with French fries and an "unsweet tea", that
is icetea without sugar.
The Hard Rock Cafe Prague
We enjoyed our sandwiches
It was a good lunch and since we had seen all what we had on our list
and more, we went back to the Botel.
Another view on Prague castle
Back at the Botel, we got on the internet and made a reservation for
our next hotel, Pension Yveta at Horni Misecky 370, Vitkovice v Krkonosich
in Horni Misecky.
Botel Albatros is a very big ship. In the corridor were our cabins were,
I made a picture to show how long it was.
A very long corridor
At three o'clock we went to the restaurant on the upper deck to get a
cup of coffee. It was very relaxing to sit there, drink coffee and
watch the river tour boats pass by "our" boat.
The rest of the afternoon we spend reading, working on my weblog and
just relaxing and at six o'clock we went to the upper deck again to
get dinner.
The view from the restaurant on the upper deck
On the other bank of the Moldau was an unfamiliar looking ship. We wondered
what is was so after we finished our dinner with a cup of coffee, we walked
over the bridge to the other bank of the Moldau. There we found out that is
was a night shelter for the homeless.
An unfamiliar looking ship
From the bridge over the Moldau, we had a nice view on the Prague Castle and
the river tour boats in the Moldau.
Prague castle and the river tour boats
Later that evening, we had another coffee at the upper deck before we went
to our cabins for the night.
|
