We’re still not sleeping the best and are up with the dawning day, 5:15 say, but it makes for an early start to the sights of interest and less crowded venues for checking them out.

Coffee and breakfast in our hotel courtyard

After another yummy breakfast at our hotel, we hit the streets with the goal of touring the Prague Castle. It’s not very far from our hotel but it’s all uphill to get there since the castle sits on a high spot overlooking the city, just as a well situated castle should be sited.

It’s a steady climb up to the castle.
Peek-a-boo views along the way made for a fun trip up.

The castle, in one or more forms, has been present on the top of this rocky ridge for over a thousand years. As it grew, a formal palace, churches, shops, and residents’ homes for the workers of the castle developed into a little community all around it. It’s not a castle in the fairy tale sense at all and, really, it’s the St. Vitus Cathedral that stands out when you look up from below. We bought tickets that allowed us to see the large cathedral (St. Vitus) built in the 1300s, the original church from 950 (St. George’s Basilica), the palace along with its legislative offices, and the “Golden Lane”, a narrow street with shops and homes set up as they would have been hundreds of years ago.

As we crested the hill, the enormous St Vitus Cathedral was in front of us. You can see how massive it is by comparing it to the kiosks selling food and drink in the foreground of this photo.
St Vitus Cathedral
Flying buttresses
Guards marching just outside St Vitus Cathedral and in front of the Royal Palace
Here’s a collection of snapshots of some of the more quirky carvings, statues, and gargoyles.
Here’s just a handful of the many spectacular stained glass windows at St Vitus.
The stain glass lit up the side chapels with bursts of different colors.
And they created some interesting light patterns on the stone walls.
Here you see St Vitus’ massive nave, a fresco of the Bohemian crest, and one of the pipe organs.
Now in the Royal Palace, we see one of the great halls.
Books of records from the 1200s detailing land tenants.
Here are some of the homes and shops along The Golden Lane.

After spending several hours touring these parts of the castle grounds and learning all we could, we were ready to leave and head back down the hill. “Down” was the operative word, thank goodness! The temperatures had warmed up to 90 degrees by then and we needed breezes and easy walking for the next part of our day. Somehow, though, when we reached the bottom we decided that we should use the rest of our time out and about to go up to another well-known view spot overlooking Prague. It was a bit farther away from our hotel, a bit higher up above the city, and, of course, the temperatures were even warmer now! What were we thinking?

On this hot day an open window and some geraniums created a classic scene.

But, being the troopers we are, we persisted and climbed, and climbed, and climbed up hot sidewalks finally reaching an outdoor restaurant perched on the edge of this ridge. All the tables were situated to take advantage of spectacular views of Prague. Fortunately, we found a table for 2 underneath a large, shade tree. We were sweating like crazy and our clothes were sticking to us and we decided that this would be the momentous spot in Prague where Clint would order his first beer. The city is know for its beer, particularly Pilsners, and a cold beer has the reputation of really quenching one’s thirst so what could be better timing? Well, let’s just say I did try it. I found it not that refreshing and not that good tasting – just my opinion. Ryan likes beer and, for him, his glass was just what the doctor ordered! Luckily, the restaurant served delicious, cool salads and we both enjoyed sitting in the shade looking out over the beautiful view and relaxing while we ate.

Like a mirage on a distant horizon, the monastery where we would eat appeared so far away on such a hot and sticky day.
Well, at least he tried it!
The views were incredible!
On the way back down we trailed some monks headed into town for who-knows-what.

Today was the first day we did not take afternoon naps. We did rest in our air conditioned hotel room and we each had a glass of wine while we played cribbage. At dinner time we walked to a nearby restaurant for a burger and pasta and then walked through a large park overlooking Prague but with a different view from our earlier overlooks. By now the weather had cooled and thunder clouds were building which made for a pleasant after-dinner stroll. But, no naps equals early to bed for us and that’s where we’re headed right now! 😴 😴