journal journeys iii

Room 18, Red Chair Pension, Prague

After our 4-hour walking tour yesterday, we had seen the exterior of most of Prague's main sights - so there was nothing much to do apart from actually visiting those sights (or we could've gone on a tour to castles out of Prague, but we were probably too late to book tickets).

Top on my list (well, in all honesty it was the only thing on my list) was St. Vitus Cathedral.

We battled through the dense tourist crowds on Charles Bridge, and continued on in the sweltering heat to Prague Castle via tram.

Although the castle courtyards were bustling with people as usual, we there earlier than yesterday so there was a shorter queue to get into the cathedral.

It didn't take long for us to enter. Although no flash photography was allowed, there were camera flashes going off everywhere as everybody tried to capture every little detail (and there were lots of details) of the cathedral's interior.

Moving in an oval round the sides of the building, we passed large stained glass windows (including the great rose window, even more magnificent from the inside) depicting individual saints and scenes from the Bible (and other things I couldn't make out), as well as wall frescoes depicting...er, more saints (with their prominent gold-paint halos) and scenes from the Bible.

Every other available space seemed to contain mostly richly-gilded sculptures, altars and tombs - including a massive solid silver tomb honouring St. John Nepomuk, with suspended carved angels holding up a deep red canopy over it.

Right in the middle of the cathedral (though not very visible because it was cordoned off) was the royal marble mausoleum of Ferdinand I, his son and wife.

Another highlight of the cathedral - St. Wenceslas' Chapel - was also cordoned off, but everyone gathered behind the barrier anyway, just to catch a glimpse of the golden interior with its walls covered in Gothic frescoes and inlaid with gemstones.

At last the only thing left to do was to climb the long and narrow spiral staircase up to the top of the south tower.

I took the camera and began my journey. It was no easy feat. Other than being a looooooooooooooooooong climb, the stairs were built to accomodate one person only - and now there were lines of sweaty tourists squeezing along in both directions!

The climb was made even longer because many tourists in front of me had to stop and take periodic breaks on the way up. It was also quite dangerous because those going up had to walk on the narrowest part of the steps.

After passing by the church bells what felt like hours ago, I finally burst out into the sunlight and fresh air again at the top of the tower.

I spent the next few minutes poking my head and camera through various grilles as I snapped photos and took videos of the view from every imaginable angle.

And the view was well worth the climb. Other than being so high up in the cathedral, the building happened to already be perched on a hilltop - so I had unspoilt views of:

1) The castle courtyards

2) The distinctive red roofs of the Little Quarter

3) The mini Eiffel Tower on Petřín

4) Tourists streaming across Charles Bridge

5) The Vltava river snaking into the distance, and

6) Basically the whole city!

Then it was time to make my way down. Although I could hurry down the wider part of the steps, it was no less dangerous than climbing up because the lights were sparse and my shadow often obscured the next step.

Once I was safely back on the ground floor, we left and started the long downhill walk to Charles Bridge. After crossing the bridge in the midday heat (thank goodness our tour was yesterday!), we took a right turn and ended up right beside the river, where we continued walking till we reached the National Theatre, with its distinctive blue roof covered with stars (unfortunately, I do not have a good picture of the roof).

Sadly, the theatre wasn't open, so we just walked aimlessly down the street until we realised we were near the shopping area.

The next few hours were spent lazily browsing the shops (once again).

We eventually walked up the slope towards the National Museum and popped into the Marks & Spencer outlet.

We purchased some tortilla chips there, then had a nice little, but very late "lunch". I had cheesecake!

After that it was getting dark so we headed back to the hotel to catch the England vs. Germany match. We originally planned to have cup noodles for dinner, but couldn't get hot water and thus ended up with takeaways from a fancy and exceedingly expensive restaurant across the street.

I was too busy watching the match to take a picture of my food. :P

posted by ¤jazzika¤ @ 11:40 PM