Our Trips: Day 24-25: Prague, Czech Republic

Our first day in Prague, we walked up Petrin Hill to see the Petrin Tower. It was a steep hike up a paved path. Along the way we passed by the funicular which we could have ridden up to the top as well as a rose garden. Since we just hiked up the hill, we decided to pay to ride the elevator to the top of the tower for a great view of the city.

Then we walked to Lennon Wall. The wall was a normal wall, but when Lennon died, people graffitied the wall with pictures and says of John Lennon. The government kept painting it over, but the new graffiti soon would reappear. Eventually, the government left the wall alone, but people still come to paint pictures and write sayings.

On the way up and down, we heard a lot of chanting and music in the far distant. We thought it was a concert or someone giving a speech. Later on we passed a lot of people carrying the Czech flag and had a sticker with a saying we could not read on their shirts. We found out a breakfast the next morning, it was a protest. Actually the biggest protest since the protest that lead to the fall of Communism in 1989! The Czechs were asking the prime minister to resign his position before an election in a few days.

The next day was a packed day of walking! We went to the Prague Castle and saw the changing of the guards at noon. We waiting in line to view the St. Vitis cathedral. Then we walked up 287 steps to the tower. From the tower we got a great view of the Charles Bridge that we would be walking on later.

After the tower we went through a park with peacocks to eat our lunch. We found our way to the famous Charles Bridge and walked across it. The old bridge is pedestrian only and connects the two towns that are on either side of the Vltava River. On one side of the river (Mala Strana), we found the famous Czech dessert called Trdlo which was like a cinnamon roll pastry that was wrapped around a stick to make a hole in the middle. Then the middles was filled with ice cream. It was delicious!!