Prague, Czech Republic

Prague is known as the Golden City of Europe and is one of Europe’s oldest cities. Prague is located in the region of Bohemia so of course to pay tribute to Bohemia the six of us decided to listen to Bohemian Rhapsody on our way to Prague. We arrived in Prague after taking a train from Munich to Nürnburg Germany and then took a bus the rest of the way to Prague. I was very impressed with the German Rail or Deutsche Bahn in that they have some of the nicest trains I have ever been on and they even serve their passangers complementary drinks and snacks, which is unheard of in Europe. Our bus to Prague was also run by the Deutsche Bahn and the bus was surprisingly nice as well. Prague was our only destination where we had not pre-booked sleeping accommodations so after arriving at the bus station we went to a tourist office where the lady told us the best way to stay in Prague is to stay in an apartment so that's what we did. Our landlords, Mr. Suk, was quite a character and spoke a million miles a minute. But our apartment was centrally located near the Old Town Square, had two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. It was a pretty nice place although Mr. Suk insisted that we take the elevator up to our room rather than the stairs. The elevator could hold a max of three people and looked like it hadn’t been serviced since the 1980’s. But the best part was that we only had to pay €15 each for the night. The Czech Republic is a recent member of the European Union however they have not yet adopted the Euro as their currency. The Czech Republic is on the Czech Crown and it is about 17 Czech Crowns to $1 US dollar or about 25 Czech Crowns to €1 Euro. A kielbasa sausage in the Old Town Square was 50 Czech Crowns, which is only €2. So we were glad to be somewhere that was a bit cheaper and was not on the Euro. In the Czech Republic the people speak Czech which is similar to Polish. Seeing as how no one in our group knew any Czech we were lucky that most of the Czech people were able to speak English. While in Prague we saw all of the major sights including the Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge, The Prague Castle, several Cathedrals, the Jewish Quarter etc. Prague was a beautiful city where every building was at least 300 years old and seemed to have some historical importance. Even out apartment building was built in the 1600’s although it had been renovated. Prague is home to emperors and kings, artists and astronomers, this beautiful and fascinating city has worked its subtle magic on generations of visitors, and lent inspiration to musicians and writers from Mozart to Kafka.

A cathedral in the old town square where we spent most of our time eating the delicious street food.

Me in front of the famous astronomical clock in old town square. At the top of every hour the clock puts on a show and hundreds of people gather in the square to watch the spectacle.

The guys in front of the clock. The clock was built in the 1300's on the town hall.

The Vlatava River and the Parliment building in the background

The Charles Bridge which is probably the main tourist site in Prague. On the bridge or statues depicting certain religious scenes and scenes of specific events during the reign of King Charles.

A picture from the Charles Bridge overlooking the Prague Castle in the background. Prague Castle is one of the largest castles in Europe and the largest castle whereby a head of state still lives, The Czech President.

Another picture of the Prague Castle taken from the Charles Bridge

Winceslas Square which is like Prague's version of Time Square in New York City.

A group picture. Being that Prague is one of the oldest cities in the world we walked on the same coblestone streets as Royal Kings and Queens, Hitler and the Nazis, and the Communist Soviets.

As we were walking across the Charles Bridge we noticed that everone was touching this metal piece so I decided to touch it to. The golden statue I am touching is a dead man so hopefully it gives good luck rather than bad luck.

The changing of the guard at Prague Castle

St Vital's Cathedral. This was the first cathedral built in the Gothic style

Prague Castle

A view of Prague from the Prague Castle.

This is a picture of the night club we went to the night before. It is a five story night club and claims to be the biggest night club in Eastern Europe.

Another view of old town square. That evening before we caught our bus to berlin we went to a mass in the medieval looking church. The mass was completely in Czech.

We arrived in Prague on Saturady the 3rd at about 2:30pm and left the next evening at midnight for Berlin. We caught a 12:ooam bus to Berlin and arrived in Berlin at 5 in the morning. The Czech bus company that we travelled with was not quite up to paar with the German buses. So with that it was an interesting ride to Berlin seeing as how we almost got in a couple of car accidents and the bus driver would randomly pull of the autoway a drive into the countryside for about ten minutes and take 20 minute naps. But we made it there safely and we even arrived 20 minutes early.