As the title suggests, we have spent three days in Prague. We took a 6am bus from Brno on Wednesday morning, arriving to Prague at 8.30am. First, we took subway and a bus to the northen suburb of Prague, where my friends Zdeněk and Ester live, since we stayed at their place. Then we walked through the Old Town, starting and finishing at the Old Town Square. Then we took a subway to Vyšehrad, a rocky hill above river Vltava, which was the site of first fortificated settlement in late 9th century and the seat of Czech kingdom before the Prague Castle started to be built in early 11th century. Not much remains now from these times, but there is an interesting neogothic church there and a cemetery of famous Czech people. We finished the day with a dinner in a small restaurant under Vyšehrad.
On Thursday, we first went to Bertramka, a villa in southwestern Prague, where is now W. A. Mozart museum, since Mozart lived here with his friends when we was staying in Prague. Then we moved to the Prague Castle area, visiting monasteries at Strahov and Loreta, and then walked through Malá Strana and over Charles Bridge to Old Town. In the evening, we went to see opera Don Giovanni in the Estates Theater, where also the premiere of this opera was performed more than 200 years ago.
The last day was reserved for visit of Prague Castle. We slept late, so we did not get there before noon. We met my parents there and together walked through the castle, thoroughly exploring St. Vitus cathedral, the castle dominant, and several other palaces. We ended the day with a common dinner in a nice garden Greek restaurant.
St. Nicholas church on the Old Town Square.
Chandelier in St. Nicholas church, a present of the Russian tsar to some Czech church.
A monastery on the eastern side of Old Town Square.
House U Černé Matky Boží, one of several cubist houses in the downtown.
View from the same place east towards the Powder Tower.
Obecní Dům (Municipal House), another building praised for its architecture.
Estates Theater from the back from the square that used to be one of those medevial market places.
Another famous house, Palace Adria.
Street Na Příkopě, which is located in a place of former city wall and moat, now houses upscale shops.
A quarter that can be found in almost any city in the world.
Church close to Wencelas square, which name I forgot.
Estates Theater from the front.
Old Charles University building, the school was founded in 1348 and is the oldest in central Europe.
A house across the street from the university.
Me in front of St. Martin's church.
Modernistic National Theater New Scene building.
Subaru WRX in front of the New Scene. Wolf in a sheep's skin. I could not resist taking a picture...
National Theater old building.
Panorama of the Prague Castle (left) and Charles Bridge from a bridge next to National Theater.
Two synagogues in the Jewish quarter.
Crowd in front of the Old Town City Hall before the astronomic clock starts its show at the hour. On the right, Týn cathedral.
Two views at the Old Town City Hall astronomic clock.
View from Old Town City Hall tower down onto Old Town Square.
A little left to the whole Old Town Square.
Series of panoramas from the Old Town City Hall Tower (north-east-south).
View down from the tower towards southwest.
Me and Dina on the Old Town City Hall tower (picture taken by a fellow American tourist).
Lift to the tower for the lazy ones.
Entrance to Vyšehrad, probably rebuilt of the medevial fortifications.
A quiet street leading towards the Vyšehrad church.
Remnants of the oldest rotunda from 9th century.
Vyšehrad cemetery housing the famous people from the nation.
Neogothic spires of the Vyšehrad church.
Three shots from Bertramka (Mozart museum).
Two views at Strahov monastery, which houses a unique library.
Loreta monastery.
Panorama from upper Malá Strana towards Strahov gardens and hill Petřín with a tower, 1/3 replica of the Eifel Tower.
Two shots from Charles Bridge.
View through the gate of the bridge tower towards the Old Town.
Interior of the Estates Theater.
Some church in the Prague Castle complex.
Portal of St. Vitus cathedral.
Series of panoramas from St. Vitus cathedral tower.
View at the two portal towers of St. Vitus from the main tower.
Main altar in St. Vitus cathedral.
View at the St. Vitus cathedral from the south.
Famous historic mosaic on the St. Vitus cathedral southern portal.
One of the mosaic windows of St. Vitus Cathedral.
Old Royal Palace at the Castle.
Vladislav Hall at the Old Royal Palace, built in early 16th century.
Chapel in the Old Royal Palace.
Side of the Old Royal Palace, where Vladislav Hall is.
Models of the castle how it developed over the centuries.
Golden Lane, a narrow street with small houses in the Castle.
View from the northern side of the castle north.
Královský Letohrádek, alias Royal Summer House, currently under repair.
Typical sign on the lawn with St. Vitus in the backround.U of U / CHPC / Cuma / Travel / English / Praha 01
URL: http://www.chpc.utah.edu/~mcuma/praha01e.html