xymd: Prague

Prague is an awesome city. It's history starts like 600 AD with some princess having a dream of a city with lots of spires. They started building right at away.

You can read the rest on Wikipedia.

So what I'll do is tell you what we did. We left our hotel and walked through the Old Jewish Quarter and did window shopping on our way to the Old Town Square. We people watched then looked at the churches and the astronomical clock. This is a clock built in 1490. The dude that built it was offered tons of money to build one else where. The leaders of Prague didn't want anyone else having such an awesome clock so they cut the dudes eyes out.

After the clock, we hiked over to a tour of Prague with a sweet little 75 year old guide. We learned a lot about the history and beautiful buildings. We crossed through Old Tow , the Charkes Bridgr, then hiked up to the palace and church. What a neat experience. We then came back to the hotel.

For dinner we meandered on back to the Old Town hall and had a dinner of goulash and Prague sausage. Our feet are sore but it was awesome.

We then went back to the bridge, and watched the sun set.

Here is the oldest still used synagogue in Prague. In the medieval time almost 25% of the city was Jewish. This part of the city could be walled off to protect them from raids.

Old Town Square.

Front of the clock.

This is the clock. The Clock.

No idea how to read it. Has Roman Greek numbers. Also apostles come out of the door on the left.

This is the side door to the clock. Look at how intricately it is carved.

Kafka was a philosopher I guess. This is his house.

Clock and church and Old Town Square.

That Church is The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn. There is slight asymmetry because when building the towers, the contractor misread the plans. One is slightly bigger than the other. The Church quickly did some PR work and said one represented Adam and the other Eve.

I like this picture a lot. Beautiful lady in a plaza with a cool clock and interesting church. Also that small gray/white building dates back to 1100/1200

Look at these barrels of candy!

Our guide showed us this random church. Built in 1317. Humble outside.

Amazing interior.

This church is a Lutheran St. Nicholas Church. That's right, Santa's Church.

Next we hiked the Black Tower. It was a part of the old castle till a plague came through and the royalty moved to the hill. It was also a munitions tower.

Our attemp at being artsy.

This gray building in the middle was built in 1100's and housed Kimg Charles mother.

Entrance to the Charles Bridge.

What a view. Bridge was built over 800 years ago.

One of the many statues.

This is where Tom Cruise watched John Voyt go over the bridge in Mission Impossible 1. But as we all know he ended up being the bad guy so he survived the fall ok.