Prague

For our five year wedding anniversary, Todd and I found a cheap flight to Prague for an extended weekend. We stayed a bit outside of the tourist part of the city, but still saw all of the tourist sites. We stayed near the TV tower, which is a bit futuristic looking and has statues of babies crawling all over it.

Apparently, they were placed on it in 2000 as some sort of artistic piece and the locals liked it so much it became permanent. The public transportation in the city was pretty easy to maneuver, even given our limited knowledge of the Czech language. Even so, we still ended up doing a lot of walking on the city’s many cobblestone streets.

We saw the famous Astromonical Clock that is over 600 years old,

where on the hour a rooster crowed and the windows opened to a statue procession of the twelve apostles.

Here is a fun video of a light show done for the clock’s 600^th anniversary.

Prague has many beautifully constructed buildings; you can find unique settings all over the city.

One of my favorite buildings was the Dancing House, named because it resembles a pair of dancers.

We saw the Charles Bridge (the one from Mission Impossible) from many different locations, behind me in this picture.

It was built in the 15th century and there are 30 large statues of different saints decorated on the bridge. This is the statue of Augustine.

The most famous statue on the Charles Bridge is St. John of Nepomuk, where many people were crowded around trying to touch the statue because it is said to bring good fortune when touched.

We walked up a large hill to visit Prague Castle,

the largest castle in the world.
Inside we visited St. Vitus Cathedral,

an art musem of Czech artists, the history of the castle guards and saw a house where Kafka lived and wrote.

We also saw a very nice view of the city from the elevated castle.

Jan Huss, a forerunner to Martin Luther, served as a preacher at Bethlehem Chapel in Prague prior to his excommunication and eventual execution by church authorities. Here is a large statue of Huss located in Old Town Square with St. Nicholas church behind it.

We visited Bethlehem Chapel where we got to see where Huss preached. The Chapel reflects his high belief in preaching with the raised pulpit.

Todd was very excited to visit this historic site.

Of course, we ate good food each day (we found great mexican!)

and at one place even found the same wine that we had at the fancy restaurant where we went on the night of our engagement.

We drank some great pilsners and watched ”Friends” and “The Incredibles” in German on our TV in the hotel. It was really a treat to get away to this fascinating city with all its cubist shaped buildings, religious history and strange statues (like the hanging man, who is easily missed by many passersby).

We had a great time and packed a lot into our four days!