20.05.2013 – 20.05.2013  16 °C

We had another early start because we joined our first group activity, a walk around Praha castle and the old town. Originally, our plan was to join the group to be able to get a free ride to the castle and then to leave the group to do a tour around the castle. Our grand plan ended up changing slightly, once we realised the castle was closed for the day.

Anyway, we joined the tour, fortunately on a bus that was not super busy so we ended up having a smallish group for our tour of the castle grounds. The castle, was just as I recalled it! St Vitus cathedral as monumental and gothic, the castle surrounds super gorgeous.. just as I recalled! Actually, I’d forgotten how beautiful the interior of St Vitus is.. So much stained glass.. it certainly rivals Notre Dame for the colourful interior and the gargoyles as cute as I recall!!!

Our guide took us around the surrounds of the castle and the cathedral with the obligatory comfort break (which in answer to your question was one of the first questions that was asked to our tour guide!). We were also fortunate enough to see the changing of the guard, which was actually fairly straight forward.. not the pageantry like you would see at Buck House or even the guard changing in Quebec City. After taking some obligatory photos of the guards we headed back to the bus and into town for a quick wander to market square.

We left our guide in the main square (after seeing the Astronomical clock show) and headed to do some more shopping :). My A was keen to find some crystal and T and I were keen to organise a concert, a Segway trip and a ghost tour! An hour or so later, we ditched the plan to see a concert, booked ourselves on a Segway and booked ourselves on the night time wander through the underground and the night time ghost tour.

Once we had booked ourselves on our Segway we all headed to a restaurant on the main square to have some more traditional Czech food for lunch.. 12 dollars later we had consumed chicken soup and a goulash with dumplings and a hot chocolate. Our lunch was served with us sitting outside wrapped up in blankets with an over head heater toasting our faces.. yep lunchtime and it is still as cold as it was when we got up this morning.

By the time we left my A&U and Nanna it was starting to slightly warm up for our Segway tour. Our tour took us from the Powder tower, down to the Vtlava River, along the river, across to the Lesser town and back to the Old Town. T was a natural on the Segway and had herself going in no time. I hadn’t lost my Segway skills and found myself zooming around the little square before we’d even got going. I enjoyed the Lesser town the most out of our tour. I guess because I hadn’t spent much time in this part of Prague and we hadn’t spent any time there this time around. Our guide, Jonsa (pronounced Honsa- John in English) took us to Kafka’s museum. The entry to his museum is a sculpture of two statues who are peeing onto a map of the Czech Republic.. I’m guessing the sculpture was trying to say something?? We didn’t enter the museum but the entry way gave me an idea of the political nature of Kafka’s writings!

Our tour wended its way thru the little cobblestoned streets of the Lesser Town. These streets are more suburban in nature (as compared to the Old Town) and have a real warm feeling. I wish that we had’ve spent more time in the Lesser Town (next time I guess!) We also zoomed our way thru some really lovely parks and over some little winding rivers. Finally, we made it back to the Old Town and our tour ended at the church where the first ever rendition of Don Giovanni was performed, conducted by none other than W.A. Mozart! Apparently, you can see DG performed daily in this church.. again another activity for next time I’m in Prague.

We got back to the Powder Tower just after 5pm, meaning we had only two hours before we had to be back in the main market square of the Old town for our Under City and Ghost tours! T and I hot footed it back to the hotel to pick up the older members of our group for a quick bite to eat in the Hilton restaurant (oyster and clam chowder for me) before we headed out for our Under City tour. Our ghostly tours began with us venturing under the city to the 12^th century passageways and torture chambers. I spent my time under the ground looking for anything paranormal and on multiple occasions got goose bumps up my spine.. Ghostly feelings or a bit of mind playing tricks??

Story wise, it was similar to last time- lady wandering around in a white dress, walls running with blood, blood curdling screams… At one point we doused the lights to try and feel ghostly presences- both T and I grabbed for each other (to scare the other) at the same time, so the effect was totally wasted as we both ended up giggling!

I was a little more successful on the next tour- we stopped at the Alchemist’s house to see the golden coloured bears, we saw the black Madonna (at the cross roads of paranormal energies!) and I photographed what appears to be floating orbs! No doctoring on this photo—it is as it appears complete with floating globe of light! I also managed to really get our tour guide and members of the tour. At one point he stopped put his ear to the ground and supposedly was listening for screaming coming from underground. I was standing behind the guide so let out a loud scream.. He jumped and then told me I should get a job on the tour as the official helper!!! Too funny! 🙂

Our night ended with us walking back to the hotel all complaining loudly of very sore feet.. Not sore enough to stop and pay a taxi to drive us home but sore none the less!

Cuisine of the Day: Czech beef goulash- Market Square at lunch time