Prague Attractions | Singapore Travel Photo Blog @ travelerfolio.com

Prague Old Town Square

We began our first sightseeing trip in the medieval Old Town Square where many historic buildings of Romanesque, Baroque and Gothic styles were erected around the Square.

The Gothic style Old Town Hall Tower is one of the most striking buildings in Prague built in 1338.

We waited at the Astronomical Clock on the side of the Old Town Hall Tower for the procession of the twelve Apostles. Every hour when the minute hand strikes twelve, a small trap door opens and figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures would march out.

The poor horses had been standing in the Square for a long time, and air was filled with pungent urine smell.

I was particularly interested in this cool-looking statue and tried to take a picture of it without the bird on its head, but the bird just rested there for a very long time. In fact, most of the statues in Prague are very old and almost black; they are very beautiful and artistic, but with lot of pigeon shits too. It is also fascinating to see the dark coloured statues after the rain. The face of the statue looks just like it has wept.

The Old Town Square that glows in the evening.

Prague Castle!

Posted by eunice Posted in Czech Republic, Europe, Prague Comments (0)

Prague Castle

We walked our way to the Prague Castle. View of the Prague Castle from far.

The walk was an enjoyable one – we passed by a stunning historic building with golden roof top and a memorial park.

Try the pastries in Prague. They are cheap and good! We had some in a small cafe before we reached Prague Castle.

Quite tiring walking up the flight of stairs to Prague Castle, the largest inhabited fortress in the world. But the climb to a higher spot offers the most spectacular view across the Bohemian town with its distinctive red roof buildings.

Something unusual – mysterious human-like sculptures seemingly sitting on steps and facing the centre stage.

View of Prague Old Town.

As we entered Prague Castle, we first visited the gorgeous Saint Vitus Cathedral. To many, it is the Prague Castle. It is also the burial place of the once mighty Czech kings.

The intricate stained glass inside the Cathedral.

The net vaults.

The Royal Crypt – the tombs.

We visited the Golden Lane. I always think the small colourful houses lined at the lane look like those in Disney fairytale cartoons. These houses were built small due to lack of space at that time. They were made of stone, mud, and wood. The lane was named after the goldsmiths who lived there in the 17th century. Now, the lane is lined with souvenir shops. The lane is very short.

The stunning panorama view at the Castle.

Say Cheez!

See Photos of Charles Bridge

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Charles Bridge, Prague

Charles Bridge crosses the Vltava river in Prague. The bridge is decorated by an alley of 30 statues and statuaries, mostly in Baroque style, erected around 300 years ago.

The Old Town bridge tower is also considered as one of the most astonishing civil Gothic-style buildings in the world.

I love this old statue! Saw it on Lonely Planet cover page before.

View of the Prague Castle.

There are many painters on the bridge. I saw some so-called Chinese painters translated non-Chinese names to Chinese names, and added flowery designs on the Chinese characters; but some of the Chinese characters were wrongly written! Anyway, Chinese illiterates won’t know about it…

The other side of the Charles Bridge.

It was dinner time. We decided to walk back to our hostel since it was getting late.

Nearly got CHEATED again!

We went into another local restaurant and had a good dinner there. Again, another trying-to-cheat-us incident happened in the restaurant. When it was time to foot the bill, the waitress showed us a written piece of bill again. Once bitten, twice shy. This time, we requested for the electronic printout receipt. Guess what? The printout receipt was hidden underneath the hand-written receipt and the bill was much lower without any tax! The waitress explained that their prices were already very low…blar blar blar, trying to cover up herself! Luckily, we were not cheated this time.

A lady approached us for help. She looked worried and spoke the kind of English we all knew was not her native language. Weird right? Why would some European speak English to us directly and ask a tourist for help, instead of the other way round? We ignored her.

We walked around the old town in the night. The lanes were poorly lit and we started to feel unsafe walking in lonely places. We quickly walked back to the Old Town Square nearby our hostel. At least there were more people there.

Read The Jewish Quarter!

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The Jewish Quarter in Prague

The Jewish Quarter’s history dates back to the 13th century, when the Jewish community in Prague were ordered to vacate their homes and settle in one area. Th buildings in the Quarter form the best preserved Jewish historical monuments in the whole Europe.

A little history about the Jewish Museum: it was closed to the public after the Nazi occupation in 1939. In 1942, the Nazis established the Central Jewish Museum to house all the liquidated Jewish communities and synagogues. At that time, the Nazis planned to create a museum of an extinct race, as they called it.

We wanted to visit the Pinkas Synagogue, where victims of the Holocaust are commemorated in a permanent exhibition of children’s drawings from Terezín. But due the terrible flood in Prague in the previous year, the exhibition was closed for restoration.

The Old Jewish Cemetery was established in the 15th century and is one of the most important historic sites in Prague’s Jewish Town. Today it contains some 12,000 tombstones, although the number of people buried there is much greater. The cemetery was enlarged a number of times but still it did not suffice and earth was brought in to add further layers. It is assumed that the cemetery contains several burial layers placed on top of each other.

Lunch at a local restaurant. My fish was nice but with too many tiny bones. Jacky’s piece of meat was gruesomely stabbed with a knife.

We bought four sets of Russian dolls. Two sets consists of 10 dolls with nice craftsmanship and they cost around S$50 to S$60. The smallest doll was only about 1cm tall, so cute! We kept two sets for ourselves and the other two as gifts to relatives and friends.

The best and cheapest dinner I had was actually not far – the cafe is at the hostel itself! It serves a big portion of vegetarian food in Indian style of cooking. Nice!