With best intentions I launched this site on the cusp of ghost tour season and my seasonal return to the chocolate shop.  After several months of silence during which many tours were given, much chocolate was boxed and shipped, and several new exciting adventures were planned, and a couple of them taken, I return to the keyboard to resume the thread of my travels.

So to start, back to Prague.  We left the Strahov library and headed back to our hotel to catch the coach to the Lobkowicz palace for a decadent afternoon of lunch, a concert, and a tour of the family collections.  Come to find out, we were the only delinquents who skipped the morning city tour in favor of our own plans, so we ended up with an entire coach and guide to ourselves for the journey to the castle.  Jerry was delightful (and super cute), filled us in on the highlights of what we had missed during the morning tour, and took us on a pleasant walk through Prague Castle on the way to the palace and our lunch.

Lunch was delicious- only the beginning of a week of being regularly overfed- and afterwards we enjoyed the scenic views from the terrace (see the cover photo of the Prague Essentials post).  The rest of the afternoon was sadly overshadowed by the heat.  The palace is not air conditioned and by that point in the afternoon the rooms had filled with a humid fug, made thicker and more odorous by the addition of our large group.  Those who know me well know I HATE being hot (one of the main reasons I no longer live in Texas), and I become incredibly grumpy and churlish when hot and sticky.  I’m sure I would enjoy a return to the Lobkowicz collections on a cooler, less crowded day.  (Their music collection includes original manuscripts by Handel, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, as well as some truly wonderful paintings!)

Our walk back to the old town through the packed castle grounds and across the Charles Bridge, jostled all along by the throngs of other visitors did not improve my mood, and I’m afraid by the time we reached Old Town Square and the Astronomical Clock I was a completely unpleasant travel companion.  Out of necessity, therefore, we retreated to an empty restaurant for an early dinner and several buckets of ice water.  (A point of interest, the ice does not come in the water in many places in Europe- if you’d like some you’ll probably be offered a cup of it with a spoon!)

In the long run, this was a fortunate turn of events, because it necessitated our returning to Old Town Square the following evening to properly appreciate the clock, at which occasion we stumbled across an evening tour inside Old Town Hall.  We had followed the crowd into the tower entrance to see about tickets to climb to the top and see the view when I spotted a sign advertising an evening tour inside the building in English!  This tour became another highlight for me of our time in Prague.  I can’t seem to find specific information about the tour we took on the linked website, so I would definitely recommend asking about it.  If it is available, it is not to be missed.

Our tour began with us hurrying up to the clock level of the tower in time to watch the famous mechanism chime the 8 o’clock hour from the inside!  While the apostles certainly look less impressive in their partial forms, I found it truly amazing to see the inner workings of a piece of technology that has been drawing crowds for centuries.  (I blame my stage management background for my dee

p desire to always understand how illusions are done.)  From the clock and the reconstructed chapel (the main tower sustained serious damage in an attack at the end of the Second World War), we visited the many ceremonial rooms of the building’s upper stories (Town Hall appears from the street to be a series of separate town houses, but the interior is all connected), before descending underground.  One of my favorite tidbits gleaned on this tour was that the city of Prague was RAISED in the 13th century!  The entire city!  To help with flooding.  This meant that the thick stone structures that used to form the (hopefully) thief and fire-proof ground levels of Prague houses, became basements.  These structures in the town hall have been used since the raising as locations for wells and cisterns as well as prison space for town criminals.

 

At the end of the tour we were given the opportunity to join the crowds surging up to the top of the tower to appreciate the views.  Of course I went.  And then, inevitably, having bustled headlong with enthusiasm up only half of the ramp to the top, I looked down and remembered:  I don’t like heights.  Really bad with them in fact, and yet I will still climb things like a dope.  The rest of the ascent was made with me literally hugging the wall, and when we finally made it to the observation platform, I could not go outside the glassed in interior space.  Could. Not. Go.  You see, the observation platform itself is only really wide enough for one butt, and the thing was PACKED, and there was no glass, no netting, no nothing separating a person from the cruel drop should they happen to be too forcibly jostled by one of the other photo seeking tourists.  …  Have you seen ‘In Bruges‘?  If you haven’t, go do that now and then come back…no really- go watch it- the whole thing, its wonderful and terribly funny, and when you return perhaps I will have gained another Martin McDonagh fan and you will understand what was running through my head when I was contemplating walking outside the safety glass at the top of that tower in Prague.  🙂

I didn’t go- but I did manage to secure the lovely photo heading this post.  Pardon the safety-glass glare- I was still rather pleased with the result.  And I didn’t plummet to my untimely death.

Which means I was able to continue our fabulous Viking vacation and then return home only to travel some more!

Oh there were more treasures in Prague, and perhaps I shall return to post a couple more pictures and suggestions at a later date- but in the meantime- there is SO MUCH MORE to see!!

So stay tuned!  We’ll play a little game to see how quickly I can return with more on my wanderings!