Day 80

Tuesday morning we woke up bright but not so early. Micha, Robyn’s cousin, was free for the afternoon so she showed us around. We went to Petrin Hill first and on the way saw these statues. I tried to find out the name and sculptor and stuff, but all i was able to learn was that it is supposed to represent Czech life under communist rule.

We got to take this cool train up the hill! The hill was so steep the cars are actually slanted so the inside (seats and floors) are flat.

At the top of the hill were some sweet gardens. Micha said she often came up here to study and do homework, and i can definitely see why.

The main attraction to Petrin hill is not the gardens, however; it’s the mini Eiffel tower! It was built in 1891, and even though it’s shorter than the original at only 60 meters (197 feet), the top is actually higher due to it being built on top of a hill.

299 steps later and this is our reward =)

Prague Castle

After descending from the tower we saw this mirror maze. I had never been in a mirror maze before, so i had always kind of wondered what was so maze like about them. It was super cool! I managed to not run into any mirrors, but i did get close a couple times.

After Petrin hill we were ready for a little snack before heading over to Prague castle. Micha treated us to this Czech pastry. It’s basically a strip of dough spun around a rod (see the enlarged one on the right side of the stand) and then covered with sugar.

Micha directed us to the castle, but then she had to return home. St. Vitus’s cathedral is easily the most prominent feature of the castle complex. It’s very huge, very Gothic, and very impressive.

The smaller but still cool St George’s Basilica

After looking at the churches we headed over to the Golden Lane. The Golden Lane is a street of houses inside the northern fortifications which was given to the marksmen who guarded that part of the wall. Of course the space was very limited so they built these super small houses.

It was a short commute though. The marksmen just had to go up the stairs and they were in the wall ready to keep watch or defend.

They had these cool spinny things in all the holes so the archers were more protected while they were shooting or they could completely block the hole if they needed to reload or something.

You could pay to shoot the crossbow. I didn’t try it, but Robyn did and it looked really difficult to aim.

The Old Royal Palace

Crown of St Wencesias

After the castle we wandered back down to the main part of the city and headed over to Charles Bridge. We got there on the hour so we got to witness this guy trumpeting the time.

There were a lot of cool statues on the bridge, but this one was definitely my favorite =)