Czech out this city! Prague, Czech Republic

10 April 2012

In the interest of actually catching up on my blog, I'm going to mostly post some pictures of my travel adventures, and someday I'll write more about them.

To start our first full day in Prague, we decided to take a guided tour of the city--in order to see some of the sights and learn a little of the history of the city.


Our tour began in the Old Town Square. There, you can see the Church of Our Lady before Týn. This church is well-known for its uneven towers--called the Adam and Eve Towers. Nearby is the Astronomical Clock. It was commissioned to be one of the most impressive clocks in its day--and it still is! The clock has figures representing the virtues of humanity and the disgraces of humanity (greed, vanity, death , hedonism). On the hour, the figure of Death rings a bell and nods--signaling that it's time for death. All the other figures shake their heads in denial. Then, a trumpeter plays to signal that the clock is finished.


There are many legends surrounding the clock. Even though it isn't true, it's said that the king that commissioned the clock blinded the clock-maker in order to ensure that the clock-maker would not make another clock for someone else. 









Next, we walked around the Jewish Quarter of the city. There, we saw the Spanish Synagogue--which uses an Islamic influenced style of architecture. I'll write more about the Jewish Quarter tomorrow--since we plan on exploring it further tomorrow. 









Our tour ended near Charles Bridge--named after one of the Czech Republic's best loved Czechs. As my guidebook put it, most of the cool things in Prague were built by King Charles IV.

Later, we wandered around Prague--checking out the Powder Gate. It was once a gate used to mark the starting point for coronation processions. However, later, it was converted into a storage center for gunpowder.

For dinner, we went to a neat Czech restaurant--where I got to have some amazing comfort food! I had a meatloaf and bread dumplings. At the end of a long day, it was just great to have some warm food!