The day started off finding the random coffee shop from yesterday. H prided himself that we were able to go off the beaten track and get 3 coffees (1 for each of us and one to go) and a hot chocolate for the price of one in the tourist area.

Cat’s hot chocolate was divine. By the time that I got my camera out, this is all that was left!

We went into a bakery for a snack. Man…what an awesome selection! Bread, sweets and more bread!

But didn’t really like it.

We sat at the back of the boat and just relaxed for most of the ride. There was a commentary that H found interesting. Cat and I got a bit bored and just zoned out.  There was a bar on the boat but surprisingly a beer costs almost the same as a bottle of water! I chose beer! 😉

We had to go thru a lock which was fun to watch.  The water filled and drained so quickly.  Who needs technology when people figured out a way to do things years ago!!?

We went under a few beautiful bridges.

Including the Charles Bridge.

After we got off the boat, we walked back to the Charles Bridge. This is a beautiful cobblestoned bridge that has tons of statues that line both sides of it. It was the only bridge crossing for several hundreds of years so it is fun to imagine all who have passed before us! 

There were tons of tourists! It was a madhouse and to be honest we couldn’t get off quick enough. We crossed the bridge and continued to the Prague Castle.

To get to the castle we had to climb up a lot of stairs! 208 to be exact. We definitely worked off the 2 ice cream cones we consumed today!

The Prague Castle was built around 880 AD and is the largest mid-evil castle in Europe. The current president has their official residence in the castle as well.

Funny enough ~ they were doing some renovations to the front and Cat commented, “This castle isn’t old, they are still building it!” Note: it feels like there is lots of construction everywhere we go. They are literally rebuilding Europe as we travel thru it.

We missed the changing of the guard but Cat thought she could do as good a job as any guard.

My favorite part of the day was the St Vitus Cathedral which was on the castle grounds.

Howard and Cat were standing in what I thought was a colored light fixture. It took me awhile to realize it was reflecting from the stained glass.

There was also some very detailed stain glass murals.

Saint Wenceslas was buried there. Howard wouldn’t sing me the song but went on for a substantial amount of time that it was something I should know! 😉 (no clue…)

Also..I can honestly say I have never seen an organ as big as this in my life. I wish I could have heard it play! 

We then went to the castles living quarters.  This was the main hall. Imagine the party we could throw in there! I felt like taking my shoes off and seeing how far I could slide in my socks!

I was actually taking a picture of the benches that skirted the entire room and thinking what a novel idea it was to have seating for the wallflowers already organized!  I got this cute pic of the husband and the kid by mistake but love it!

This was about as close to wearing the Kings crown that Cat could get!

The crown and staff were so large and ornate, it looked like something that would come out of a cartoon. It is hard to imagine someone actually wearing it.

One of my favorite things was this large piece of furniture that was essentially the fireplace. There were different versions in each of the rooms. A person would load it with wood from behind the wall and keep it going throughout the day.  This would let off enough heat to warm the entire room!

We toured around and saw the torture chamber, the chainmail, suits of armor, and swords. Lastly, we found the “Golden Lane” that showed what rooms /decorations/ necessities were like at different time periods.

Once we left the castle we caught the subway back to the train station to book our next leg of the journey. The decor in the subway felt like it belonged in a modern museum.

Their subway signage even told you when the next train was coming….down to the second.

We found a rooftop restaurant that had amazing views, a great waiter, and delicious food!

In my research of “off the beaten track” things to do here, I had read about a coffee shop on the first floor of the hotel directly across from the astronomical clock. (Cafe Mozart) It had decent coffee, phenomenal desserts and a view of the clock at the top of the hour better than any other. (And it was basically empty aside from some locals.)

We left after the top of the 9 pm hour and did laundry for 4.5 hours. An uneventful evening for an amazing day