sights of prague

we walked a lot during our long weekend in prague – and i feel like we got to see a good portion of the different neighborhoods in the central part of that truly enchanting city. as we explored on foot, there were three things we kept noticing all over the place:

1. really cool old open-top cars used for sightseeing tours:
 
2. segways! we nearly rented a couple for an hour but decided to do that when we come back to prague one day in warmer months :) we seriously saw hundreds of people on segways – i guess that’s definitely a prague thing!
and
3. thai massage places.

so random, but we came across probably about ten of these around town. while we decided to forgo the cool old car tour and the segway tour, we definitely went for it on the thai massage, and it was awesome.

some other singular and pretty spectacular sights we discovered in prague:
{the boy planned the entire weekend for us since he’s “in charge” of valentine’s day this year (we trade off!) – and he did such a great job :) i didn’t do a titch of research on prague before we left and looooved leaving it all up to him. i really appreciated his planning! he knows what i like and also that i like doing what he likes!}

click through to see!

 

st. nicholas church – our hotel was nearly attached to this magnificent structure (you can see the exterior with its awesome copper dome and spire in the car/segway pics above), and when we went inside we were pretty blown away. and i couldn’t help myself taking quite a few pictures, clearly!
 

views from nerudova street and the hill of prague castle – the red rooftops and colourful buildings and sprinkled mint green copper! so, so lovely and charming.


prague castle and st. vitus cathedral – prague castle is a huge compound on top of the hill with lots of different bits to explore. the epicenter, and our favourite bit, is st. vitus cathedral, which is just drop-dead stunning. i wish so much that pictures could better capture the detail in those stained glass windows! truly incredible.
  
^^ the tomb of st. wenceslas. we learned a lot about that duke of bohemia – he’s everywhere in prague it seems! we definitely had the carol good king wenceslas in our heads all weekend! ^^
 
^^ we climbed to the top of the cathedral tower (one of five towers we went to the top of in prague!) and couldn’t believe the sunny, gorgeous views! see charles bridge down there?! ^^
 
^^ i adore the patterned rooftop of the cathedral. and here’s the boy at the horses’ entrance to the old royal palace. so neat to imagine bohemian royalty riding in on horses so long ago! ^^

^^ and to imagine coronations under this amazing ceiling! ^^inst ^^ and i’m not sure what happened under this amazing ceiling – but it’s cool. ^^

^^ inside the old basilica – ancient frescoes! ^^

^^ how about those flying buttresses?! ^^

^^ we saw lots of armor … ^^
 
^^ and some torture chambers (that chair – yikes!) ^^

^^ as we strolled along “golden lane” – part of the castle complex where castle servants lived many years ago. ^^

^^ even the manhole covers in prague are beautiful! ^^
we headed back across the river to discover…


old town square – i’m almost as obsessed with this spot as i am with charles bridge. the shapes and colours and energy in the air is just magical! we had lunch (bohemian goulash!) under heat lamps at a sidewalk cafe and wandered the old town streets. since we had three full days in prague, we felt like we could take our time and not rush to see everything, which was so nice!
 
^^ prague’s famous astronomical clock, first installed in 1410! (wow) it was neat to see the figures around the clock move on the hour and we were amazed by the detail on the clock, which we couldn’t quite figure out how to read – ha! ^^

^^ i love me a little grit among all the prettiness. ^^

the dancing house – we walked through wenceslas square and then down the river to this crazy old-new-mesh of a building, and then through the dark streets of prague back to our hotel on friday night. such a wild and cool structure!

yep, that thai massage was much appreciated after lots and lots of walking around prague :) i still have one more batch of prague pictures to share so stay tuned!