Prague Day 2

The pickup for the city tour was coming at 0930 today so we got ready before that. The bus took us to their departure point back at the old town square. From there other tourists got on the bus and we headed out. We crossed the river and headed up towards the castle. The bus dropped us off near the castle (no automobiles allowed inside) and the tour continued on foot.

First port of call was the cathedral at the castle. A huge, splendid structure with influences of difference architecture genres like Roman, Gothic, Rococo & Baroque over the ages. It is undergoing restoration at the moment and due to it's location outside the Prague old town (which is a UNESCO heritage site), the cost of renovation is being pocketed by the Czech Republic. This side of the cathedral hasn't been restored yet.

Front view of the the cathedral with it's "rose" window. It was a Sunday so the the cathedral was open for mass only (not for tourists). Also the tour didn't include time to venture inside. So we went around the outside.

This is from the left side of the cathedral. Most of this side's renovation has been completed so the colour is noticeably lighter that the right side (see previous pictures).The portion covered in blue hesh is the portion being renovated at the moment. Seemingly they are working on it a portion at a time but looks like it is still going to take decades to complete.Note the two clocks? The top one shows the time in hours and the bottom one shows it in minutes.

A sculpture on the outside of the cathedral.

The courtyard behind the cathedral. We stopped here for some refreshments. Had some nice homemade lemonade.

Mugshot of me (aforementioned lemonade in hand) with the pinnacles and flying buttresses of the cathedral from behind.

We had some free time here as you can see...

We then went down this winding alley to the gardens. The orange coloured building on the left was the "Toy Museum" which looked as a hit with children (of all ages).

The garden had panoranic views over the whole of Prague.

Down from the castle, we boarded the bus again and was driven to the Jewish quarters. Frank Kafka is probably the most famous jew from here but they have always held a strong presence and strong community links in Prague. We walked past the Jewish Town Hall (where the clock goes anticlockwise as Hebrew reads from right to left), and the graveyard (where due to lack of space, people were buried 6 deep).

We kept on strolling down the Jewish quarters (Josefov).

Finally we we arrived at Franz Kafka's birthhome - next to the old town square.

From there we walked back to the old town square (again!) which was just next to it.

And the astronomical clock on the corner (we realised then, that we walked past it the day before)

The black building (just to the left of the astronomical clock) is the "just a minute" pub?

A panorama of the whole old town square

The guide recommended a local restaurant - on the way to it, we met Susmita's friend.

At the restaurant (Novomestsky Pivovar), which has it's own brewery inside!! The food was delicious and plentiful. The paintings on the wall (two neighbours having a tiff) was also interesting. We were bursting after this meal so we retreated to the hotel.

In the evening we ventured out for a bit of shopping. And that was it!