Vienna to Prague, Czech Republic is about 400 kilometers. During our land trip, I was mostly asleep but in the few times I was awake, I enjoyed the sight of bright yellow canola fields – yes, from which cooking oil is extracted.
I also remember passing by pretty houses along the highway and after sometime, I realized that what makes them pretty are the flower boxes on every window. :)
When we made a pitstop to grab lunch, we chanced upon these yummy and gigantic strawberries. I got a tub for dessert. They’re not just the biggest but also the sweetest strawberries I ever tasted. Yum-yum…
Our first stop in Czech Republic was at Svata Hora or Holy Mountain, which is considered Prague’s Lourdes. It’s a beautiful church but too bad, picture-taking isn’t allowed inside. But here are the photos I took in areas where photography is allowed
In the evening, we finally reached Prague and had dinner in the city. But it was so cold, colder than we expected - probably around 8 degrees Celsius. Typically it’s double-digit if you check the average for June in the past years, but since climate has been changing, typical no longer applies. In short, I wasn’t prepared for it. I only had flats for foot wear and tank tops for thermal wear! Wahaha…
I don’t know how I survived the trip but amazingly, I never caught a cold. But the moral of the story is, when you research for weather, check the actual temperature of the recent week and not the annual averages as they are no longer accurate as before.
Here are some random shots I took when we reached Prague.
On our first evening in Prague, we also got disoriented crossing the street. The roads in the city are all cobblestones and since there are no road markings, it’s difficult to tell which ones are for parking, pedestrians and cars. There was a time when we were standing between parked cars and a train track and we didn’t realize the spot where we were standing on was a main road until cars started heading straight at us and signaling us to move over to the side! Wahaha...
I don’t know how I survived the trip but amazingly, I never caught a cold. But the moral of the story is, when you research for weather, check the actual temperature of the recent week and not the annual averages as they are no longer accurate as before.
Here are some random shots I took when we reached Prague.
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| A church which has been converted to a hotel. |
On the day we had the city tour, it was raining. Sigh… I was so disappointed because in all the places in our itinerary, Prague was the one I was really looking forward to seeing. Plus the rain even lowered the temperature by another 2 degrees. And because it was raining, it also meant I had to endure wet feet the entire day given my flats which had a holey design. Haha…
Our first itinerary in the city tour was in the Castle Town. We visited Loreta which houses a replica of the house of the Holy Family in the middle of the courtyard.
There’s also a Treasure Room inside Loreta which houses monstrances, cups and altars adorned with big diamonds and gems and dating back from the 17th and 18th century. One of the most interesting objects is the Diamond Monstrance called “Prague Sun”. It is a gift from a countess who got about 6,500 diamonds as a wedding gift from her husband and in her last will, she wrote that a monstrance for Loreta should be made of these diamonds. The Diamond Monstrance was made in 1699.
From Loreta, we walked towards the Prague Castle. I forgot to mention that Prague is primarily explored by foot since most of the roads are narrow having been made for horse carriages in the medieval times.
From Loreta, we walked towards the Prague Castle. I forgot to mention that Prague is primarily explored by foot since most of the roads are narrow having been made for horse carriages in the medieval times.
When we reached the Mathias Gate of the Prague Castle, our tour guide said some VIP guests must have arrived because there was some ceremony being held at the front grounds.
Inside the Prague Castle grounds, we passed by where the head of state of the Czech Republic holds office (pls see white structure on the left of the photo below).
Then we went to visit the St Vitus Cathedral (still within Castle town).
The tour guide had a lot of stories but the only thing I remembered was that of St John Nepomucene. He was the confessor of the queen. The king forced him to tell him what the queen was confessing but St John refused even when he was tortured. Because of his refusal, he was chained and a block of wood was placed in his mouth, and he was thrown and drowned into the river. His body was later buried in the cathedral and when it was exhumed in 1719 – about 300 years after his death - his body was incorrupt and his tongue still pink with blood!
Below is the photo I took of the preserved tongue (held by the angel statue).
After St. Vitus Cathedral, I couldn’t quite remember which castle we went to, but it’s the one where they held dances, sports matches and horse marches during medieval times. The tour guide even showed us the stairway for horses. We also got to see some crown jewels.
Generally, I wasn’t really able to take a lot of photos because most of the time, here was my view while holding an umbrella and busy watching my steps to prevent myself from tripping. Haha…
But I did manage to take a shot of Prague from Castle Town before we went to Old Town and Lesser Town and descended about 250 steps.
And because I was looking down most of the time, I even spotted this in one sidewalk.
In between sightseeing, we were lucky to have had the chance to hear mass at the Church of Our Lady of Victorious where the original statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague was housed.
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| The Infant Jesus of Prague |
Here are some interesting religious articles on display inside the Church.
BTW, we saw this painting of the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus in Filipiniana costume inside the same church. How cool.
One of my biggest disappointments came when we crossed the half kilometer Charles Bridge. I wanted to see it on a sunny day brimming with artists, performers and tourists as shown in movies. But here's what it looked liked on a rainy, gloomy day... Sob….
One of the statues on the bridge is that of St John Nepomucene – the saint who was thrown and drown into the river. It is a tradition to touch his statue and make a wish while at the Charles Bridge. Of course, I didn’t pass up the opportunity to make a wish too! Haha…
In the Old Town, we went to see the Astronomical Clock. The tour guide said that every hour, the 2 windows above the clock open and the 12 moving statues of the apostles come and go through the 2 windows (which we obviously didn’t wait for anymore as we were so excited to explore the side streets of Prague).
The clock has a lot of science behind it - like during daytime, the sun sits over the blue part of the background and at night it sits over the black. During dawn or dusk, the mechanical sun is positioned over the red part of the background. Plus some other scientific elements about the sun, moon, zodiac, etc. which are all beyond my comprehension. Haha...
The clock has a lot of science behind it - like during daytime, the sun sits over the blue part of the background and at night it sits over the black. During dawn or dusk, the mechanical sun is positioned over the red part of the background. Plus some other scientific elements about the sun, moon, zodiac, etc. which are all beyond my comprehension. Haha...
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Local currency: Krone (but some establishments also accept euros)
Electrical Plug: 2 pin (round type)
Cost of meals: 10 euros in fastfood centers and about 30 euros in restaurants. Cost of bottled water: 1.50 to 3 euros for 500ml when you buy in vending machines and restaurants. But it you buy in convenience stores or grocery stores, 1 liter only costs 1 euro.
Flight tips: If you have interconnecting flights with different airlines, make sure to tell the check-in counter in Manila to check-through your luggage to your final destination.
Luggage weight allowance is only up to 20 kilos for check-in and up to 7 kilos for handcarry (translation - very minimal shopping since a medium-sized luggage with clothes already weigh about 18 kilos).
This trip is part of a 12-day European package tour covering Austria, Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. Tour cost is approximately USD3,700 per pax including airfare, accommodations, land transfers, breakfast and dinner, Schengen visa fee, travel taxes and travel insurance.
