Prague, Day Two

We started the day off by dragging ourselves out of bed at 5:45 am for our long run that we were supposed to do over the weekend. All that beer and meat and dumplings wasn’t going to work itself off!

It was drizzling and overcast, but we had hats on and we like to pretend that we’re hard-core, so as we walked down the hill from the inn we decided on our run route – hit the path along the river (at the bottom of our hill), and go for 45 minutes (me) to an hour (Larry and then turn around). We decided to head away from town, since closer to town the path becomes cobblestone.

So we ran. It was absolutely beautiful. Not quite – the din of the freeway was constant. But still. The path eventually wound around a golf and country club and the landscape became a bit more suburban. The weather was perfect, and by the time we finished, it was blue skies.

We had breakfast at the inn, then left (later than we wanted, but oh well) for Prague Castle. We took the tram up to the castle – it’s up a big hill and we just did a long run, no way we wanted to walk up.

We just did a self-guided sort of tour using one of our guidebooks. We purchased a ticket to go inside the cathedral. We braved the 267 steps (on tired legs) and went up into the tower for an amazing view of Prague. We spent most of the morning there wandering around the castle. St. Vitus Cathedral was amazing. The tomb of St. Wenceslas is also here. The stained glass was breathtaking. We saw the Basilica of St. George and went down to the crypt where King George is buried, along with all his wives. There was a Medieval crane on the grounds with people on a giant hamster wheel lowering and raising the crane.

We ended our time at the castle with a stroll along the Golden Lane, a street of old buildings that originally housed goldsmiths. Now it’s full of shops, but they’re kind of interesting. Franz Kafka lived at #22 here. We skipped the Toy and Barbie Museum (big surpise, huh?).

We headed down the castle steps, and were glad that we didn’t decide to walk up that way. We went to the Lesser Side for lunch at U Maltezskych Rytiru (at Prokopska 10), but they were only serving salads and dessert. Instead, we went a few doors down to an authentic looking Spanish restaurant (El Centro, at Maltezske nam. 9) for an excellent meal of shrimp in garlic, garlic soup, chicken kebab and pan con tomate. I had a cocktail with Liqor 43 and orange juice – a sure sign of an authentic Spanish resaturant is if they serve Liqor 43. Upon leaving, we made reservations to go back to U Maltezskych Rytiru later that night.

After lunch, we went back to the inn for a nap. A long nap, as usual. After our nap, we took the tram back into town for dinner, which was in the cellar of the restaurant (which was a bit smelly). I had roasted duck breast – decent, but not as good as at Hostinec U Sadlu. Larry had wild boar – also good, with excellent homemade gnocchi. There were too many English-speaking (Brits and Americans) people in the restaurant, though. The meal was good – a bit upscale.

We walked back over the Charles Bridge to go back to the hotel. The bridge and castle were illuminated – very pretty. And that was the end of our second day in Prague.