Today was cooler, breezy and cloudy. The bad news is we carried the umbrella around all day. The good news is we did not have to use it. Over the past two days we have done a lot of walking and got the "up close and personal" view of Old Town and the tourist sights. Today, we decided to tackle the public transit system. We have a "Prague Welcome card" which has some discounts for attractions and it included unlimited public transportation. The metro system here is easier than Vienna. It has only three lines, A, B, and C. Of course, there are many trams and buses too. We rode the B line from our hotel, transferred to the A, and then to tram 22.
We rode to the Prague Castle,which the guidebook says is the largest castle complex in the world. By sheer size, it is a bit daunting. We have checked out the grounds when we were on the walking tour a couple of days ago, but today we buy tickets to go inside. The good news was we got a two-for-one senior discount. The bad news is that the castle audio guide system is not working. We save the price of renting the audio guide, but our tour book expects we will have one, so does not give a lot of detail. Our first attempted solution was to hire an English-speaking guide, but the ticket office says the English tour is at 1 pm and we are here at 11. Not wanting to waste two hours, our second idea is to tag onto an existing English speaking tour. We wander around the large courtyard, eavesdropping on tour groups, trying to find one in English. We have a laugh as we pass up a group of teenagers. For sure we could not go undetected with this group. Nor the group of tourists in wheelchairs. Finally we find what seems ideal--English speaking guide and gray-haired participants. We follow along for a while, but it seems they are on their way out! So we bite the bullet and say we will do this on our own, and are fortunate enough to find that many of the descriptions are also written in English. We watch the changing of the guard--two men, one on either side of the huge oversized castle gates, who, like in Britain, stand stationery for an hour and then have a formal ritual changing ceremony. We walk through two castle courtyards and as we follow the small entryway into the third, find ourselves in front of the enormous Gothic St. Vitis Cathedral. Imposing and impressive. Beautiful tiled roof and spires so tall, we have to crane our necks to look up to the top.
The most impressive sight at the castle is the huge "riding hall", noted for its size and its rib-vaulted ceiling. At the time it was built, it was a tremendous technical feat to have an enclosed room of this size without supporting pillars. We went on through through the castle and I found this more like my image of castle than the other palaces we have been seeing. For one thing, we were able to tour the dugeons and see implements of torture. There was a place to see where the moat used to be. There were round turrets to climb and look out over the gardens. We toured the "golden lane", a row of tiny one and two room living quarters which used to be places for the castle guards, bell-ringers and other staff to live.
David said he did not want to do more walking, so we again boarded public transportation, this time to visit the Troja Chateau. This is another beautiful complex, built in the Roman Classicism style of the Alps, with the most beautiful Itialian gardens in Central Eurpope.The grand hall has remarkable frescoes and the building is exceptionally rich in artistic treasures. We arrived late in the afternoon, so had our own private guide who walked us through explaining paintings and furniture.
We planned to see the fountains and light show tonight and the Chateau is quite near, so we decided not to go back to the hotel, but go over to the fountains area for dinner. We again were successful in navigating public transportation, found a small cafe for dinner and bought tickets for the 8 pm fountain show. Krizik's Fountain is equipped with three thousand nozzles, managed by 50 water pumps, with twelve hundred underwater floodlights of various colors. The show was a combination of music, water, film, lighting and ballet dancers. Spectacular!! What a relaxing and enchanting evening. We stopped for dessert on the way back to the hotel. It is late, and we have been gone since before 10 this morning, but what a great day!
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