Prague, Czech Republic
Crossing the busy road from the door of our apartment we admired the flower beds in the gardens opposite. Realising the steepness of the ascent up Petřín Hill, which is 130 m above the the river, we decided to catch the funicular which was close-by and used our local public transport tickets. Alighting at the top of the rail, we walked through the rose garden and past Stefanik’s Observatory, which unfortunately was not open. Despite the impressive panoramic views from its terrace, we decided it was too early to stop for morning tea at the gardens cafe and so continued to make our way towards Petrin Tower, passing the Hunger Wall and St Lawrence Church.
We passed through a gateway in the Wall into an enclosed area containing Petřín Tower – designed to resemble a mini version of the Eiffel Tower, standing at 63.5 m tall. However, in contrast to the Eiffel Tower, this tower has an octagonal, rather than a square, cross-section. Inspired by the Eiffel Tower, it was built in 1891 within four months, for the World’s Jubilee Exhibition. The Tower receives about half a million visitors each year. The two observation platforms are reached up 299 stairs in sections of 13 per flight running around the inside of the Tower. A pair of staircases form a double-helix structure which allows visitors to travel up and down at the same time. We opted for the lift, which was easier on Joy’s hip, even though we had to stand in a queue for a little while. Reaching the observation deck we had magnificent views across Prague in all directions.
The imposing Hunger Wall was built as a fortification of the Lesser City and the Castle between 1360 and 1362 by Charles IV, the King and Emperor of Bohemia. Built of Marl and two metres thick, it was later reinforced by eight observation towers, which no longer exist. Its name was originally Zubata vez (Toothed Tower) but Legend tells that the name was changed to Hunger Wall in 1361 when Prague suffered famine and construction of the wall gave employment to the poor.
Leaving the Tower, we followed the Wall towards the Strahov Monastery which passed through an apple orchard, complete with blossoms and bees, where Austin struck up a short conversation with a French lady on holiday who spoke quite good English. We took the path around the edge of the gardens, which in sections were lined with tall lilac hedges, until we came out to a series of streets which led to the Castle. Along the way we found a small jewellery shop (Czech Garnet) and ducked in to examine some rings suitable as a 40th wedding celebration. After putting an order in, we later decided against it as we were not confident that after the suggested resizing, we would get back the same stone we had chosen.
Arrival at the Castle precinct, we paused for a well-earned cuppa before tackling the maze of building ahead of us. Our tickets showed that different parts of the castle precinct were open on different days of the week. First for us was St. Vitus Cathedral, with its soaring ceilings, multiple stained glass windows and statutory galore.
Now ducking the showers of rain, we moved on to the Old Royal Castle with its series of halls and state rooms and more great views over the city.
After the Castle, we entered a medieval village, complete with display rooms of various occupations, such as apothecaries, blacksmiths, silversmiths etc. tourist shops and finished off with a long attic room of suits of amour. Thankfully the rain had stopped for the long walk home, down endless flights of stairs and ramps until we found the street and caught a tram back to our door. An interesting but very full day.
