for fellow travellers

Monday, July 14, 2014

2nd day in Prague

We had breakfast at the hotel. The only hotel where we had breakfast included with stay.

We checked out of the hotel kept our luggage with the concierge. And then asked the receptionist as to how we could reach the Prague castle. She suggested the metro. We walked down to the Mustek metro station and bought tickets from the machine 3adultsx24Kr, 1childx12Kr (1Kr equals Rs.3/-), for half an hour for three regions. The Mustek station itself was nothing great, though its listed on trip advisor as one of the places to visit. The escalator was steep, like the King’s Cross station in London, even more so.





We caught the green line and got down at Malostranska metro station.

The same ticket was valid in the tram. Taking the tram 22, we got down at Prazsky hrad,  and walked to the castle with the rest of the people, who had got down, all were heading for the castle (dashing all our hopes of beating the crowd). Just inside the castle entrance, towards the left was a small ticket room. We got the family ticket for circuit A for 700kr. We took an audio guide from the office inside for 450kr for the whole day.

As it was Sunday. The St. Vitius Cathedral was open to tourists at 12noon. We saw the other exhibitions till that time. The Royal Palace (exhibition I) , was just ok.




The story of Prague castle was a detailed Exhibition II, and required more time, though we rushed through it. Just outside the exhibition there was a courtyard which was of particular interest for children. There were people dressed in medieval times clothes with different stalls.

The St. George's Basilica was exhibition III. That did not require a lot of time. Soumya and I were sharing the audio guide.



St. Vitius cathedral which was exhibition number V, was a lovely cathedral and requires more time. If you go through with the audio guide it will take around 2-3 hours. It is a grand cathedral.









After that we were feeling hungry so we ate just outside the cathedral at a nice cafe. They were quick at serving.


After that we walked to the Golden Lane. But we should have given back our audio guide before that as we had to get back a deposit of 250 kr also from the same place where we had rented it, and not just drop it off like we usually do at other places. So we walked downhill.


We returned the same way we had reached. The tickets were bought from a machine at the tram stop. But as it accepted coins only and we were short we lost around 45 mins arranging the change.
And because of that we missed the free walking tour we were supposed to join at 3pm from old town square.
On reaching old town square, we met a man who asked Nalin if he wanted a free Segway ride. Nalin was more than happy to try it. As it is, he had been after us to take a Segway tour.

After the free ride, we decided to take a Segway tour of Prague from the stranger. He gave us a discount and it cost us 55€ per person for 2hrs. His office was near our hotel, so we walked till there.
The Segway tour was fun and adventure, though I felt quite out of my league with the Segway, would have been more comfortable on a bicycle, but the children were comfortable. I fell down once , and Shaleen too fell off once. I was so scared I did not try to take any pictures.

In the square, after the segway tour. We went to see the Jewish quarter but there was not much to see.

After buying some souvenirs, we ate a nice meal from an Italian restaurant, in the old town area, we were sitting outside, another table was occupied by two girls. We saw the danger of sitting outside on road side cafes. The shopping bag of one of the girls was kept on the floor. A pet dog, very cute,  almost peed on it, though she saved her "Mango" shopping just in time.
We took our luggage from the hotel concierge, and called a taxi there, a little way off as it was a pedestrian only zone.

Related Posts :



0 Comments:

 

blogger templates 3 columns | Make Money Online