A day at Prague Castle

I slept fitfully as I had contracted strep throat and was a bit late in starting the treatment. I managed to wake up only around noon the next day feeling terrible because I was sick on my vacation - a vacation that I had planned well in advance and in great detail!!!

Inside of the Tram

Around 2 pm, I was feeling better enough to make a trip to the Prague Castle - thankfully the cloud cover had reduced the temperatures and it wasn't too hot.


We decided to take a tram and realized once we reached the station that the ticket machines accept only Czech Koruna. Since there was no ATM in sight, we walked back to hotel (which thankfully was just 200 meters away), exchanged the Euros for CZK and then bought the tickets.

View of Prague at the end of the steep walk

The route from tram stop to Castle is uphill and it's almost a mile long but the beauty of Prague makes the walk enjoyable. But I would definitely recommend comfortable shoes for this uphill walk - so no heels ladies! The last bit was really steep but at the end we were rewarded with a beautiful view of Prague.

Cathedral at the entrance of the courtyard

The Castle is not just one building but a complex that has a church, bell tower and museums. As you enter the complex, you see lot of buildings and a beautiful fountain. The moment you enter the main courtyard, a cathedral looms up in front of you.

Inside the Cathedral

It was a cool afternoon, after spending some time inside the cathedral, we decided to sit outside and just enjoy cool breeze and watch the throngs of tourists all around us. There are a few benches in the courtyard and it felt great to relax and enjoy the ambiance for a while

View of Castle courtyard from Bell Tower

After some time, in spite of running mild fever, I decided to climb the bell tower and the views were totally worth it! The wind was quite strong at the top and I had trouble keeping my dress in its place with one hand and clicking pictures with another :)

View of Prague from top of Bell Tower

40 mm anti cannon BOFORS

We also visited an exhibition on Czechoslovakia's role in World War II. It had pictures and uniforms and guns and other items that were used by the soldiers and officers back then. I am not that into world war history but even I enjoyed this one.

Overall we must have spent over 4 hours at the Castle and decided to head back to the hotel as we had serious plans for the evenings plus I was feeling quite tired. As we walked down to the tram station, we came across a chocolate shop that has an amazing collection of gourmet chocolates. After sampling a few, we picked up almonds wrapped in ginger flavored chocolate. I had my friend hide the boxes from me, lest I eat them all :) The chocolates gave me the energy to walk back to the station and about 30 minutes later we were back in the hotel enjoying our evening drinks!