36 hours in Prague — ThePackMama

Week 102 led us to a new city. A city overflowing with charm, red roofs, and a hundred spires–Prague!

Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, home to the largest ancient castle in the world, and just a 4-hour drive from our home in Gmunden, Austria.

Friday, October 7

After a four-hour drive, we parked our car, checked into Grand Hotel Prague, and moments after stepping into our room, the bells were chiming as the astronomical clock tower performance had begun.

We walked back out onto the old town streets and discovered Las Adelita’s, a small but thriving Mexican restaurant under the square. We did not have a reservation, but the hostess told us to wait by the stairs for a table to open up. We haven’t had Mexican food since moving abroad in 2020, so we were not leaving until we ate our weight in guac, flautas, and frozen margs. A few moments later we were ordering our meal and it was the yummiest hour ever!

We were quickly knocked off cloud 9 when we arrived back in our room to find out our car had been booted by the Prague police. Our hotel offered a parking service and told us to park in a certain spot. Turns out we were not allowed to park there, so we had to go back to the car, talk with the police, pay a fine (thankfully the hotel paid us back) and the boot came off.

We moved it to a parking garage nearby and went back to enjoying our evening. As we were walking back to the hotel we somehow managed to walk through a movie set. Prague is a favorite among movie set locations because it is cheap and the architecture looks like many places in Europe. We are not sure which movie it was, but thinking “The Crow.”

Saturday, October 8

We slept in, ate breakfast, and walked around the old town district before heading over to the castle district.

We stumbled across a few “stumbling stones”. Small brass stones are embedded directly in the cobblestone streets. Each stone commemorates a victim outside their last-known home during WWII.

There are now more than 70,000 memorial blocks laid in more than 1,200 cities and towns across Europe.

*Walking to the castle with a vintage-looking train coming towards us*

The Prague Castle is one of the most important cultural institutions in the country. Originally built for kings and emperors and momentarily occupied by Hitler during WWII, is now used as the official residence of the Czech Republic president.

At noon, tourists flock to the castle gates to watch the changing of the guard ceremony.

*The changing of the guard ceremony at Prague’s castle*

After watching the ceremony and taking in our surroundings from the hill, we ate lunch at Vegan Prague where we had the best views of the red rooftops.

We joined an afternoon walking tour with 100 Spires City Tours.

The tour started at the Powder Tower and made our way through the old town, the Jewish quarter, and ended at the John Lennon Wall.

The Powder Tower is one of the original gates to the city where gunpowder was stored.

During the tour, we learned about the 1618 “Defenestrations of Prague” which triggered the Thirty Years' War. The Czechs were tired of being ruled by the Hapsburgs of Austria so they threw out the local government–literally. The Protestants (Czechs) threw the Catholic (Austrians) leaders out a three-story window in the town square.

A few years later 27 Czech nobles, knights, and privileged citizens were executed by the Austrian Habsburg Catholic authorities. Today, there are 27 crosses on the pavement paying tribute to those men who were killed for their religious beliefs.

*The white crosses can be seen on the pavement as well as the damage to the building caused during WWII.*

The Astronomical clock is the world's oldest functional clock that rings at the top of every hour for 45 seconds. 12 apostles rotate in the windows and the statues flanking the clock on either side represent vanity, greed, death, and lust.

We were approaching the end of the walking tour as we walked across the Charles Bridge.

Our guide shared a story about the construction of the bridge–

In 1357 King Charles commissioned the construction of a bridge that would connect the two riverbanks of Prague. His goal was to make Prague an important trading route between the East and the West. The king wanted to build a bridge that would last for hundreds of years and survive any floods or wars.
He called upon royal astronomers to study the universe and the placement of the stars in order to determine the ideal moment to place the foundation stone. He believed there is a specific alignment of stars that would protect the bridge for the future.
Finally, the time chosen was July 9th, 1357 at 5:31 AM. If we arrange the numbers we get the following sequence that is still carved on the Charles bridge tower: 135797531. A sequence of ascending and descending odd numbers that can be read the same backward or forward.

I wonder if it is a coincidence that it takes 9 minutes to walk the length of the Bridge? Another odd number combination.

We ended our tour at the John Lennon Wall. Steps down from the bridge, what looks like a basic graffiti wall is much more than that. Year after year, layers and layers of paint are added to the wall.

In 1988, the wall was used by the Czechs to display their anger against communism. Today it's a symbol of love and peace.

Fun fact–the wall actually belongs to Malta (which we visited in Week 83) because it sits on the Embassy of Malta’s property.

The tour was over and the sun was setting, so we went to dinner at Lehká hlava, a small house along an alley near the bridge. The restaurant ranks as the Top 10 vegetarian and vegan restaurants in all of Prague.

As we walked back to the hotel, we admired the iconic gothic church in the town square lit up.

Earlier in the day during the tour, we learned an architectural secret about this church. The two towers were made slightly different in size on purpose. The right tower in the photo is one meter higher and symbolizes Adam. The left tower in the photo symbolizes Eve.

*The Church of Our Lady before Týn lit up at night*

Sunday, October 9

At 6:15 AM, we woke up, and at 6:45, our tripod was set up on Charles Bridge along with a few other eager photographers and Instagrammers waiting to capture their shots.