After several days in České Budějovice in our campervan, we had planned to leave there early, to drive directly to Prague.
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| Telč square, a UNESCO World Heritage site |
However, roadworks prevented us from taking the
direct route, and instead, we detoured through Telč.
And we are glad we did, because Telč is a lovely
town. It’s small (pop 5,812 in 2006) but has a huge town square, with some
beautiful architecture.
It is full of well-preserved Renaissance and
Baroque houses with high gables and arcades which surround the town square. The
square is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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| Troja Palace, Prague |
After seeing the stunning Telč, it was difficult to
imagine a prettier town. However, Prague was to overturn our views.
We arrived in Prague late in the day and drove
straight to our campsite, the Autocamp Trojská, a lovely site, situated in a private garden
in a residential street of Prague.
As we still had a little daylight left in the day,
we popped out to look at the Troja Palace, just up the road.
It is quite an impressive pink and white Baroque
style building set in lovely gardens.
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| Prague spires and cobblestone streets |
Apparently, it was built in the 17th
century, and is now owned and preserved by the Prague City Council as one of
their Art Galleries.
The next morning, we grabbed the tram into Prague.
Prague is called the City of a Hundred Spires, and
walking around it, you could see why.
We walked
through crooked, cobblestone streets of the Staré Mesto (old town), which are
lined with castles, churches, and buildings taken right out of history.
It is
very compact and easy to get around, and is a UNESCO site.
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| Prague old town square and astronomical clock |
Luckily, the
main tourist spots are fairly close together, so we mostly walked everywhere.
Our favourite places include the Staromestské námestí
(old town square), where there are lots of historic sites to see.
We also loved the ancient astronomical clock in the Town
Hall.
Unfortunately, it was closed for repairs when we
were there and we never saw it working.
We could go inside the Town Hall
and climb the clock tower, but the queues were so long that we decided to give
it a miss.
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| Ceremonial Hall in the Jewish Quarter of Prague |
Another feature of the square seemed to be the
Gothic style Tyn Church dating from 1385, which dominates the skyline.
After lunch we found the interesting Jewish
Quarter. It stems from the 13th century when Jewish people were forced to live
in this one small area.
Apparently, the area has been through a series of
structural changes over the years, at the whim of the emperor of the day.
However, many buildings were saved from destruction
and the buildings, along with six synagogues, form the best-preserved complex
of historical Jewish monuments in Europe.
The next day, we visited the other side of Prague.
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| Leigh on the historic Charles Bridge |
Getting into the main centre again, we soon found
our way to the Charles Bridge.
This is an historic bridge that crosses Prague's Vlatva
River, and displays statues of 30 saints.
Although, we found it very busy, it was also very
interesting.
On the other side of the River, we visited Prague
Castle. Built in the 9th century, its one of the world’s largest castles and
currently the office of the President of the Czech Republic. The Castle is also
home to the Bohemian Crown Jewels.
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| The Castle's St Wenceslas Vineyard |
Right in the centre of the Castle, is the St
Vitus Cathedral. Apparently, it took 600 years to complete. It has 21 chapels,
including one that is built above the tomb of ‘Good King’ Wenceslas.
After a good look around, we had lunch at the
Castle’s St Wenceslas Vineyard, with great views back over to the centre of
Prague.
Then we visited the Baroque style Church of St Nicholas. We
thought it to be very intricately built and beautiful.
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| Church of St Nicholas, Prague |
The church is in Malá Strana, the oldest part of
Prague, with quaint cobblestone streets and interestingly built houses.
We really enjoyed our four days in Prague and it is
a beautiful city. Although, we thought that the huge amounts of graffiti on the
edges of the city, let it down a little.
Too soon, it was time to leave and so we were back
in our campervan and driving south.
Our next stop was Kutná Hora.
Kutná Hora’s old centre is a UNESCO World Heritage
site, so the next morning, we went out walking to see the town.
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| Marg at Kutná Hora's historic silver mine |
Its history is in silver. The silver found here in the
13th century, is linked to the development of the monetary economy in the Czech
Republic. Apparently, silver coins have been found here covering the period
985–995 AD.
We visited the museum of silver, then donned special
clothing to go down and inspect the medieval mines that were discovered here in
the 1960’s.
Later on, we took a walk through the village, and
also visited the opulent Cathedral of St Barbara. This church dates from 1388
when Kutná Hora was a prosperous silver mining town.
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| The Ossuary at Kutná Hora |
There is an
interesting albeit, macabre, ossuary that we visited. It’s made of thousands
and thousands of human bones from the adjoining cemetery.
It seems that, in the 15th century, the cemetery
became overcrowded, prompting cemetery officials to relocate the bones to the
ossuary.
The thousands of bones have been creatively
arranged into unique decorations, including a chandelier made from every bone
in the human body!
After the sobering ossuary visit, we spent the night in Kutná Hora at the
Autocamp Santa Barbara.
The next morning, we were up early and headed for
the border into Austria, our next destination.