Prague: Bus Tour, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, Wallenstein Palace Gardens

Today in Prague started quite cool, with light showers. Actually, it was more like a heavy mist than a light shower. This seemed like a perfect time to take a two-hour bus tour of historic (and some less than historic) Prague to orient me to the city. The mist disappeared and the rain held off for the entire tour, but it remained overcast.

The distortion of the bus window, coupled with the movement of the bus meant that most of the pictures I took were even worse than my usual lousy photography. In addition, because the small bus was full, most of the pictures in the gallery below are of sights on the left side of the bus, the side I sat on.

I’ve never ridden a bucking bronco, but I think the bus riding over the cobblestones of the streets around Old Town Square, the starting point, was specifically designed to simulate that. I could be wrong.

The tour let us off at the square in front of Prague Castle for half an hour (which the driver stretched to 40 minutes, I assume to pad the tour to the full two hours, see below) to look around on our own. Because I took them outside, the pictures I snapped there are back to my usual inferior quality, rather than the abysmal calibre of the others in this set.

There was not enough time to go into the castle during the stop. (Never let it be said I’m incapable of subtle foreshadowing. In truth, I am incapable of it. That was the opposite of subtle. And I mentioned Prague Castle right in the title of this post. So, yeah, I’m incapable of subtle foreshadowing. But, please, never say it.)

Prague Views

Because the Prague Castle district is at the top of a hill, it also affords a great view of the city below.

Coincidentally, the stop occurred during a changing of the guard ceremony that included trumpeters and a drummer. (The three musicians in one of the pictures below weren’t them. They were performing near there, not as part of the changing of the guard ceremony.)

I learned a lot about Prague, its history, and its buildings from the taped commentary on the bus tour. You’ll learn none of that here because, I think I mentioned it in previous posts, I have next to no memory. Everything the commentary told me is gone from my mind. You’ll do much better relying on Google than relying on me if you want to learn anything about Prague.

I took the tour on Sunday. It probably would have been best to take it on a weekday. There was no traffic when I took the tour. “‘To your right …‘ Damn! Passed right by it. ‘To your left…‘ Damn!”

At a few points, the taped commentary asked me to pardon them if we were stuck in traffic. The only thing to pardon was not being stuck in traffic at opportune points, or any points for that matter.

In the absence of any commentary here, please suffer through the substandard photos below.

Charming Streets in Prague

I’m a sucker for old European pedestrianized and near-pedestrianized* streets. Prague has a number of both wide and narrow such streets. Because I love them, you’re going to have to endure many pictures below of such streets.

Wait. Endure? You’re free to quickly scroll through them or surf away to any of the gazillion or so other pages on the web. So, the heck with you.

Before the pictures, a note: Dressing up in a far-larger-than-life panda costume and swaying from side to side seems to me to be a hard way to extract a few coins from passers-by. But, there you have it.

* Note on “near-pedestrianized”: In addition to many streets that seemed to be fully pedestrianized, I also walked along some streets that had no traffic, but parked cars lining one or both sides of the street. When I say “no traffic” I don’t mean only a little traffic. I mean zero-point-zero. What do people do? Find a parking spot and then permanently abandon their cars in the fear that they’ll never find a parking spot again?

Charles Bridge

The Charles Bridge, which crosses the Vltava River, is Prague’s oldest and most famous bridge. I don’t know if it was always thus, but these days it is strictly for pedestrians.

The bridge is lined with statues of Czech saints. And, when I was there, for about a quarter of its span, it was also lined with caricature and other artists. The statues are permanent. I don’t think the artists are ever-present, but I’m not sure.

The bridge was also filled with people. My understanding is that this is permanent, night and day. But I’ll take the tour book’s word for it about the at-night part.

Fact check: One of the statues on the bridge is of Saint John of Nepomuk. A couple of pictorial plaques done in relief sit at the base of his statue. One of them memorializes his martyrdom. Legend has it that if you rub this plaque and make a wish your wish will come true.

Judging by how bright and shiny the plaque was compared to the dull patina on other plaques on the bridge, I’d say that a lot of people believe that myth. Fools.

My research found that this legend is undeniably five Pinocchios false. I’m still 66 years old, not eternally 25.

Prague Castle

You can stroll the Prague Castle compound for free, but you need to pay to go into most of the buildings. The castle offers “Circuit B” or “Circuit A” tickets.

I chose the B ticket for two reasons. First, in his Prague & the Czech Republic tour book, Rick Steves said the Circuit B ticket gets you into the highlights. He suggested that A, which adds more sights, is worthwhile for people with a healthy interest in art and history. Art and history not being my things, B sounded like the ticket for me. Second, the four-day Prague Card I bought included Circuit B, but not A.

Below I describe, mostly in pictures, the four sights the Circuit B ticket got me into.

St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral is a gorgeous gothic and neo-gothic church (the front half is newer than the back). The older back part of the church has imposing flying buttresses. For some reason, I inadvertently didn’t take a picture of that side of the church. Sorry about that. Dear reader, I know you depend on me for that sort of thing. I failed you. I can’t apologize enough.

Inside, the church had beautiful stained glass windows and other religious-type decorations and furnishing. Because, what other type of decorations and furnishings would it have? Small chapels lined both sides of the interior, including Saint Wenceslas’ (aka Good King Wenceslas) chapel.

Old Royal Palace

What is it about old palaces that they won’t allow you to take pictures in them? Photography is forbidden in the Old Royal Palace. Hence, all you’re going to get is this picture of the exterior.

I experienced the same no-photography rule at Shönbrunn and Hofburg palaces in Vienna and other old palaces I’ve visited elsewhere.

To my mind, that was not much of a loss here. The public was allowed into only one large, unadorned hall. The patterned, vaulted ceiling was nice but, for me, the palace was uninspiring. Maybe that’s why they wouldn’t let people take pictures. They want to keep it a secret. And this was one of the highlights? I don’t think so.

St. George Basilica

The St. George Basilica is a small, quaintly attractive church. Pictures follow.

Golden Lane

Golden Lane is a lane. Duh.

Construction of the lane began in 1484. The last tenant left in 1952 when the government expropriated their places to restore them and, I guess, make them tourist attractions.

The golden in its name is because it used to be lined with goldsmiths. It’s not now. Now it’s lined with small apartments and shops (each apartment/shop was generally little more than a couple of tiny rooms). Some contained “historic” artifacts. One contained panels telling the history of Golden Lane. Others held a cafe and a few shops selling selling knick-knacks, trinkets, and trash. Some doors were tall enough only for slightly overgrown Hobbits.

“Historic” is in quotes because I think of historic as things that happened well before I was born (1952). Yet, one of the small apartments used to belong to an amateur film historian. I don’t know if they recreated the contents or if he left the film canisters and projectors there when he left in the early 1950s. But, there they were.

Some cannons were arrayed at one end of the lane. I guess they didn’t want me to exit that way.

Bonus Views

As a bonus, here are a couple of views of Prague from the castle compound. The last one is obviously not a view of the city. It’s a staircase that leads down from the Prague Castle compound.

Wallenstein Palace Gardens

The gardens of the inner courtyard of the former Wallenstein Palace, which now houses the Czech Republic Senate, are very calming.

In addition to shrubbery and other greenery, the gardens also had a pond. The pond was large enough to have an island in the middle with some statues on it. Some rather large fish—I think they were carp—swam in the pond.

In posts on the Shönbrunn and Hofburg Palaces in Vienna, because I wasn’t able to take photos, I told you to feel free to visualize whatever you wanted in lieu of pictures. I suggested totally irrelevant orchids, waterfalls and peacocks.

You don’t need to do that here. Instead, in addition to the pictures of the back walls (i.e. facing the courtyard gardens) of the senate building, and of the gardens, you can also feast your eyes on pictures of some of the real peacocks that roamed the gardens, including a white one.