After having a wonderful time at Charles Bridge the other day, we thought that we should revisited it for sunrise. Unluckily, we met with another gloomy day. The positive side was that we went there very early when nobody around. So, we could say we almost had the place to ourselves. We started our day visiting Charles Bridge and planned to checking out Dancing House, Church of Our Lady before Tyn, and Old Town Square. That was our plan for the third day in Prague.
At that time, we already felt familiar with the city and passing some familiar route that we had days before. Surprisingly, our love to city deepened as we spent more days in Prague. We knew we still have countries and cities to explore, but it was hard to think that that was our last day in Prague. So, we marched forward to get the best of our day. These are some places we visited on our Day 3 in Prague.
Table of Contents
1. Charles Bridge
We “passed” this bridge the other day without any intention to stay long initially. However, we could not resist its charm and stayed longer than it should. The next day morning we visited it again because we couldn’t have had enough of it and tried to get there for the sunrise. We were met with gloomy weather but had the place almost to ourselves.
Some interesting fact about this bridge:
- It takes half a century to finish the construction (completed at 1942)
- Before 1870, it is called Stone Bridge, or Prague Bridge
- Legend has it, that builder added raw eggs into a mortar to strengthen the bridge
- One of the many statues in Charles bridge is the statue of St.John of Nepomuk, one of the most significant Czech saint. According to Legend, John of Nepomuk was sentenced to death after refusing to give confessional secret to the queen. Many people believe it brings luck if you touch the statue.
- Charles Bridge stands on 15 pillars and its path called the Royal Route.
2. Old Town Bridge Tower
Staroměstská mostecká věž or Old Town Bridge Tower is the gateway to the Charles Bridge. It is conceived as symbol of victory through which Czech King passed on their coronation processions. Visitor can climb the 138 steps to the viewing gallery. The entrance fee is 100 CZK and it operates from 10 am to 6 pm (Nov to Feb), to 10 pm (March and October), and to 10 pm (April to September).
3. Old Town Square
That time around, we visited the square on a broad daylight. Our main goal was to revisited the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn. We visited it the other day but it was closed due to special occasion. When we were there, it was again closed to visitor. So, I was very much disappointed. Its baroque interior is something I looked forward to see. But, although we couldn’t enter the church, we walked around the Christmas market at the square instead.
4. Dancing House
It was my idea to stop by the dancing house, just to satisfy my admiration towards the building design. However, getting a nice pic of the building was not easy as the closest spot was from the other side of the road. That being said, it’s challenging to get a shot of the building itself without having vehicle photobomb it.
The dancing house stands on a location of a house destroyed by US bombing in Prague on 1945. The Dutch insurance company help re-built the building. Canadian-american architect Frank Gehry designed the building with the concept of deconstructive (new-baroque) due to its unusual shape (source: Wikipedia)
The building is now a hotel, restaurant, and gallery. To visit the gallery, it costs 190 CZK and opens from 9am -7pm daily.
5.National Museum of Prague (Narodni Museum)
This museum was definitely our plan B. Little did we know that this museum kept such a beautiful secret that is its interior. This could top my list of architecture I admire in Europe.
National Museum of Prague is a scientific and historical museum. It has nearly 14 millions of item from history, art, music, and librarianship which are stored at dozens of the museum buildings. The main building is located at the end of Wenceslas Square and built from 1885-1891. The new building of the museum is located next to it. This new building has a plan to have the exhibitions in the year of 2020.
What attracted me immediately is the main hall, which was decorated mainly with red and gold nuance. It’s intricate criss-cross between stairs and level create a harmony. Since we visited it during holiday season (January 2nd 2019), the queue was overwhelming. We waited for about an hour just to get the ticket and we spend around 2 hours there. I think, seeing the extensive collections of the museum, one could spend good 3-4 hours here. Having visited the museum, I could say that this is one of the must-to-do list when visiting Prague.
Around 4 pm, we hurried to the train station (praha hlavni nadrazi) to catch train to Slovakia (Bratislava). It was another perfect day in Prague, that left us wanting more of Prague.
, we visited National Museum of Prague, Dancing House, Old Town Tower Bridge and Charles Bridge.){kind=link}