Prague

Our holiday in Prague was not quite long enough.
We arrived Sunday evening and returned to Berlin Tuesday evening for Rob's business meeting Wednesday morning.

Our hotel was located in Old Town just down the block from Powder Tower (as seen in many of our photographs). It was the perfect location.

The Powder Tower was the Gothic gate of the town wall, built to house the city's gunpowder.

From here, we walked along Celetna street toward Old Town Square. We enjoyed the many styles of architecture and the blend of new and old as we walked along the narrow streets.

This is Tyn Church. It was the leading church of the Hussite movement and located in Old Town Square.

A statue of Hus stands outside in the square facing the church. Erected in 1915 as a memorial to the struggles for Czech freedom.

This is also where the Astronimical clock is located.

From Old Town we ventured along the curvy lanes toward New Town.

Before stepping onto the Charles Bridge, there is a statute of Charles IV. He was the Holy Roman emperor that ruled Prague in the 14th century (most known for establishing the university).
Charles Bridge connects New Town and Old Town.

We spent very little time in New Town although we did take the opportunity to take photographs from the bridge. (there just was not enough time to see everything)

Monday evening we took a evening dinner cruise. The buffet style dinner included foods of the region (goulash and dumplings) along with traditional Czech beer.

The 3 hour long cruise with an enclosed seating area for dinner and an upper level for photographs gave a different perspective of the beautiful city.

This building, known as Dancing House, has been nicknamed by American architects as Fred and Ginger and is located in New Town.

With limited time in Prague, the evening cruise proved to be an excellent decision- a way to see many things in a limited amount of time.

Our final day in Prague (Tuesday) was spent visiting several shops in search of our favorite souvenirs and visiting just a few more sites.

We ventured into the Jewish Quarter- walking along Parizska street, exploring the vendors stalls and passing several of the synagogues. We chose not to tour the Jewish quarter due to lack of time, although we heard that the cemetery was worth a look.

Then we crossed  the Charles Bridge to New Town and climbed up Petrin Hill (we actually rode to the top on the funicular).
Petrin Tower, built in 1891, is a 200ft replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. We climbed the 400 steps to the top and enjoyed the views of Prague from below.
Fun Fact: although Petrin tower is only a 1/5 the size of the actual Eiffel tower, because it sits on the hill both stand at the same elevation.

(We seem to be getting the hang of taking our own pictures)

Climbing down from Petrin Tower we went in search of the Hungry Wall-Charles IV's equivalent of FDR's work for food project, before riding the funicular down the hill and returning to our hotel.

Our holiday in Prague had come to an end and it was time to return to Berlin.
Our wonderful rental car (too rainy for the top down).

I have to admit that I was a bit leary of traveling to Prague.... I quite enjoyed our time there and hope to return one day to see the sites that we missed.

Driving to Prague

Probably not the most flattering of pictures but it does capture the sheer enjoyment Rob experienced while driving from Germany to the Czech Republic Sunday afternoon.
The 3 hour drive was spent with the convertible top down and racing at fast speeds (highest the car would go was 213 km/hr- down hill) through the countryside.

The landscape was beautiful and the sunny skies made for a great ride.

Potsdam- Sanssouci Palace

Sunday morning we reloaded our rental car (always an adventure) and began our drive to Prague.

Before leaving Germany, we decided to detour to Potsdam to visit Sanssouci Palace- the residence of Frederick the Great).

The palace grounds were gorgeous.
There was no charge to access the grounds (only to tour the inside of the various structures) and we enjoyed a leisurely stroll (2 hours) throughout the gardens.

Playing in the trees

I was so tempted to sing a song from the Sound of Music under the canopy of trees (but Rob wouldn't let me :)

Every path led to another beautiful building.

As we were walking back to the car, we passed this tree.
The little stubs appear to be the roots climbing out of the ground.

Onward to Prague....