Meanwhile, Thursday didn't necessarily go as planned, but it was still a great day. The plan was that the group would go on a tour of Terezin. I didn't want to spend from 9 to 6 being depressed out of my mind gawking at old concentration camps and the like. So, I set off on my own. I had Petrin Hill in mind as I navigated Prague city. I also had shopping in mind, but hadn't come across any interesting shops when I turned the corner and there was the Hill. I was amazed at my own incredible instinctual sense of direction.
The twisting path before me presented an arduous task. That hill is deceptively steep. In the end, I climbed cobblestone paths, dirt walks ways, and eventually concrete steps.
The hillside itself was covered in flowering trees and bushes. Not to mention the amazing view of Prague city was ever at my back.
If you ever needed to know how to say Magical Cavern in Czech, then here you go.
Luckily this fountain had a big no drinking sign on it, otherwise, I think many weary travelers would have been tempted. As is, I continued on up that dirt path.
This rock near the top of the hill is not eroded from the weather, but from dozens of people carving their names into the stone.
There's actually much more at the top of Petrin Hill than the miniature Eiffel Tower (built one year after the original).
Another unexpected treat at the top of Petrin Hill included Sarah, Mika, Laurie, Tara, and Edward. Apparently, a mix-up between Edward and the tour people meant the tour was postponed until Friday. So, some of the folks came to find me at the tower. They had actually beat me to it and hailed me from halfway up.
This is the base of the tower. I have better videos of it, so just wait and see for those.
Some shots from the tower.
We had a time getting Sarah to the top. I do not blame her. The stairs spiraled around the outside of the tower, which was very tall. She bravely made it to the top though.
She also made it bravely back down.
After being adequately awed by the cityscape, we all headed down together. After lunch in the tower, we made our descent down the hill.
By the time we reached the bottom, I found I had seriously strained a muscle in my left foot. I was hobbling for the rest of the trip and am still feeling some tension. Nevertheless, we headed up another hill with Prague's castle area as our destination. We all had to stop and have a break halfway up. Everyone still had sore legs from climbing the tower, much less the hill to the castle area.
I say castle area, because there are a ton of buildings on that particular hill considered to be part of the castle. Ultimately I found the cathedral to be the most impressive thing we visited. The outside of the building was amazing in its detail, but nothing will beat the swatches of color filtering in through the stained glass windows.
This is the cathedral from a distance.
And now....
This is my favorite of the windows. It had more of an art nouveau style.
There were many interesting statues and altar thingumies within. The crypt was definitely neat as well, even though it meant taking more stairs.
I didn't take many pictures of the castle, as I didn't realize it was the castle until later. While the inside was stone arches and neatness, the outside looked like most of the buildings in Prague. You can see it in the videos though. Eventually we headed off in search of food, or a snack rather. We found a nice restaurant where I had apple pie and espresso for 79 crown. It was awesome. There was a piece of star fruit and ornamental sauce drizzles. Before long we were heading back to the hotel to meet up with the group for dinner. We went to a seafood restaurant named Kogo. They had really great food. I had grilled salmon and tasted some of Tara's calamari. It was definitely the tastiest tentacle I've ever consumed. Once more I ended my day tired and happy. Especially since we had a bathtub and heated towel racks. Although, the cleaning people coming in while we're away and reorganizing things got somewhat annoying not to mention confusing. We could come back to find our things on the otherside of the room. I think they switched around the position of at least one garbage can every day just to confuse us.
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