After St Vitus we headed off towards the legendary St Nicholas. It was certainly worth the extra bit of walking! I put the images in the mosaic because you should feel some of the overwhelming urgency that you feel when you're really there – everything is simply spectacular. It looks rather ordinary on the outside, but you walk in and you feel so awed that you have to sit down in one of the pews. The interior was finished in 1761 and you can see the strong early Church (as a political power, not as a religious power) influences. Like much of the city's statues, the church's interior is detailed extensively with gold. This makes it quite impossible to try and focus on one part – the light glitters all over the interior and you're constantly attracted to something just out of your line of vision!
We walked down to the Kafka Museum and discovered a little pathway that led to the foot of the Charles Bridge – where G decided it was now or never! If it wasn't entirely obvious from the above picture, we are now engaged 🙂 We have been looking at rings for some time now, but he decided he wasn't going to wait for me to make up my mind anymore. This is my 'temporary ring' – I'll get the other one made before the wedding, and he can give it to me then. I've chosen something flat (the large pearl keeps me on edge because I constantly think that it's going to knock out) and simple. Perhaps I'll post a picture when I'm feeling more girly.
Ooh I had almost forgotten about this shop! It's called "Viva Praha!", and specialises in sweets and chocolates which they make on site.
Top Left and Bottom Right: Jars of delicious looking sweets, all with words embedded on the inside. The giant swirls you see underneath in packets (the bottom shelf) are leftover rolls of candy. They take these rolls and streeeeetch them out, then cut off the little ends to make the sweets that go in the jars. These rolls cost a fortune, but they'd make a fabulous gift!
Bottom Left: Packets of fruity sweets – each packet is flavoured like a different fruit ranging from pears to raspberries. They were tempting, but unlikely to be eaten so we restrained ourselves. Or rather, G restrained me.
Top Middle: The chocolatier sections. Here each little chocolate is stamped with a printed (edible) surface. It's remarkable! They are so beautiful, but very expensive.
Top Right: (I took this photo for Justin, so, Robyn, do show him if you think he'll like it) This is George the Gorilla. He's the world's biggest and heaviest chocolate sculpture (the sign underneath says so – he weighs in at a whopping 112kg!). The chocolate museum is right next door to this shop so it's no wonder that they have such interesting things in the window displays!
Bottom Middle: A chocolate nativity set. Very appropriate for Christmas.
Okay – on our last day we (read: I) decided that we were going to see the famous Bone Church at Sedlec Ossuary. It is approximately fifteen minutes outside of Kutna Hora, which is approximately an hour outside of Prague. With great difficulty and much walking we managed to secure two train tickets that would take us all the way and back again – we just had to figure out how to use the metro, the trains and the transfer mini trains in Kutna Hora! We got to the station fine. The trains they had were very old – they all had compartments with doors that kept you separate from the walkway (except for when the ticket man came to check that we were in the right place) – how fun! We were running
very late – I knew that the ossuary closed at 4pm, and that the train was supposed to arrive in Kutna Hora at 3pm. We got to Kutna Hora, ran around the station trying to find the next train, and finally stopped a train conductor and tried to communicate that we needed to get to Sedlec in a hurry! Luckily he spoke English, and the train we were looking for was his. We got to Sedlec and half-ran towards the only spire in the sky (hoping it was attached to the famous Church!).
Sedlec Ossuary was creepy and amazing. It is supposed to be a celebration of the 40,000-odd people who were buried at the holy site, which is why the bones are arranged in pyramids, chandeliers, and other traditionally beautiful designs. It was definitely something to see, so if you're ever in Prague, do make a turn. It would have been more impressive if we had a guide (I think); we were listening to one of the other group's guides who was telling them how to tell how the people died from looking at their skulls (most of the people here died in the Hussite Wars, so their cause-of-death was typically blunt trauma to the head). The rest of the bones came from plague victims. We made it just in time to see the church before it closed, so yay!
We went back down to the 'station' which was a tiny little bus-stop on the side of two train tracks in the sand and waited until a train came by. It took about fifteen minutes, at which time the sun was almost set and it was getting freezing!
We got onto the train which started going backwards (and of course no-one spoke English so we were getting quite panicky!) but it went backwards for about three minutes then stopped, reversed, and went the right way for the rest of the trip. All of the trains that side do this – perhaps to change directions on the track, or to get a running start? Who knows.
We got back to Kutna Hora and waited for an hour for the next train. At this stage it was -1'C (not counting the wind chill) and it was getting so cold that the people waiting with us had started walking laps around the train station. We soon followed as everything was getting numb and uncomfortable. The train arrived and everyone on the station piled in (regardless of where it was headed – it was just too cold to wait there anymore!). If it wasn't for the arrow on the Praha sign, we might easily have gone the wrong way. Nobody spoke English and we didn't know enough Czech to have a conversation, so we were just hoping that it was the right train! Turns out that we were right! We had to stand the whole way home because the train was so full:
Thank goodness we found a train! It was quite funny because a lot of people were huddled around the toilet (there was more space there to stand) so we all had to devise a complicated musical-chairs regime every time someone needed the loo.
After getting home I discovered that I had cold burn on my legs – ouch! And I was wearing thermal leggings! It must have been very cold at Kutna Hora.
We had been meaning to try this restaurant and it seemed like it was a good reward after that long trip! I was attracted by the beautiful low-hanging lights all over the restaurant, and the food looked good as well. I would highly recommend this restaurant to any Prague visitors – it was amazing!
The service was great, the food was delicious and the decor is beautiful. The lights are actually those things that they make African instruments out of – like giant hollowed-out butternuts or pumpkins. From what I could tell, the designs are drawn on in pencil then drilled out, then a tiny little plastic bead is pushed into the hole. The colours of the beads determined the patterns that formed. Aren't they amazing?
We got pita breads and "three delicious sauces" before we got our food – I had a chicken kiev and G had a mixed grill. Yum! Possibly the best food we had in Prague! Can you see how exhausted we are there? We went back to hotel, got into bed, and slept right through all of the bells tolling every hour! That was quite good because we had an early breakfast, went souvenir shopping, and spent the rest of the morning (and the rest of the day!) travelling back home.
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