When I promise something, I do deliver... Maybe not the next day or the next post, but definitely in the next 3 months! 馃槀 I have no idea where all that time has gone, but 2 months have just flown away! As an excuse, after my Prague post, I took a break to recover... Anyways, after touring Prague's Old Town city center and Jewish Quarter, it's time to step up and climb to the world-famous Prague Castle!
It was an afternoon in November 2025... We took a long walk around the city that morning, and "unfortunately" our tour guide mentioned that she would be doing the castle visit the same afternoon... In that moment, my wife's eyes got wide open, and I knew my destiny... 馃槀 In the short break, we managed to go for the already-mentioned lunch, went to the apartment to have an hour's rest, and we were back on the streets of Prague!
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Btw, not sure if I mentioned it before, but I would like to share a small tourist travel tip... On the last few trips, before going out on city tours, we would check out the Internet for FREE tourist guides... In almost every bigger European city, you will find some... They are completely free, but of course, you can (should) leave at least a small tip at the end of the tour... Most of the time, they are history students or young history enthusiasts, but always with a good knowledge base... A great way to help out someone who does what he likes to do, and to learn something about the place you are visiting...
When we are thinking about castles, we probably have different ways to imagine them, depending on the place we are coming from... or where we are visiting a castle... When someone says castle, I think of a "fairytale-look-castle", or maybe an Austrian mountain-top castle with a few towers around, and maybe a canal with alligators around it... 馃槀 If you think about Spain, you will probably have in mind some old, medieval castles, completely different than those in the Alps, and a few centuries' difference in age...
To get to the castle from the city center, you have to pass a bridge over the Vltava River... No alligators, but the bridge itself hides numerous stories and legends, all sculpted and well-preserved...
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In November, it was getting dark earlier, which made these views from the bridge even more appealing...
What would be a bridge without "love locks"... Not sure who planted that idea of locks and bridges, but our guide told us that locks are regularly being removed from this one... 馃槂
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Speaking of the guide, he noted that these stairs are very famous in many movies... Whenever there is a scene "from Paris", these stairs would appear... So, the next time you see Paris in a movie, check it twice, as there is a big possibility that it's Prague instead... Very similar architecture, a river in the city, bridges, and of course, a cheaper filming location...
Lennon Wall brings its own hi(story) in Prague... In communist Czechoslovakia, most of the Western "culture" was forbidden, and the first version of the wall was painted after the death of John Lennon in 1980... It was repainted in green by the secret police, but not long after that, new graffiti was written... You can check out the Wikipedia page for more details about it...
On the opposite side of the Lennon Wall, you can find the French Embassy building...
...back on the streets, toward the castle...
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I did mention alligators at the beginning, and this is the closest to them... 馃槀 There was a Castle bridge entrance over this nice valley... Maybe it was a river in the past, with animals in it... I will leave that to your imagination... 馃槂
When we finally got there, it was already dark... Prague Castle isn't just one building, but rather the whole complex of different buildings... They have been built over centuries, and every monarch added something personal to it... Everything began in the year 870, when the Church of the Virgin Mary was built.
We were lucky to be there when the guards changed, as it is a kind of traditional (small) ceremony...
Except for the church, most of the buildings are empty inside (at least, that was told to us), as all rulers who left Prague took their stuff with them... It was even a headquarters of the Nazis during the WW2...
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The gem that was well worth the climb, and the whole day walking, was these views of the city from the top of the castle! Gorgeous city lights over one of the nicest cities in Europe!
In the hope that I will have another occasion to visit this great city... Goodbye, Prague!
Thank you for your time.
--ph--
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