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| 287 Steps Later, We were Rewarded with the View |
Saturday was Prague Castle day. I’m caliing it a ghost
castle because the parts that we toured were no longer used by the state.
Please let me elaborate. While it is still the seat of government, the modern
rooms are not open for public viewing, so we confined ourselves to the older
buildings. Prague Castle reminds me of a college campus a little bit. There are
tons of buildings all falling under the Prague Castle moniker, representing a
range of architectural styles across the centuries. This area is in all the guidebooks about Prague, and as
a result, all the tourists come to visit. This makes it somewhat difficult to
navigate the area, avoiding strollers, canes, and photographers. Add to this
mayhem guided tours in every language imaginable, with tour guides yelling to
be heard, and the tourists marching along behind them, most unwilling to let
you walk past them in any direction. Madness I tell you! This really ruined the
ambiance of many of the sights. It’s very hard to contemplate 14th
century life, when some woman is yelling in Spanish through a megaphone.
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| Look! It's Prague |
The
castle was interesting, but I think it was a bit overrated. We ended up
spending the entire day touring the
buildings and grounds of the complex, but still didn’t manage to see all of it.
We were bogged down in some of the buildings, and spent time in others, where the
payoff wasn’t that great. The Castle offers 2 ticket options, the short tour,
and the long tour. Ignore the names and the times expected to complete each
tour, because it will take several hours to explore everything. We bought the
long tour, and I think it is the better deal the difference in price between the
2 tickets is 100 crowns, and I highly recommend the Story of Prague Castle
exhibition if only for the artifacts they keep there, including an actual
grave. Unfortunately, this ticket does not include 2 things that seem awesome,
the South Tower of St. Vitus cathedral, and the Treasure of St. Vitus
Cathedral. We climbed the 287 spiral steps to the top, rewarded with a view of
the entire city. We were not able to make it to the treasury of St. Vitus, but
that would be something I’d love to see on another visit. We also weren't able
to tour all of the gardens surrounding the castle–there were just too many to
see.
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