Czech Republic > The palace of Prague

At twelve o’clock, we get up after a “wonderful” night. Remarkably, no one seems to be affected by the liters of beer with 12% alcohol. I, however, am dealing with a blister from my new shoes. We buy some food at the corner shop, which also sells bags of milk. Then we walk to the palace. Here we visit the church and, of course, climb the tower. We also receive a student discount here. The spiral staircase has a whopping 287 steps. From the top of the tower, there is a beautiful view over the entire city. Afterwards, we walk along the palace to the museum. In the meantime, I find a lovely book about Prague in one of the shops for less than 15 guilders.

Czech Republic - The view over the city

I can’t leave it behind. The museum focuses on the history of the palace. The development is clearly shown in the models—essentially, each new construction layer was built on top of the previous one. The museum displays the remnants of different construction periods. After the museum, we stroll through the Golden Lane. This street contains small houses with shops, built against the palace walls. Once we’ve seen everything, we walk back down. We cross the Charles Bridge and arrive just in time at the town hall to see the figures in the clock. Opposite the tower, we grab something to eat. By Prague standards, it’s not cheap. Around eight in the evening, we decide it would be fun to view the city at night from the hill by the fairground. While waiting for it to get dark, we make phone calls and write the last postcards. The view from above is a bit disappointing; we thought Budapest was more beautiful. The palace, however, is beautifully lit. We try to get closer through a pitch-dark park. The few lights along the paths occasionally go out. We are rewarded with a stunning view of the illuminated palace. We walk back to the city center. It’s quite a trek to the square with the discos. Meanwhile, my blisters are giving me serious trouble because of the new shoes. The discos look lively, but to Ron’s great disappointment, we don’t have enough money for entry (100 crowns per person). We decide to walk back and have a drink along the way. Unfortunately, the terraces we choose are all closed. It’s just five past midnight. Luckily, we find a small place where we can have a drink inside. On the way back to the hotel, we reach the bottom of the hill and face a choice: straight through the park, around the hill to the left, or around the hill to the right. The park is very dark, and we’re not sure if the gate is open at night. The right path is quite long, as we know from experience. We try left. Although I would love to take off my shoes immediately, this adds almost three more kilometers. Limping somewhat, I finally arrive at the hotel. A large blister greets me.