Prague

Our full day in Prague began with a visit to Prague Castle, situated high above the rest of the city. There are a lot of individual places within this complex, and its really quite crowded with tourists. I should have picked up an audioguide to carry around with me, but I felt the need to save my korona for some reason. Unfortunately, I probably didn't get as much out of the place as I could have. I did get to see the room from which the Thirty Years' War began, however. It was where Catholic representatives of the Hapsburgs were thrown out of the windows by Protestant Bohemian governors! The representatives (miraculously) survived their fall, probably because they landed on some soft earth. From one vantage point its easy to see that they would not have survived if they were tossed out of a different, nearby window.

By the way, if you keep your eyes opened, you can easily spot evidence of the Hapsburg's past reign, just as you can in Vienna. For example, I saw this double-headed eagle very close to the Charles Bridge:

Such findings really give one an idea of just how far-reaching the Hapsburgs's influence was.

After a while though I was glad to be out of the castle. We wandered over to the Strahov Library and Philosophical Hall - which were both unfortunately under renovation. That led to us wandering across a very green hill that skirted the edge of the main part of the city. It was rather quiet and peaceful up there; I was glad to get away from a lot of the crowds. We would stay there for a while before descending down into the city again, where we did discover an interesting music museum that had an exhibit on Beatlemania behind the Iron Curtain.

The rest of the day seemed to go by pretty quickly - a quick stop by the astronomical clock, a drink or two under shelter from the rain, and then back to the hostel. This day has seemed to go by quite fast - a shame that we have to leave tomorrow.

The German word of the day is "zu Fuß," meaning "on foot."