Chris says these things weren’t off the beaten path of Prague (my first title for this post) because the heart of Prague “was right there!” I suppose he wasn’t wrong because you can in fact see the throngs of tourists along Charles Bridge in some of these photos.
So lets call this post a detour as we detoured away from the other tourists to find secluded areas with an offbeat twist.
R2-D2
First up, R2-D2. Why? Why not?!
Apparently this is a ventilation shaft for an abandoned bunker that a street artist decided to have fun with. Street art is very much a thing here as you can see in the “improvements” made to R2-D2 below.
Travel to Vyšehrad
The next stop on the itinerary is a castle. Said castle is only a 14 minute walk from R2-D2 per Google Maps, the king of all things navigation. Today, the king received a strike.
Do you see that thick yellow line? And the blue dots indicating one can walk across it? Lies!
That thick yellow line is a 6 lane major road with zero crosswalks or other safe paths. It’s also up high. Very high. Clowns to the left of me. Jokers to the right….
We made it. Eventually. But it was not a 14 minute walk by any stretch of the imagination.
Vyšehrad
Our favorite tour guide says that locals go to Vyšehrad while the tourists go to Prague Castle. This tourist went to both cause she suffers from a fear of missing out.
I only looked up the hours and the location and therefore had no idea what to expect. If you want to do some research, check out the website. Seriously, I should have done so. There are tours of the insides of the walls!
Ignoring what one can learn from the internet or by taking a tour, this is an up high place with amazing views of Prague. There are super thick and high walls that surround the entire fortress and you can walk along all of them! So freaking cool!!!
It’s also cold because it’s windy on top of a hill on top of high walls in the winter. Chris didn’t have the liner of his coat nor the fancy booze to warm him so he didn’t enjoy the views as much as I did but he was an amazing sport and walked the walls with me anyway.
Continuing to ignore the internet/history/etc., this is really a park on steroids. There are a few play grounds (I won at the maze game!) and lots of walking trails. We saw a number of runners as well as families walking dogs. I really do think its a place the locals frequent. Plus, the views!
Tower of Charles Bridge
Next up was the tower at Charles Bridge. Okay so right in the heart of tourist central but they apparently don’t want to pay the 100 czk ($4.45) and see the sights. Silly them.
For the super low price of 100 czk, you get to climb to the middle of the tower to see an exhibit, to the top of the tower to see the views, and go into the basement to see the stuff they’ve found in the water near the bridge. We pretty much had the place to ourselves too. Yay us!
There and Back Again
The library didn’t open until 1 plus I knew there were penguins on the other side of the river. Therefore, we crossed the Charles Bridge not once but twice. During peak tourist time… Yeah. Mistakes were made but not the worst mistake of the day.
We did get to see the penguins crowd free! And also weird crawling babies (adults?). No not the crawling babies on the second ugliest tower in the world. Those have crawled away to LA for an art exhibit. We saw these ones.
Food/Beer Break
Apparently Chris needs food and beer in order to keep up with me. So we stopped for some.
Municipal Library of Prague
Next stop: the public library. People in this city like books. There are so many book stores as well as a ton of people reading actual books (not e readers!) on public transportation. Thus it surprises me not that there is a tourist trap made out of books. It is glorious!
The Astronomical Clock
Minus crossing the Charles Bridge (twice), I did an excellent job of taking us to non tourist heavy places today. I should have known better but it was almost the top of the hour and we were close, so we went to see The Astronomical Clock.
The crowds. OMG the cannot physically move an inch from the current spot crowds. And for what? I heard the music and bells. I saw the skeleton move its arm. I didn’t know anything else happened until I saw a video of it on YouTube when we got back to the hotel. Save your time and your patience for crowds for something that’s worth it. Unless crowds are your thing. In which case, visit every hour on the hour…
We’ve gone to hide and recover but we’ll go out again later for the Nightwatchman Tour.
