Day 4: Old Town Square

Saturday started off like the rest of our days in Prague -- with a nice breakfast at our hotel.

Quite near to our hotel, there was a store going out of business. For whatever reason, we thought the word "Bankrot" meaning "bankrupt" was kind of funny. There was a speaker advertising the store-closing sale, and we'd stand around to hear him say "bankrot!" Here, you can see a lady entering the store with her dog on a leash:

We found the Lennon Wall, and also a water mill:

We walked over to Old Town Square where we saw quite a few sites; among them:

The Astronomical Clock:

Even in the off-season, crowds were heavy for the hourly display of the clock. We were off to the side, so we saw death ringing the bell, but did not see the parade of figures.

The crosses commemorating 27 rebellious leaders who were executed in 1621. According to our guidebook, for centuries people avoided walking on these crosses; however, as you can see, that is no longer the case.

Near Old Town Square is the Estates Theater, where Mozart premiered his opera Don Giovanni.

Brian standing in the entranceway of the Estates Theater, in possibly the exact same spot where Mozart stood:

Walking towards the metro station, we saw a set of giant doors. Of course, I had to stand next to them. I wonder how heavy these doors are and if a normal person can open them alone?

We stopped at a cafe that was recommended in our guidebook, off of Old Town Square. We had drinks and snacks. The following pictures are Alice, Brian, and our meal:

Right near the metro station is Wencenslas Square. They were putting up the Christmas tree. The picture below that one is of a giant advent calendar in the windows of the building.

Having made it to the metro, here is Brian buying tickets. We had earlier tried to purchase a week-long metro ticket, but the office had been closed for lunch. We took that as a sign to mostly walk.

Our destination was the TV tower, located in a near suburb. You can see sculptures of babies climbing up the tower.

Here is a view of Prague's suburb from the TV tower.

We noticed a large swath of green space that was denoted on our map as a large cemetary, so we decided to walk over there. Here are three pictures of some of the more interesting graves. We found it interesting that almost all of the graves had flowers or candles on them. We're not sure if this is normal for Prague, or if it was near some sort of holiday.

We found the nearest metro station to the cemetary, which happened to be near a mall. Here is Brian, standing next to a dinosaur.

Back in Prague-proper, we decided to try to find Vysehrad. However, we were turned around and walked in the opposite direction. We may bring a compass on our next trip! Here is Brian looking at the map:

Since we were unable to find what we were looking for, we decided to stop for dinner. The first place we tried is pictured here. They told us that they couldn't serve us because the entire restaurant was reserved, but that we could come in for drinks if we wished. We were cold and thirsty, so we decided to do that. Two drinks each and more than an hour later, the restaurant was still empty!

We decided to head out to a restaurant recommended by our guidebook. However, this restaurant was rather far away. We got cold on our walk, and stopped at another bar for a drink to warm us up:

As we crossed the Charles Bridge to get to the restaurant, Brian couldn't resist rubbing some of the statues: Here is a view of Prague Castle at night. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't capture this well, but it was absolutely gorgeous.This is the restaurant where we ate dinner. It was possibly the best meal we ate in Prague.
Here is Brian, during our walk home along Petrin Hill. During this walk at some point, our guidebook is lost. You can see it in his pocket here, though. This didn't really affect our trip as we had already seen most of the things recommended in the book!

This sign was in front of a restaurant on our walk home. It almost looks like my name on top, but it's not!