Puti's and Keiko's journey to Prague and Vienna



APRIL 02: PRAGUE


St. Nicholas Church at Lesser Town Square


On our way to the Prague Castle hill in the morning of our second traveling day. The church is named so because there are three churches in Prague which are named "St. Nicholas Church".


























Sights on the Prague Castle hill









































St. Vitus Cathedral












































Views over Prague


...from the castle hill.








Vladislav hall


Kings used the place for public events.





At St. George's Basilica (Bazilika Sv. Jiří)


There is also a monastery in the same building complex.

















Golden Lane (Zlatá ulička)


This is a narrow lane with small historic artisan shops. Also Franz Kafka lived here for a while.











Rotatable shooting slot. At a sidewise orientation the cylinder blocks the window and serves as a partial heat insulator.











Acoustic miracle


The preson who stands in the middle of the stone pedestal is located on a spot where there prevail special acoustic conditions. It allegedly gives magical feeling to the listener. I tried it, and what I heard suggests me that the opposite walls reflecting the sounds cancel certain parts of the sound spectrum off, leaving the sound-emitting person with the impression that he is speaking with plastic cups covering his ears. The effect can be heard only with continuous sound; impulses like hand clapping do not work. The spot where the effect can be heard is only about 15 cm wide.

This place is on the backyard of the castle. Its exact Google Earth coordinates are 50°05'25.13" North and 14°23'53.32" East.





Summer Palace of Queen Anna

















Czech cuisine


To taste the typical Czech food we went to the cellar restaurant Grotta and ordered dinner from the list of the most typical Czech foods. Czech food is known of its honest simplicity: the sophistication is secondary but the raw materials are fresh and of high quality, resulting in food that tastes delicious on its own rather than by the virtue of complicated seasoning.

The typical Czech food is not too close to the vegan variety, either. The meat is frequent and plentiful, and fat is not abhorred, either. The menu confirmed the claim. I ended up ordering a portion very untypical to me: pork. Later I also noticed that the menu gave the weight of each portion. Mine was the heaviest — one kilogram — and as you can see from the image, the weight consists mostly of meat. I ate all of it, and next night got my due punishment in the form of insomnia and heavy stomach.