Castles and chocolate

This day we went to the famous Prague Castle - one of the larget building complexe in Europe, and one of the oldest medieval castles. St. Vitus cathedral, a central part of this complex, is astoundingly beautiful, and almost crammed with history and kind of ecclectic mixes of styles. 

I thought the statues were strange for this kind of castle, and the fact that the knights decorating the roof are just the top half of suits of armor. ???

Front entrance of St. Vitus

One of many fascinating stained glass windows. One of them is an Art Nouveau, apparently by Muchas himself.

Had a *fantastic* pumpkin soup

Great view from the top of this hill

Back of St. Vitus church

The area surrounding the church is full of interesting history, including "golden lane," a street originally just meant as a pathway, where soldiers asked for permission to build houses, and which became an area for people working in the palace, then for ecclectic mixes of people and rented rooms. There are a lot of historical areas and exhibits throughout, including information on medieval weapons, trades, and lifestyles.

There were a bunch of really cool weapon reproductions, including swords and knives with built in guns and crossbows.

Reproduction of an herbalists house

And yet another view

After the castle we headed down to old town to visit Choco Cafe, a cafe with a ridiculous variety of straight chocolate for sale, hot chocolate, chocolate deserts, etc. I got a forest berry hot dark chocolate. It was almost too much to finish. Almost.

After the cafe we ended up by the river for a beautiful view of the castle after dark from across the river.

It's so disneyland

And then headed across the famous Charles Bridge.

Full moon makes everything more dramatic

Then we headed back to the hostel for a night in, and some sleep because Andrea and Gerd were both feeling sick. Time to get ready for the next day.