Eastbound Road Trip: Prague Castle and St. Charles Bridge

Our second day in Prague, we enjoyed a yummy breakfast at our hotel, The Hilton Old Town Prague, then headed via train and foot to the Prague Castle.  K had wanted to get on the trains since day one, so he was extremely excited when we rode on two different trains to get within walking distance of Prague Castle.

There were many stairs between the street and the castle grounds, but Kellan made it up all of them on his own!

The views from the castle grounds were outstanding, even though a light fog hung over city.

 The highlight for us of Prague Castle was the St. Vitus Cathedral, which now ranks among my top three favorite castles in Europe with Cologne's Dom and Paris' Notre Dame.

 The castle grounds were decorated for Christmas and Daddy and Kellan took advantage of a nice photo op.

 From every angle, St. Vitus' Cathedral was breathtaking.

 K was not particularly impressed, though he did find some cool places to drive his trains.

Kind of reminds me of the Kölner Dom, but not as tall!

 Gargoyles...

 The inside:

 The official entrance to the Prague Castle and New Royal Palace.

 Square in front of the New Royal Palace.

Views on the way back down to the main streets of Prague...

 Next stop, playground!  Even though K had done quite a bit of walking this morning, we figured it was time for some plain old fun.

After K worked off some energy and ate some lunch, we snuggled him into his stroller cocoon and headed to the St. Charles Bridge and some beautiful views of the city and the Vtlava River.

The St. Charles Bridge is 516 meters long, is protected by three bridge towers and is home to 30 different statues.  Each of the statues has a special significance and I snapped pictures of ones that I found most picturesque.

 Matt pulled out Fodors to read to me about the meaning behind the various statues.  Unfortunately, I retained very little of that information...

It was very, very busy on the bridge, so it was hard to get unobstructed photos, but the bridge and the views it offered were my favorite sights of the trip.  About halfway across the bridge, K began drifted to sleep...

It is good luck to touch one of the statues on the bridge - the statue of St. John Nepomuk.  Some say that it will grant you one wish and others say it will simply ensure a return to Prague.  I tried to snap a photo of Matt touching this statue, but you can barely see him in the sea of other tourists!

 A rare picture of ME!  I do actually exist and am not some faceless narrator!

 An 20's-sounding band playing on the bridge:

 Back on the streets of Prague...  K was still asleep and Matt and I had not eaten, so we went in search of street food.

 We found some, and in my estimation it was the best food we had on the trip!  Especially the Prague ham.  We also had a sausage, some mulled wine and more Pilsner Urquell.  A favorite food of Matt's that is popular in Budapest, Hungary is a rolled pastry/donut type snack sprinkled with sugar.  He said the ones in Prague were OK, but don't compare to those in Budapest...

After our lunch, K was still asleep and we hit Moser's - a crystal store, where we looked around and found a nice whiskey decanter with matching glasses to commemorate our visit.  Prague is known for it's crystal, so we thought this would be a fun way to remember our trip.

Here are some photos from their website of their beautiful gallery:

Kellan woke up during our selection process, so while Matt settled up, I took him downstairs in the mall that housed the store where we found an indoor toy train and track.  Riding this train may have been one of the most monumentous occasions of Kellan's life, he is so obsessed with trains.

We decided to head back to the hotel after this train ride to relax a bit.  Sadly, one of the happiest moments of Kellan's life - riding this train - was then followed by one of the most horrifying moments of Kellan's life.  When he realized that he would not be riding this train (which he rode for a solid 20 minutes - three different rides) all night, he fell into a pit of despair.  We carried him kicking and screaming out of the mall :-(.  It was one of those people stopping and staring tantrums, where his voice was echoing down the entire street.  He recovered eventually, after much comforting.

After some relaxation and playtime for K at the hotel, we stopped by a local pizza place for some dinner and then headed out to see Prague at night and the newly lit Christmas tree in Old Town Square.

We were especially excited to see St. Charles Bridge at night, and we were not disappointed.  Here is the main gate you walk under to enter the bridge.

And views looking towards Prague Castle.

Looking back at the gate:

Old Town Square at night:

Christmas markets and Christmas tree:

Even though we would have preferred walking around in warmer weather, we loved our time in Prague and were grateful to see the this beautiful city decorated for Christmas.  Another great trip!