What's up with Ciao at the moment. It seems to keep messing about with the formatting.
What's up with Ciao at the moment. It seems to keep messing about with the formatting.
Member since:24.04.2005
Reviews:27
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My sister and I decided that we should see Prague Castle. Although my sister had already been there, she felt it justified a second visit. And of course I had never been to Prague before, so I figured this was one of the main places to visit even if you don't get much else in.
Was I disappointed? No. It is beautiful and there really is a lot to see. Entry to the grounds is free, so you can just go and look at the architecture and the gardens if you like. There-in lies a sumptuous feast for the eyes. If you like beautiful architecture as much as I do, you will enjoy just walking around and looking at the buildings.
To actually get into the various buildings, on the other hand, you have to pay. The price varies depending on just how much you want to see. Please forgive me if the prices are slightly wrong, as I am just going on memory, but these are approximately correct. For the whole gamut, you will pay around 550 CZK. (If you want to work it out in English money it is about 40 CZK to the pound.) If you just want to see one building or area I think it was about 150 CZK. We decided to go for the mid range which was about 330 CZK.
For this we got to see St Vitus' Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace and Golden Lane. For those of you are interested, Golden Lane is famous for having been where Franz Kafka lived in Prague. For those of you who don't know who Franz Kafka is, (join the club) he was a Czech writer who was apparently very gloomy. For the slightly larger price we would also have seen the
St George's Basilica and the St George's Convent and I think one or two other things. From the guide book I bought at the time, the Basilica does look like it's worth a look if you can afford to pay more. As for us, we were on a stringent budget.
When you pay, which you need to do in the information office, you get a ticket on which is printed the numbers signifying which places you can visit. I think it said you get 24 hours on the ticket so you could essentially go away for a spot of lunch and come back within the 24 hours, obviously giving yourself enough time to complete the circuit in the time remaining. When you go into each section the ticket master punches your ticket to show which ones you have done. Then you are free to explore.
The cathedral was beautiful. The stained glass windows were so full of detail, it would take a long time to decipher all the stories contained there-in. One thing that struck me was the number of tombs inside the cathedral. Along each side were atriums with tombs for various individuals and even in the middle of the floor were one or two tombs. One in particular was very ornate. It had a canopy made of silver. I haven't been in that many cathedrals, so maybe that's why I found it so surprising, but it seemed to me more space was taken up by tombs than by seats for the congregation.
Within the Cathedral itself there was the entrance to a tower. I think it was the Powder Tower. As this was marked on my ticket, my sister said I should go up, but she wouldn't as she had already done it. By the time I got to the top, I realised why she didn't want to do it. You have to go up about 377 stairs. If I'm wrong about the exact figure forgive me as I heard a few conflicting stories on that point. Suffice it to say that it was a lot! As if it wasn't enough that you have to go up so many steps, they made it a narrow spiral staircase with no handrail! And then you have people going both ways! Believe me it was very scary, and what scared me even more was going down. When I got close to the top, a friendly smiley happy chappy said to me in German something like "Nicht Verder" which my bewildered brain took a while to translate to something like not much further. Whatever it was, I was most upset when it didn't seem to be coming true, but it wasn't actually that far from the truth. When I got to the top eventually and went outside on decidedly wobbly legs, I could see why people make this journey at least once. You could see for miles. I would even venture to say possibly further than from the London Eye, but perhaps it was a cloudy day when I was in the London Eye. There was a map showing what you could see, and I was surprised to note that it marked a hotel. Why would one want to know you could see that? Mind you I suppose if you were staying there you might be interested. Anyway, I looked out at what I could see, and thought it was a shame I hadn't got the camera, this thought was echoed later by my sister. After some time and some rest I braved the journey downwards which was made worse by the fact that a lot of people seemed to decide at the same time that they were coming down. All I can say is I'm glad I didn't have to work there all those many years ago and go up and down those stairs on a daily basis.
Once out of the cathedral, we made our way around to the Old Royal Palace. The first room you enter apart from the shop is Vladislav's Hall. It is massive. Evidently used for banquets and festivities, this late-Gothic hall is apparently the biggest European vaulted interior without any inner supports. According to my guidebook this was created by joining three original Luxembourg halls into one. This may give you an idea of the size. Again the ceilings are something to behold. The chandeliers now use electric lights, but you can get a feel of how it would have looked in the old days when they would have used candles.
At one end of this hall you gain entrance into the mezzanine floor in the Church of All Saints. As you look down into the main chapel area, you can see the rich furnishings. They liked to use a lot of gold in Prague. This apparently has gone through a number of changes being originally gothic, but over time and after fire damage it appears as it does today in a largely baroque style.
Off to the one of the sides you find the entrance to the Synod Hall. At first I thought this must be a throne room due to the rich décor and the golden throne. However it is in fact not far from being a throne room, but it was where the Synod met, the throne being where the bishop (or was it archbishop) would have sat. This room leads to the Rooms of New Panels of Czech Lands where you will find the ceiling and walls covered with various coats of arms. You are lead into the file rooms where I have never seen more beautifully decorated files. One way of making work interesting I guess.
As you go out you come to a room showing videos in Czech and English. Be sure to get there early in the day to be sure of having time to see one, as we got there in time to see the last five minutes of the last showing, which was a shame.
The one thing I found disappointing as with most of these sorts of places, the number of rooms and stairs which are blocked off. Fair enough if they're still in use I suppose, but I still would have liked to have seen more.
Off we went then to see Golden Lane. Unfortunately I was not very impressed. Sure it was beautiful. Certainly it was interesting to see the poky little houses they lived in those days, but it was effectively just a row of curio shops. I felt it a cheek to charge us entry to see a row of shops. On the plus side however, if you do go upstairs you will find a long corridor filled with suits of armour from the mediaeval period. This will be interesting to some. At one end of this corridor you get to practice your crossbow skills for the princely sum of 50 CZK. I wasn't very good, the only hole in the target paper was the one where it had been stuck on the nail to hold it up. Of course it took me to the 4th go to figure out how the sight worked. Oh well, maybe next time.
Having seen all we wanted to of Golden Lane, we decided it was time for food. At this point it is worth mentioning that there are a number of entrances to the castle. My sister when she had been before had come in a different entrance to the one we came in this time and we managed to get out by a completely different entrance again. This is great if you like to see everything as it was a picturesque walk, however, if you don't find it easy to find your way about you should try and remember which way you came in so you don't get lost.
Would I go again? Well yes, if I was in Prague. I don't think I'd bother again with Golden Lane unless I felt up to some more crossbow practice. But I wouldn't mind seeing the other bits I didn't see this time as well. I would certainly go and spend a bit more time in the gardens as well as they too are beautiful.
This certainly sounds like an interesting place to visit! You just watch yourself with that crossbow! :D A nicely balanced review with plenty of detail in there too. Milky :)
torr 06.07.2005 13:30
A most interesting and well-balanced review. Prague is definitely getting more and more touristified by the minute, though. It was bad enough four years ago when I last went, and I'm sure they weren't charging for Golden Lane then. Duncan
Polesun 05.07.2005 11:49
That was a well thought out flowing review. Well done! Jennifer
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Advantages: An amazing, breathtaking site... a must see Disadvantages: We visited in the summer, so very hot whilst walking around the largest ancient castle in the world!!
peppermintangel 08.12.2004 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Prague Castle
Advantages: An amazing, breathtaking site... a must see Disadvantages: We visited in the summer, so very hot whilst walking around the largest ancient castle in the world!!
peppermintangel 08.12.2004 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Prague Castle
Jul 1st, 2005
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