Off to Prague & Prague Castle

On Tuesday morning, we proudly navigated ourselves from the hotel via the S Bahn to Berlin's main train station and successfully boarded the train to Prague.  It's the little things for us.  The train ride was about 4 1/2 hours through the German and Czech countryside.  It was a nice, relaxing, hassle-free ride with time for reading and napping built in.

Upon arrival in Prague, we managed relatively easily to get our three day tram passes, find the tram, and get ourselves to our hotel. Our hotel is on the castle side of the bridge in the Malá Strana section of Prague and borders a huge park.  The views out of our window are beautiful especially with the leaves beginning to change.

View straight out the window

View down the hill towards the river and Old Town Prague

View up the hill

After getting settled in, we decided to head over to Prague Castle to Czech it off the list (ha ha ha ha!).  Todd is a phenomenal international public transportation navigator and got us on a tram that took us right over.  We saw the end of the hourly changing of the guards but plan to go back tomorrow to catch the noontime changing at the main gate.  Apparently, that is quite impressive. 

The main gate to the castle

Our ticket allowed into several of the buildings within the castle walls - the most impressive of which was the Cathedral of St. Vitus which sits right in the middle and is the impressive spired thing that you see from afar.  Below are a bunch of pictures from our tour through the castle grounds.

View of Prague from the main gate

Front of the Cathedral of St. Vitus

Lots of impressive doors here in Prague

Inside the cathedral

Can you see the spiral staircase inside the stone?

The rose window above the entrance

Even the side of the cathedral is impressive.

One very cool door knocker

View of Prague from the other end of the castle grounds

 After a bit of wandering and Thai for dinner, we collapsed for the evening.  Tomorrow is Old Town Prague and the Jewish Quarter.