Prague day 3

Hello and good afternoon! We stopped at the hotel a bit to unwind so I figured I'd write a bit.

We took the metro to vhyserad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyšehrad], and has a much better time of it than the tram yesterday! We had to switch lines but it was incredibly easy to do. We got off into a business center and walked maybe fifteen minutes to the old castle. We knew we were on the right path when we walked under an old stone gate.

First we stopped in the basilica of St George and explored. It was a stunning traditional Catholic Church, and worth viewing. There were three gorgeous and ornate sets of doors on the way in. We walked through an old cemetary which also had some very current stones. The grounds of the old ruined castle were gorgeous.  Only a few small parts of the castle remain, though the fort walls do core much of the grounds overlooking the river. We walked around quite a lot.

We then took the metro back and crossed the river over the Charles bridge, enjoying the view. The crowds were much heavier, being Saturday. I can't even imagine what the summers here are like as it's October and packed on a Saturday. We walked through the quaint part of town by the bridge and off to Pemtrin hill, a monument to those killed in the. Communist years here. We too the vehicular train up the large hill. At the top is a small tower similar to the Eiffel Tower. We climbed up the first stairs to the viewing balcony and enjoyed the views of Prague castle, the city and the river.

We went to walk up to the top viewing balcony, and when we passed a lot of people coming the other way, realized we went up the down stairs, oops! The view was nice but it was closed in and. Really crowded, so we didn't stay too long.

We walked in the rose garden for a bit then went halfway down to the restaurant to grab lunch. We got sandwiches and some wine, and enjoyed the glorious views of the city and the castle. Wow.. it's really so incredibly breathtakingly beautiful here. Truly amazing.

We made our way back and decided to take a "short cut" through the metro. I think we just got cocky after having so much trouble with the tram yesterday! We ended up going to a spot which was as much walking to our hotel as the spot where we picked up the metro, and then we exited in a different spot then we expected and got a bit turned about. I did forget to mention that on the way down the escalator ran really quickly and it was the steepest descent I've ever seen. I was a bit freaked out honestly (yes, my paranoia of heights) and to boot, the arm piece ran faster than the steps under us so I had to keep letting go to adjust my hand on the rest. :) Oh joy. I lived and only embarrassed myself a little bit. Heh.

We made it to our hotel and took a power nap to freshen up, then hit a restaurant right behind the hotel called the Red Wheel in Czech. Great place! Unfortunately my phone was dead so I couldn't take a picture of our dinner. Kim but a chicken dish and I got a 'traditional Czech meal' with duck, pork, ham, two kinds of sauerkraut (red and white) and two types of dumplings. One was like steamed bread interestingly. We got a local Czech pinot that was really good. the place was really nice and service very good. The meal was $80 with tip and so large we only ate around half of it. Very good.

We leave early tomorrow morning for Cesky Krumlov, a Unesco World Heritage site and the location where Cinderella was believed to have been from. We heard it was beautiful and worth the trip on a bus there.