The Hooks' Adventure Continues!: Christmas in Prague...Cross-posted from another blog

First Day in Prague

A few months ago, my wonderful father got it into his head that Prague sounded like a lovely place to spend Christmas, and as no one in my family is one to turn down a travel offer, we all got up well before 5 this morning to head to the airport. After a fairly short flight (I may have been unconscious for most of it) we arrived in the Czech Republic!

The view over the Alps was absolutely breathtaking.

After checking into our apartment rental, we headed down the street to find a nice Czech lunch. Once we had settled on a restaurant, a cheerful waiter let us down about three flights of stairs, some of which took us diagonally so we must have been down in the cavern below the neighboring store. It was quite charming.

I ordered goulash with bread dumplings, and I will admit I was a little concerned when I was faced with a measly 6 bites of meat-- but let me tell you, I could barely find space in my poor distended belly by the end of it. Between the dumplings, which were like a soft bread that miraculously was able to sit in gravy without getting soggy, and the rich meat, I was left in no doubt about whether I would get along with Czech cuisine. Needless to say, I'm downloading lots of recipes.

Waiting for our food.

By the time we had finished our lunch, it was late enough that we only had a couple of hours of daylight, so we took a casual meander around the city rather than visiting anything in particular (that comes tomorrow). Of course, we did end up in some famous spaces but we'll probably stop back again-- this was really just a brief survey, and Prague did not disappoint. The architecture is lovely, with a beautiful variety in its ornamentation, and everywhere is charmingly decked out for the holidays. As we walked through the bustle, some rendition of "Silent Night" or "Jingle Bells" would find us without fail and carry us on to the next street performer, so we were never without music. Here are some of my photos from today!

Prague's famous medieval astronomical clock, which details the movement of the celestial bodies.

The Christmas market was so charming.

There was even a blacksmith!

The Christmas tree was absolutely stupendous...

...although it clearly required a lot of power.

Now I'll share some of the (many) pieces of architecture I admired in our wanderings.

I love these figures three stories up.

Everything was just so beautiful as the sun was setting.

This detail is so cute!

Isn't it lovely?? We also stopped in the St. Nicholas Church, which was built in the early 18th century (although its earlier Gothic incarnation is mentioned in documents as far back as 1273) and gracefully combined the Baroque, Classical, and Rococo styles. However, following the religious reform under Emperor Joseph II, the church was essentially ransacked and handed over to the municipality-- which wasn't quite sure what to do with it, so the lovely building was re-purposed first as silo(!) and then as a concert hall before finally being rented out to the Russian Orthodox Church. Since 1920 it has served as a service site of Czechoslovak Hussite Church.

This enormous crystal chandelier dates back to the days of the Russian Orthodox Church (1871-1914).

I think the square cupola is so lovely!

And of course, I had to admire the organ...

Finally, we made our way along the riverfront up to the Charles Bridge. My favorite fun fact from the bridge's long history is that Charles IV is supposed to have laid its first stone on 5:31am on July 9, 1357. This might seem completely arbitrary, but the Holy Roman Emperor was a staunch believer in numerology and he'd been advised that the palindromic nature of this specific time (1357, 9/7, 5:31) would give the bridge additional strength. It may sound silly-- but it is still standing nearly 700 years later, so you tell me!