Peacocks in Prague
Prague has been on our must see list for a while. Everyone we talked to said it is an amazing city that we had to check out.
We were exhausted but really excited to see this historic and architecturally renowned city. We met the Airbnb owner at the apartment and he handed us the keys after showing us around. It was without a doubt the nicest apartment we've stayed in so far.
Sunny balcony.
View from our apartment balcony.
We took a quick nap before heading out to grab some food. Luckily one of the best places we found to eat was just around the corner - we went back several times.
The next day we awoke to bright, sunny skies and made our way to the Alfons Mucha museum. Mucha is hands down Collin's favorite artist. We were thrilled to be able to visit a museum dedicated to his art nouveau pieces. What's fascinating about Mucha is that much of his work was actually promotional advertising for events or shows.
It was incredible. We weren't able to take pictures inside but snapped a few outside of the beautiful display windows.
We walked to Old Town and made it just in time to see the famous astronomical clock when it struck 1 o'clock. It was first installed in 1410 and is the third oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still in working order.
We continued our walk along the cobbled streets to Charles Bridge.
It crosses the Vltava River and boasts some great views of the castle and quintessential Prague buildings.
The construction of the bridge began in 1357 under King Charles IV and was finished in the beginning of the 15th century.
Walking along the other banks of the river we got a little turned around but luckily found a secret garden complete with peacocks. Peacocks in Prague!
A little further down we found a group of swans hanging out on the river and were treated to some amazing views of Charles Bridge.
The next day we made our way to the famous Prague Castle. As we were about to enter the courtyard they had a changing of the guards which was a pretty neat thing to see.
We bought our tickets and decided which parts of the vast castle we wanted to see. We chose to start at St. Vitus Cathedral which was our favorite part of the castle grounds by far.
Inside, outside, from every angle the cathedral amazes with its size and presence.
The stained glass windows poured in sunshine and cast some amazing colors on the floors below.
Another breathtaking church on the castle grounds was St. George's Basilica which was so different from St. Vitus but was amazing in its own right.
Cold stone surrounded you with dark beams above and gave a very ethereal vibe.
Our favorite part of our time in Prague was definitely seeing Alfons Mucha's Slav Epic. The epic consists of 20 large canvases painted between 1910 and 1928 depicting the mythology and history of Czech and Slavic people. I cannot even begin to describe you how massive the canvases are as you are standing below them. The largest one boasts artwork spanning 19 feet by 26 feet (6 meters by 8 meters).
We spent a good amount of time staring at each canvas to really immerse ourselves in the enormity of his talent.
We purchased a pamphlet before making our way around the large room so that we could read a bit about each one - highly recommend.
We were so incredible lucky that we were in Prague that week as the Slav Epic tours around and was only in Prague a short time before moving onto its next temporary home.
If you ever happen to be in the same city as the Slav Epic please go. It's so worth it. Prague was a great city and hopefully we can visit again with more time.
