We touched down at Frankfurt, Germany at 9:00 am local time, passed through passport control, and preceded to our gate for the 11:45 am departure to Prague. The flight left on time and included a potato salad/meat/egg snack for the 1 hour flight, which landed on time at 12:45 pm. All of our flights were great and on time. Our guide, Theona, from Corporate Travel Services met us and provided general information about our tour. We had a brief wait for our luggage and everyone gathered for our transportation to the Hotel Astoria in old town Prague.
After checking into the hotel, we met Theona at 3:45 pm for a short orientation walking tour of the area, which took us to Old Town Square and Charles Bridge. Old Town Square was filled with people, entertainers, and food stalls with a fun-filled festive atmosphere for a Sunday afternoon. The gothic Týn Cathedral and baroque St. Nicholas church are located at Old Town Square as well as the Jan Hus bronze statue, the astronomical clock, and a baroque style building. This is a very large, open square. We then walked a short distance to the Gothic bridge tower for Charles Bridge, which is one of 20 bridges that span the Moldau in Prague. From the bridge there are very good views of the Prague Castle and the River Moldau. The bridge contains 16 arches with 30 baroque-style statues/statuaries of saints and patron saints that were added around 1700. Construction of the bridge was started in 1357 by Charles IV and completed in the early 15th century with several renovations occurring since that time. One of the more famous statues is of St. John of Nepomuk, who as a priest to King Wenceslaus’ wife was thrown from the bridge and drown by King Wenceslas when he refused to divulge the substance of the wife’s confessions.
At 6:45 pm we gathered for our group dinner, which occurred on the lower level of the municipal building in the restaurant Pilsen and consisted of a traditional Czech dinner – herb mushroom soup, goulash with dumplings, and crepes with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. All of the food was very good and we had a super time.
Old Town Square
Astronomical Clock
Roasting Pork
View Toward Tyn Cathedral and Old Town Square
On Charles Bridge
Moldau River
Dinner at Pilsen
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