The Little Things In Life: Project WWWT Day 39 of 72

25th June 2017

Its a sunday! What do I do on Sundays? Attend a church service. Yes, even when we are travelling. I have searched online for a Baptist church to attend and I found out that there is an International Baptist Church in Prague and they have English service, yay! The church building is just like any typical building. The irony is that church building are no longer being attended by worshippers while worshippers worship in building that doesn't look anything like a church. Anyway, the sermon was about the Parable of the Wicked Servant. Very apt for Prague. The difference between the Prague out there and the Prague in the church is very stark. Outside, it seems dead spiritually with old empty church building and statues of dead saints and martyrs. Inside the church building, it is just the gathering of people who loved God.

Right after the service, we had tea time and we managed to meet two wonderful Prague lady who was in Prague for internship/summer job. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and the boys also found playmate at the church. Am thankful for the Christian family for rejuvenating our spiritual tank and providing a couple hours of sanctuary in the city. We are truly blessed.

We then make our way to the Prague Castle. There is a garden at the castle with free predatory bird display and a garden with a big fountain. You can also get a view of the St. Vitus Cathedral but the weather was not very cooperative while we are there, hence I give the garden view of the St. Vitus Cathedral a miss. Once you enter the main entrance, you will reach the Castle Square. Turn right to get your entrance ticket. If you proceeded through a tunnel, you will find the remnant of a St Mary's church on your right, a briefing area at the end of the tunnel and if you turn right and go up the staircase pass the ornamental bush, you will find the Garden Restaurant. We had our late lunch here. The food is outstanding and the price, a steal! I had a beef goulash, the kids had penne bolognese, the missus and MIL both had chicken fillet. All these plus a cafe latte for Kc1,000. Family travelling with kids, there is a steep drop off from the side of the restaurant. Although there is a column fence, kids small enough may slip through it.

We bought a basic entrance ticket knowing that we would not be able to cover so many places given the time we had for the day. We have a concert at 730PM so gotta make do with what we have. The first thing you see upon entrance to the Prague Castle compound is the front entrance of St. Vitus Cathedral. The basic ticket grants access to the cathedral. Plenty of paintings in the cathedral but the real gem is the stain glass window, but alas, during our visit, the main entrance is under maintenance.

We also get to access the Royal Palace but it does not looked too royal. Well, perhaps the Bohemian royals lived a very spartan life where the cathedral is way much bigger than their own palace. To be fair, we only get access to a minor part of the palace vi. the viewing deck, the coronation hall and an upper room where there are the gynealogy of the monarchs painted on the ceilings. There is also a small coutryard at the basement beside the royal palace where they conduct swordplays and allows children to make bracelets, have a hand at goldsmithery and medieval weaponries.

We then have ice cream at St. George's square and ended with a walk through the Golden Lane, which is really nothing much but a lane along the peasants housing that got its "golden" from the flowing of buckets upon buckets of urine along the lane after the weekend boozing. Do note that there is a wonderful view of Prague old town from the Castle's Bastion, so it is a must visit. Photographers, this will be another good location to take the view of the old town. Family travelling with strollers, the exit has no lift and you will have to carry the stroller down the staircase for the entire hill!

Once we are done with the Castle, we head back to the apartment for a short rest before we head out for a date night (Thanks to MIL for taking care of the kids) for a live orchestra concert! The performance hall was not as pretty as it looked, or so we imagined that it would be a beauty to behold years back. Naturally, we were thinking whether we were cheated. Our doubts quickly faded away with the awesome performance from the 5 piece orchestra. In between, a local female vocalist sang two songs and to say the least, both my wife and I felt that the price we paid is way too low for such standard. Not long after the lady sang, another guest violinist came and played two songs including The Four Seasons. The best part is that the concert allows for recording, or so it seems as I had my tripod and dSLR switched on for the entire concert. We had a ball that night and I bought the CDs sold by the musicians with the signature from the celoist. For the sake of the readers, I will share one of the videos taken of the performance but the file is too large, so I decided against it.

The concert lasted a good 63 minutes. Thereafter, the missus agree to accompany me to walk from the concert hall to the old town square for dinner and evening photos. We had a sausage from the road side stalls. It was really good! So good that we ended up buying another one to share. And then, yet another one! Try it out! We also intended to ascend the Old Town Clock Tower but it was under maintenance and will continue to be so until the end of this year.