Travelog for: Honeymooners

To avoid the tourists we took a shortcut through Clementinum which is a national library founded in 1781 on a place of a former monastery and a university. There is also a meteorological observatory and the weather recording there started in 1775 and provides thus a comparison of weather development over more than 200 years.

After quite and exhaustive walk we have finally reached the Charles Bridge a symbol of Prague and its very valuable monument. The beginning of its construction was carefully planned by royal alchymists who predicted that the most favorable would be to lay the corner stone on 1357 9th July at 5:31 a.m. (divine sequence of odd numbers in ascending and descending order 135797531). The bridge is 621 meters long and nearly 10 meters wide, resting on 16 arches shielded by ice guards. It is protected by three bridge towers. The Old Town bridge tower is often considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic-style buildings in the world. The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues originally erected around 1700.

Our first day sightseeing was finished in Kampa a lovely area between Vltava and Devil's Stream (Čertovka), a waterway dug to power water mills. It is supposedly to be named after a sharp-tongued woman who lived in a local home called the Seven Devils. Even today we can admire a beautiful watermill from the 12th century. Kampa island i salso home to a Museum of modern art announced by massive bronze statues of babies that were sculpted by David Cerny a well known Czech artist.

Next day was announced as a sunny one so we continued our tour de Prague. We walked through a parc admiring the views when suddenly we saw an Eiffel tower. We thought that it was some sort of a teleport that took us to Paris but our host told us that it was not an Eiffel tower but a look out tower on Petrin a 60 metre high steel tower built in 1891. Although it is much shorter than the Eiffel Tower, it stands atop a sizable hill, Petřín, so the top is actually at a higher altitude than that of the Eiffel Tower.

We then continued to the Strahov monastery founded in 1149 The monastery is often visited because of its historical library with more than 200.000 old boks and manuscripts. There is a beautiful view of the Prague panorama that we admired as well.

There are really many beautiful buildings in Prague. Another one that took our breath away was the Prague Loreta church a beautiful baroque edifice from the 17th century.  It is an important place of pilgrimage and a house of a Loreta treasure an large collection of lithurgical object of innimaginable value. It i salso famous for its chime bells that are used instead of classic church bells.

Finally we have reached the Prague castle whose panorama we saw yesterday from the riverside. The impressive castle founded in the 9th century is the largest medivela castle in the world with 570metres of length and 128 of width. It was a crowning place of Czech kings and it is now a seat of the Czech president and a house of Czech crown jewels. In the heart of the complex there is a St. Vitus cathedral that contains the tombs of many Czech kings and it is also the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. The chapel of St. Wenceslas a Czech patron saint contains not only his relics but also the most valuable treasure of the entire nation – the crown jewels.

To také a little break from all the walking we went to the Wallenstein gardens that belong to the Wallenstein palace (a seat of the Senate). Beatiful peaceful French garden architecture was meant to rival the Prague castle and we have to admit that it must have really threaten the empreror. No wonder Wallenstein was assasinated on the order of the Emperor ion 1634.

Last gothic jewel of our visit – a church of St. Nicolas built in the baroque style. The green copper roof and the bell tower are distinct marks on Prague panorama.

We are back to Paris. Today my host took us to visit the symbol of the city - the Eiffel tower. We went with friends who have a passion for photography so we got some really nice pictures.

To get some more of the nice pictures we returned to the Arc of the Triomphe and once more we could admire its beaty and majesty.

Today we visited the famous Notre Dame de Paris a place of a love story of a gypsy names Esmeralda and a Hunchback. A famous novel of Victor Hugo was then turned into a Disney movie. We have to admit that love was omnipresent at this magic place

As it was a nice sunny day we decided to visit Chateau de Vincennes a medieval fortress just at the gate of Paris (Ms Honeymoon wanted to go to the beach so she was upset for a moment) . We admired not only the fortified tower protecting the French capital but also a beautiful gothic cathedral that witnessed the faith people had in the old days.

In the afternoon we visited the Louvre one of the biggest art galleries of the world. It is also a former royal residence. However, people remember it mainly because of the original Mona Lisa and the glass pyramid that was also a principal point in the novel of Dan Brown - Da Vinci Code

In the evening we visited the famous Montmartre with its big white basilique that is visible from all over Paris as it stands on the only hill in the city.

Montmartre is a district of artists and prostitutes. No wonder it is a place with many night clubs and cabarets the most famous being the Moulin Rouge.

I wanted to go in to see the girls, but Ms Honeymoon said I couldnt. At first I was upset but then I told myself that maybe once the honeymoon will be over, I could return there just myself.