Investing in SG and US Markets: Prague

We woke up to beautiful bird chirpings in the morning. The wonderful feeling of the morning sunshine into our room was terrific! After our breakfast and check-out, we again traveled to Hauptbahnhoff to catch a bus ride into the capital of Czech Republic - Prague. The journey took about 4 hours and before we knew it, we were already in Prague called Praha Hlavni Nadrazi (their bus/train/subway station). It was under renovation that time and we spent a bit of time searching for an entrance. From there, we took a tram to Prague old town where our accommodation was…. And spent a good half an hour searching the same place for our hotel since the entrance is so small! However, the big and spacious room the owner prepared for us made up for the difficulty in the hotel itself, especially we were staying for 2 nights!

Charles Bridge

Vltava River is right under Charles Bridge

A random street in Prague

Everywhere we can see cathedral like this one in the background

Prague is my wife’s favourite destination. It has plenty to see - Prague Castle, romantic Charles Bridge and night cruise along the river. It was also the cheapest place in Europe. Just to clarify, things in Prague weren’t cheap because everything was in Euro but Prague had the same items at the lowest prices compared to the other parts of Europe that we have been.

By the time we checked into our hotel, it was already past lunch time. So we had a quick lunch at this Chinese cuisine restaurant that served buffet. The meal was ok and satisfied us the craving of wanting to eat something Asian.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Prague Old Town and Charles Bridge. Prague Old Town is very lively and probably one of the more crowded places in Europe. The area we were in looks completely made for tourism, unlike some other places where they are also the centres of commercial activities. There were many statues along the sides of Charles Bridge and apparently, I found out from the Internet the statues were actually replicas. The genuine ones are stored in a museum. There were also many vendors that tried to sell their crafts on the bridge as well. Overall, the feel on the bridge is quite romantic, especially at night where we overlooked the river.

As the sun began to set, its rays pierced through the clouds

Charles Bridge at night

Night scenery from Charles Bridge

Prague Castle at the top of the hill - serene and beautiful

After we spent a romantic walk on Charles Bridge and its surrounding town area, we decided to go for a nice dinner.

Nothing beat having beer on a cold night

Duck confit that my wife enjoyed

Pork knuckle (again???) - Nicely spiced and brought out the flavour that linger in the mouth

Our 2^nd day in Prague, we had planned to explore Prague Castle. Our hotel had given us breakfast voucher for use at the café across the road. Prague Castle was quite a walking distance from our hotel and we totally enjoyed our walk there in the cool weather.

On the way up to Prague Castle

Looking down....

There is a tower on the other side of the hill - took this by zooming in my camera

I find this building very unique in design

A generous view of Prague city

Prague Castle felt more like a fortress than a castle. It is located at the top of a hill, surrounded by defensive walls and house the government building (still in use today), a large cathedral, several civilian’s houses and some other buildings that we did not explore. Tourists like us would need to purchase tickets in order to enter these attractions. The castle also offers a fantastic view of Prague from above.

Inside the cathedral

Star-shaped decoration in the cathedral

A sculpture of Jesus' crucifixion

A street within the Prague Castle

This is actually somebody's bedroom long time back.

Various armour wore by the soldiers on display

We almost spent our entire afternoon at Prague Castle. We left around 4PM and proceeded to our next destination, pier. We had purchased tickets for a 3 hour night cruise, dinner inclusive, along Prague river. As we arrived early, we had the luxury to sit around the pier and enjoy a relaxing afternoon. And oh… We caught a glimpse of the rainbow!

I did say a "glimpse" right?

Along the river, someone placed this row of golden penguins

Night view along the river

Another bridge. We actually passed by a few other bridges along the river

Prague Castle from the river

Back to where we started the cruise, see the penguins?

Our final morning in Prague, we decided to spend our time at Old Town Square. We were kind of just roaming around and very coincidentally, we reached the famous Astronomical Clock at noon, just in time to catch the performance!