Prague, Czech Republic and Dresden, Germany

This may be the longest post of all during my trip to Germany. It was a beautiful day and I visited two beautiful cities. The only pause from taking pictures was during the train ride from Prague to Dresden at some point in the afternoon.

This first picture was taken in the hotel I stayed at. As you can see the exit is down the stairs, so they have this little man running and an arrow for you to follow. I will state that I never once ran down those stairs. :(



Here's where the pictures from the day before seem to magically reappear as clearer images. :) I decided to take a similar route that I took the day before, since it had been a bad day to take pictures and this day was gorgeous.

Again...Here is the Prašná brána (Powder Tower) to the left of the Obecni dum II (Municipal House).



And the restaurant which is no longer viewable because I turned my camera up slightly higher. If you compare images you'll see what I mean!

First picture from yesterdays post, second of today.



And again as well, Old Town Square. The Jan Hus Monument is in the 4th picture.



And the Astronomical Clock..



Now it was time to cross the bride to Prague Castle again.

The Prague Metronome is in the center in the distance.



Two images of Prague Castle with slightly different lighting. :)



Straka Academy



A War Memorial



Steps up to the castle. I had my bike since I had to check out of my hotel, so I didn't climb up this way.



I followed a narrow road up instead.



Since it was a different way of going up, I found myelf slightly lost but continued going forward until I saw a gate. I guess I had found The Strahov Monastery.



And beside the Monastery, here is the Brewery and Restaurant St. Norbert, and the Muzeum Miniatur (Museum of Miniatures).



More views from the Monastery.



I started to walk towards Prague Castle now that I knew where I was.

Here is the Loreta (Loreto Palace).



Buildings along Loretánská.



The Former Hradcany Town Hall



The Svancenbersky palac (Schwarzenberg Palace)



The Šternberský Palác (National Gallery - Sternberg Palace)



Prague Castle



A view of the city.




I went back down the stairs..carefully since I had my bike. Here's an interesting bar/restaurant at the bottom.



More pictures of the area before I headed to Charles Bridge somewhat accidentally.



This is pretty much the entrance on the Prague Castle side to Charles Bridge. I hadn't come this way last time with the tour guide, we climbed some stairs nearby though. I'm glad I found this way so I didn't have to carry my bike up the stairs.



When I crossed the bridge I decided to get some pictures of Prague Castle from across the river.



A picture of the Charles IV Statue near the end of the Charles Bridge.



Týn (Church of Our Lady before Tyn)



I decided it would be a good idea to head to the train station at this point, so these next pictures were when I arrived in Dresden.

Upon arriving, I knew I had to find my way into the city to find an internet cafe so I knew where I was staying. I followed a road until I saw a festival to my left. After walking through that and checking out what people were selling, I continued forward. I was pretty close to some big buildings and what seemed like a town center, so I headed into them.

First I saw the Dresdner Rathausturm (Dresden Townhall Tower).



And then the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) and the surrounding area. This church was destroyed in World War II and the exterior reconstruction wasn't complete until 2004, a year before the interior was finished. Interesting to note that they used a lot of the same materials and tried to rebuild with skilled workers so that they'd be as close to the originals as possible.





And The Academy of Arts which houses the College of Fine Arts.



Then I saw the Fürstenzug (Procession of Princes), and decided to follow it down the street.



I was in awe as I came to a square with more interesting buildings. I saw to the right the Elbe River.



The Hofkirche (Church of the Court)



And the Hofkirche with the Residenzschloss (Dresden Castle) to the right.



Here is a statue of King John of Saxony in the Theaterplatz.



And then I made my way to the Zwinger Palace (the outer ward of a concentric castle).



Here are some pictures of one of the entrances to Zwinger Palace and the stairs going up to the second level.



Though everything was beautiful every direction I turned, I knew I had to find a place to stay before it got completely dark, so I finished taking pictures for the evening.