My last day to explore Prague…
I checked out of the hotel at around 0800 (sunrise) and left my luggage at the hotel.
I walked to Charles Bridge first to take photos since the only other time I visited I didn’t make it across the bridge before I lost light.
I walked to the Astronomical Clock and saw the 12 apostles move at 0900.
I took some more photos of the Astronomical Clock tower and the Tyn church. The church was only open between 1030 and 1200 on Sundays (closed on Mondays)…..
I took the metro to the National Museum (this opens at 1000, I arrived at around 0950 and was shocked to see such a long queue before it opened. The museum is free and they only allow about 300 people in at a time (they are worried about it’s structural integrity). I was able to get into the museum at about 1030. The building was beautiful. I wish I had a little more time to explore, but I needed to get back to the Tyn church by 1200.
I left the National Museum and walked back to the Tyn church (my 24 hour metro ticket expired at this point) at about 11:20. I arrived at about 11:40 which gave me 20 minutes to see the church on the inside. Unfortunately the church does not allow photos inside.
I went back into the Old Town Hall building to the second floor where they had pictures of the recent restoration…. it was remarkable how much cleaner the clock tower is now compared to before. They only recently finished the restoration works for the 100 year anniversary of the Czech Republic…
From here I got a one-way metro ticket to go to the Strahov Monastery. I first visited the library…unfortunately you can’t walk inside among the books.
I then went inside the Strahov picture gallery. They had quite a bit of old religious paintings, some of saints I have never heard of before. There were a couple of really nice rooms I explored inside the Monastery.
From here I walked downhill back to my hotel to retrieve my bags and catch an Uber to the airport. I wanted to make sure I arrived early enough as I wasn’t quite sure if I would need to go through immigration. After I arrived at the airport and checked in I had a meal and went to the lounge…. At the time when I was about to go to my gate the information board said my flight was delayed…. the person at the counter told me the plane was still in Munich, so I stayed in the lounge and waited for the update.
The flight was operated by Air Dolomiti…. some of the passengers were Italian. I could tell because as soon as the flight landed (and I mean still on the runway, not even to the taxiiway) some of these crazy people were already out of their seats trying to rush the door. I know they wanted to catch their connecting flight, but doing something like that could get you delayed even further. The flight attended instructed them to return to their seats, and eventually they did, but it took a lot of convincing.
Of course the plane parked at the furthest gate. I thought for sure my bag would be out by the time I reached the baggage claim, but I had to wait for it as well. Eventually I walked to the rental car facility. They gave me a nice Citroen diesel SUV – with a manual gearbox.
I drove to my hotel – Marriott Airport Hotel. They have almost no parking so I parked in an underground garage which connects to the hotel.
