Prague and Germany… again

After spending four hours on a bus, we were excited to be in Prague and not on a bus.  Our established routine of checking into the hostel and buying groceries was performed and dinner was pasta, again.
In the morning we tried to buy train tickets at the train station but it was wicked expensive and we went back to the hostel to use the trusty internet to find better prices.  Turns out train tickets in the Czech Republic are not available online less than two days ahead of time.  So we bought another pair of crappy bus tickets.

With that settled, we headed to downtown Prague for some sightseeing.  Old town square was full of tourist groups congregating around the famous sights; the astronomical clock, the Church tower, and the town hall.  Charles bridge, the oldest bridge in Prague, was a pedestrian bridge only and lined with artists selling their paintings and jewelry.

On the other side of the bridge was Prague castle, Europe's largest castle complex (whatever that means).  The church in the middle of the complex had vibrant colorful stained glass that lit up the interior with bright reds and purples and blue.  Somewhere in the castle complex St. Wencelslas is buried and although we didn't definitely find it, we were close.  After our big day out it was back to the hostel for another dinner of pasta.

On our second full day in Prague we did laundry.  Very exciting.  In the afternoon we headed to Vysehrad, a hill fort on the southern side of town with views of the city.  It was cold and windy, but had great views and was relaxing to walk around.  To celebrate our last meal in Prague, we ate out for dinner.  U Medviku was suggested to us and was a great microbrew with excellent food.  I had a barley mushroom bake and Andy had pork potato dumplings and both meals were complemented by Budvar beer.

The next morning we caught a deluxe bus to Berlin and were served water and snacks while on the bus along with extra leg room.  Not as nice as a train but better than before.  Unfortunately the water and snacks could not make up for the fact that we were stuck in two hours of traffic and thus late arriving into Berlin.  Since this was our only night in the city, we went sightseeing in the dark.  Luckily Berlin was having a festival of lights and lots of buildings had fantastic light designs shone upon them.

In the morning we caught the slow cheap train to Hamburg and did nothing more than hang out in the hostel and eat out at a falafel place.  We were preparing for our flight to Helsinki the next day.