For our last full day in Prague, we went out to visit the Karlštejn Castle, which was created under King Charles IV. It was where he lived and was also used as storage for the Crown Jewels. It includes many large portraits of kings and other family members of the royal family. Getting there was a bit of hike! We took the metro for a few stops and then hopped on a two-story train for thirty minutes. After arriving in Karlštejn, we walked for about forty minutes to get up the very long hill. While putting a castle on a hill is helpful for look-out and defense, it makes tourism much harder!
After the tour, we headed back to the train station and quickly regained ourselves at our hotel. If there is one innovation, idea, or program that I think the United States could borrow from the Czech Republic, it’s how to actually design public transportation. During our time in Prague, I think I’ve used almost every single form of public transport I can imagine, and with all these different modes, we’ve managed to get through the city, suburbs, and rural areas. Back in the United States, the public transport isn’t nearly as clean, well-organized, or timely. For example, I can’t even get out of my neighborhood without a car. It’s impossible to bike or walk in my area and NO public transport exists. Even if I were to get out of my neighborhood, the public transportation nearby wouldn’t be able to take me to my job because that entire town/city ALSO has no form of public transport. I don’t even live in a very rural area. I live in the suburbs.
Anyway.
With our last day, we had a decent bit of shopping to get done before we had to run back to the hotel to get ready for our last dinner. For the final dinner, we went for a cruise on the Vltava River, where we had many different Czech and non-Czech options to choose from. The view on the boat was beautiful, but it was quite cold out on the river. No matter, it was a fun and gorgeous last night in Prague!
With the cruise finishing at about 10 PM, we ran back to the hotel, switched into our ultra-tourism “I heart Prague” shirts, walked near the Astronomical Clock, took some group pictures, and rushed back to get to bed for our early flights the next day.
Swanson School of Engineering 