Nic and Sue’s Euro River Cruise and some bits on the side. Autumn 2026. Day 2- Prague.

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Our hotel – Unitas has quite a compelling history dating back to the 18th century. The Church of St Bartholomew was commissioned to be built by the Jesuits, and included a monastery, library and 2 large gardens. It was sold to the town in 1773 and used for storage! Later it morphed into a concert hall hosting the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner and Antonin Dvorak.
In the 19th century it was restored and the Grey Sisters of the order of St Francis provided social services to the ill and disadvantaged.
Following the end of WWII the Prague uprising erupted and a building next door operated as headquarters to the Czechoslovakian resistance – coordinating battles against Nazi occupiers. In 1948 the Grey Sisters were forcibly loaded into vans and off to detention camps by the Communist Party’s State Secret Police and the church became a shooting range.
It’s been a prison where interrogations of adversaries of the Communist regime were conducted including Vaclav Havel (who became the first President of independent Czech Republic.)
After the 1990 revolution the building was returned in poor state to the Grey Sisters, who operated accommodation to assist in paying for restoration.
In 1992, the now, King Charles paid a visit and provided funds to assist reconstruction. By 1998 it was brought back to original state and continued to operate as Pension Unitas until it opened as a hotel (following yet MORE renos in 2008)
Continuing its good work the hotel offered shelter to a few dozen Ukrainian women and children in March 2022, amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine.

We both had a well needed good sleep, despite the noisy folk from the bars in the street below.

We received the final itinerary for our River Cruise overnight and have opted to defer our cruise till 2027. More on Plan B to fill that time as we go.

Off to breaky (which was pretty magnificent) and out for our day of things to see.

We negotiated tram 22 across the river to Lesser Town, right at the other end of the Charles Bridge.

Arriving early, we had time to wander a bit before meeting Matyas our guide for the Prague: Old Town, Astronomical Clock and Underground Tour.

We were a group of 8 for the first bit crossing the Charles Bridge…Matyas had lots of facts and figures and interesting stories that might come back to me as I review my pics. The Charles Bridge started construction in 1357. Unfortunately King Charles who commissioned it died prior to the completion of his bridge in 1402.

Another couple from Puerto Rico joined us at the other end of the bridge then we spent time around the Old Town and Jewish Quarter and saw several synagogues. It was here that the Jews of Prague gathered and lived. The oldest Synagogue, known as the Old synagogue was built in the 12th century. Next door was the Tall synagogue with no ground floor access. For safety and security, access was on the first floor via a neighbouring building and only the Rabbi’s held the key. Another newer synagogue was open and it was sobering to see airport type security scanners through which those entering had to pass.

… and finally onto the Astronomical Clock, the final stop with Matyas – the oldest clock in the world built in 1410. Matyas explained the workings of the clock and how to read the time (quite complex!) There was a wedding here today and there were cars and well dressed folk everywhere.

Matyas described a few things about The Czech Republic/Prague – It’s the 7th safest country in the world (though pickpockets are still a thing.)
The language is one of the hardest to learn and pronunciation is even more challenging. They have to learn it in school so he reckons tourists have no chance.

So many saints and priests and conflicts throughout its history.

We left Matyas when he handed us over to the Ellen and Petr our Town Hall guides, we then got a full run down and tour of the history of the Town Hall. We spent time in the 24th century Gothic Chapel of the Virgin Mary, much of which had been destroyed in a fire in May 1945. The chapel had a richly decorated bay window, an ornate altar, magnificent ceiling and new stained glass. We also got to see the back room of the wooden Apostles which parade on the hour for a mere 45 seconds as part of the Astronomical Clock display and a little of the mechanism behind the clock. (We watched them roll around during the 9:00pm show and were quite underwhelmed,)

We then moved through the Old and varied Town Hall rooms above ground. The most notable is the Council Hall, dating from the second half of the 15th century, with its wood-beamed ceiling and Renaissance-style painted panels.

In Jiřík Hall, we admired two huge 15th-century wall paintings.

The Brožík Hall is two floors high and was the City Assembly’s main meeting room.

The final room was super ornate and filled with gold decorations, and coats of arms lining the walls.

We then descended into the labyrinthine 12 century underground chambers. These used to be at ground level, now sit 4 metres below (due to regular flooding the city was raised by four to seven metres and the ground level became cellars)

The Town Hall’s underground once served as a city prison and still contains the original medieval street at its former ground level.

The Old Town Hall is an icon of the Czech Republic, a protected national cultural monument, and part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing in Prague. As the oldest institution of Czech self-government, it’s a key symbol of Prague’s history,
It was a fascinating tour. My mind can’t really grasp the age of things and how these bridges and buildings have survived the test of time, ravaged by fires, floods and time itself. Prague was saved from widespread destruction by the Nazi’s as they commandeered the city and used its buildings for their own means during the war.

The guided tour ended with the underground but our tickets provided entry to the Town Hall Tower. The Gothic tower, completed in 1364, stands 69.5 metres high and we had magnificent 360-degree views of the Old Town Square and the iconic red roofs of the Old Town. Thankfully there was a modern elevator we could take instead of a big ramp that went on forever, plus a set of steps at the end. The view was A-MAZE-ING.
The views from 69.5m above Prague Town Square are hard to describe and I’m sure the pictures won’t do it justice either.

By this time (after 1:30) we were fanging for something to eat and found a nice vegetarian restaurant (Maitrea restaurace) across the square and down a lane or two – a tasty lasagna and a specialty lemonade (with star anise and passionfruit) hit the spot.

Then we moseyed around the Old Town for a bit and headed back to Hotel Unitas for a spell.

On the way back to Hotel we stopped off to view the Franz Kafka Rotating Head Sculpture.

We spent some time kicking off some arrangements for Plan B – booking a flight and accommodation to get us from Budapest to Edinburgh in place of the River Cruise.
Our evening took in a Cruise on the Vltava river – early arrival allowed us to jump on the 7pm departure and we lucked both sunset colours and the lights of the city. A beautiful opportunity for different views of the city.

A Bolt (Uber equivalent) trip back to the square for a dinner below the Astronomical Clock to see the Apostles appear at 9:00 ( the underwhelming part of the clock!) My burger and chips was very tasty.

Home to bed after another jam packed day checking out this history filled stunning city.