Palace of Versailles - Paris

Thursday morning we decided to head to Versailles.  It was initially built as a country estate, but as the city has grown, is now part of the suburbs of Paris (20km from the city center).  Since we were staying in the city, even taking the higher speed suburban trains with less stops, it took us almost an hour to get there.

The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution.  Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the ancient regime.

Even walking up to the gates of the palace, you could see the gold plated gates and the sheer size (which you can't really see until you're in the gardens), just screams opulence.  It's amazing to think that people actually lived this extravagantly and it's easy to see how starving people in the streets would have cause to rebel.

The theme of the day : Brady screaming almost nonstop.  This is him screaming in line to get in.

Happy for a few moments to run around since strollers weren't allowed inside.

The chapel

The amazing inside of the chapel.

More inside the chapel.

Every room had amazing painted murals.  They were simply beautiful!

The screamer.  At one point a German tourist offered us candy in hopes of getting him to calm down.  It didn't work.  I think the combination of getting up early, taking so long to get there, and his loss of freedom being carried was too much.  I figured he might wear himself out, but the screaming continued until we made it outside, with a few moments in between screams.

Entering the Hall of Mirrors.

A rare moment that was scream-free.

The runny nose tells it all.

A view down to the gardens below.

Finally free and happy.

The gardens went on forever.  Andy laughed and said if we were here without a child, we could spend all day strolling them.  It started to rain at this point, so we headed back to the train station for the hour long ride back to our hotel for nap time.

Prague Castle

While we were in Prague, we had a chance to visit another of the top 25 European Castles, Prague Castle.  Unlike most of the other castles, it's not so much a single palace, as it's a complex of palaces, churches, and other buildings.  It's in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest coherent castle complex in the world, with an area of almost 70,000 square meters.  Prague Castle was the home of Kings of Bohemia, Holy Roman Emperors, and more recently contained the offices of the presidents of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.

We made this our destination for the morning of our second day in Prague.  We had bought cards that would get us into most of the attractions in the city for free and Prague Castle was one of them.  It got us into the most important buildings in the complex.

A look back at the stairs that had led us up to the castle.

The view once we reached the top.

As luck would have it, we got to the gates just at the top of the hour, so we were able to witness the changing of the guards.

The biggest attraction at Prague Castle is St. Vitus Cathedral.  It's simply massive and beautiful from every side (more pictures below).

What we saw inside the cathedral.  It's the biggest and most important church in the whole country.  It saw the coronation of many of the Bohemian kings, and contains the tombs of most of the Bohemian kings and some of the Holy Roman Emperors.

Once we were done at St. Vitus Cathedral, we headed to the Old Royal Palace.

Family crests covered the walls and ceilings.

The throne room.

The Czech crown jewels.

Next up was St. George's Basilica.  It's the oldest surviving church within Prague Castle, as it was created in 920.

The final stop was the Golden Lane, where they had glass inside the buildings and you could look and see what they looked like back in the medieval times.

We decided to leave through the opposite gates from where we entered and passed through a large courtyard.

The front gates.

Andy liked that the statues were a little out of ordinary.

You can see St. Vitus Cathedral from well outside the main gates.