Day 15: Prague - Petrîn Hill

Petrîn Hill is about 300m. high and earlier in the day I remember asking Chis how big of a hill that would be. I don't remember his response but after the long, hot, 927-step (approx) hike, we both knew it was high and/or steep. I had this false thought we'd be able to get to the top and see forever without actually going up the lookout tower. But it didn't work out that way and after the huge hike (most people took the bus apparently) we felt it would be a waste not to go up the tower for the full 360 view of the city. So, like tourists, we doled out some crowns to take the lift to the top observation deck. Of course without a panoramic lens it's hard to capture, but a magnificent sight.

From Petrîn we hiked down to Strahov Monastery in the Hradčany neighborhood which has an amazing library and some other weird stuff. It's the largest monastic (not sure what that adjective means in the context of libraries?) library in the country housed in 2 massive baroque halls. The halls themselves are beautiful and rows upon rows of old books line the walls.

Outside in the corridors are Cabinets of Curiosities - glass cabinets full of interesting and strange things that explorers/sailors found and brought back to Europe as examples of sea monsters and crazy species. Typical things like shells and insects and skeletons, and also "crazy" things like whale penises and armadillos.

There's also a large collection of old (and probably very valuable) books in their original bindings unique to the era and location. It was amazing to see 15th century handwritten personal bibles, in beautiful gilded handwriting with illustrations. I can't imagine hand-copying massive texts; I can't even write in cursive...