Budapest, day 8: on to Prague

Now we were really on our way home from Hungary. We left the same way we had come, but this time it was sunny instead of dumping rain, so we got to see a bit more even though we didn't leave the highway. However, as we drove through Slovakia, the clouds got darker and darker. Soon we were driving through a series of some of the heaviest cloudbursts I've ever encountered. Fields were flooded and rivers were almost up to their bridges.

This continued on an off until we neared Prague. Amazingly, they had very appropriate signs.

We'd booked a room at a Best Western on the outskirts of town. It was surprisingly cheap for a "four star" hotel. We'd stayed at a three star hotel in Dresden which was really nice, but this was more like a motel. That didn't matter, because we weren't there for long. We took a bus to the metro and into town.

We hopped off the metro briefly at the Museum district for a quick look around, then we took the subway the rest of the way to the river. We walked across the bridge and up the hill to the castle.

The view was incredible, but what really impressed was the gothic cathedral. I'm totally into gargoyles, and this cathedral had the best gargoyles I'd ever seen. There were all possible species: wolves, cats, wild boars, dragons, birds, and even humanoids. I'd love to go back and photograph them all.

We walked back across a different bridge in search of dinner, and ended up at the old town square where we had some absolutely wonderful goulash in bread bowls.

After dinner we walked until we were exhausted. The metro station wouldn't take Euros or plastic, so we eventually resorted to taking a cab back to the hotel.