Bob and I had a dilemma in booking our England trip. We were due in England two weekends in a row, with nothing to do during the week between them. What shall we do? Bob had a great idea - Prague!
So, I'm not sure how to organize this post. We spent 4 nights in Prague and saw a lot of stuff - but I really don't know what any of it is called. Bob didn't let me buy a guide book because he wanted it to be a relaxed/wander around/explore together kind of trip. Apparently I over plan and act like a know-it-all with guide books.
I think I'll start at the beginning . . .
Not only did Bob come up with the idea of going to Prague, he booked the flight and hotel. The flight was terrible because the company was ridiculous. Wizz Air, a division of Menzies Airlines. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. It was literally a free for all at the airport, no lines and a lot of pushing. Think Southwest but without the boarding groups. Just 100+ people trying to get on a plane, first come first served. And they overcharged for EVERYTHING. It ended up being the cost of a normal flight.
For what Bob lacked in flight booking skills he more than made up for in hotel choice. We were in the Sheraton, on the south border of Old Town. He booked us a king room that came with club lounge access, which was awesome. Free food, drinks and wifi all day! And the room was so much bigger than I ever imagined, I felt so fancy. Not to price drop but all of this was for $120 a night! Here is Bob hanging out in the lounge.
People were saying how Prague wasn't cheap anymore and things were getting expensive. Well, expensive to them was cheap to us. Beers were usually $1.50 - $2.00 and always cheaper than soda or water. Food was decent too, especially compared to Boston or England prices.
The beer. We really enjoyed trying the different varieties. You know how in America when you go to a restaurant and they will serve either Coke or Pepsi products but never both? That is how it is with beer in Prague so you have to watch the ads in the windows to see what kind of beer is available in each place.
Staropramen was our favorite beer brand and was recommended to us by my friend Emily who had studied abroad in Prague during college. We went to the brewery and did the tour, which was really sad. They obviously spent a lot of money doing up the tour and beer hall and we were the only ones on the English tour. It was kinda lame. We did love the beer though, the dark beer was the best! Actually, I liked the dark Kozel a lot too, here is a picture of that one and the neat restaurant we had it in.
At some places the beer was pumped directly into tanks from beer trucks. This was the sort of place that only served one kind of beer which was usually Pilsner Urquell. Then they would give you a card to keep a tally of how many beers your had. That way any server could come around and offer you a beer.
We made it to the most famous beer garden, which was just north of the river and on top of a hill. It had beautiful views of the city and we were glad to go in the evening to see Prague at night.
We also went to a more non-traditional beer garden area by the river. There were lots of old tour boats docked that had open patios selling beers and snacks. Along the waterfront there were also stands selling beer. The crowd was mostly local (we had heard about it from our bike tour guide) and we had a nice time sitting by the water and enjoying Prague's open container policy. It was a great place to watch the sunset on our last day.
I know what your thinking, "Geez Christina, did you do anything besides drink beer?". Yes, we actually did a lot. The beer was very filling and so I couldn't really have that much at one time. No light beers in Prague!
The first thing we did in Prague was go on a bike tour of the city. It was recommended to Bob by a work colleague. Prague isn't very bike friendly but it was a great tour that showed us everything we needed to visit on our trip. Good thing, since we didn't have a guide book.
Here we are in front of the Prague Castle and Charles Bridge, probably the two most famous spots.
We did walk along the Charles Bridge on our final day. It is a very beautiful and very old walking bridge (1300's) with lots of statues. I took way too many pictures of it, here are two.
We climbed the hill to the Petrin Observation Tower, which was modeled after the Eiffel Tower (and built by the same guy). We didn't want to wait in the long line for the tram up the hill, so we took the scenic route, walking up a lot of stairs only to arrive at the tower and walk up more stairs.
The views were beautiful and made it all worth it.
Then we got to walk down the hill toward the Prague Castle. Here is a view of the hill from the Castle.
Then we got to walk up a ton of stairs to get to the Castle. I took this picture from about 2/3rds the way up. My calves hurt for 5 days after this. Of course, all of the additional walking and stair climbing during the week didn't help.
Finally we made it to the castle. The St Vitus Cathedral was definitely the highlight. The castle holds working state buildings and is where the President lives.
The detailing on the cathedral was amazing. We saw so many beautiful buildings around Prague, it is a wonder why they have stood the test of time so well. I'll tell you why, 1. They don't have natural disasters, just the risk of flooding once every 50-100 years. and 2. They surrendered to Hitler so early in WWII that they weren't bombed. Hitler apparently thought the city was beautiful too and even decided to keep their Jewish Quarter intact as a future "museum".
We probably spent the most time around the Old Town Square, which had two very interesting Christian churches (one is pictured below) and a famous clock tower.
It is an astronomical clock that was installed in the 1400's. It has a little cuckoo element that goes off on the hour.
All of the history and beauty doesn't hide the fact that the Czech Republic was under communist rule until the early 90's. It was interesting to hear locals stories of communism and to learn that many citizens, especially the elderly, would like communism back. It is still so fresh in everyone's minds, it must be odd for them to have so many tourists running around their city.
Here is a picture of the Metronome that was built in the place of a huge statue of Stalin and is counting the minutes that they have been out of communist rule.
I was very happy to visit Prague. It was fun to go someplace new with Bob. It was a great place to explore and I'd recommend it to anyone!
