Prague

May 24th-27th, 2019

To start our adventure, we boarded with LOT Airlines out of Chicago (O’Hare) and enjoyed a pleasant evening flight by way of Warsaw, Poland to arrive in Prague late Friday afternoon. Our experience with LOT was extremely positive –  polite/professional staff, updated aircraft (including a fresh rose in the restroom), decent inflight food/drink, and very accommodating for our little guy. As we cruised through the city on our way to our VRBO, I could immediately identify the blended mixture of Renaissance, Gothic, Romanesque, etc. architecture peppered throughout the city and the waterfront felt similar to France’s Seine River. Prague is the largest city by population in the Czech Republic (estimated population of 1.2 million), and occupies ~115 square miles. We got settled into our VRBO and enjoyed a toast to a good trip ahead with the rest of the family on the rooftop of our rental property! Not a bad home base for a few days 🙂 The rest of the evening was spent leisurely roaming through the main Market Squares – taking in the various acts of street performers, diving right into some goulash for dinner, and a nice walk to the Vltava River. Throughout the evening, we also fell in love with the breathtaking views of the famous Astronomical Clock (third oldest clock in the world, and it’s still functional – the interior of thisOld Town Hall has gorgeous mosaic tile embedded in the ceilings), Church of Our Lady Before Týn (interesting fact that distinguishes it’s Gothic architecture from others: it’s non-symmetrical spires are meant to represent femininity and masculinity), and St. Nicholas’ Church (love, love, love the chandler in here that was sparkling beautifully as we popped in from the dark evening sky). Throughout our short first evening in the city (albeit a Friday night) I was blown away by the number of Stag (bachelor) parties we encountered. Perhaps the funniest part of this tradition is that all the groups had the groom-to-be dressed as a woman and were themed as a group (e.g. spotted Snow White with a group a dwarfs, Princess Peach and a collection of Mario characters, etc.). Looks like a fun city to celebrate in, especially with the ever prevalent “Beer Spas” around town!

 

Knowing it would take a little time to adjust to local time, we made a reservation at a top rated rooftop in town for brunch to kick off our first full day in town. Terasa U Prince did not disappoint – views and food were perfect, and a really relaxing way for us to all catch up as family! I enjoyed a Hugo Spritz with this meal, which may be my new favorite European drink (I’ll stick to pairing this with a meal and save the signature Aperol Spritz to sip on standalone with it’s bolder flavors). As we wrapped up brunch, some threating clouds blew into town, so we decided to pop into a local wine festivallocated in the New Town Hall (although the weather never got truly disruptive to the day, I’m so glad we elected this activity). We perused the various rooms of the New Town Hall at Charles Square – all with their own unique charm – and, had a blast meeting various locals and wine makers (learned this was the biggest wine festival in the Capital). While I wasn’t particularly a fan of the red wines produce in the region, the cider game was strong (especially enjoyed UTOPIA, a pure choice now being distributed in Manhattan – their first venture into the US). As we wound down our tastings, we popped outside to the square and took in the music and outdoor vendors…including devouring a collection of little filled dumplings and sausage while we soaked up the sunshine that had emerged.  As we neared the end of our snacking, my husband surprised my sister-in-law and me with t-shirts that read “Praha pije vino” (“Prague Drinks Wine”) – we were so excited for this treasured souvenir to remember this fulfilled afternoon (and, appreciate Bryan’s charismatic personality to win over the locals working the event to negotiate this sale. We previously attempted to purchase these, but were directed to another table were a different t-shirt design was sold, and were told the shirts we wanted were only for the employees. ). After a quick refresh at our rental property, we decided to try the local microbrewery/restaurant just a block away from our VRBO that our driver had recommended on the way in – Pivovarský dům. Holy cow…what a meal! This place brewed some great beers (since it’s opening in 1998, they routinely have at least 8 different beers to offer) and the food was phenomenal (talk about some seriously authentic meals). Walter and I inhaled our heaping plate of pork stuffed dumplings covered in kraut, and everyone definitely made sure they had full bellies for a good night’s sleep in preparation for our early morning bike tour the next day. Bryan even gave the Nettle beer a sample – herb beer, a better green alternative to green Miller Lite on St. Patrick’s Day 😉  

 

To kick off our final full day in Prague, we opted for a 4 hour bike tour to get a full sense of the city. Since it kicked off at 10AM, and we had to get checked in a little before 10AM we chose to Uber over to the meeting point early and find a spot for breakfast. As we arrived, we found ourselves immediately next to the U.S. Embassy, which even required a quick vehicle inspection in our Uber when approaching the area. Lovely neighborhood, and found a welcoming hotel that’s courtyard called our name – Alchymist Grand Hotel & Spa. Not only was its old world charm and décor beautiful, this property ended up providing us the perfect breakfast buffet (I especially enjoyed their crapes, fresh butter and spreads, and collection of dried fruit) to fuel up for our ride. One other interesting observation here was some cobblestone repair outside the hotel. Throughout the city we’ve seen a variety of sizes of cobblestone, ranging from small 1″x1″ squares, to rather large bricks closer to ~6″x6″. As we walked in for breakfast there was an area of the street dug up, and four hours later when we returned to the area the cobblestone appeared perfect and all debris/construction fencing/equipment, etc. had vanished. In general, Prague has been immaculate, so this didn’t largely surprise me…however, my conclusion is the city really emphasizes the importance of maintaining their community (very admirable) or cobblestone repair is actually pretty efficient (can narrow in on small sections at a time). Anyhow, I digress…  SO, the eBike Tour!  Awesome. I highly recommend checking out IlikeeBikes if you have the opportunity in Prague. These powered bikes made it possible to cover (~15 miles) a lot of ground (and some otherwise aggressive hills) in a relatively brief amount of time and were also able to accommodate children (infant bike seat, so we could take Walt along for the adventure). Our tour guide Charles was full of energy, and the views on our beautiful blue sky day were just spectacular. Some of the mains sights included:

·         Petřín Hill/Park/Prague “Eiffel Tower”/Prague funicular – as we turned off the road, and lead toward the park we were blown away by our first broad view of the city from an incredible vantage point.  This area was so pretty, and as we continued to climb (alongside the funicular) up the winding trails I loved one of the lookout points along the way – equipped with a little café (feels like the perfect place to go sip a morning coffee).

·         The Prague Castle – there was even official business occurring as we passed, so we quickly got to witness a formal ceremony conducted by the guards and musical procession. We also learned the Prague castle is actually in the Guinness Book for World Records, as the largest castle in the world – covering 18 acres. Across the square, Bryan also noticed a formal building with a large letter “S” and deemed it our family’s headquarters 😉

·         Strahov Monastery – Additionally, we learned that given the challenging history of the country, a lot of individuals sadly lost their trust in faith. In the most recent census, ~48% of the population did not disclose a religion and many of the stunning religious buildings within the city sit vacant.

·         One misc item pointed out, was a building that had windows painted on (see photo of Bryan & Walt below with this in the background) – we learned this was due to windows being the driver of property taxes.

·         Kafka Museum  – dedicated to Author Franz Kafka, and houses several first edition Kafka books, letters, diaries, etc.

·         Letna Park & giant metronome – nice ambience, full of locals relaxing with family, friends, and dogs. Here we enjoyed a brief stop for a casual bite in the beer garden/park under a collection of trees which provided the perfect shade as we took in the views.

·         The State Opera – the striking German architecture and staircase offers a nice addition to the square it sits within; would have loved to caught a peek inside!

·         Ginger & Fred/Dancing House – modern, twisted building coined for the legendary dance duo (Ginger Rogers & Fred Astair).

·         Lennon Wall – routinely repainted white, for visitors to continue to contribute to the HUGE graffiti wall intended for making calls for peace elsewhere in the world.

·         Žižkov Television Tower (from afar) – “high tech” architecture construed in the 1980’s (and even has some of the giant baby statues noted below incorporated within the structure).

·         Various statues – giant babies, yellow penguins, etc.

 

Following our bike fun, we didn’t venture too far before a stop at a local Café to refresh. Balcone’s was the perfect spot to relax on the street corner and unwind from our invigorating bike adventure. The staff were friendly, and our waitress was especially sweet to Walter. She asked to bring him a cookie, and he loved making it disappear quickly (You can read more about Walter’s take on the Old World here)! In addition to trying a fabulous grapefruit beer here, we also witness a baby shower going on inside the restaurant.  I’ve never seen anything quite like the spread…there were three large, long tables the group sat behind all lined with food. This took the “buffet game” to an entirely new level. I thought my work family put on pretty good potlucks, until seeing the dense array of food spread across these tables! Feeling recharged, we decided to take in the views of the waterfront from the famous Charles Bridge, which served as the most important connection between the Prague Castle and city’s Old Town (was the only way to cross the Vltava river until 1841).  While the original 30 statues that line the bridge are now on display in the National Museum, we were amazed that the replicas and other statues throughout the city were accented with real gold. It really amplifies the accents of these pieces of art, and we were all surprised to find no issues related to theft. As we crossed to the end of the bridge, we were greeted by the beautiful St. Salvator Church. Before it was time to move on to Poland, we decided we HAD to give the city’s famous “chimney cakes” AKA Trdelník a try before dinner, to ensure we had enough room! These rolled dough cones, filled with crème or ice cream and various toppings actual originate from Transylvania, but has largely grown in popularity in Prague after 2010. After navigating the various street vendors, we had fun sampling 4 different versions as a family before actual dinner. We stopped into a nice pub to conclude our evening, which had pretzels hanging at each table for a casual bite (potato pancakes, sausage, etc.) and local pilsner while many collected inside to watch the fútbol game on TV. 

 

We had a low key morning to do some final exploring, picked up some snacks from the local grocery (yummm, sesame pretzels are delicious) for our car ride to Poland, and enjoyed breakfast at a great café – MAMACOFFEE. We forgot to bring Walter’s milk cup out with us (as we had washed everything to prepare for packing up), so he even had the pleasure of sipping his AM milk from a tea cup and helped me eat up the perfect portion of pancakes. Interestingly, we can usually final postage for post cards pretty easily in our travels; but, despite having very limited times where communicating in English was a challenge – we were surprised by this process being a little more difficult. Perhaps we just struck bad luck, but no local shop, gift store, book store, grocery or bank could assist and directed us to the Post Office (not a problem, just had a little further to go). Upon arriving there, while they could help us with postage we were then directed back outside to locate the specific box for international postage (thank goodness for Google Translate, so our post card has a chance of reaching our nieces and nephew) – hence Bryan’s extra excitement dropping this one in the box!

(Really wish I could have found this flavor/grinders for coffee at a local grocery to bring home!)

In general, communication throughout Prague was not a challenge. We attempted a few local phrases (hello, thank you, etc.); and, learned the way to greet a close/casual acquaintance in Prague is with the friendly phrase “Ahoy!” Overall, nice city – clean, casual, beautiful. Time for our adventure to continue…