Days 103 - 105 (June 17 - 19, 2013): Prague, Czech Republic

The Quick Facts:

* Took the overnight train from Budapest to Prague
* Saw the main sites in Prague, including the New Town, Old Town, Jewish Quarter, and the Castle Area
* Stayed at Pension 15 – good for what is, it’s not in the center of town but they do provide clean rooms with nice showers and wifi; and, for about half of what we pay in other cities the price is more than right!

The Good:

* The Old Town Square is one of the most beautiful squares I have seen on this trip: teeming with life from both tourists and street performers, the square’s architecture and space are spectacular
* The Prague Castle area is quite nice, as is the Charles Bridge which connects the two parts of town over the Vitava River
* The beer is so cheap!  And, related, the town has a plethora of beer gardens which are very fun to enjoy an afternoon
* The architecture is wonderful – it’s an odd mix of Romanesque, Baroque, shappy communist, and modern, but somehow it all works and it’s lovely to look at.  A walk down just about any street offers this kind of variety, with the various small details or differences really showcasing the architects’ creativity.

The Bad:

* The people are a fairly grumpy lot.  And I don’t think it’s necessarily reserved just for the foreigners (like I experienced in Venice for example).  They respond to any request with raised eyebrows and a lengthy explanation of why they can’t do what you have asked them to do…before they turn around and do it anyway because what you’ve asked them to do is, you know, THEIR JOB!  In the end, they mean well, they just want you know that you are putting them out when you ask something of them.
* The food is nothing special, and forget trying to get a vegetable.  It’s just meat with meat and some more meat.  There may be a boiled potato involved, if you get the “health plate”.  The vegetarian option at most places is fried cheese.  Full stop.

We took what is probably our last overnight train trip from Budapest to Prague…here is the traditional picture of our sleeping cabin (which I have to say was quite nice, the best we’ve had on our trip):

 

Once we got to Prague at 6AM, we headed to our hostel at 7AM (reception hours start at 7AM) when we were told by the buy at reception “Check in is at 1PM; it is 7:20AM, so…..”  Thanks buddy, very helpful.  We know the drill, we want to drop off our bags!  And so it was with the Czech people for the next two days.

Our first stop was the Old Town Square, which includes a unique astronomical clock that puts on quite a show (for a 600 year old clock) every hour that includes a skeleton pulling on a string, the appearance of every apostle plus the big man himself (Jesus, not Clarence Clemons), and a golden goose squawking along with the bell chimes, the Tyn Church that has two spires of different sizes to symbolize Adam and Eve (the women really seemed to really like that idea), as well as a number of other classic medieval, gothic, and baroque buildings that make the square really awesome to be in:

 

After watching the clock, we hooked onto a free walking tour which took us through the old town, the new town (which is now the main shopping district of Prague), and the old Jewish Quarter (which once was where all the Jewish people were forced to live in a ghetto in the days of the fascists and communists).  What’s amazing, as I mentioned, is the many different styles of architecture that co-exist within the city, including the old medieval, Romanesque, and Baroque lumped in with communist blah crap and modern structures as well.

 

 

 

Prague Castle, found across the river in another section of Prague, is where the President lives and has a number of museums and churches.  Our first stop, however, was the Royal Gardens, which are beautiful in their own right and have very nice views of the city:

 

Next stop were the main gates to the palace complex, which are apparently quite the tourist attraction!

 

 

Behind the palace gates is St. Vitus’s cathedral, which to be honest is nothing that special:

 

After we went to the Old Royal Palace, which is where new Presidents of the Czech Republic are sworn in (in the main hall seen below) as well as a couple of other rooms which are pretty cool:

 

Then there is the Basilica of St. George, followed by the Golden Lane, which has these cute little (almost miniature) houses where tradesmen used to live, including Franz Kafka for a short while during World War I. 

After the palace, we walked across the famous Charles Bridge…which contains many statues along the way and was the sight of a saint being thrown off in the 1300s for making the king angry.

We then checked out a beer garden in a park, which was lovely because it was in a park, had panoramic views of the city, and was full of people (locals and tourists alike).  We even ate dinner there, here is Carrie coming back from the food stand with her chicken kebab (which, as she points out, is not a kebab but rather a shwarma…her Czech wasn’t quite good enough to convey this nuance to the people working the stand).

 

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