Prague Epilogue

We have walked through several district neighborhoods in Prague:

         Josefov                    Mala Strana

        Hradcany                 Nove Mesto

Stare Mesto              Karlin

We have walked and taken Trams and Trains and buses.  We have seen so many things in Prague and Bohemia including:

                          Bone Church                                     St. Nicholas Church

                          St. Vitus Cathedral            St. George Church 

                          Prague Castle                                  Astronomical clock

                          Southern Bohemia            Central Bohemia  

                          Municipal House               Jewish Cemetery  

                          Dancing House                  Charles Bridge 

                          Cesky Krumlov                 Tower of St. Nicholas       

                          Old Town Square              Petrin Hill 

                          Wenceslas Square             Golden Lane 

                 

General Observations: 

·         The older generation does not mention the communist era. The younger generation frequently makes references to the history and openly makes jokes.

·         There was more English spoken than we thought there would be. But, once you got away from the main squares, there was less English.

·         The people are wonderful. They are polite, kind, helpful.

·         The weather was delightful.  It did get into the mid 80s during a couple of the days but the humidity was much lower than what we are used to.  Also, Prague is known for rain but we only got sprinkled on once.

·         We loved wandering around Prague.  Although you could take the Tram or Subway, we enjoyed walking. It is definitely a walking city. But because there are cobblestone streets everywhere, it can be a difficult walk.  The sides of our calves were sore the first few days after walking 10 miles a day on cobblestones. By the time we left though we were OK.

·         We loved our hotel. The service, the staff, the room, the restaurant and the views were top notch. We looked forward to coming back in the evenings and going up to the rooftop to relax.

Before we left we said in our “Our Journey Begins” post that we were “off to a city with magnificent architecture, an old-world feel, cobblestone streets, castles, great food and rooftop restaurants”.  Well, we weren’t disappointed.  The architecture is magnificent, Prague is an old-world city, our feet can attest to finding cobblestone streets (they are everywhere – not just in the old town), the food was fantastic and we not only found rooftop restaurants but also riverside restaurants. 

This was truly one of our best trips!

Last Full Day in Prague

Day 8 in Prague

Today we ventured over to tour St. Nicolas Church, just down the hill from the hotel, selected the wrong entrance, paid a fee and found ourselves climbing the bell tower instead of entering the church.  After walking up 305 steps, we arrived at the top of the tower.  It was a great mistake - the view of the city was magnificent.  We climbed back down the steps, went around the corner, and finally entered the church.  It was stunningly beautiful.

The Church has a dominate dome and belfry and is an excellent example of Baroque architecture.  Mozart played the organ here during his stay in Prague.

We then walked over the Charles Bridge, back through the main square - where we paid the grumpy lady to use the WC at the information center by the Astronomical Clock for what seemed to be the umpteenth time - and went to the Municipal House - a beautiful, Art Nouveau concert hall built in the early part of the 20^th century. We took a one-hour tour of the building and then went to a restaurant in the adjacent hotel recommended by our friends, Ray Miller and Diane Knight, called the Café de Paris for a wonderful lunch.  

        

Gerry finally tried a Czech Budweiser and must admit that it is far better than an American Budweiser.

We finished our last evening in Prague at the wonderful Terasa Restaurant at our hotel overlooking this beautiful city and the United States Embassy.

Cesky Krumlof

Day 7 in Cesky Krumlov

Cesky Krumlov is a medieval town located about 2 hours from Prague in southern Bohemia. We took a 10 hour tour today to visit this Unesco World Heritage site. The bus ride there was a sensory experience. Rolling hills, mountains, tall pines, cows on the fields, and massive fields of corn. While the streets of Prague are a Bourne car chase waiting to be filmed on its cobblestone steep streets, southern Bohemia is beautiful countryside.

When we reached Chesky Kumlof we found the Vlatva River, the longest river in the Czech Republic.  It winds lazily southeast along the Bohemian Forest, north across Bohemia, through Cesky Krumlov and through Prague before joining the Elbe River. 

The Vlatva River is the one we have crossed every day when we go across the Charles Bridge.  In 2002 it flooded to a level not seen in centuries and severely damaged the Karlin District with water levels as high 3 stories.  The Karlin district is one of the areas we visited during our Prague food tour.  That same flood devastated parts of Cesky Krumlov.

We took a walk around the town by the castle (a smaller version of the Prague square), ate lunch and then took a tour of the castle.  The castle was fascinating with some original flooring, furniture, paintings and "warming ovens" for the rooms. It was a long drive to southern Bohemia but we agree that it was actually very interesting. Getting to see the beautiful countryside of Bohemia after being in the city was special. 

Budweiser

In the Czech Republic drinking a Budweiser is a different experience.  Czech's have brewed a beer named Budweiser since the 13th century.  It is not the same Budweiser that Americans are used to.  American Budweiser was created by the Busch family in the 19th century after a visit to what is now the Czech Republic.  Their goal was to create a Bohemian lager.   Due to trademark issues, American Budweiser is sold as Bud in the Czech Republic and the majority of the European Union.  So, if you go to the Czech Republic and order a Budweiser be prepared to drink a local Czech Beer, which is a very nice beer!

Tonight we returned to our hotel, went to the restaurant/bar on the top floor, viewed this wonderful city and shared a bottle of Czech wine.

Wenceslas Square, The Dancing House and Petrin

Day 6 in Prague

Today we continued our discovery of Prague by walking to areas of the city we had not been to.  This took us a little further from the tourist areas and put us more among residents of the city.  Our first stop was Wenceslas Square which is in Nove Mesto or New Town.  The square is named after St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia.  Most of us have heard of Wenceslas through the Christmas carol, “Good King Wenceslas”, which tells a story of a Czech king going on a journey and braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen – the day after Christmas.

The square is a commercial and administrative center of the city and the site of many historical events.  In recent history, it was the site of large peaceful demonstrations during the Velvet Revolution which resulted in the end of Communist control of the Czech Republic.  It is said that at the end of a short speech ending the Velvet Revolution in 1989, future President Vaclav Haval stood at the Square, took his keys from his pocket and jangled them to represent "taking the keys to our country back".  Everyone in the square joined him and jangled their keys - it could be heard up and down the river.   Vaclav Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992.  He then served as the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2002 after the split with Slovakia. 

Our next stop, also in Nove Mesto, was an odd building called “The Dancing House”.  The Dancing House was designed by Vlado Milumic along with Frank Gehry.  The building resembles two people dancing and used to be called the "Fred and Ginger".  It was designed in 1992, completed in 1996 and is considered by many as non-traditional amongst the Baroque, Gothic and Art Nouveau buildings. But we walked 5 miles just to see it!

 

We then crossed back over the Vltava River (by the way, this is the river the Charles Bridge crosses) to Mala Strana to visit Petrin, the favorite recreational park for Prague residents. We rode a funicular to the top to see wonderful views of the city. 

We walked back to our hotel and had a glass of wine and got ready for dinner.  Dinner was back across the Charles Bridge at a wonderful Czech restaurant located on the river called Mlynec.

         

Tomorrow we will be spending our day in Cesky Krumlov in southern Bohemia.

All About The Castle

Day 5 in Prague

Today began as a cloudy day and we slept late, had breakfast and headed for Prague Castle. The castle dates from the 9th century and is the largest ancient castle in the world.  It is the official residence of the President of the Czech Republic (yes - the one who makes the crazy quotes). You can spend days roaming around the gardens and the castle complex.

Although you can step inside most places within the castle complex, you cannot go very far without buying a ticket.  We opted for a ticket which allowed us access to:  the Old Royal Palace, the Basilica of St. George, the Golden Lane, and St. Vitus's Cathedral.  That was about what can be seen in a half days time.

St. George's Basilica is the oldest surviving church building in the Prague Castle complex and houses the tombs of several important historical figures.  The complex also offers evening classical concerts.

The Old Royal Palace has been rebuilt and added onto over the centuries and is a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles.  It was the home of the Crown Jewels but those have been moved and we were unable to see them.  High on the hill, the castle overlooks the beautiful city of Prague.  And, there were many steps to climb to get there!

The Golden Lane Consists of many tiny colored houses which are used today as souvenir shops and a medieval museum of armory.

Our favorite part of the castle complex was St. Vitus Cathedral. 

It is easy to get "churched out" in Europe but this cathedral was spectacular and is a "must see" in Prague.  The cathedral is built in the Gothic architecture style and is the largest and most important church in the country.  It contains the tombs of many Bohemian Kings and Holy Roman Emperors. For us the cathedral was spectacular.  

It has the pointed tall arches that look like praying hands and the stained glass was the most beautiful we have ever seen.

We decided to stay on the castle side of the river to give our feet a rest. When they say that you need to wear comfortable shoes to Prague they really mean it.  All of the sidewalks and all of the streets are cobblestone. You cannot get away from cobblestones under your feet.  

It is Sunday and have loved hearing the church bells ringing all day.  By the way, we have spoken of visiting several churches yet 85% of the people in the Czech Republic are either atheist or agnostic according to a poll taken a few years ago. 

After coming back to the hotel, working on our blog and planning the next few days in the early evening (instead of waiting until 10 pm until midnight), we went to dinner at Valoria, a rooftop restaurant (near our hotel) that came highly recommended.  The food was wonderful and the view was spectacular!  Did we say we love rooftop restaurants?  The sun was shining through the clouds and made the city look like it was gold.

The continuing Toilet Saga

Another word about the toilet. Our freakishly smart toilet has us still wondering about its powers. There is a bathroom exhaust fan (not the dry-your-bottom fan) that comes on sporadically. You cannot turn this fan on yourself. We cannot determine if it is temperature related (i.e., how long you have been sitting on the toilet), or if it has something to do with one of the light switches (it came on once- and only once- when we turned on a second light, or if it is steam related (once and only once it came on at the end of a shower). Once it came on when one of us stood in front of the mirror.  We would leave the room for breakfast or dinner and it would turn itself off.  Is it controlled by the toilet?  Hmmmm. To be continued.

The Bone Church and Kutna Hora

Day 4 in Prague

Today we ventured back across the Charles Bridge and met up with a group for a tour of Kutna Hora which is in central Bohemia, about an hour outside of Prague. 

We boarded a train and our first stop was to see the Bone Church in a small village just outside of Kutna Hora.  The Bone Church (Sedlec Ossuary) is located in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutna Hora. It is a small Roman Catholic chapel located beneath the Church of All Saints Cemetery. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, whose bones have, in many cases, been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.

In the 13th century, Jindřich, the abbot of the Sedlec monastery, returned from a visit to Palestine with a jar of soil from the Holy Land and sprinkled it on the cemetery grounds surrounding the Chapel of All Saints. 

This direct association with the holy land led to the graveyard becoming a sought after burial site among the aristocracy of Central Europe. At the time of the thirty years’ war in the 17th century, the number of burials outgrew the space available. To make room, the older remains began to be exhumed and stored in the chapel in pyramids.

In 1870, the Schwarzenberg family who owned the land, commissioned Frantisek Rint to decorate the chapel with the bones and create a reminder of the impermanence of human life and inescapable death.

The Human bones are arranged as strings of skulls and bones hanging from the ceiling, a skull candelabra, chalices, piles and piles of bones behind fencing and a display case showing skulls with wounds inflicted by various Medievalk weapons.  There is a huge display of bones in the shape of the  Schwarzenberg family crest. 

The most prominent display (which had been taken down while we were there for maintenance), is a chandelier that contains at least one of every bone in the human body.

Over 200,000 people visit the Bone Church annually.  The church itself is actually sinking and needs to be repaired.  Once the repairs are made visitors will no longer be able to take pictures inside the church.  While the Bone Church may sound macabre it really wasn't.

After seeing the Bone Church, we traveled a short distance by tram to Kutna Hora.  Kutna Hora, which stands for "Mining the Mountains" is a medieval mining town founded in the 13th century. Later on it became one of the richest sources of silver in Europe and also the second most important town of the Bohemian Kingdom.  While it ran out of silver in the 19th century, it has kept the character of a medieval town and is one of the most important UNESCO heritage sites in the Czech Republic. During WWII, Germany mined the same area for zinc. 

With the wealth from the mines, St. Barbara's Church was built  in the town beginning in 1388.

Saint Barbara's Church, a Roman Catholic Church is one of the most famous Gothic churches in central Europe.  St. Barbara is the patron saint of miners which is fitting for this area known for its history with silver mines. 

On our walk back to our hotel from the train station, we stopped at the Black Angels Bar in the heart of Old Prague to give our feet a rest and to have a cocktail.  It is listed as the number 1 international hotel bar for cocktails in the world so we had to give it a try. We forgot however that bars in Europe still allow smoking and in this particular bar expensive cigars were being purchased and smoked.  We did not stay long!

A Day of Czech Food

Day 3 in Prague

Today we walked back over to Stare Mesto, past the Astronomical Clock, to take a four hour food tour with Taste of Prague.

Our group was all English speaking.  There was a family from Rockville, MD, two parents with their three adult children, a woman from Brisbane, Australia and us.  The leader of the tour was Martin Blum, a native of the Czech Republic who had moved to Austria as a young child, became a foodie and moved back to Prague.  We went to five restaurants to taste Czech cuisine.

We started at two places - Sisters Bistro and Nase Maso, an organic butcher shop (where Martin works)  and had the following:

Open face beet root purée with goat cheese and celery root salad sandwiches, Open face meatloaf sandwich (made of pork and beef), wiener sausage, and an Open face ground beef steak tartare sandwich.

We then moved on to Lokal, a Beer Pub and had:

Chicken schnitzel with potato salad, Ham and horse radish cream with pickled herring, marinated camembert style cheese, Beef Goulash, Communist coke (during the Communist regime they had to make their own and it has become kinda "retro - it tastes like Fanta Orange with vanilla) and Pilsner Urquell beer. 

Our next stop was Naso a Kobilha, a meat and donut place where we tasted:

Scotch eggs, a wonderful, sugared, custard doughnut (Martin taught us how to cut a custard donut without squeezing all the custard out), and a local craft beer.

Our last stop was Eska, an upscale, gourmet restaurant that served:

Rabbit liver pate, fermented plum soda, Burnt potato in ash with potato espuma, fermented red wheat with sous-vide egg and button mushrooms, and zemlovka-bread pudding with apples in espuma of vanilla and rum. 

We were fascinated by the tour.  Traditional Czech food is based on meat, potatoes or dumplings and wonderful but heavy sauces.  What many new chefs are trying to do in the Czech Republic is to make gourmet versions using the traditional Czech food.  Many of the traditional Czech foods disappeared from menus at restaurants when the Russians were in power.  All restaurants in the country were given the same recipes, served the same food that tasted the same and cost the same.

The food tour took us to a neighborhood of the city - the Karlin district - that we had not planned on visiting.  This area was devastated by floods in 2003 and has reestablished itself as an up and coming area much like Georgetown in DC.

So, we have a toilet story.

Our toilet is freakishly smart - it requires a remote control for complete operation.  The remote control (below) is attached magnetically to a plate on the wall.

This morning, Gerry, while sitting on it and trying to figure it out without reading the instructions, received a very unexpected surprise!  Here are the instructions!

Myra laughed for an hour!  

We decided to end our evening with a cocktail at the rooftop bar at our hotel.  The moon was full and absolutely stunning!  While our picture doesn't capture it perfectly, the moon is a giant orange orb in the sky over the beautiful city lights of Prague.  This Picture is for you Deb!

  What a beautiful way to end our evening!

Walking Tour of Old Prague

Day 2 in Prague

After a good night's sleep We started off with a wonderful relaxing breakfast at our hotel.  Myra had a typical Czech breakfast of potato soup and fresh peach juice.

We walked over the historic Charles Bridge from the Mala Strana area of the city where we are staying to Stare Mesto (Old Town) for a free "Royal Walking Tour". During our 2 1/2 hour tour, we saw many historic sites including the Astronomical Clock, theatres, churches and obtained historical information about the Czech Republic and insights about the Czech people.  

The Astronomical Clock was installed in 1410 and depicts the hour in Prague local time based on a 24 hour day, the position of the sun and the moon in the sky, the signs of the zodiac and changes in the seasons.  The 4 characters (left to right) represent the fear of vanity, the fear of greed, fear of death and the fear of outside influences.

It was more fun watching the people watching the clock than watching the clock!

Some of our more interesting takeaways from our tour guide included:

If anything is stolen in Prague, the Czech citizens joke that it must have been the Swedes.  The joke stems from Sweden stealing art from the Prague Palace after the Thirty Years War in 1648 and never giving it back.  The Swedish army took an immense collection of priceless artworks, manuscripts and statues that had been accumulated by the royal family from all over the world.  The Swedes still have it all.

The Czech's have a colorful, alcoholic and glutinous president.  Two of his favorite quotes are "Death to Abstainers and Vegetarians" (while addressing a group of winemakers) and "Death to teetotalers  and vegetarians".  The castle flies a flag over the Prague Castle when he is in the country.  When he is out of the country and the flag is not visible the citizens claim to be on high alert because he will probably say something to embarrass the country.

The Czechs ceased Stalinist Rule in 1989 after a series of peaceful student protests.  This is referred to as the Velvet Revolution.  Four years later the Czechs separated peacefully from Slovakia and that is referred to as the Velvet Divorce.

Another piece of information that was shared during the tour was that earlier this year the Government has requested that the UN refer to the Czech Republic as Checkia.  They did this without input from the citizens which was not a popular move.

After the tour we had wonderful gelato and walked to Josefov, the Jewish Quarter. The area contains a Museum, the Old-New Synagogue, and the oldest (in use from 1439 to 1787) and largest Jewish cemetery in Europe.  Over 120,000 people are buried, sometimes stacked 12 deep. The monuments to mark the dead, most of which are illegible, look like a dense forest of head stones.

We then walked back to the main square and met some friends from Saint Simons Island - Phil and Carol Campbell - for a Czech dinner.  We discovered we were going to overlap in Prague for a day prior to their taking a Viking River Cruise.

We strolled back over the Charles Bridge at dusk and took in the wonderful sites of the city.  We had been gone 12 hours!

Arrival

Day 1 in Prague

The Czech Republic is bordered by Germany (west), Austria (south), Slovakia (east) and Poland (northeast).  Formerly known as Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic with its territories (Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia) became an independent nation state in 1993.  

Prague, its capital has been on our bucket list for many years.  We are finally here!  We are staying in a hotel next to the Prague Castle (west of the bridge).  

After 22 hours, including a 6 hour layover at JFK, we arrived in Prague.  We were immediately surprised by how quiet the airport was – especially the baggage carousel - and by the fact that there were no forms for customs.   We did not go through passport control until we had already gone through the eating and shopping areas.  Also, if you chose the lane that read “nothing to declare” you walked right past an empty desk and exited immigration.

We were also pleasantly surprised by the weather – 66 degrees at noon - and the sea of red roofs of the buildings as we approached the city. 

We arrived at our hotel, the Golden Well, just after noon local time.  The hotel, a former residence that was part of the Castle complex, has 19 rooms and a wonderful gourmet restaurant – Terasa – with live grapes growing in planters.

While we waited for our room we were treated to wine at the restaurant and then went there for dinner after resting up.  Czech Sauvignon Blanc was excellent - Czech reds ok but not very bold.  The food was great especially when paired with an Argentine Malbec.

Our Journey Begins

Welcome to our "Prague Blog"!

Prague, the city of one hundred spires located in the Czech Republic, has been on our bucket list for a long time.  Somehow, something else always comes up that fits under the category: ”Oh, we need to do that now!” and Prague gets postponed.  But this year, we decided we really wanted to travel in our favorite style:  to wander.  So, Prague popped to the top of the list.

We plan to stay just far enough away from the busiest tourist area that we can enjoy quiet rooftop dinners and evening strolls, yet close enough that a 20 minute walk will get us where we want to be.  Our hotel sits against the walls of the Prague castle and guests can use the Emperor’s private entrance that leads directly to the Prague Castle gardens.  Ahhh!

One of our favorite quotes we found when researching Prague was about language.  The language is Czech and the reference to who speaks English was:  “Waiters in tourist spots do, at the hotel desk they do, people under 25 do, police officers don’t, grandmothers don’t”!

So, we do have a few guided tours.  We plan to join “Taste of Prague”, a four hour wine and food tour of some restaurants serving Czech foods.  We also have tickets for a day out of the city into the central Bohemian countryside to Kutna Hora.  And we hope to spend another day in the southern Bohemian region visiting Cesky Krumlov, a Unesco World Heritage Site.  The rest will be wandering!

While weather is always unpredictable, we are looking forward to a change from the heat we have experienced this summer.  The daytime temperatures seem to be tracking a bit cooler than ours in SSI. 

The evening temperatures are significantly cooler.  We have been watching!!!

So we are off to a city with magnificent architecture, an old-world feel, cobblestone streets, castles, great food, and did we say rooftop restaurants?  What a wonderful way to spend a vacation.