Praha

Photoblog

Finally after 5 months of 60 plus hour weeks, I managed to take a week off. The city of choice was Prague. Carolyn and I managed to get in a lot during our trip. Our itinerary was something like this:

Day 1 – Checked in to the hotel where we had this fantastic view of the Astrological Clock. We had heard a lot about the hourly display so we were happy to have arrived about 10 minutes before it went off. A bell started to ring, the little figures on the side of the clock started making some mechanical movements and then the windows opened up. Several little statues passed by the window, the rooster crowed and it was over. Didn’t live up to the build up, but it certainly was worth it being able to watch the crowds gather every hour and gauge the bewilderment and disappointment, followed by cheers and laughter.

Next, we went down to the Old Town square, Staro Mesto, where we immediately ordered two Pilsner Urquells and some Bohemian bread, potato and bacon dumplings. Delicious it was. Later on we found out that only tourists order by the beer type, real Czech people simply state the town that it’s from (Pilzen) and the percentage of sugar content (10 or 12 percent).

We then did some shopping and went on a ghost tour. I’ve never been on a ghost tour so I fell for the scary guy who jumps out from behind a corner to scare you. The tour ends at a bar called the Marquis de Sade, so we relaxed there for a bit and talked with the other people on the tour.

Day 2 – Shopping, shopping and more shopping. We couldn’t get enough of the cute, Bohemian-style clothes and crystal glasses and figurines. We then hit a tour of the Prague Castle.

Impeccable timing by our tour guide got us there in time for the changing of the guard. This happens everyday at noon and is quite an interesting little show, complete with horn players in the window and handsome, Czech men in blue uniforms.

You can’t see their faces very well here, but just trust me on this one.

The castle has a big garden and terrace, where you get an amazing view of the city.

After the castle tour, we were so hot and thirsty and thought what better way to cool down then to have a nice, cold Pilsner at a little boat café on the Vltava River. We sat down to 90 degree weather and proceeded to witness a hailstorm that was something like you might expect in Texas. Apparently this is a very rare occurrence in Prague and it made it even more interesting that we were on this boat. The wind started blowing, it immediately cooled down about 20 degrees the entire wait staff ran to pull the big curtain closed, but then the rest of the patrons had to help because the wind was so strong and they couldn’t get it latched down. Then it started to hail the biggest pellets I had ever seen. You can see it in the picture.

When we were done there, we thought we might check out this swanky little place called Bar and Books. We knew it was meant to be when we walked in the door and ABBA was playing on the sound system. We were happy to find that they were playing the CD in its entirety. While sipping dirty martinis, I tried caviar for the first time ever. Unfortunately I loved it and now will find the need to put it in the food rotation occasionally.

Day 3 – Jewish Quarter tour during the day. We learned that the reason this area of the city was so well preserved is because Hitler was planning to call the Jewish Museum in Prague the "Exotic Museum of an Extinct Race." During the war, Jewish artifacts from all over Europe were brought to Prague and stored in preparation for this museum. We also ran into this statue of Franz Kafka. It is based on a vivid description that appears in Franz Kafka's short story "Description of a Struggle." Kafka wrote of a young man riding on another man's shoulders through the streets of Prague. The figure here is Kafka himself sitting astride a headless man.

At night we went on a Pub tour that included authentic Czech goulash with bread dumplings. On this tour we experienced the original Budweiser (Budvar) as well as Krusovice, Pilsner Urquell, and Herold. The tour guide was hilarious and pointed out for us this really wacky statue figure hanging from a pole over the street. We ended up at Marquis de Sade, where we continued to hang with the tour group and meet a lot of people from around the world.

Day 4 – After many hours the previous day of trying to find the Lennon Wall, we got better directions and were able to locate this graffiti masterpiece in a matter of minutes.

First, we crossed the Charles Bridge to get there.

We hopped on a tram and headed down about 2 stops to get a couple of snapshots of this architectural anomaly called the Dancing House.

The historic Astrological Clock tower was open so we went up to check out the view (there was a lift). I absolutely love this church so I have a lot of pictures of it. All the tour guides confirmed for us that most people do think of this as the Cinderella church because it looks so much like the Walt Disney castle.

From the tower we could look down on all the people gathering to watch the hourly phenomenon. Our hotel is the yellow one on the left. Our room was the one on the third floor. We sat in those windows every day and just watched people. Carolyn’s favorite was the couple who got in a fight because they missed the clock. The commentary was priceless and we had a good laugh.