Tuesday, April 7th
We set out early from Bratislava, Slovakia; we were expecting a 3 hour drive to the Prague, Czech Republic. (I had SUCH a hard time remembering to say Czech Republic. Czechoslovakia just rolls off the tongue so much easier. I could get "Czech" out, but would just add "land" on the end to make it easier. Haha! So, we headed to Czechland around 8:30am. We had to stop for a vignette at a super sketchy rest stop. It was a deserted communist building with a rude woman that sold vignettes. I was glad to leave there as soon as I could. After stopping about 10 times for restroom breaks, we made it to Prague! I was so proud of myself for driving through a crazy city and making it to our hotel, Grand Majestic Plaza. I had the great help of Carrie and her GPS on her phone. My GPS wanted to take us way out of the city.
We got settled in our room, and then made our way out to see Prague Castle first. I had heard that it gets really crowded in the morning and noon, so the evening is the best time to visit.
Our walk from our hotel took us by the Powder Tower; one of the remaining gates from the old walled city. It used to actually hold gunpowder.
Celetna Street leading to the main square.
We got there just in time to see the Astronomical Clock chime on the hour. It was more entertaining watching the people than watching the clock. :)
Astronomical Clock
We followed the crowd to the river, but first we had to stop at a trdelnik store. There were delicious cinnamon coated, warm bread all over the city. It made the city smell nice, and tasted amazing.
Next we stopped to look at a Russian doll store. I've ALWAYS wanted one of these. Many of my childhood friends had them, and I wanted one. When we were in Hungary two years ago I asked Nick if I could get one, but he said he hated them. :( I MAY or may not have bought him one. Muahaha!
While we were searching through the Russian dolls, there was a large silk sack outside the shop that clearly had two people moving in it. We watched for a few minutes, and realized it was "street artists" preparing their work. I had always wondered how they prepared. It would likely reveal their secrets if they did it out in the open, so they chose to do it with a large bag. It was entertaining just watching two people working inside a giant bag. Haha!
We finally made our way to Charles Bridge. It used to be the only way to get across the river.
In the picture above, you can see Prague Castle and the castle quarter. The tallest building is St. Vitus Cathedral.
Unfortunately, I didn't get any great shots of the bridge. I should have gone back when there weren't as many people. This was the best pic I got of us.
Before hitting the castle, we stopped on the Kampa Island. It's easily accessible from Charles Bridge. We crossed back onto the mainland to the John Lennon Wall.
During the communist era and after John Lennon passed, a group of students painted this wall with Beatles lyrics and pictures of John Lennon. The communists immediately painted over it, just to have the artists redo their paintings. This went on for some time before the communists finally gave up. To this day, it is still the John Lennon wall.
St. Nicholas' Church
St. Nicholas' Church
After a 15 minute hike, we made it to the Prague Castle for some sweeping views of Prague.
I think I must have a thing for standing next to guards. :) Nick has his jumping photos in Europe and I have standing next to guards. :)
We walked into St. Vitus Cathedral. I was amazed at how light it was! The outside looks so dark.
St. Vitus Cathedral
St. Vitus Cathedral.
St. Vitus Cathedral
As we walked outside of the Castle grounds, we could hear a group of British men behind us. One of them had clearly tripped and run into a stranger and replied, "Oh, so sorry." A few seconds later, after they realized the stranger was fine, they all mocked their friend. With falsetto voices the exclaimed, "Ohhhh soooo sorry." Hearing 15 different mens British voices in a tunnel exclaiming their apologies in high voices was hilarious. We couldn't help but laugh.
We quickly realized that they were following us. We stopped to take in the views of the city, and they stopped too. I started taking a few photos, and I heard one say, "Oh that's just a beautiful shot." Haha! We started down the long, narrow walkway back to Lesser Town. They were still behind us. It wasn't until we heard a duo performing that they all danced ahead of us. It was certainly entertaining.
We passed some more street food. Potatoes and corn on a stick were very popular.
Even though it was still quite cold out, the trees were starting to bloom! It was here that Emily said, "It smells like allergies." Haha! Still makes me laugh.
We made a small detour over to the Kafka Museum to see the "piss" statue. I wasn't as interested in seeing the museum, but the statue is pretty funny.
The pool is in the shape of the Czech Republic. The men are supposed to represent EU men peeing on the Czech Republic. Clearly, the artist didn't agree with CR joining the EU.
We made our way out to the river to take a few photos of Charles Bridge.
I just about died laughing after Emily was asked to take a photo for a couple. She gladly obliged. As she took the photo she started laughing. She somehow had turned the camera around and took a photo of herself. She apologized profusely, and then took an actual photo of the couple. I couldn't stop laughing. They now have a close-up selfie of Emily. She said it really wasn't a very good one. It still makes me laugh.
Charles Bridge
We whipped through the Prague castle faster than I could have imagined. We decided to warm up in the square with another drink. It was great people- watching. There are SO many tall people! I was still the tallest in our group of girls, but I didn't feel out of place in Prague.
For dinner, we ate at Mlejnice. It was cheap, local food and near the main square. We didn't have any reservations, but the male waiters were happy to change the last reserved table for 3 girls. haha! I ordered Goulash and brie with cranberry. The girls ordered salmon salads. Our meals with appetizers, entrees, and drinks was still under $40 for all of us. It's so cheap in Prague!
When we got back to the hotel, I bought tickets for a bike tour the following day on Viator. I love doing tours and especially ones that are active. I couldn't wait.
Wednesday, April 8th
After our yummy breakfast, we headed out. As soon as we walked out the door, I realized that I had never received a confirmation email from Viator with direction as to wear to meet for the bike tour. Luckily, I had taken a screen shot of the confirmation with the booking number on it. I checked that we had been charged for the tour. Sure enough, we had! For 30 minutes, I searched my email and Carrie searched the web for more info. I asked the front desk at our hotel for help. They called around to different bike companies to no avail.
We decided to just head out. We knew that the meeting point was near the Old town square, but that's a BIG area!
Nothing could help more than a little retail therapy! We NEVEr get to do that with our husbands. There was a large mall just around the corner from our hotel. We started there. That helped slightly keep my mind off of the tour.
Next we walked through the freezing weather to Wencelas' Square. I had imagined walking up and down this square to get photos, but it was WAY too cold.
We snapped one at the bottom of the square, and that was fine with me.
You can see the National Museum in the background.
We grabbed a warm coffee/tea to warm up at a nearby cafe. (after the waiter poured hot coffee all over us on accident Oops!) We walked toward the main square to see if we could somehow figure out where to meet. On our way, we passed an info booth. I stopped in to see if they could help. I directed them to the website, and the exact tour. They showed me a map of where I might find more information. We walked 5 minutes to a different small info kiosk. In broken English, the woman took all the info down that I had about the bike tour then handed me a receipt. She then directed me to a bike company just off the main square. We ran to the bike tour. When we located it, I walked in and exclaimed, "I found you!" It had taken us at least two hours (with a few breaks) to find them. I was SO relieved. The man behind the counter said, "oh...cool." Haha! SO anti-climactic. We were the only 3 on the tour that day, so they said they would be waiting at 2:30pm for us. We marched across the street for fish 'n chips to keep it simple and easy.
I was SO proud of us for finding the bike tour! I don't think Emily and Carrie were as surprised, but I was pretty amazed! It was so cold that day, that I think they would have been happy not doing the tour. Oh well! We got our money's worth!
We started in Old Town. Our guide, Francesco, rode us to the Powder Tower and an Old theater. He then brought us to this creepy statue outside of Prague Estates Theater. It's one of the oldest theaters in Europe and where Mozart played one of his first symphony's. Outside the theater was where the creepy statue by Anna Chromy stood....
I think we were all more interested in the bubbles that were heading our direction than the theatre. :)
Next we rode over to the river. It was SO cold and windy! I could hardly listen I was so cold. I kept asking myself why it was SO cold in mid April, and I was preoccupied trying NOT to look cold so Emily and Carrie wouldn't be concerned. Ha!
Here we were standing on Legil Bridge looking toward Prague castle. Somehow both of them put their hands on my bum at the same time as we took this photo. Haha! I started cracking up!!
We rode over to the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers building next. Apparently, Ginger had 8 legs. :)
Next we rode to the David Cerny Baby statues on Kampa Island. These babies are placed all over a large, ugly TV tower in Prague. The artist didn't like that children were being raised by television. Each of them have bar codes on their faces, since they're all being influenced by the same shows. It wasn't the prettiest statue I've seen, but certainly thought provoking.
Our tour guide then took us back to the John Lennon Wall. I wasn't that excited to see the same wall again, but he brought us markers to write our names! How cool is that?!
I was so excited! I wrote Nick and my name in a heart. <3
"Rule!"
Francesco, then took us to the side of a building where he showed us the flood marks from the past highest floods.
Our guide brought us to another theatre; Rudolfinum. He asked us who the 4 composers were on the top of the building. We guessed 3 out of 4. Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach. Handel was the only one we couldn't remember.
The Jewish Quarter was one of the last stops on our tour. The bottom clock face is the only one like it in the world. It is read backwards just like the Jews read Hebrew from right to left. The long hand is the hour hand, and the short is the minute hand.
Our last actual stop was in the main square. Here's Jan Hus with the Tyn church in the background.
Another David Cerny statue in Prague. You can actually go inside from the bottom. Ew! I know!
Kafka statue
I pleaded with the girls to go back to the Jewish Quarter after the bike tour. I had completely forgotten about the Jewish Quarter that morning with the distraction of the bike tour debacle. The Jewish cemetery was the 3rd on my list of things to see in Prague. Luckily, they happily obliged.
We each paid 12 Euro to get into the Jewish sites, and we only had 30 minutes to see them all. We walked through the Jewish synagogue first, and then the cemetery.
In the Pinkas Jewish synagogue, there are names written on every wall in black and red in memorial to the 80,000 Jews that died in WWII.
During WWII, the Jewish children living in the Jewish ghetto were not allowed to go outside except to play in the Jewish cemetery.
They place rocks on top of the tombstones instead of flowers. Back in Israel when they buried bodies it was usually in sand. They used rocks to keep the sand in place over the bodies. The tradition still lives on today.
There are over 100, 000 bodies buried here; often 12 people deep.
We made our way back to the square to get another warm drink. It was so cold! (Have I mentioned that already?)
I walked around the Easter market in the square while the girls bought cans of beer for their husbands.
We were trying to decide what to do for dinner. The dinner we'd had the night before was so good, cheap, and close by we decided to try it again.
The male servers that had been there the night before weren't there. It was just one woman this time and she sent us packing as soon as we walked in the door! She handed me a map of a new location for their restaurant they had just opened. We walked 5 minutes across the square to the restaurant with the same name, Mlejnice.
I helped convince the girls to get the pork knuckle. We all ordered it. Boy, was it good!
This pic is sort of blurry, but I had to get proof! :)
I convinced them to walk back to the bridge to take a few night shots. Unfortunately, the ones with us all together were too blurry.
Charles Bridge at night
Tyn Church at night
We had held off getting another Trdelnik until after dinner. That was a bad choice on our part because the ones we bought were cold and old. Emily had purchased them for all of us because she was the only one with enough Czech Krona. I ate the whole thing, but cold Trdelnik is not great.
Oh well! I was so proud of us for finding the bike ride that day that nothing could have spoiled my mood. I will likely never use Viator again because of the incident, but it taught me a good lesson!
Thursday, April 9th
The next morning we got up and had a lazy breakfast before heading out to Cesky Krumlov 2 hours south of us. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has been on my list of places to see for some time.
It's such a beautiful little town.
We stopped to have a quick lunch at Konvice. We tried to eat at Krcma around the corner but it was already full. I chose to have the goulash and dumplings one last time. It was so good!
This was the painting that was hanging behind me at lunch. What's wrong with this picture?
The sun came out finally, and even the vapor trails from the airplanes seemed to cooperate for us that day. They look like they're perfectly placed.
Our 2 hours in Cesky Krumlov.
It only took us about 5 minutes to walk the full city. It was so cute and quaint. We could have stayed until 2pm for a 2 hour tour, but we wanted to start our 6 hour drive home.
Main square in Cesky Krumlov.
It was so fun traveling with Emily and Carrie. I don't know that I'll get that many more opportunities to travel with them while I'm here. And it was fun crossing off 2 new countries and 3 new cities before we leave. I would definitely recommend Prague to anyone. It felt like a classier (but cheaper) Munich.
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