Prague

  Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic
Saturday, July 12, 2008

Alison in the old city

Wednesday 9th July

Alison: We were woken about 7 by the conductor and then played cards and chatted until we got into Prague. After borrowing a Lonely Planet guide from another passenger we read that the Prague taxi drivers were not to be trusted and could charge all sorts of ridiculous prices, but that the AAA taxis were trustworthy and actually used a meter. This turned out to be very useful advice as after we arrived at the station a whole lot of private taxis tried to rip us off. Eventually Mike wandered out of the station and hailed an AAA one outside and we dragged our luggage to him, crammed it all in with 5 of us in the back and headed off to the nearby Novotel Hotel near Wenceslas Square. We managed to get a very large room that could fit us all in which was great! Mum had a roll out single, the kids had a sofa double bed and Mike and I had the queen bed so we were all happy.

Beautiful clock tower in Prague

We headed out for lunch in a nearby typical Czech restaurant and ate plenteous amounts of goulash, sauerkraut and dumplings - the standard fare on all the Czech menus as we later found out. Then we went back and rested in our room for a few hours until we felt up to doing some exploring.

Dinner in the central square

We walked down past the National Museum to Wenceslas Square and then down it to the beautiful Old City where had dinner in the large square there. The buildings were all beautiful and the atmosphere lovely, so a very enjoyable time was had before we found an AAA taxi and headed back for an early night.

View from dinner

Changing the Guard in Prague Palace

  Thursday 10th July

Alison: We had a good sleep-in and then Mum, the kids and I had brekky down in the hotel restaurant at 10.15. Then it was time to head out for a good exploration of Prague. It was drizzling with rain so we caught a taxi to Prague Castle and arrived in time to see the changing of the guard which was rather fun, with its marching, music, pomp and ceremony. 

Prague Palace

Then we headed into the huge complex of Prague Castle. We first went into the Red Church built in the 10th Century. There was a big cathedral called St Vitus but it had big queues so we didn't bother to go in. We also visited a lovely Art Museum full of Baroque paintings & furniture by Czech artists which Mum, Tom and I enjoyed wandering slowly round whilst Mike and Rachel raced through it! Then we had lunch at a lovely restaurant in complex which considering it was a tourist spot had remarkably good & cheap food. 

Torture instruments

After lunch we visited the rather grim Tower with torture instruments that both horrified and fascinated the children.

View down from the palace

By this stage the day had cleared nicely and we wandered down from the castle and walked across the famous Charles Bridge to St Martin In the Wall where we had seen flyers of a 5.00 concert. This was an excellent decision as the one hour concert by the Musica Praga string quartet was really lovely and the acoustics in church were stunning. Tom quietly played on his DS for most of it, but the rest of us really loved it and Rachel really wanted their CD so Mum very generously bought it for her as her belated birthday present. 

Musica Praga

Then we walked around streets to an Indian Restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet, Orange Moon which was very yummy. Finally we caught a taxi home & played cards and then went to bed.

Prague National Museum

Friday 11th July

Alison: After breakfast we walked to the nearby National Museum, a stunning old building at the top of St Wenceslas Square with great exhibits of incredibly old hominid bones and a Neanderthal man skeleton.

Really ancient hominid bone

The kids were intrigued by them as well as the huge woolly mammoths & many birds and other preserved species.  Exhausted from our wanderings, even though we had barely scraped the surface of what was there, we left and headed down St Wenceslas Square where we had lunch in Italian Restaurant (notably more expensive than the Czech restaurants) & then did a bit of shopping at a nearby C&A.

Mike & Tom running from the mammoth

We then caught a taxi to the pier for a 2 hour cruise along the river. Unfortunately it was very hot and there was no cover on the top deck so we stayed downstairs & played cards, stopping intermittently to take photos of the lovely buildings and scenery we floated past.

View of Charles Bridge from our cruise

On returning back to the pier we walked through the beautiful and historical Jewish Quarter where Rachel  bought a crystal paper weight - much nicer and less expensive than the tacky snow domes on offer which she has been collecting.

Prague Jewish Quarter

We caught a taxi home & had a swim in the hotel pool before going out to a restaurant made famous by Hasek's novel 'The Good Soldier Svejk'. This was quite an experience with a great atmosphere and huge servings of beer and food, including an enormous pork knee plus goose & duck, along with the usual dumplings and sauerkraut! We finally headed home, and packed up, ready to leave early the next morning for our train to Berlin.

Mike with the pork knee plus plus...

Central Prague

Mike:   Prague was certainly one of those places I had always heard was amazing but hadn't yet got to..  and I wasn't disappointed. It is a truly stunning city, wonderful old buildings set gloriously along a river, with a majestic castle on the hill crowning it all, gorgeous.


An ideal town just to wander, we meandered happily through the various parts of town, the lovely central square where we dined often, the Jewish quarter with its beautiful synagogues, the old town and the new town, all quite different and all fascinating.  The warm and friendly atmosphere that prevailed served to just enhance the whole experience, with blue sky shining all the time.

Playing cards & having a drink in the square

The boat trip up the river was a great way to see it all unfold in front of us, and as has become something of a ritual on this trip when we get a chance on boats or trains, the cards came out quickly.

Mike inspecting all the many Czech beers

The Czech Republic is famous of course not only for its amazing cities like Prague.. but also its beers (!), widely considered to be the best in the world.  So far be it from me to not take up the challenge, which I did with gusto! I found any excuse to sit, have a rest and sample a different brew, all fantastic!  The food was much as I expected, heavy and hearty, suprisingly tasty I thought..   and certainly well washed down by a beer or three!

This was right up there as one of the most beautiful places we have seen on this trip for mine, one to explore further in future, note to self!

Rachel & Tom with the good soldier Svejk

Tom:    The hotel room we had in Prague was really nice because it was so spacious.  We had some dumplings that were really nice with some sauce you usually have with them.   

Mike on the rack

While we were there we went to the castle and saw some dungeons where all the prisoners were kept, which was quite freaky.  There was some great art in a gallery there, and one of the pictures I really liked was of a king dying on the ground and a woman by the body pointing at someone else and saying ''he did it'.   I liked a lot of the still life paintings too.

We are really into a card game called peasant (or arsehole!) where its like a competition between all of us. It's basically who puts the highest card down and can keep putting the highest card down wins the deal and can start first, and then the winner is the first one to get rid of all their cards.  So we played that lots and lots of times and its really a chance game with what hand you get dealt and strategy too.  We played on the boat while we were looking at views too.   

Rachel with the 1st Violinist

Rachel:    I loved the classical concert in Prague, it was amazing becuase it had a great violinist and viola player playing right in front of us.     My grandmother Mamma bought me the CD so I could listen to it more which was really nice of her.   Because I have a snow dome collection at home  Dad has been buying me lots of snowdomes, but we decided in Prague I could get a proper handblown crystal blown dome for my collection.  It has orange swirls of feather on the inside and little sparkles of purple and it is really beautiful.

We went to the museum and got an audioguide too. There was a huge set of stairs with a red carpet on it which we walked up to go inside.   We started off seeing the woolly mammoths and birds,  they were all amazing.

Tom & Rachel with an extinct Moa

We saw lots of other interesting things like gemstones and replicas of the dodo bird. At first we didnt use the audio guide but it came in handy when we were seeing things like all the gemstones.  It was a really large museum and whenever you were exiting a part of it there were huge chandeliers and lots of huge frescos on the walls.  When we left I felt like I had learned a lot, becuase it was so huge and we had taken ages there.

In Prague there was also a really nice central square where we ate a few times, which was surrounded by beautiful old buildings.