Czech me out!

prague2 First off, I wish I could take credit for the clever title of this post, but I can’t as it was plastered on t-shirts all over Prague and if anyone ever went there then they would know I was stealing it, so there is no point in trying. Next, Prague is a fantastic city and we really enjoyed our four nights and five days! We got back yesterday and so today was spent going through all the photos (I took about 500 or so) and not walking anywhere. I can probably not move for the next two days and still be on the + side of the activity curve. Cindy’s pedometer went through some stress testing in Prague as we put it through its paces (no pun intended… well maybe a little), and according to it we did 64kms in total over the 5 days – 10km on day one, 21km on day two, 16km on day three, 8kms on day four, 9kms on day five. That’s an average of almost 13 kilometers a day! No wonder we were beat by the time we made it home!

The journey started with Vince, the driver of our private car, picking us up at home in the E-Class Mercedes to bring us to the Leeds Bradford airport, where we boarded our Jet2 flight to Prague. The flight was fine except for our row companion, who decided that she deserved the window seat instead those of us who reserved it. I was in no mood to argue and just let her have it, being easier than trying to convince the big Czech woman with bad BO that they were our seats. After the 2 hour flight of her proceeding to sleep away in the window seat, we arrived in Prague at around 3pm, with the hotel limo waiting for us at the airport and then zipping us trough traffic to the K&K Central Hotel. We simply dropped off our bags and headed into town to see what was around us – which ended up being everything as the hotel truly was central. After wandering around for a few hours to get our bearings, which we never did even after 5 days in the maze that is the old town, we found a little restaurant for dinner and a beer. We thought the dinner was pretty good but in hindsight it was probably the least memorable and not the greatest value for money of the entire trip. Our bellies full of beer, and mine with beef stroganoff as well, we continued our discovery of Prague at night. We headed to the Charles Bridge which also granted us a view of the Prague Castle lit up at night. Prague is a beautiful city by day, but it truly shines at night. With our little feet and heads tired, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for what was to be a busy day 2.

Day two began with the buffet breakfast at the hotel – a breakfaster’s breakfast if you have ever seen one! First, the breakfast area is on a platform surround by a glass railing on the 2nd floor of the large room at the back of the hotel – it is as if you are suspended and floating in the middle of the room. Tres cool! Then there is the food, all of it extremely tasty and nothing lacking from the selection – champagne available to start the day off right. Breakfast was always something to look forward to, and we did!

After getting the energy we needed for the day, we proceeded to head to the Charles Bridge to get to the other side of the river, the plan being to climb up the hill to the “Little Eiffel Tower” and then march over to the Prague Castle from there. We proceeded to walk up the hill towards the tower, but it very quickly became mountain climbing on some of the trails. They were steep and our buns of steel were getting a workout! We would take a small break after we reached a new plateau, but the damn kindergartners from the school at the bottom of the hill were keeping a torrent pace, and we would be damned if they were going to pass us! The pain of climbing the hill was short lived though, and the views of Prague it gave us were easily worth it. Unfortunately, the Perin Tower (aka the Little Eiffel Tower by the locals) is only open on Sat & Sun and so we couldn’t go up. It was now about 11am and we started to make our downward (ya!!) journey towards the castle – a treacherous one at times with the combination of snow, steep trails and running shoes.

Once in town and heading towards the castle, we set our sights on finding a place to grab a bite to eat. We continued to do our technique of aimlessly meandering until we stumbled upon something, and it worked yet again. The place didn’t look like much from the outside with just a bunch of various advertisements, one of them announcing the special of beef goulash with dumplings and homemade strudel for 190kc, but what a gem we found. We walked into a low-ceiling, cave-like restaurant that smelled of cigarettes and we grabbed a seat to gaze around at all the nik-naks that filled the place – typewriters, irons and phonographs appearing to be the main themes. We ordered two of the specials and two Pilsner Urquells to enjoy with the ambiance this little treat oozed, which was exactly what we were looking for – Czech ambiance! The food and beer was delicious, and with our tummies full we had to bid farewell as we had more sightseeing to do.

To make an unbearably long story somewhat less painful, we walked around the castle, cathedral and surrounding area and took lots of pictures. You can probably follow the tour by viewing the photos. There, that saved about 3 hours worth of sightseeing ramblings by me. Let’s see, what did we do next after that…. Oh, we wandered around some more, went shopping in the big mall down from our hotel (didn’t buy anything but we were on the hunt for purple shoes for Cindy for the wedding) and then back to the hotel to rest for a bit before dinner. In our stroll trough town the night before, we came across a sushi place that looked pretty good and so that is where we headed back to after the sun went down, since we don’t have any sushi here in Harrogate and we are going through withdrawals. It wasn’t the best sushi we have ever had (that is still MHK in Ottawa) but it was still very good, and the service was impeccable. The waiter might as well have just sat down with us as he was always there just as we needed something. I am pretty sure we wandered around town again some more before heading back to the hotel to rest, 21 kilometers having passed beneath the soles of our shoes for the day. I valiant touristic adventure for our first full day!

Two nights down and two to go! I will post again tomorrow with the rest of the trip as I am sure you need a break as much as I do. Here are some pics from the first two days and there are plenty more to follow, as well as Cindy’s bunch. This trip was well documented photographically…