Next stop was a trip into the Czech Republic with a flying visit to Prague. We hadn't researched or investigated Prague much, other than knowing that our friends Daniel & Liz get engaged there a few years back.
Prague was an amazing city, with beautiful old buildings, stunning vistas and experiences at every bend. Our key takeaways included: the city is crazy busy with tourists - especially at the key spots... but if you go slightly early (or take the stairs) it seems you can avoid the crowds; the cobblestone streets are very slippery - its almost like they are oily (reminds us of walking through the korean bbq restaurants that always seem to be a bit slippery; and if you stop to take a photo of every nice building, laneway or detail - you will never get anywhere.
Once we got our bags stored away we rushed out to our first appointment, lunch at Terasa U Prince, the insta-famous terrace restaurant looking over the old-square. Whilst the views were good (not great), the food was pretty average...but the czech beer was as good as I'd been told.
We noticed in this short walk (say 2 minutes from the apartment, a rather old building featuring a gargoyle at Žatecká 4) the beautiful town square, surrounded by grand old buildings, the famous astronomical clock and the christmas markets at our doorstep.
In the evening, we continued our explorations with some local foods, the potato pancake (nice taste but very heavy), the Trdelník (chimney donut cake - which although the purists will say it's not traditional - were as nice as they look). We did try the Svařák (mulled wine) but can't say any of us were fans.
The next morning (New Years Eve) we headed out to the Astronomical Clock and took the opportunity to climb to the top of the tower to take in the views of the old-town.
We then headed out over the Charles Bridge for breakfast (where Keira had the most-chocolat-y hot chocolate we're experienced to date) to view Prague Castle, which apparently is the largest ancient castle, and still in active use.
After that fun, it was time to eat again, so we found Knedlin (traditional fruit filled potato dumplings) and explored a little further.
The ending of the night (at least outside of the apartment) was seeing a string quartet perform in the Mirror Chapel at Klementinum, which was amazing - to listen to such beautiful music in a 300 year old chapel with astounding acoustics was a definite highlight.
For New Years - having walked all day (and the majority of the last two weeks) the family was happy to feast on KFC, few sneaky drinks and listening to the fireworks in the distance (noting that Prague annouced that there would be no fireworks allowed in the old-town - but there were not stop fireworks in all directions for the better part of an hour).
New Years Day, but there's no rest for this family while travelling. We headed out (after a bit of a sleep in) we caught a heritage tram (built around 1930) around the city (as almost everything in the city was closed for the morning). We got to admire all the best locations in the city, and noticed the extremely detailed / complex coat of arms the city features.
Next stop was a visit to the Speculum Alchemiae, a very small museum which reveals a hidden laboratory in the basement of one of Prague's oldest houses... the basement laboratory was found after flooding, and apparently was built around 1541. What was even cooler was knowing there was (is) a secret tunnel from here to the castle (which is about 1.5km away and the other side of the river) - quite a feat.
After getting our fix of the old world, we headed out for another walk and were treated to a spectacular sunset as we walked along the river bank, showing off the beauty of the Castle, bridges and city in general.
We then hopped abord another hertiage tram (this one much newer ~ 1970's - which appeared very 70's space-core.
Had a Czech feast of goulash, young pig knee, duck, beef and lots of potato!
And then rounded out the day with a retro / arthouse cinema experience at Bio Oko, a rather run down communist era theatre which featured an array of different seating options in the basement of an apartment building. We won't discuss the film (it was a little more than we expected - but still a great experience).
No comments:
Post a Comment