Prague

Sept. 1- 4

Jay and I went to Prague for a long weekend.  We left Thursday after work and drove to Prague which is about a 4 hour drive from Munich.   Jay pointed out the hops fields as we were driving to Prague.  I’ve never seen hops fields before.  We still haven’t seen any pigs here.  When we arrived at the hotel we asked them for a recommendation for dinner and they gave us a suggestion that was just down the street.  You always wonder if it is going to be a good restaurant.  This one turned out to be very good.  The name was Drahokoupilu, which served traditional Czech dishes.  For an appetizer Jay had spicy sausage, which wasn’t spicy at all and I had potato soup, which was very good.  For dinner Jay had leg of rabbit with bacon, dark gravy and leaf spinach in a cream sauce and a potato dumpling.  Jay said the potato dumpling was very good.  I had beef in a cream sauce with bread dumplings.  The cream sauce was sweet and very good and the bread dumpling was very light and look just like bread.    Jay tried the local beer – Pilsner Urquell.

 

On Friday we decided to take a tour of Prague which lasted about 6 hours.  A ton of walking.  The weather was great, but a little warm for Prague for this time of year.  We learned about the “New Town” in Prague, which isn’t very new, continued with a tour of “Old Town”.  We went on a river cruise, which wasn’t very good, but at least we were able to rest our feet.    We talked with a couple from New Zealand and they were on a 3 month vacation and they were a month into it.  I can’t imagine living out of a suitcase for three months and being at a different hotel and city every couple of days.  We toured the Jewish Ghetto and then went for lunch, which wasn’t very good.   After lunch we walked to the Charles Bridge and then on to the tram to go up to Prague Castle. 

River Cruise

Everybody is on St Charles Bridge

St Charles Bridge

After our tour ended we went to the Astronomical Clock, which is located in the town square and went to the top, via elevator.  The clock has figures on the front that move on the hour.  The skeleton rings the bell, meaning that your time is done and the other figures shake their heads “no”.  Crowds gather every hour to see the clock.  For dinner we had some pizza which was much better than lunch, before we went on a “Ghost Tour”.  Pretty bad tour.  During the tour a guy jumped out from around the corner and yes he did scare me, but the stories weren’t that good and after the third time they tried to scare us we left the tour since it was so bad.

Our Lady Before Tyn Church from the clock tower

On Saturday we took the tram back to Prague Castle for a tour of the castle and then toured St. Vitus’s Cathedral.  We saw the changing of the guards.    We also went to the royal Basilica of St. George and went to “Golden Lane” which is a medieval street of houses.  There were different armors on the 2^nd floor and Jay shot a cross bow.  Not a bad shot either!!!  Had a quick lunch with a beer (Jay had a Budweiser Dark and I had a Light Bud).  Jay said it tasted different from the US, much better.  We walked to the Child of Prague Church and St. Francis Church where we ran into a couple from Chicago.  Most of the cathedrals have concerts in them at night since they have good acoustics.  We bought tickets for an Ave Marie Concert later that evening.

St Vitus"s Cathedral

We went back to the town square where there were several weddings.  The Town Hall is where everyone gets married.  There are two doors – one door is where you go in for the civil ceremony and the other door is where you come out after you are married. 

Toured another church Our Lady Before Tyn Church and at one of the squares nearby there was a band playing.  Kind of sounded like a German band.  Stopped at a Café for another local beer for Jay.  This time he had a Krusovice dark.

Dinner was at a restaurant with a medieval setting which was recommended by our tour guide from Friday.  Food wasn’t that good.   Later that evening we went to the Ave Maria Concert at St. Francis.  The concert had an organist, a tenor and a soprano.  Jay said that we got our culture for the rest of the year.  The concert was very good. 

On Sunday before heading back to Germany we decided to go to a small town about an hour from Prague so we drove to Kutua Hora to visit St. Barbara’s.  Outside of the church you could buy wine from the area.  Of course we had to try some.  Jay went to the top of the observatory tower, which is part of the Jesuit College there for a view of the city.  I stayed behind and continued drinking the wine, but I did save some for Jay when he came back.    We also went to a church that they call Bone Church.   Bone Church is still a practicing catholic church.  Inside there are all kind of bones hanging and stacked everywhere.  Very creepy!!!!  As we were driving back to town Jay went down a one way street the wrong way and did a U turn right in front of the local police department.   Luckily for Jay there were no police outside.

St. Barbara’s

Bone Church

In town there is a currency exchange where we went to change some money.  The same guy that runs the restaurant next store and later we saw him delivering pizza.  We did eat at his restaurant and it was very good.  Pizza had actual spicy sausage on it.  Overall we had a good weekend in Prague.