Czech Your Listing for Local Pragueramming

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Stop 6: Prague (Praha)

A house on the Golden Lane. People were shorter back then

We saved a lot of train fare by going through Prague en route to Munich. And boy, was it worth it. We arrived in Prague after dark, to our stay in a weird old pieced-together apartment. It felt like what you’d see as the #3 choice on House Hunters International (if that gives any perspective). But, what it lacked in charm and cleanliness, it made up for in location. When we left on our first night, we hung a left turn and found ourselves right at the base of the Charles Bridge with its 14^th century towers floodlit along with the rest of the city. Standing on the Charles Bridge, you can see a medieval tower, a baroque church dome, and above it all, the impressive castle bathed in rose light at the top of the hill.  We joked that it looked like Disneyland…but the next morning, that proved even more accurate, as that same walk across Charles Bridge involved pushing our way through shoulder-to-shoulder crowds of tourists.  It gave us a great opportunity to see all the European guidebooks on the international market.

Prague is a sightseer’s dream city because you can spend days just staring at old buildings and learning about their history.  Like, the astronomical clock was so beautiful that after it was built in 1487, the mayor of the city had the designer blinded so he couldn’t make something more beautiful in another city.  True story! 

The city is one of the least damaged capitals in Europe because of an early surrender in WWII.  The Jewish quarter, Josefov, is very small. The Jewish cemetery is about 8 feet above the road because graves are stacked 12 deep. Today there are very few Jews left in the city because of the holocaust. And we found out from David’s friend Sarri (who just happened to be in Prague at the same time!) that the old synagogue is so well-preserved because the 3^rd Reich wanted keep it as a museum of “the extinct race.” Again, true story.

We spent our first few days wandering the streets, including taking a free tour from a Czech native.  Tourism is so huge in Prague that every ten yards — excuse me, 10 meters — you pass a guide holding up an umbrella, leading a herd of tourists.  In the main square at 12pm, there is a sea of umbrellas advertising free tours.  We were en route to New Prague tours, but spotted a tour by a local Czech, without dozens of people already crowded around.  What we didn’t take into account was that we would only understand 50% of the tour because of the heavy Czech accent.  Her English sounded like “the” was added to the middle of every word.  But I think we were the only tour that day that got to hear someone sing the Czech, and Slovakian, national anthems.  

Following our leisurely sight seeing, we decided to invest in the Prague Card and try to hit as many sights as possible within the following 2 days. In an effort to get the most bang for our buck, we were popping into museums we didn’t know the topics of, and visited art galleries for Czech artists in medieval cellars on the far outskirts of town. Included with the card was access to several of the city’s old towers.

Not only did the card save us a lot of money, but it also taught us that Robin has an intense adult-onset fear of heights. After ascending up any tower, she finds it necessary to clench David’s arm, and a railing. If a railing isn’t available, it’s necessary to hang on to a backpack strap or collar. Both hand always have to be grabbing something, and sweating helps. It’s proven to be pretty funny for anyone passing.  And people have been pretty open about showing they think it’s funny, be it pointing, or laughing, or both. But, climbing the towers in Prague gave us views we were glad we didn’t miss.

Best Eats:

At this point on the trip, we’re officially on a meat and potatoes diet. We eat an occasional garnish for a one leaf, one tomato side salad to get our veggie intake. The Czech beers have bested all others we’ve had on the trip so far. Our Euro beers from Berlin didn’t hold up to the many different types of brews made in the Czech Republic.

Beef Goulash with Bread Dumplings

U medvíků Brewery: The smallest brewery in Prague was a huge 7-room restaurant. Pork knuckle and beef goulash at the brewery’s beer hall. Four .5L of Czech Budweiser for about $6.25  It’s weird, the majority of restaurants we went to seemed to have room upon room to dine in. You can walk a full 10 minutes before find a room that suits you.

Best Sights:

Ancient books from the 14th century

The Town Hall tour, especially the guided tour of the original building(s), 4 meters underground.  The roads in Prague used to be 4 meters lower, but were raised in the 1400s due to constant flooding.  We saw the old prison, including a chute where they would drop prisoners directly from judgment in the town square, and an arch where prisoners would scratch their name and the year when they walked through on the way to their death sentence.  We saw one from 1508.

Vrtbovska Gardens, a small baroque garden down an alleyway from the main street.  They’re beautiful gardens going up a hill, with a great city view at the top.  We saw two couples taking their wedding photos while we were there.  One of whom we also accidentally stalked to their next shoot location at the castle gardens across town. The other couple had actually stalked us from where we first saw them taking photos at the Astronomical Clock.  We know all the best sights, clearly.

Petrin Hill, with a delightful funicular ride up (buy a ticket, they check you at the top!) and great park for a picnic, as well as a vertigo-inducing Eiffel Tower replica.  It’s also a short hike back over to the castle and monastery (with their own brewery).

Best Times:

Stumbling across Prague Fashion Weekend’s event, “Fashion has a Future”.  There was a giant catwalk set up down a pedestrian street. Ridiculous/Amazing futuristic outfits included a woman covered in plastic bubbles and a man with a green cape, underwear and holding a fluffy cat. Look at the photo, he seems embarrassed.

Walking into an organ concert in Church St. Nicholas to later discover that it’s the same organ Mozart used to play when he was in town.

Best Tips:

Prague Card: If you want to fully Disneyland it up, invest in the Prague card.  And ask for the student price even if you don’t have ID – you might get it and save some money.  It gives free or 50% off admission to all the sights in the city, including every view tower and the castle museums.  It’ll pay for itself if you hit 5 attractions in two days.

A couple things worth skipping: 

The TV Tower:  The windows are dirty and tinted, and the views are much more fun from Petrin Tower or any of the old town towers.  The only plus side to it is that walking there gets you out of the tourist’s Prague, so you get more of a feel for real city today (and cheaper Czech beers at the local bars).

The Mirror Maze:  Unless you’re doing it for free with the Prague Card, this “attraction” is tiny and underwhelming – and pricey.  A lot of our guidebooks recommended it, and it turned out to be only about 20 feet of mirrors.  I’ve had more fun with the mirror on a medicine cabinet.